Labor Savings & Food Safety: Undercounter Dishmachines vs. 3 Comp Sinks

Keeping your dishmachine clean is a key factor in making sure it runs efficiently and cleans properly, and it also helps prevent downtime due to equipment failure or breakdowns. Even with the self-cleaning technology found on some of today’s machines, keeping a dishmachine in top shape still depends on the effort of your staff to make sure everything is clean at the end of each shift.

One of the most frustrating things to deal with as a foodservice operator is an equipment failure. When your grill won’t fire up you can’t cook, if the walk-in isn’t cooling you lose inventory, and when the dishmachine goes down you’re forced to revert to manual washing – or serving food on disposables. This adds cost and labor hours to busy operations.

Taking good care of your commercial dishwasher significantly reduces the chance of unscheduled downtime. The old adage, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” holds true when it comes to getting the most out of your dishmachine,

Whether you’re installing your first commercial dishwasher, or updating one that’s at the end of its service life, there are many benefits to investing in a new dishmachine for your K-12 foodservice operation. New dishmachines use less water, energy and chemicals than older models, and using a commercial dishwasher instead of a three-compartment sink can cut water use by almost 70% and labor time up to 50%. This lowers the cost of operations and helps the environment at the same time.

The labor headwinds are still strong for restaurants. According to research from the National Restaurant Association, 45% of operators expect competition from other restaurants to be more intense this year. And an equal number (45%) say they will need more employees to support customer demand. Add to that rising wages and continued fighting for labor with other industries.

At the end of a long day, probably the last thing anyone in a foodservice operation wants to do is to clean the dishmachine. It takes time — right at the point when people want to go home. And dealing with a dirty dishmachine is not always the most pleasant task. It’s one of those jobs that it would be really easy to put off until tomorrow…or next week. But an improperly cleaned dishmachine can have adverse effects on both front- and back-of-house operations.