Clean and clear
Equipment buying has well demarcated lines of responsibility. The chef will buy the cooking equipment, the housekeeper the bedroom equipment, and the restaurant manager the restaurant equipment. But in the case of warewashing equipment, which is often sited in or close to the kitchen yet not actually used by the chefs, the lines are somewhat blurred.
In all but the very smallest of kitchens, warewashing is not the job of a chef, but of a kitchen assistant. Yet valuable as kitchen assistants are as part of the kitchen team, few managers would give that person buying responsibility for the dishwasher. This means it is often a committee buying decision, with the chef concerned about size and location, the restaurant manager about wash performance and throughput, and the general manager about the overall cost.
A common error for kitchens sourcing their own warewashing equipment, says Bill Downie, managing director of Meiko UK, is to under-specify. "The big mistake is to calculate the number of pieces of tableware that go through in a session, work out how many wash baskets this should take to complete and buy a machine with the matching baskets-per-hour performance," he says.
"The warewashing demand is never even, and the calculation should be based on a site visit by the potential supplier to determine peak demand and the operating conditions, including the handling area for dirty and washed tableware. A minimum of 15% should be allowed for above-peak throughput, for safety reasons. But the growth potential of the business is also important."
A dishwasher that is properly serviced and not abused might last for many years, during which time throughput can grow substantially as the business develops. "If, 18 months after buying a machine, the restaurant or bar business has grown beyond the capacity of that ‘just-enough' purchase, then serious problems can occur with dish or glass turnaround, and an additional or larger-capacity machine will probably be required, which is an unwelcome capital expenditure," adds Downie.
As with many items of kitchen equipment, all dish- and glasswashers look similar. What separates them are the parts that aren't visible and this is where the price difference between similar models arises. There are always deals and discounts to be negotiated, but there is just one main underlying reason between big price variations on similar-looking machines - the quality of the components.
A dishwasher has relatively few moving parts, the main two being the pump and the wash arms. A cheap pump is invisible and, on paper at least, it may deliver a wash cycle time that is comparable with an expensive machine. But it will break down more quickly and more often than a well-made pump.
The wash arms spin on bearings that can wear out. Also, poorly-designed, cheap wash arms can get damaged or broken. Individual spray jets may be replaceable, but on cheaper machines it is often the whole wash arm that needs replacing. Finding replacement parts for cheap and obscure brands can be difficult. The big names in warewashing in the UK carry huge stocks of spares, which can be delivered in hours. Spares for the obscure cheap machine may take days to arrive from the far corners of Europe.
Even more important than the purchase price of a new dishwasher is the whole-life cost, including purchase, servicing, breakdown, utility and chemicals. For many machines, particularly the small to medium cabinet warewashers, the operational costs across their lifetime will exceed the initial purchase cost.
Moreover, it is tempting to use the same machine for washing dishes and glasses. In a small catering operation, there is little choice, purely on cost grounds. While there are a few machines available that claim to be suitable for both, dual use often comes with an increased running cost. Glasses have much lighter soiling than tableware, so need less detergent, shorter wash cycles and possibly lower operating water temperatures. There is also the risk of streaking from food residues, especially if glassware is washed in the same wash cycle as tableware.
The Fox pub at Aspenden, Hertfordshire, considered a single machine for both tableware and glassware, but was persuaded by Surrey-based equipment distributor Graffters that it made more sense to buy dedicated machines. Fox owner Frankie Aspin put a Winterhalter under-counter glasswasher in the bar, but had a problem finding where to site a dishwasher for the pub's expanding food operation.
After deliberation on the business direction the Fox was set to go, Aspin converted a small games room into a utility room for the kitchen, with a Winterhalter dishwasher, a walk-in coldroom and a dry goods store.
One of the biggest pitfalls in specifying warewashing equipment is to overlook the cost of essential extras and installation. It is mandatory to have a backflow prevention system with warewashing equipment connected to the water mains. This is to prevent any risk of foul water escaping into clean drinking water. Depending on the size of the warewashing machine, a backflow prevention system can cost hundreds of pounds. If a system is not included in the warewashing package price, it can come as a nasty shock when installation takes place.
Installation itself is not cheap. A simple replacement like-for-like machine will have all the utility connections in place, but re-siting or a different size of machine will need plumbing work and connection hoses and may even require hard-wiring. These may be included in the package or simply come to light as an unspoken extra. n
Buying advice
Contact a minimum of two suppliers for quotes and be wary of any supplier who seems reluctant to do a free site visit. Ask for details of other customers in the area who are happy with the machine being offered, and ring to check. Other customers are always content to sing the praises of a hard-working machine almost as much as they are ready to moan about underperformance and costly breakdowns. Enquire about the availability of spare parts.
Nelson Dish & Glasswashing
Check to see what extras are offered in the purchase package, such as an essential water treatment unit or low-cost additional wash baskets. Does the warranty cover only parts for a year, parts and labour for a year, or is it a full warranty for two or three years after purchase? Good warewashing equipment can come with an extended warranty period where cheap equipment dare not.
Meiko UK
If the machine is a large pass-through system, ask if it has a heat recovery system installed that uses steam from the wash chamber to pre-heat the cold fresh water intake. This reduces energy costs and lowers the amount of hot air put into the kitchen area, which may need a canopy heat extraction system to remove it. How easy is the machine to strip down and clean at the end of a shift? This can be both a labour cost issue and a skills issue for kitchen assistants working with dishwashers.
Hobart
Are chemical dispensers included in the purchase price or are they extra? How simple are the operating controls? Wash-up staff are notoriously transient and may not even be able to read much English, so controls with symbols, numbers or very basic words reduce the need for training and lower the risk of the wrong wash cycle being programmed.
Winterhalter
After a new machine has been installed and the fitter has pronounced it working by checking it with empty baskets, ask the installer to run some baskets of soiled tableware or glassware through the machine to ensure that the detergent dosing levels are set correctly for effective cleaning.
Parry Group
Get a full specification of whole-life costs, including energy costs. Does the supplier offer training and a helpline with a new machine? Does the warranty scheme look expensive compared with comparable models? A higher-than-normal cost of a warranty scheme may mean the machine is less reliable and has been offered at a bargain price in the knowledge that the warranty premiums will top up the low purchase price.
Aberna
If a glasswasher is being installed in a busy bar, rather than doing the calculations based on one machine, it might be wiser to split the workload between two machines. This means that as one basket of soiled glassware is being washed, another basket can either be loaded or stacked back into the bar. This also provides emergency cover should one machine break down during service times. Single-phase electricity - connection to a normal wall socket -might seem simpler and cheaper to run, but heat recovery times may be longer than using a three-phase electricity supply, thus extending the wash times.
Valera
One of the most common service calls to glasswashers is to unblock the drain pump, so avoid buying a machine that uses one. A gravity drain system overrides the need for a drain pump. If a glasswasher is being replaced, it will probably be because the old one was not working properly and all the glassware could be in poor condition. Provision of a chlorinated initial wash detergent will scourge off any protein residues that are causing scum and streak marks on glasses.
CEDA, the Catering Equipment Distributors Association
Contacts
Aberna
0800 980 2929
CEDA
01274 826056
CESA
020 7233 7724
Hobart
07002 101101
Meiko
01753 215120
Nelson Dish and Glasswashing
020 8993 6199
Parry Group
01332 875544
Valera
01708 869593
Winterhalter
01908 359000
