Common Warewashing Headaches and How to Ease Them

Remember reading inspiring stories about foodservice industry CEO’s who started out in the dish room? 

We love a good Cinderella story, but today’s entry level employees have more options than ever. Odds are good that washing dishes for hours at a time isn’t going to be their first choice, even for their first job.

It’s the rare person who loves washing dishes, especially a lot of them, but having clean, hygienic dishware is non-negotiable. 

And since disposables aren’t a practical or sustainable option for most foodservice operations, we’ve assembled a collection of fixes for common warewashing woes.

The Headache: 

No one really seeks out a warewashing job. They’re hard to fill.

How to Ease it:

Share the load. The best way to tackle a tough or unpleasant job is to take it on as a team. 

Rather than dedicating a single employee to warewashing, consider making it a small part of each of your kitchen staff’s job descriptions. 

This emerging trend is helping foodservice operations get this essential job done while still giving employees the opportunity to perform work they find more appealing. 

The Headache: 

Transporting, washing, and drying pots and pans is a time-consuming hassle.

How to Ease it:

Give heavy, soiled pans a lift. The Scrap and Stack by New Age Industrial is a foodservice director-designed, labor-saving cart that makes after-service cleanup a breeze. Ideal for school serving lines and buffets, this two-tier, open design cart has a built-in waste chute for scrapping and disposal, a removable waste receptacle, and a soiled utensil repository. Built-in storage for empty steam table and sheet pans makes this the go-to cart for quick and easy serving line cleanup.

Break away from manual washing. The Bi-Line Vortex Power Three-compartment Sink gives employees the freedom to drop soiled pots and pans into the agitating wash basin and walk away to go do something else. 

The standard Vortex system comes with a soiled drain board, scrap sink with heavy duty removable scrap screen insert, agitating wash basin, and rinse and sanitize basins. 

A sheet pan racking system, heavy duty utensil basket accessories, and additional custom options are available. This powerful system frees up labor to provide an impressive 9 to 12 month ROI on average.

Use vertical space for air drying. The Camshelving Premium Series Angled Drying and Storage Rack by Cambro securely and hygienically holds a variety of pots, pans, and kitchen wares, making it the perfect companion to the Vortex System. 

This complete, non-corrosive drying rack features 8-slot drying cradles made of high impact ABS material for a cost-effective, space-efficient, and mobile solution for sanitary drying and storage.

The Camshelving Premium Series Vertical Drying Rack provides space-saving drying of flat items such as pan and container lids, bun pans, trays, and cutting boards while keeping them separated for maximum airflow. 

Both drying rack styles are available in mobile Camshelving® Premium Series and Camshelving Elements Series and come with a lifetime warranty against rust and corrosion.

The Headache: 

We want or need to move away from disposables, but we don’t have commercial warewashing capabilities.

How to Ease it:

Choose a machine that works with your existing infrastructure. Changes in management or government regulations can lead to needing to switch to permanent wares in a hurry. With today’s warewashing technology, installing a commercial dish machine can be much simpler than it used to be. 

Champion’s Ventless Rack Conveyor Dish Machine, a National Restaurant Association Kitchen Innovations Award winner in 2016, was developed specifically to make setting up a warewashing area less complicated and more cost-effective. The system captures 100% of the operating exhaust heat and vapor, which it then converts into usable energy to heat the wash water and help heat the fresh rinse water. 

This smart design can save as much as $7,500 on the capital investment of purchase and installation of a vent hood and up to $3,000 annually in water heating costs. Keeping the heat in the machine and out of the dish room also makes for more comfortable staff.

For smaller spaces and lower ware volumes, Champion’s DH6000 Ventless Hood-type Dishwashing Machine also recovers 100% of the operating exhaust heat and vapor and converts it into useable energy.

Properly fitting dish tables are key to optimizing your warewashing space and workflows. Clean and soiled dish tables in standard and custom sizes are part of a wide variety of custom stainless steel solutions Aero Manufacturing fabricates for foodservice. 

Straight, corner, island, and sorting tables in left and right-handed options are available. All Aero products are made in USA, UL and NSF listed, and shipped fully welded for strength and durability.

 

The Headache: 

Our dishwasher’s rinse water isn’t hot enough for proper hygiene.

How to Ease it:

Give your water a temperature boost. Rinse water that isn’t hot enough can result in less-than-clean wares or a citation on your health inspection report. 

If your existing dishwasher can’t produce hot enough rinse water, Hatco Water Heater Boosters are made to finish the job. 

Their 180°F rinse temperature not only sanitizes, but it also removes food residue and promotes rapid self-drying for sparkling clean and sanitary dishware and flatware.

The Headache: 

We have to wrap glass racks or rewash glassware stored in open-walled racks to make sure they’re truly clean.

How to Ease it:

Keep glassware protected inside a closed wall system.  Cambro Camracks’ open inside compartments help water circulate thoroughly between glasses for efficient and effective washing. Their closed outer walls are part of a smart system that keeps contaminants such as germs, insects, and dust out of racks during storage and transport. 

Just stack racks on a Camdolly and place a Camrack cover on top to create a portable and sanitary storage “closet” that protects glassware from outside contaminants.

We can help ease your warewashing headaches. To minimize labor, conserve natural resources, and maximize hygiene all at the same time, contact us!