When customers dine at a restaurant, they experience the food, the atmosphere and the people. What they don’t see, however, may be one of the most important components to making a good dining experience. A good restaurant needs to have reliable equipment to cook and store the food; without proper maintenance, this will be harder to accomplish. After all, you can’t count on your equipment to work properly and perform to expectations without putting some regular time into caring for it.
Fortunately, there are a few things that can be done in-house to get the most out of restaurant equipment. Here are some restaurant equipment maintenance tips in Visalia, CA.
Refrigerators
A properly working refrigerator is essential to keeping food fresh and safe. Commercial refrigeration units, including freezers and coolers, need regular maintenance to ensure they’re always in working order. This is a crucial part of a fast-paced restaurant kitchen because if the walk-in goes down, it can be very difficult to keep food from spoiling if you have to go in and out of it to get ingredients during a rush.
Here are some restaurant equipment maintenance tips for refrigeration units in Visalia, CA:
- Gaskets: Gaskets are designed to seal in the cool air inside the fridge—but they aren’t as effective if they’re split or cracked in some places. Make sure to regularly clean the gaskets of dirt and grease and to replace them right away if they become damaged.
- Coils: It’s important to keep the condenser and evaporator coils clean. This can be done by brushing or vacuuming them at least once every three months.
- Air filters: Air filters are designed to collect dust and grease, but that means they will eventually get clogged up. Once this happens, the air filter isn’t able to do its job correctly and can result in damage to the refrigeration unit. Be sure to remove the dust with a vacuum and use a degreaser to remove any grease from the filter. This is important for ice machines and coolers as well as refrigerators.
- Drain pans: The drain pan is not a pleasant area of the refrigerator, but it’s essential to keep it clean in order to keep the unit running properly. Drain pans and tubes are prone to collecting slime and sludge, which results in them freezing. It’s important to clean this part of a refrigerator on a regular schedule to avoid blockage or freezing.
- Keep it dry: As a general rule, it’s important to keep the floors of walk-ins dry to prevent workplace accidents, but it’s also important to keep the floors dry to help make sure the coils don’t freeze up. For the same reason, it’s important to keep reach-in refrigerators and freezers dry as well.
For more restaurant equipment maintenance tips and service in Visalia, CA, contact the experts at McGee Refrigeration today. We stay current with the latest information on products and techniques to make sure you’re getting the most out of your equipment.