I'm looking for a device to spray liquid chocolate onto baked goods, does anyone know what works well?

Have had good results with wagner power paint sprayers. make sure you use a very low viscosity chocolate. may need to dilute it with cocoa butter to further thin it.

I have just purchased a Campbell Hausfeld HVLP spray gun for spraying with chocolate. Initial results have been disapointing with very little chocolate coming through. On reading the manual carefully it seems that the unit is shipped with an "all purpose" nozzle/needle (they need to be matched). I think that it needs the "thick" nozzle/needle but I can't get a response from Campbell Hausfeld to buy one as yet.

Although I heated the "cup" on the sprayer I did not heat the tube that dips into the chocolate (thinking that the chocolate would do that). When I opened up to clean out this was blocked although I had tried to spray hot water through in an effort to clean.

I was trying to spray light items (freeze dried fruit) and the force of the air coming through the gun simply blows them away. I'll have to pin them down I think for the first coat.

Not giving up as yet. Will try Sebastian's thought for cocoa butter if it does not degrade my chocolate too much.

Hi guys, thanks for the replies, really appreciate it. From your reply Sebastian Isearched Wagner guns and in doing so came up with Krebs (which from their site were bought by Wagner). They have food certified versions of the paint guns and have different nozzles depending on the surface area to be covered and the material being sprayed, so I've ordered one of those this morning. I'll let you know how it goes.

Cheers

Mark

@ Mark- They are a nice food gun. Which one did you buy?

A few years ago I used what looked exactly like a Krebs gun in Germany but it was branded for Unilever and sold as food certified for spraying one of their thick greases . I also found the Alexo200 when googling so I guess Krebs are also making their electric food sprayer guns for other food companies.

The key is to use 50% chocolate & 50% cocoa butter when spraying. Trying to spray chocolate by itself is pretty challenging. Then anything above 50PSI should do the job, just be careful if using a compressor, that the oil used in the machine can't contaminate the air (many industrial units have this issue).

You are so right Stu. We have a lot of customers come to us after buying a cheap and cheerful Paint gun only to find it doesn't have the power, precision or reliability.

Krebs food guns start at 160Bar and the nozzle options are designed for food materials.

The problem is that most Chefs, bakers, butchers and Chocolatiers etc. are not aware that a professional electric spray gun solution exists.

Krebs Food Spray Guns

Mark, I just answered you in a different post- happily, we can announce that KREBS has worked with companies like Barry Callebaut to develop a purpose made heated chocolate sprayer. You can google the hotCHOC food gun or check out the youtube vids.

Yiep, I use this sprayer to achieve a nice velvet covering. Easy to handle. Make sure it's cleaned properly after usage. Chocolate might get stuck in the atomizer piece; spray hot water through and you're fine

hotCHOC velvet chocolate 1.jpg  •  43KB

The sprayers being discussed (such as the Krea ones) appear to have containers holding a rather large amount of the material being sprayed. Many chocolatiers operate on a much smaller scale, particularly when spraying colored cocoa butter into molds. Does anyone know of an HVLP device with a smaller "tank"?

I use a FujiSpray HVLP system. It works very well, but is a serious piece of equipment. It uses a gravity fed spray gun with a 3oz stainless cup, so you can heat periodically during application. They have interchangeable needle/nozzle sets of varying sizes, and different cup sizes too, although the 3oz is the only stainless cup option. I use the smallest one for spraying cocoa butter into plaques.

Thanks for that information. I have heard of others who use that brand for spraying molds. I believe it requires it own compressed air supply, not just a regular compressor, correct? Is that what you mean by a "serious piece of equipment"?

You require the complete system, including compressor. 

Unlike small airbrush systems, it has a large (and loud, comparatively) compressor, a much larger hose (think garden hose thickness), and costs more. However, it is a beast in production. 

If you don't mind saying, how large a production are you speaking of? At this point, I am a small producer, so might be spraying 4 molds with a single color, then changing to a different color. My airbrush is OK for doing that (it is a siphon type, so tends to need frequent heating--I have always assumed the gravity-feed type is better when it comes to dealing with the thickening of chocolate). But the brush/compressor I have cannot do the speckling (to take one example) that I believe the Fuji is capable of. Leaving aside the issue of cost, do you think it would be overkill for what I do?

Yes, it most likely is overkill for your uses. We regularly do 40-50 plaques at a time.

Thanks for your help.