Spring Cleaning Preventative Maintenance

Spring cleaning isn’t just for our homes—if you own or operate a commercial kitchen, now is a perfect time to perform some easy preventative maintenance tasks to make sure your kitchen equipment is cooking and cooling efficiently. Read on for some common areas in need of preventative maintenance.
Thermostats

When thermostats display the wrong temperature, heating and cooling food becomes inefficient and can lead to food safety and quality issues. Throughout the year, check your thermostats and other control systems to ensure ovens, refrigerators, and freezers are operating at the correct temperature. Check your equipment operational manual for instructions on how to calibrate thermostats.

Gaskets

Gaskets help ovens keep hot air inside of them and refrigerators and freezers keep colder air inside, but gaskets can and do wear out over time. Periodically check the condition of the gaskets in your kitchen. If there are rips or tears in them, replace them right away. To see if their seal is still tight, close the door on a dollar bill—if you can pull the bill out with no resistance, it’s time to buy a new gasket.

Burners & Pilot Lights

Keep your range and oven cleaned throughout the year so grease and food spills don’t build up and cause significant damage over time. If you have a gas range, check its burners periodically—do the flames light up evenly together? If not, the burner ports may be clogged. Check your operational manual for instructions on how to clean these ports. Also check your gas oven’s pilot light. If the pilot light doesn’t stay lit, it might be clogged as well, so again, check the operational manual for instructions specific to your model. Whenever you’re dealing with gas, be sure to turn it off at the shut-off valve before making any repairs.

Condenser Coils

Typically found underneath your refrigerator, condenser coils cool down the refrigerant in the refrigeration cycle. Coils covered in dust and grime can lead to inefficient performance and a shorter equipment lifetime though. At least four times a year, simply vacuum off this dust buildup on your coils to restore your refrigeration unit back to its most optimal efficiency.

Water

Calcium buildup in equipment from hard water can lead to poor water pressure and low-quality water. Descale your steamers, boilers, ice machines, and combi ovens with descaling chemicals approved by your equipment’s manufacturer at least twice a year.

Originally posted on 3Wire.com

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