Griddles

Griddles are heavy-duty countertop cooking equipment that browns, sears or toasts menu items across all dayparts.

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Cleaning and Maintaining Countertop Griddles

Although griddles are a basic piece of equipment, failure to regularly clean and maintain these units will compromise their performance and service life. For both electrical and gas types, proper installation plays a key role in mitigating grease buildup, which is a fire hazard and will compromise a griddle’s service life.

Here, Jim Mucher, service agent at Commercial Appliance Service Inc., Sacramento, Calif., reveals how to best clean and maintain countertop griddles.

  • Continuously clean countertop griddles during use. Don’t just scrape them off.
  • Grease migrates, which makes proper removal very important. Operators that fail to continuously pull out and clean drip pans and troughs frequently, especially during busy periods, could find the overflow getting into control boxes and orifices, causing major problems.
  • Wash griddle pads daily.
  • Service agents will need to open the unit up and clean components at least twice a year.
  • Regularly check and clean when necessary electrical or gas connections.
  • Use products specific for countertop griddle cleaning. This includes pumice stones and griddle pads to scrape down the plates. Refrain from using spatulas; these can damage the plate surface. Also, chrome griddle plates require nonabrasive cleaners.
  • Thermometers are necessary to regularly monitor plate surface temperatures, which ensures accuracy and consistency. When temperatures are off, the griddle will need recalibrating.
  • If grease is not properly handled, it can build up in the unit and break the weld between the cooking surface and barrier wall of the outside perimeter. When this happens, the unit cannot be fixed and it can become a fire hazard.
  • Grease troughs in the front of these units will wear out and crack over time. When this happens or if grease penetrates the welds, the unit should be replaced as soon as possible.

 

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