Always Consider These Four Things Before Buying a Commercial Refrigerator For Your Restaurant

In our work providing food equipment service to commercial kitchens, we hear a lot of customer feedback about their equipment purchases. It’s always unfortunate hearing about purchases that were not fit for purpose, particularly when a piece of commercial kitchen equipment can interrupt the flow of your kitchen and damage your restaurant’s facilities profits!

One of the critical pieces of equipment is the refrigerator. So today, we wanted to talk a bit about selecting the best commercial refrigerator for your needs.

Four Critical Factors When Selecting A Refrigerator for Your Restaurant

• Functionality
  Think about what food items your staff will be reaching for most often and plan your refrigerator purchase around that. For example, will they frequently be making use of frozen items? In that case, it’d be a good idea to get a combination refrigerator/freezer, storing food for the evening’s work. If not, focus on a unit with the right combination of shelves and drawers for your needs, while keeping rarely-used frozen items in a separate unit.
• Size and fit
  Obviously, your commercial refrigerator needs to be small enough to be moved into your kitchen and put into place – but that’s only part of the size consideration. Be sure to check on the size of the door, and how many square feet you’ll need to keep free for it to swing open. Is the size you need requiring a walk-in unit? Consider walking room as well. You don’t want your refrigerator to be a kitchen bottleneck!
• The Model’s reputation
  Do some research before buying. Some brands may seem like bargains based on the initial price but may turn out to have ongoing maintenance issues. A refrigerator is an investment into your business, you want to ensure it has a good Total Cost of Ownership, not just one with a current low sticker price.
• Condenser placement
  The location of your refrigerator’s condenser may be more important than you realize. Bottom-mounted condensers are easier to maintain and clean, but they’re also more prone to clogging. They can sometimes elevate the refrigerator to the point its topmost shelves are hard to reach. On the other hand, top-mounted condensers are more reliable and don’t inhibit usage, but may be difficult to reach for service.

General Parts Group Can Be Your Food Equipment Service Partner

For more than 75 years, General Parts Group has provided top-quality service and repairs for commercial kitchens across America. Contact us directly to learn more.