Dishwasher repair experts say that restaurant owners run their dishwashers hard and expect them to work well with little maintenance. After all, they’re commercial grade machines built to get worked to the max, right? Yet what no one tells you after reading the equipment manuals, aside from standard cleaning, is that commercial dishwashers require a bit more inner consideration to keep them running reliably. Dishwashers that only last five years versus those that run for 15 have more often to do with the habits of maintenance than actual wear and tear that others would expect.
Dishwasher Myths That Change Everything
The biggest myth about restaurant kitchens is that the commercial dishwasher can do it all. It can’t. Well, technically, it can, but it shouldn’t have to. When leftover food finds its way into the commercial dishwasher still plastered to plates, it ends up in the spray arms, in the water filtration systems, and builds up areas that are impossible to clean once the machine has finished a cycle.
In reality, pre-rinsing has less to do with cleaning the dishes before they go into the machine and more to do with removing food debris so that the machine can effectively sanitize. Many establishments fail to invest in quality equipment from the onset, but a reliable restaurant commercial dishwasher combined with a quality pre-rinse make all the difference over time. Spray jets operate more successfully, wash cycles perform as intended, and everything stays cleaner within the machine.
Even more so, operating temps are reduced when heavy food particles run through the system consistently. The water cools down as it runs through the pipes better than the heating elements can ever turn back up. This prevents dishes from reaching proper temperatures necessary for sanitizing which gives health codes a reason to shut down a restaurant before the process even starts, and worse: forces dishes to be rewashed after they come out of the dishwasher without clients ever knowing.
The Water Hardness Issue Nobody Talks About
Commercial dishwashers experience scaling from hard water slowly yet surely and one of the reasons people get blindsided by it is because it builds up over time. One month, a machine seems to operate just fine; six months down the line, the heating elements fail and spray arms no longer spray properly.
It’s not something most people see coming because it’s inside of the machine and not visible on a daily basis during operational hours. Yet hard mineral buildup coats heating elements and makes them work harder to heat water even before something breaks. This drives up utility bills before anyone can even take advantage of a functioning unit that’s nearing its lifetime. Unfortunately, heating elements fail sooner than expected and before anyone knows it, an expensive service ticket is written for a broken element.
Areas with hard water require water softeners as part of preventative equipment, not optional equipment. They’re also helpful maintenance because no one wants to replace a three-year-old dishwasher when it should last for ten plus years if only minor adjustments were made along the way. Water softeners need their own treatment schedule established; salt levels must be checked, resin beds must be cleaned, and the equipment needs servicing from time to time. “It works fine for now,” is not a good enough excuse when dishwasher machines are running on artificial advantage.
Descaling Should Happen More Often Than Recommended
Water softeners still experience buildup which means descaling every three months, for example, recommended in manuals, is not a maximum amount but rather a baseline frequency expectation for establishments that run high volumes through their machines.
Descaling does, however, take a machine out of commission which feels truly inconvenient during busy times; therefore it’s pushed off until later, until it’s forgotten, wherein mineral buildup impacts performance in ways that aren’t immediately feasible to see each day but start compounding with wash times that get longer and longer, bogging down kitchens.
Descaling also takes units out of operation that could otherwise use melting water to support gaskets and seals inside of commercial dishwashers. These rubber components break down because they are constantly exposed to hard water but replacing a $15 gasket is no big deal; replacing a $200 door seal because it cracked because of mineral corrosion is less desirable.
Those Pesky Filters
Dishwashers have filters that need cleaning daily, sounds simple enough, but there’s a difference between doing a good job cleaning and just rinsing filters that actually get particulates stuck in mesh screens or perforated metal that’s not fully rid of when rinsed under a sink faucet.
Filters need soaking and scrubbing, not just sprayed off, which is where it gets expensive, because there are tiny perforations where grease and particles remain stuck which limits water flow unbeknownst to those who operate the machine regularly. Reduced water flow makes an overworked machine try harder to push through wash cycles which increases energy use and pump wear and tear.
Some establishments have multiple sets of filters so that one gets soaking while another is being cleaned or used, this sounds excessive but when you compare how much it costs to replace a pump versus just getting another filter set for $20 dollars it’s better safe than sorry.
Temperature Checks Everyone Forgets
Temperature settings are supposed to reach certain benchmarks for successful sanitizing outcomes in commercial dishwashers, but how many dishwasher technicians actually go into establishments to check this on a regular basis? Most people assume if the machine made it through a cycle everything is fine however heating elements fail, thermostats fail and temperature sensors can drift without enough awareness until they let a dishwasher keep running as if everything was functioning properly.
An infrared thermometer can verify wash and rinse temperatures; it takes two minutes but avoids inspector fines from catching issues first. It also flags efficiency concerns where if a dishwasher fails to reach temperature it’s not getting worse unless something is replaced or fixed first.
Making This Happen
Dishwasher life isn’t made from complicated processes or paying outrageous service contracts instead but rather small fixes and consistency. Putting up a checklist helps but only if someone holds themselves responsible for completing it. Daily tasks need daily consideration; weekly tasks need alarms and monthly maintenance checkups need scheduling for slower times.
Dishwasher commercial equipment works hard, all day long, and goes through the grind more than most pieces on a restaurant line, therefore they deserve just as much attention for maintenance as they do work, which only supports machines who have problems diagnosed before they’re ever seen in front of clients or owners, only afterward during breakdowns.
