Top 10 Best Methods for Dish & Glass Washing

Many of the negative impacts affecting glass and dish washing results can easily be overcome by adhering to some very basic rules like thorough pre-scrapping, prerinsing and effective racking and stacking.  Here are some key issues to address:

 

Ten suggested ways to enhance dishwashing and glasswashing
 

1. Scrape all food debris from plates and ensure all heavily soiled items are prerinsed prior to entering the machine. Always remove solid debris like cocktail sticks, fruit peel, pips, paper etc. from glasses and plates. They can block the wash jets and impair performance.
2. Rack items of the same size together so none are hidden from wash jets. Fill the racks evenly but not too tightly making sure items are well-spaced so that the wash solution gets an even coverage.
3. When loading glassware always ensure that the baskets are filled to capacity to minimise breakages and place cups and glasses upside down to allow the wash water to spray in from below. Always stand glasses on drip mats to dry.
4. Allow crockery to air dry - never use a tea towel as it can harbour bacteria and may contaminate the items which have already been thermally disinfected.
5. Always mix different types of cutlery in baskets to avoid items sticking together and ensure that they are stacked in baskets with the handles down - eating end up.
6. All pots and pans and larger utensils should be washed by hand unless there is a dedicated pan washer for larger items.
7. Remember to 'dump' the wash water after each session and refill with fresh water, otherwise the machine will be re-circulating dirty water.
8. Ensure that the filter trays within the machine are checked and cleaned so that larger items of debris do not re-circulate and impede the wash performance.
9. Ensure that the machine wash and rinse jets are cleaned on a weekly basis and are free of food debris, broken glass and lime-scale. If these jets are blocked the wash water will not make effective contact with the items to be washed.
10. In hard water areas where lime-scale is a problem, ensure that the machine is descaled once a week with a liquid phosphoric acid descaler. Lime-scale build up will significantly reduce the efficiency of the machine and will consume far more energy than normally required.  The dish and glass washer needs cleaning like any other piece of catering equipment or surface, so ensure you clean thoroughly the inside of the machine after each session:

• Shut off machine at the mains supply and not just on the machine
• Open the drain plugs to empty the machine completely
• Remove the curtains and clean with a degreaser/sanitiser
• Remove both wash and rinse arms and clean out all debris
• Remove scrap trays and clean out all debris
• Thoroughly clean out the inside of the machine with a degreaser/sanitiser and rinse thoroughly
• Replace scrap trays, wash and rinse arms and curtains
• Shut doors and switch on and allow machine to heat up to correct working temperature
• Machine is now ready to operate
• Ensure no broken parts (like missing wash & rinse jets for example)