Warewashing – Keep Everything Clean

Winterhalter Glasswasher

There are few things quite so off putting in a restaurant as unclean crockery, glassware or cutlery. A smeared plate can ruin a customer’s first impression – and correcting that impression can be hard work.

So getting your dish and glass washers working properly is vital. However, being the Cinderella’s of the kitchen, poor old warewashers often get a rough deal – misused and abused, expected to work all hours and often operated by the kitchen’s least qualified staff, they’re classic ‘fit and forget’ equipment.

You’d think ware washing manufacturers would simply throw in the towel. Luckily they haven’t – instead they are making their machines tougher and easier to use as well as being more difficult to abuse.

These days a top end machine can even tell you if a filter is blocked – and automatically shut down before staff can do it any damage by ignoring the warning.

The best models will clean themselves down at the end of the shift, and warn you when things like rinse aid needs replacing. All of which means buyers can almost fit and forget – so long as they’re willing to listen to the machine if it tells them something is wrong.

Energy, Water & Chemicals

Warewashers are big consumers of resources. Manufacturers have developed a variety of systems for reducing consumption – including heat exchangers, and filtration systems as well as low temperature machines.

Check will suppliers about the running costs of each machine – as energy and water costs rise; it’s increasingly worth paying the premium for a more efficient machine that reduces costs in the long term.

Need to Know

There’s a huge range of machines on the market so picking the right one can be mind-boggling. The first thing to establish is what type of machine you need.

Front loading undercounter and cabinets are the smallest and include back-bar glasswashers.

Many kitchens have pass through hood dishwashers – the machine is accessed by raising the hood, and racks are literally passed through, by sliding along the wash area’s tabling.

The biggest dishwasher system use conveyors that travel through dishwasher ‘tanks’. Multi tank systems have sections to pre-wash, wash, rinse and dry. Dirty crockery, glasses and cutlery are either loaded into racks or directly onto specially designed conveyors – these last are called flight-type systems.

Winterhalter GS502TE Pass-Through Dishwasher

Work out roughly how many dishes and glasses you need to wash each day, and make sure that you have a machine big enough to cope with peak demand – in other words, if you wash 500 plates a day but 300 of those during the two hour lunch period, you need to select a model accordingly.

If you’re not sure, the best thing to do is contact us and we can advise you on what machine would be most suitable.

Getting the Best

Dish and glass washers have a hard life and any piece of catering equipment that uses water is going to need looking after. Following the manufacturer’s recommendations for cleaning and maintenance is the best way to ensure that your ware washer has a long service life.

Limescale build up is one of the key areas to watch for – it can severely compromise the warewasher’s efficiency.

Many modern machines have sophisticated filter systems that save on water use – because less fresh water is required for each washing cycle. Less water also means the machine uses less chemicals and less energy, too. Make sure filters are kept clean.

To ensure best results, the dosing of detergents and rinse aid need to be set correctly. Problems with smearing can often be the result of too little or too much of a chemical. You can always ask your supplier to check this.

The Fat Issue

No matter how well the plates are scraped, some FOG (fats, oils or grease) will inevitably escape down the drains during pre-rinse or washing.

Blockages can be avoided by fitting a grease trap or fat separation unit to the water outflow system, and/or installing a biological method of treating fats, oils and grease, which is called bioremediation.

A grease trap works by slowing down the flow of warm or hot greasy water coming out of a dishwasher and allowing it to cool. As the water cools, the grease and oil separate and float to the top of the grease trap.

The baffles should be regularly removed for cleaning, at which point the grease is disposed of.

Bioremediation is a system whereby the drains are regularly dosed (usually overnight) with a non-pathogenic multi-strain bacterial solution that breaks down the FOGs and keeps the drains clear.

Some caterers choose to use bioremediation and grease traps together, as this increases efficiency and reduces cleaning time.

The above is exraction from the CESA equipment buying guide 2009. See the December issue of Eat Out magazine for more details.