The type of restaurant equipment you will need for your restaurant depends on the type of service you provide. For example, if you are a full-scale restaurant you will need many more equipment items that a small mom and pop store will need. If you are a fast food restaurant, you will need different items than a restaurant along the lines of Ruby Tuesday’s.
There are so many different types of restaurant equipment available throughout the world that it will be in possible for me to write about them all. Therefore, I have chosen a few fascinating pieces of equipment to help you in your search and maybe make your job or that of your employees job a little easier along the way.
You should give serious consideration to investing in a reliable food processor. They save time and labor. The way in which your food is processed, how you chop, slice, mix, grate and blend will greatly affect the amount of time it takes to provide the ending result to your customer. By investing in a quality food processor you are investing in a piece of restaurant equipment that will provide safety, better time management and essentially better results.
The refrigerator is the most critical piece of restaurant equipment you can ever buy. Keeping cold foods cold is essential to food quality and the extreme importance of food safety. Invest in a refrigerator that will show you the temperature accurately on the outside of the equipment. Find a refrigerator that is tough and built to last, with proper usage.
Delivering cold and hot beverages is extremely important to the success of your restaurant. This piece of restaurant equipment should provide a quick and efficient way of dispensing the beverages. You will need a well-designed layout to deliver the best product to your customers. A soda tower has the ability to dispense six different beverages and has an ice dispensing point. The ice dispenser should hold around 100 to 150 pounds of ice.
Fried foods are as popular as ever. To keep pace with the demand, today’s frying equipment offers features that save time and money and help you prepare consistent, quality products. Commercial deep-fat fryers are complex pieces of equipment designed to turn out load after load of perfectly fried foods. Today’s frying equipment is made to be safe, energy efficient, and easily cleanable. Energy efficiency is easy for electric fryers since the heating elements are immersed in the frying medium, giving the highest possible efficiency from the electric source.
Gas fryer manufacturers made their products more energy efficient. Gas fryers heat the food either with a burner under the fry pot or by injecting the gas flame into tubes running through the fry pot. Recently, manufacturers have introduced infrared burners and various types of baffles in the tubes to distribute heat more evenly, extract more heat energy from the fuel, and reduce waste heat needing to be exhausted.
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Here in the Jean’s Restaurant Supply Service Department, we have compilied a list of service and preventative maintenance tips to help your restaurant succeed in it’s business venture. Your heating, cooling, cooking and food preparation equipment is a huge investment that should be kept in good, clean, operational order.
Commercial Ovens:
Wipe out spills from your oven cavity daily- this will cut down on rust and corrosion in the oven cavity, while also reducing the possibility of fire hazards.
Walk-In Coolers and Freezers:
Keep the doors closed when not in use- if doors are left open for any extended amount of time, ice can quickly build-up on the evaporator coils and cause cooling problems. Keeping doors closed will help cut down on any unnecessary service calls.
If doors must remain open, consider adding an Air Curtain or Air Door to the doorways. Ask one of our sales representatives about energy-saving Air Curtains and Air Doors.
Steam Tables/Warmer Wells:
Some units require the heating element be immersed in water at all times. It is important that the water level in the well never drops to a level where the immersible element is exposed, as this can cause premature failure.
Keep the heating elements clean and free of any mineral build-up as this can also decrease the life of your equipment.
Air Conditioning/Heating System:
Have your Air Conditioner Filters changed or cleaned monthly. This will help save immensely on your electricity bill, as air conditioning can be a considerable percentage of your electric bill (20-30%).
Be sure to get your Air Conditioning/Heating system checked by a qualified professional at least twice yearly, to be sure both the Heat and Cool cycles are operating safely and efficiently.
Condenser Coils:
Keep condenser coils clean on all refrigeration equipment, such as: ice-making equipment, refrigerators, freezers, salad coolers, air conditioning units, etc…
Keeping condenser coils clean and free from dust and grease will help prevent breakdowns and costly repair bills, and will also save on electricity.
Dust can usually be brushed of the coils or blown off with compressed air. Grease build-up sometimes requires a service company to clean it thoroughly with a coil cleaning solution.
Ice Machines:
Ice machines are one of the most important pieces of equipment in your restaurant/bar. Keeping it clean will make it run better, it will make more ice, and it will cause less wear and tear on component parts, therefore saving money on electricity, as well as excessive repair costs.
Let us keep your ice machine in good working order with a high-quality, properly installed water filtration system. Change those water filters every 3-6 months. Both of these suggestions will help extend the life of your ice machine, cut down on costly repairs, and finally, make cleaner, better tasting ice for your customers.
Ice-making equipment must be properly sized for your particular establishment’s needs. Here at Jean’s Restaurant Supply, we can analyze the size, seating capacity, and expectations of your business, so that we can suggest the proper size ice machine for your establishment.
Ventilation/Exhaust Hoods:
Keeping clean air filters in your exhaust hoods will keep them working more efficiently, the motors running cooler and with less stress and strain, therefore extending the life of the motors and belts.
Have your exhaust hood and fresh air fans checked quarterly for proper operation and belt tension, which allows for peak performance.
As one of the only privately owned, independent manufacturers of Commercial Exhaust Hoods in Texas, we, at Jean’s Restaurant Supply, are proud to be able to custom-build and install quality stainless steel exhaust hoods to meet your restaurant’s exact needs and specifications.
Failing to do any preventative maintenance on your restaurant equipment or allowing things to go until they break, ends up in more costly repairs and/or replacement.
Rusty Chapman is the Service Manager at Jean’s Restaurant Supply and is a thirty year veteran of the restaurant equipment service industry. He is a factory authorized service technician for many commercial restaurant equipment manufacturers. He can be reached at 800-840-3610 Monday through Friday from 8 am to 6 pm, Central Standard Time and on Saturday from 9 am to 3 pm Central Standard Time. Or check us out on the web at http://www.jeansrestaurantsupply.com/.
Tags: Air Conditioning Units, Air Curtain, Air Curtains, Air Doors, Commercial Ovens, Condenser Coils, Electricity Bill, Fire Hazards, Food Preparation Equipment, Heating Element, Heating Elements, Maintenance Tips, Oven Cavity, Premature Failure, Preventative Maintenance, Refrigeration Equipment, Refrigerators Freezers, Steam Tables, Time Ice, Unnecessary Service
