Trustpilot rated excellent
  • Search
  • MyJLA User Icon
    • Back
    • Manage your account online with MyJLA

      My JLA supports the smooth running of your business, with statements, job sheets, site information and essential documents all in one place.

      Sign in
      Register your interest
    • Back
JLA - Celebrating 50 years
  • Products
    • Back
      • Laundry
        Back
        • Commercial & Industrial Washing Machines
          • Coin-operated
          • Barrier
          • Stacked
        • Commercial & Industrial Tumble Dryers
          • Coin-operated
          • Stacked
          • Safe technology
        • Irons & finishing
          • Irons
          • Ironing boards tables
          • Rotary
        • Detergents & chemicals
          • Cleaning chemicals
          • Auto dosing-pumps
        • OTEX
          • Laundry disinfection
        Back
      • Catering
        • Back
          • Cooking appliances
            • Ovens
            • Fryers
            • Grills
            • Griddles
            • Hobs
            • Induction hobs
            • Bratt pans
            • Microwaves
          • Fridges & freezers
            • Fridges
            • Freezers
            • Ice machines
            • Blast chillers
          • Dish & glasswashers
            • Dishwashers
            • Glasswashers
            • Utensil washers
          • Food warmers
            • Bain marie
            • Hot cupboards
          • Water boilers
          • Commercial kitchen installation
          • Modular
          • Furniture
          • Cleaning chemicals
        • Back
      • Heating & AC
        • Back
        • Heating
          • Boilers
            • Wall mounted
            • Floor standing
            • Commercial boiler service contracts
            • Boiler servicing price calculator
          • Hot water cylinders
          • Water storage heaters
        • Air conditioning
        • Back
      • Fire safety & security
        • Back
          • Fire safety equipment
              • Fire fighting equipment
                • Extinguishers
              • Buildings & escape routes
                • Doors
                • AOVS
                • Emergency lighting
              • Alarm checks
              • Initial site survey
              • Detection systems
          • Fire safety services
            • Fire risk assessments
            • Fire safety training
            • Evacuation planning
            • Fire safety cover
        • Back
      • Infection Control
        • Back
          • Hygiene
            • Medical macerators
            • Bedpan washers
          • OTEX
            • Ozone laundry disinfection
            • Ozone room disinfection
            • Ozone air purifier
        • Back
      • Discover Total Care
        • Back
        • Total Care

          A unique, all-inclusive package, specially designed for you.
          You pay nothing upfront, and get free installation with 24/7 emergency support, access to MyJLA, and remote equipment monitoring for proactive care.

          All for a simple monthly fee.
          Discover Total Care
          Total Care is now fully connected
          Remote monitoring from JLA Connect helps you track energy usage, cut downtime and make sure your laundry equipment is running at its best.
          Discover JLA Connect
        • Back
    • Back
  • About Us
    • Back
    • Who we are
    • Careers
    • ESG at JLA
    • Accreditations
    • Blog
    • Total Care from JLA
    • Testimonials
    • Back
  • Sectors
    • Back
        • Care Homes
        • Facilities management
        • Football clubs
        • NHS & Healthcare
        • Health clubs
        • Hotels & spas
        • Housing
        • Launderettes
        • Prisons
        • Pubs & restaurants
        • Schools
        • Vets & animal care
    • Back
  • Help & advice
    • Back
      • Existing customers

      • Need an engineer?
      • Accounts billing
      • Service & support
      • MyJLA
      • The JLA app
      • Contact us
      • Manage your account online with MyJLA

        My JLA supports the smooth running of your business, with statements, job sheets, site information and essential documents all in one place.

        Sign in
        Register your interest
    • Back
  • Contact
  • Call us free:
    01422822282
Chat now
JLA - Celebrating 50 years
Contact us by phone
MyJLA User Icon
Search
  • Commercial laundry
    • Commercial washing machines
      • Coin-operated
      • Barrier
      • Stacked
      • View all washing machines
    • Commercial tumble dryers
      • Coin operated
      • Stacked
      • Safe technology
      • View all tumble dryers
    • Irons & finishing
      • Irons
      • Ironing boards tables
      • Rotary
      • View all finishing
    • Detergents & chemicals
      • Cleaning chemicals
  • Catering equipment
    • Cooking appliances
      • Commercial ovens
      • Fryers
      • Grills
      • Griddles
      • Hobs
      • Induction hobs
      • Bratt pans
      • Microwaves
      • View all cooking appliances
    • Refrigeration
      • Fridges
      • Freezers
      • Ice machines
      • Blast chillers
      • View all refrigeration
    • Dishwashers & glasswashers
      • Commercial dishwashers
      • Commercial glasswashers
      • Utensil-washers
      • View all dishwashers & glasswashers
    • Food warmers
      • Bain marie
      • Hot cupboards
      • View all food warmers
    • Water boilers
      • JLA water boiler
    • Modular
    • Cleaning chemicals
    • Furniture
  • Heating & AC
    • Heating
      • Boilers
      • Hot water cylinders
      • Water storage heaters
      • Boiler servicing price calculator
    • Air conditioning
  • Fire safety & security
    • Equipment
      • Detection systems
      • Fire fighting equipment
      • Buildings & escape routes
      • Initial site survey
      • Alarm checks
    • Evacuation planning
    • Fire safety cover
  • Infection Control
    • Hygiene
      • Medical macerators
      • Bedpan washers
    • OTEX
      • Ozone laundry disinfection
      • Ozone room disinfection
      • Ozone air purifier
  • Total Care
    • Discover Total Care
    • JLA Connect
  • Sectors
    • Care Homes
    • Hotels & spas
    • Pubs & restaurants
    • Schools
    • Housing
    • Facilities management
    • NHS & Healthcare
    • Prisons
    • Vets & animal care
  • About us
    • Who we are
    • Careers
    • ESG at JLA
    • Accreditations
    • Blog
    • Total Care from JLA
  • Help & advice
    • Need an engineer?
    • Accounts & billing
    • Service & support
    • MyJLA
    • The JLA app
    • Contact us
  • Contact
?>

Home > Blog > Catering > How to avoid downtime in your professional kitchen

How to avoid downtime in your professional kitchen

  • Catering
  • October 19, 2020
  • 4 min read

Having a piece of kit go down is every chef’s worst nightmare. Planned preventative care can help you to avoid unnecessary downtime while ensuring the optimum performance of all your mission-critical kitchen apparatus, improving its lifespan, and minimising energy consumption.

How to avoid downtime in your professional kitchen

The benefits of pre-emptive maintenance

Prevention costs less than cure 

Quite simply, it’s a false economy to wait until something goes wrong, with the expense of calling out an engineer every time you have a problem far exceeding the costs of regular care.

Not only does preventive maintenance cost less than repairing or replacing broken equipment, you can also factor it into your monthly cashflow, so you never receive any nasty surprises.

For example, take a refrigeration malfunction; not only can this result in a huge repair bill, but it also brings the additional cost of having to discard your valuable stock. And that’s something all commercial kitchen operators want to avoid.

Avoid downtime

By routinely servicing your professional kitchen equipment, there is less chance of it breaking down when you need it most, helping you to avoid the financial implications of downtime to your business and your reputation.

Save money with energy savings

Regular essential maintenance not only saves you money when things go wrong, but it can also deliver cost-savings to your business on a daily basis.

In fact, a study examining the consumption of electricity in the commercial kitchen found that poor levels of care significantly contribute to excessive energy use in refrigerators, while in some cases maintenance can deliver electricity savings of up to 45%.

Keep compliant

Adequate maintenance is essential to help meet the requirements of the Food Safety Act, and to ensure your cooking, hot holding, and chilling equipment is working correctly and won’t let you down.

There are more than a million cases of food poisoning every year in the UK, but when it comes to the health of your customers, ignorance is not an adequate defense. Contravening food safety legislation can result in severe penalties – including an unlimited fine, or even imprisonment.

Properly maintained professional kitchen equipment can help make sure you meet your obligations, reducing your exposure to risk, and protecting your hard-earned reputation.

How to ensure proper maintenance of your professional kitchen equipment

Start by creating an inventory of all your essential kitchen equipment. Then, set out what needs to happen when a repair is required, including who is in charge of handling it and who else needs to know. Consider where you track this information, and whether you need to hire an engineer to make repairs, or if there someone in-house who has the skills needed do this (properly!).

You also need to set up a preventive and routine maintenance programme. To do this, you must instill good to day-to-day practices in your commercial kitchen to help your employees look after your equipment properly. Did you know, for example, that just by putting a filter in your fridge you could save ÂŁ92 a year? Not only will regular care help prolong the lifespan of your equipment, but it will also help to ensure that any warranties remain valid.

Next, be sure to shop around to find a suitable maintenance package which meets the various needs of each of your items during their lifetime.

Depending on the equipment this could include:

    • Gas safety checks 
    • Temperature validation
    • Machine optimisation
    • Canopy cleaning
    • Duct cleaning
    • Annual service
    • Emergency engineer response

And a quick tip – it’s also worth considering whether renting makes more sense than purchasing outright – particularly if this includes a regular maintenance package to keep your kit in top-notch condition.

In a commercial kitchen, keeping your professional kitchen equipment in optimum working order is not just important for ensuring food quality and consistency, it is business critical. As such, ensuring you have the right kitchen equipment in place, and that it is looked after correctly is essential.

By putting aside a set amount each month to cover the costs of regular maintenance, you can save your business money, keep compliant, and be sure to avoid product downtime. Ultimately, letting you get on with what you do best – cooking consistently high-quality food.

Are you considering upgrading your catering equipment to help improve hygiene standards and protect your valuable reputation? Find out how you can do just that by contacting our friendly experts today.

Found this useful? Share with
Need help? Call us on

01422822282

Facebook Linkedin
Products
  • Laundry equipment
  • Catering equipment
  • Heating & AC
  • Fire safety
  • Infection Control
Menu
  • Laundry equipment
  • Catering equipment
  • Heating & AC
  • Fire safety
  • Infection Control
Sectors
  • Care homes
  • NHS & Healthcare
  • Health clubs
  • Hospitality
  • Facilities management
  • Football clubs
  • Restaurants
  • Vets & animal care
  • More sectors
Menu
  • Care homes
  • NHS & Healthcare
  • Health clubs
  • Hospitality
  • Facilities management
  • Football clubs
  • Restaurants
  • Vets & animal care
  • More sectors
Solutions
  • Laundry equipment
  • Catering equipment
  • Heating & AC
  • Fire safety
  • Infection Control
Menu
  • Laundry equipment
  • Catering equipment
  • Heating & AC
  • Fire safety
  • Infection Control
About JLA
  • Who we are
  • Careers
  • ESG at JLA
  • Accreditations
  • Blog
  • Total Care from JLA
  • Testimonials
Menu
  • Who we are
  • Careers
  • ESG at JLA
  • Accreditations
  • Blog
  • Total Care from JLA
  • Testimonials
  • Privacy & cookies
  • Terms & conditions
  • Modern slavery
  • Covid-19
  • Responsibility
  • Site map
  • Privacy & cookies
  • Terms & conditions
  • Modern slavery
  • Covid-19
  • Responsibility
  • Site map
Contact

We’re here to help

Your critical equipment is just that – critical. So whether you need advice on how we can help with new solutions and servicing, booking an engineer or you want to talk to us about your account, get in touch below.

Repairs & maintenance

Book an emergency engineer or arrange planned servicing and maintenance.

Book a visit

Sales enquiries

Whatever your business needs, we have a solution. Get advice from the experts today.

Send an enquiry

Accounts & billing

Whether it’s a simple question or an issue you need addressing quickly our team are here 24/7.

Ask a question

Talk to our experts today

Find out more By providing your email address we can send you information about JLA's products & services and special offers which we think might be of interest to you.
Keeping your information safe >>

Talk to our experts today

Fill in our form
Keeping your information safe >>

Talk to our experts today

Keeping your information safe >>