You invested in highly efficient commercial kitchen equipment to help your staff do their jobs more effectively. Your oven cooks food to perfection. The deep fryers boil cooking oil at the exact time and temperature. Your steamer maintains rice and vegetables at their ideal consistency.
Your kitchen must maintain its productivity because any downtime can lead to lost profits. In today’s blog from Arctic Food Equipment, we explain why preventive maintenance is crucial for your commercial kitchen equipment.
What to Look For
There are a few areas you need to inspect, at least weekly, to take care of any preventive maintenance issues before they turn into significant problems.
Limescale buildup. Look for any limescale buildup in your equipment that uses a lot of water. Think your steamer, faucets, dish machine, boiler, and combi ovens.
Grease. Grease may form a slick layer on many things, from wires and burners to food prep surfaces and knobs.
Drain Lines. A blocked drain line can cause mechanical damage or flooding. Make sure to keep clear drain lines in freezers, dishwashers, ice makers, and garbage disposals.
Thermostats. You expect your rolls to cook at a precise time and temperature. Look at the calibration of your thermostats to ensure nothing goes awry. You may need to clean off grease or burnt materials so the sensor works properly.
Gaskets. Gaskets are where one liquid or air line joins another. Make sure the gasket connections are tight, and there’s no possibility of leakage.
Problems Caused by Lack of Maintenance
Think of preventive maintenance as essential risk management for your kitchen. You’re reducing the chances of malfunctions, downtime, and lost productivity. Lack of preventive maintenance on your commercial kitchen equipment may lead to huge problems later.
Limescale can cause reduced water flow and clogs. It also makes dishwashers less effective. Scale damage to a boiler can cause the boiler shell to crack, spilling water all over the control compartment. Are you ready to replace an entire commercial boiler? Descale your boilers and water lines for equipment such as steamers, dish machines, and combi ovens.
Broken gaskets cause leaks in your food prep equipment. What you get is wildly fluctuating cooking temperatures and malfunctioning thermostats. Not only do you spend more on energy bills, but your food may also burn or dry out due to improper cooking temperatures. You waste food, customers become frustrated, and you have to replace several parts at once rather than solving the problem with preventive maintenance.
Grease buildup attracts rodents and could lead to fires. Not only is grease flammable, but rodents chewing through wires can cause electrical shortages and fires. A fire could shut down your entire kitchen for a few weeks to effect repairs and wait for new equipment to arrive.
How Preventive Maintenance Saves You Money
Preventive maintenance of your commercial kitchen equipment saves you money on several fronts. Cleaning your equipment regularly keeps it in top working order. Menu items get done at the right time and temperature. You save money because food turns out correctly, and there are fewer customer complaints with the food.
Regular maintenance can help you prevent or manage costly potential problems. If you can see certain parts of your equipment wearing out as it nears the end of its warranty, you can budget for downtime and make the necessary repairs/replacements while the machine is still covered. This way, you can repair older equipment on your terms and when you want to. Preventing catastrophic damage to commercial kitchen equipment minimizes downtime and costly repairs. It’s better to spend $100 a month on cleaning your equipment rather than multiple thousands of dollars replacing it.
Plus, not performing regular maintenance can invalidate your warranty. An insurance adjuster may determine that the cause of the damage was preventable, meaning your warranty may not cover it. When your staff performs preventive maintenance on commercial kitchen equipment, make sure they document when, how, and what maintenance was performed.
Trust Arctic Food Equipment in Springfield, Missouri
The staff at Arctic Food Equipment can install world-class commercial kitchen equipment at your facility. We tailor each kitchen to your exact specifications. We also service what we sell, and teach you and your staff how to maintain the equipment properly.
As the largest food equipment warranty and service repair company in Southwest Missouri, you can be sure that partnering with Arctic Food Equipment will keep your kitchen running smoothly and efficiently. Contact our team today at 417-888-0100 to learn more.
