Stone hearth units can be showpieces for pizza places, among other operations. But their price tag and the importance to their operations mean restaurants should invest in their upkeep.

Soft-serve ice cream machines are a staple of quick-service restaurants and the source of a favorite treat, especially during the summer months. Here are some tips to keep these units working properly.

Cheese melters are one of the simpler pieces of equipment in a commercial kitchen. They can provide the finishing touch for cheeseburgers and other very popular menu items. 

Essentially souped-up freezers, blast chillers are most often used by large institutions like hospitals, which need to produce and store food in high volume. They’re also high-dollar pieces of equipment that need to be well-maintained to work at peak efficiency.

Operations from sandwich chains to c-stores to coffee shops use convection microwaves. These units can toast a sandwich, heat a pastry and cook a pizza, usually in 90 seconds or less.

Clamshell grills can cut cooking time and labor costs. These units, though, have to be taken care of. Operators must be willing to invest in their cleaning and maintenance to make them last. Here are some tips for keeping clamshells working well:

Door-type dishwashers are a good mid-sized option for operations that can’t or don’t want to dedicate the pace to a flight-type unit and need more capacity than an undercounter. Here are a few tips to keeping these warewashers running smoothly.

Coffee makers don’t get as much attention from the foodservice equipment channel as pieces like fryers and flattops. If a restaurant’s coffee maker goes down, though, there are likely to be many upset customers. Here are a few tips to keeping coffee makers running smoothly.

Clamshell Grills have long been popular for their quick food production and ease of use. With labor shortages in the foodservice sector, these items are almost certainly growing in importance, as they allow for higher throughput without increasing labor hours.

Every kitchen has one, at least, and every kitchen needs to maintain them. Here are a few tips for keeping a ventilation system in good working order.

Serving equipment like steam tables are essential to all sorts of operations, from buffets to fast-casual concepts that hold high-quality cooked proteins for quick assembly. This equipment isn’t managed as actively as a grill or oven, but it still needs to be cared for by restaurant staff. Here are a few tips for keeping steam tables running smoothly.

The oven-range combination often becomes a good solution for operations tight on space or that offer baked entrees like meatloaf or lasagna. Keeping these units running properly becomes critical for every kitchen that has them.

Whether they’re behind the counter or in the dining room, soda dispensers are a staple of the modern restaurant. With the amount of use a machine gets every day, keeping these units clean and operational is absolutely essential.

Long a mainstay of the catering world, hot holding units continue to gain traction in restaurants seeking to offer high-quality food to off-premises guests. Here are a few tips to keeping these units working well.

Blast chillers are a key piece of equipment for industrial operations that want to cook, then store, large quantities of food. They’re also big-ticket items that operators should be careful with to protect their investments.

Practically every restaurant with indoor dining has an HVAC system and the quality of those systems directly impact the customer experience, not to mention the health of guests and employees. Here are a few tips operators can take to keep their HVAC systems running well.

Open air merchandisers provide operators with an easy way to encourage add-on sales at the register and take a small bit of workload off their employees. Here are a few ways restaurants can keep these units working well and looking good.

Popular in bars and restaurants with strong bar programs, glasswashers allow operations to quickly clean glasses in large batches.

Essentially every professional kitchen has a hood. They’re necessary for fire prevention and to keep workspaces safe and comfortable for employees. Operators can’t operate without a hood, so they should take some steps to keep theirs in working order.

A good combi oven can easily cost an operator tens of thousands of dollars. That sort of investment is worth protecting with regular care, cleaning and maintenance. Here are a few tips to keeping combis up and running.

Range/oven combinations are found in many operations, and staff use them for everything from cooking bacon, making baked goods, producing soups and sauces, and sauteing proteins and pasta. Here are a few tips to keeping your range/oven in good working order.

While they’re best known for cooking pizzas, operators can also use conveyor ovens to produce breadsticks, baked goods and even proteins like chicken breasts and hamburger patties. Here are a few tips to keeping conveyor ovens in good working order.

While chef bases don’t grab your attention like a chargrill or fryer, they play a key role in food production in many kitchens. Points of failure on these units include standard refrigeration components to drawers and doors. Here are some tips to keeping these pieces up and running.

Though combi ovens get all the attention, steamers are still key pieces of equipment in many professional kitchens. Staff can use them to prepare, vegetables, seafood and more. Here are three tips to keep a steamer up and running.

Many kitchens rely on fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) panels for their kitchen walls. Not only are these often cheaper than tile, they’re generally easier to clean and maintain. That doesn’t mean FRP panels are a zero-maintenance item, though.