How to Choose a Commercial Dishwasher

6 things you must consider before buying

Choosing the best commercial dishwasher for a kitchen that's supposed to feed hundreds of people is different from choosing one for your house. With that said, no matter how tempting it could be to cut back on the budget when buying a brand new commercial dishwasher, it could come back to bite you.

With inflation and energy prices on rise, it's time to consider (now more than ever) not only the upfront payment but also the consumption of water, chemicals, energy, and service costs throughout the life cycle of the machine.

You must also consider which type of dishwasher is suitable for your kitchen such as a pot washer, tray washer, utensil washer, heavy duty washer, or perhaps a passthrough dishwasher?

To help you on your way we've put together this guide for you to use before investing in a new commercial dishwashing solution.

Girl caring pots and utensils to the ware washing

1. Is it easy to use?

This first tip is crucial as staff retention is becoming an increasing problem within the industry. Your new solution should be easy to use so that almost anyone can jump in and take care of the washing. If the machine requires complicated training, you could end up with issues like not getting the dishes properly cleaned or not getting the washed stuff back fast enough. In the worst case, the machine could break down due to mistreatment and handling or the staff could get injured.

Conclusion: Get to know the machine before deciding to invest. Try it out yourself or ask one of your team members that usually handles the dishes, to come along for the trial. That way you could evaluate the ease of use and the training cost properly.

2. Is it fast enough?

How many meals do you serve a day? Does the machine you're looking at handle all the dishes needed to serve the number of meals? You want to avoid the situation where your chef has to wait for a pot or a pan because there are no clean ones. Make sure the dishwasher fits right into the specific flow of your kitchen.

What you also want to consider is the long-term goals of your restaurant. Are you planning to expand your services, and if yes, how will it affect the amounts of meals? A dishwasher is a long-term investment so make sure it is future-proof.

Conclusion: Make sure your new commercial dishwasher can handle the dishes from the amounts of meals you serve. Consider the plan for the future and your long-term goals for the business.

3. Will the wash results be clean and sanitised?

To get safe results, you need a machine that uses high temperatures and alkaline detergent - i.e. a pH of around 11. Make sure that it follows hygiene guidelines: DIN 10512 and/or NSF/ANSI-3 requirements. Then you can be sure that your solution provides high enough temperatures (wash temp around 65 degrees and rinse temp of at least 85 degrees) to neutralise bacteria and viruses properly.

Conclusion: High temperatures and alkaline detergent give you clean and sanitised results. Make sure the machine follows industry hygiene guidelines.

4. Will it contribute to a healthy work environment?

Investing in a good commercial dishwasher makes the porter's job less dreaded so it can be done with much less strain. This opens up for rotation of the staff to offer your team more varied tasks in the kitchen and improves staff retention. A good dishwasher allows for an upright working position at all times possible. Handles on doors and hatches are grip-friendly and balanced so that they can be easily used by anyone, regardless of size and individual strength. Operator panels are placed at eye level and have large, clear buttons with simple infographics to allow the machine to be easily operated.

Make sure that the dishwasher keeps manual pre-washing to a minimum. This means less repetitive tasks and less heavy lifting - both well-known to put a strain on the body, and risk leading to work-related injuries and long-term sick leave.

Conclusion: Make sure that the dishwasher allows for minimum pre-washing, and for an upright working position. The machine shouldn't be too heavy to use and the panel should be at average eye level.

5. Will it help achieve your environmental goals?

Taps constantly running are catastrophic for our planet, and will sabotage your green agenda. Only looking at investing in a dishwasher instead of performing manual washing in sinks is great. But how sustainable is the commercial dishwasher you're looking at? How much water, chemicals, and energy does it consume? This is very important to map out, but also how much pre-washing you need in order to get the dirty items completely clean and sanitized. There are solutions out there like warewashers from Granuldisk to keep pre-washing at a minimum. Instead, the process is taken care of inside the machine.

Conclusion: When buying a solution that keeps energy, water, and chemicals at a minimum you reduce your footprint and contribute in many ways according to the UN Global Sustainable Development Goals. Make sure that a minimum of resource-consuming manual pre-washing of pots and pans is required.

6. Is the price and running costs reasonable?

You probably have a budget to stick to when buying a brand new commercial dishwasher. So yes, the initial cost is important, but what's even more important is the long-term running costs. How much water, energy, and chemicals does the solution require? Also, consider the amount of manual pre-washing when calculating the costs. The initially more expensive solutions might save your wallet a lot of money during the complete lifecycle of the machine.

Conclusion: Look at both the initial cost but also long-term running costs when buying a new commercial dishwasher.

Need our expertise on commercial dishwashers?

Let our team evaluate your business and guide you further in your investment plans. Our commercial ware washing solutions mix PowerGranules and/or high-pressure water, and a small amount of detergent for an efficient mechanical scrubbing effect - sanitising results using high temperatures. All in all using on average 70% less water, energy, and chemicals. If you're curious about how solutions from Granuldisk could integrate and benefit your operation, contact us to organize a demo - via live stream, or in a kitchen or showroom near you.

Book your demo today! →