So you have to purchase new commercial kitchen equipment for your restaurant or food service facility. Do you know what kind of gas your kitchen uses? Do you know how much space you have available? Do you know what kind of hood the equipment requires? There are many details that are often over looked when purchasing new commercial kitchen equipment that can cost you valuable time and money to resolve! Here are the most common overlooked details you should consider before making a purchase.

Gas Type / Power Requirements

It is important that you know exactly what your gas/power requirements are when shopping for commercial kitchen equipment. There are different internal components to kitchen equipment designated for LP (Propane) and natural gas. Most manufacturers offer conversion kits for kitchen equipment so they can work for either type of gas requirements; however, they can become expensive. So it is beneficial to ensure you are ordering a piece of kitchen equipment already setup for the type of gas your facility has. In addition to ensuring you specify the correct gas type, it is important to specify if your food service facility is at an elevation level of higher then 2,000 feet. Equipment that will be located above 2,000 feet may perform differently and therefore require different components.

Some equipment can have gas and electric components or be completely electric. It is important to consult an electrician when purchasing a new commercial kitchen appliance to ensure that it has the correct voltage, amperage, and phase. Making alterations to your electrical panel to accommodate an incompatible piece of kitchen equipment can become very costly!

Hoods / Fire Suppression Systems

Almost all commercial kitchen appliances have to be covered by either a Type I (Grease Laden) or Type II (Non-Grease Laden) hoods. All commercial kitchen equipment required to be under a Type I hood must also be covered by a fire suppression system. It is important to consult the company that installs and/or inspects your fire suppression system about equipment you would like to add to your food service facility to ensure you have sufficient hood space and the proper fire suppression.

Spacing

Spacing should not be left to guess work when planning for new kitchen equipment. You should measure the available space you have and compare it to the dimensions of the equipment before you purchase. Your fire suppression company should also be able to tell you whether local or state code requires equipment to be a certain distance away from other equipment. Some things to consider to save space would be to purchase equipment with multiple functions so you can eliminate multiple pieces of equipment (i.e. a 6 burner range with a 24" griddle and 2 standard ovens instead of stock pot burners, ovens, and a counter top griddle). Also consider equipment form manufacturers, such as Blodgett, which offers combinations of stackable equipment. Most equipment either come with or have the option for casters instead of regular legs. This could be very beneficial to ensure that your staff can clean under, around, and behind the equipment.

Plumbing

Commercial kitchen equipment, such as kettles or braising pans, may have faucets on them which require a plumbing connection but are not necessary to use the equipment. However, there are some pieces of equipment, such as steamers with broilers, which require a water line ran to the equipment or it will not function. Most of these pieces of commercial kitchen equipment will require a water filtration system, which can become costly. To avoid this, you should consider broiler-less steamers, where you manually fill the equipment with water.

Menu & Volume

The most obvious factors to consider is your menu and how many people you feed during a meal. A small deli will not require the same type or amount of equipment as a hospital! It is important that if you are the person in charge of purchasing the equipment that you CONSULT YOUR CHEF! Your food service staff should be able to provide you incite on what is required to produce the products for your menu efficiently.

Receiving

Finally, understand that most commercial kitchen equipment is very large. It is important that you are sure that you are able to receive the equipment. You will need to have a forklift or pallet jack available to move the equipment into place. You want to make sure that the equipment is going to fit through doorways and walk ways as well.

Commercial Kitchen Equipment is an important purchase for your restaurant or food service facility; so you want to make sure you are getting exactly what you need. A good rule of thumb when purchasing commercial kitchen equipment is; when in doubt, call customer service!