Most undercounter machines operate on a single two-minute cycle. Operators can also choose from among types with longer cycle times that handle heavy soil loads.

To calculate the number of racks per hour that a dishmachine can wash, it would make sense to simply take the cycle time and divide it into 60 minutes. For example, a 2-minute cycle into 60 minutes would be 30 racks per hour. While this appears correct, the appropriate calculation is to use the NSF calculation for racks per hour, which adds 30 seconds per dishrack to account for loading and unloading dishes. This will give the operator a true cycle time. In this case, the actual racks per hour using the NSF calculation is 24 racks per hour, not 30.