Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Question about servicing COMMERCIAL dishwashers

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

I haven’t been following this discussion closely but the issue of commercial or 
residential relates most importantly to the how the city codes the kitchen. 
Some have been coded commercial and others not. A commercial kitchen has 
certain requirements that most communities don’t want to meet — larger vent 
fans, certain drainage issues, etc. 

We had a commercial sanitizer for years and had no objections from the service 
people for coming here when we were not coded commercial. And in any case most 
service people would take one look at the CH and call it a commercial kitchen 
just as church and community center kitchens are viewed as commercial.

The problem was that the only service people for the Hobart sanitizer were 
licensed Hobart people who charged $500 just to show up. And we were competing 
for their time with all the restaurants and federal cafeterias, etc. in DC.  
Obviously our little ~30 diner meals couldn’t compete with an emergency call 
from the White House or a 500-seat restaurant serving a new round of meals 
every 60 minutes.

We switched to highend Kitchen Aid machines (2) and there are many people who 
can service them with $60-90 appearance fees. (The switch has been wonderful.)

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org