A commercial dishwasher may not be the first appliance you plan to buy for your commercial kitchen, but when you do, you’ll probably find yourself thinking about it quite often because the costs of dishwashers are anything but evident. How can you avoid hidden costs when choosing a commercial dishwasher? Let’s find out!
How to choose a commercial dishwasher? Know the hidden costs
Commercial dishwashers are pivotal to kitchen operations: they must guarantee a continuous flow of clean dishes, glassware and kitchenware to avoid slowing down or even stopping the whole kitchen. Since they are not directly related to cooking or food preparation, they are often operated by less experienced members of the kitchen brigade.
These factors help us focus on a few important things to consider when choosing a commercial dishwasher:
How to choose a commercial dishwasher? Correctly evaluate the consumption of resources
- Continuous use of commercial dishwashers involves a lot of ongoing costs for water, energy, consumables
- The need for flawless functioning: whenever the dishwasher stops working, the whole workflow is interrupted
- Ease of operation: more efficient for untrained staff
So, the most important tip is: when you choose a commercial dishwasher don’t just stop at the upfront price because there is a big chance that the highest costs could be
- Lost profits / dissatisfied customers / increased labor costs if the machine often breaks down or is incorrectly operated, in turn slowing down or interrupting workflow
- Running costs – water, energy, consumables
- Maintenance costs
Dishwashing machines use great quantities of water and energy and you need to find ways to control or reduce their consumption.
The most advanced dishwashing machines have reduced overall consumption. What can help you choose a commercial dishwasher designed with this in mind? You can look at some certifications the dishwasher may have. The most relevant are:
- Intertek Energy Star
- IMQ Eco
If you choose a dishwasher with these certifications, the reduction in running costs may offset the slightly higher upfront price that you will be required to pay. In any case, energy efficiency is probably the first sign of a good choice.
How to choose a commercial dishwasher? Correctly evaluate consumables
When choosing a commercial dishwasher you have a trade-off between temperature and chemicals: to sanitize dishes you can either opt for a high temperature dishwasher or you can get a low temperature one but you need to add sanitizing detergents.
The former has higher energy costs, the latter higher consumables costs. Both have an impact on the environment. Choosing a dishwasher with reduced energy and water consumption from a supplier that can provide green detergent could be the best solution.
Rack or conveyor dishwashers are suitable for heavy-duty use in kitchens that need to wash a high volume of tableware at each service and have plenty of space available.
How to choose a commercial dishwasher? Correctly evaluate training costs
A non-ergonomic, hard to use & understand dishwasher means more time spent on employee training and higher running costs in the form of slower workflow caused by the steeper learning curve.