Dishwasher – Benefits & Types

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The benefits of owning a commercial dishwasher.

Over the years, commercial dishwashers have become more and more important in the food service industry, and for good reason, they are faster, more economical, and do a better job at cleaning tableware.

The primary benefits of owning a dishwasher are;

  • Save money on labour costs
  • Speed and ease of operation
  • Free up valuable space within the kitchen
  • Spotlessly clean dishes, pots and glassware
  • Meet sanitation requirements
  • Reduce water usage
  • Environmentally friendly
  • Reduce breakages
  • Reduce falls in the kitchen

Different types of commercial dishwashers

Undercounter commercial dishwashers

The main advantage of this particular type of commercial dishwasher is its compact size: undercounter dishwashers are comparable in size to household dishwashers, but they have a faster wash cycle to handle professional kitchen needs. Despite this, the number of dishes they can wash per hour is usually much less than other standard commercial dishwashers.

These dishwashers are most suitable for small restaurants or hotels, or any food business with limited space, which forces them to sacrifice performance and prefer space.

Door or hood type commercial dishwashers

These kinds of appliances are high temp machines that can wash dishes faster than the undercounter machine. Relative to its size, the machine will come with and be able to fit a certain number of dish racks. These are loaded with dishes and filled into the washer, and the cycle is started. These machines are quite a bit larger than their undercounter cousins, and as such, can generally fit a lot more dishes. Frequently they’ll have a safety switch feature that turns off the cycle if the large slide-up door somehow becomes open.

For standard commercial kitchens setting, these dishwashers can be ideal. They have a larger capacity, and so, on average, they can clean more dishes in less time than a commercial undercounter washer. It’s worth noting though, that while they can deal with a heavier cleaning load, they will probably end up using more water and cleaning detergent. Still, these are powerful appliances that you won’t find missing from most restaurants.

Rack / conveyor dishwashers: the heavy-duty appliance

Rack or conveyor dishwashers are the big daddy of all commercial dishwashing machines. They can handle large quantities of dirty dishes very quickly but they also have the biggest footprint. These high temp dishwashers have the fastest throughput of the whole category. They’re also called conveyor dishwashers because they have a conveyor belt that channels the racks into the chamber, where the dishes are washed, rinsed and dried.

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.

Glasswashers: a commercial dishwasher for special uses

Some food businesses use a lot of glasses or particularly fragile kinds of glasses. Coffee shops, cocktail bars or upscale restaurants and wineries are just some of the businesses that may need a dedicated dishwasher to clean their glass. Since glass is more fragile, especially when heated to high temperatures, these devices will not have the water pressure and power of a typical commercial dishwasher. Nevertheless, these specialized dishwashers have been known to be able to clean over 1,000 glasses in an hour.