Welcome to Industry News & Reviews

By Caribbean Restaurant Supplies

Caribbean Restaurant Supplies is proud to present Industry News & Reviews which will feature the latest product launches, product specials, industry trends, equipment reviews, as well as featured topics in the Food Service Equipment industry, including:

Purchasing New Equipment vs. Used Equipment
Choosing a Buffet Line
Custom Fab Vs Pre-Manufactured Items
Industry Events
Manufacturer News Releases

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Product Review: Restaurant Swing Doors

By John Ferras

July 22, 2011

Swing doors which are also known as Traffic doors have been around for a long time. A swing door is characterized for its ability to swing open in either direction, allowing traffic to move freely in or out with minimum resistance from the door in place. Eliason Corporation, founded in 1952 originated the Easy Swing® double action impact traffic door. The patented Easy Swing® hinge uses gravity and offset pivots to facilitate a safe, gentle action and automatic time delayed closing. This avoids the need of having to use springs, heavy cam castings or other complicated closing devices.

Some of the benefits associated with using a traffic door in a Foodservice Facility include allowing a person with a load to pass through the doorway with minimum resistance and the door always swinging away from the person without the need to use their hands to easily push the door forward. Another benefit is that it can separate areas where needed for visual, noise reduction or environmental purposes. Special insulated swing doors are even available that can be used to go in and out of cold rooms or walk-in coolers. In fact Eliason Corporation also offers doors that meet NSF® requirements, and have been specially designed for the Foodservice industry .

Swing doors are available in many configurations and designs to meet very specific needs. For example if the purpose of the door is only for visual separation and only pedestrian traffic with light loads such as plates and trays are passing through, than you may opt to use a thin aluminum, stainless steel , vinyl or pvc panel door. However if noise reduction, environmental temperature separation or high impact traffic applications such as pallet jacks or forklifts are being considered. The doors must be constructed to specifications that meet the specific purpose for the application of this door. Below are just a few of the different elements that may be used for building a swing door:

Exterior grade solid wood core with laminate finish.
Rigid PVC frame with honeycomb polymer core with decorative high pressure laminate finish
Layers of impact resistance ABS with texture surface finish
Polymer cell core with solid ABS frame with thick high impact thermo plastic finish
Double ply vinyl sheets with pebble embossed finish

While there is a huge selection of door types, there are also many accessories that can be added to the doors in order to meet the specific door requirements. These include window type, shape and size, bumpers for impact resistance, scuff plates, door guards, jamb guards and gasket seals to name a few.

Measuring for a Swing door requires that you determine what the size of the finish opening is. The finish opening is the inside measurements of the door jamb. By providing the finish opening dimensions, the door manufacturer will be able to determine the door size based on the door type, mounting hardware and the clearance specified. To obtain the finish opening dimensions you should measure as follows:

Height – Measure from floor to top of door opening, take (3) measurements

Left Side
Center
Right Side

Width – Measure from left jamb to right jamb of door opening, take (3) measurements

Top (approximately 10” form the top)
Center (approximately at center of the door jamb)
Bottom (approximately 10” from the bottom)

Basically what they will require is the smallest dimensions to make sure that the door will fit in the door opening with the respective hardware.

Below are a few pictures showing a variety of doors manufactured by Eliason Corporation.

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Selecting Electric Foodservice Equipment

By John Ferras

June 1, 2011

When purchasing electric powered foodservice equipment, you must first know what electrical power supply is available in your facility. In the United States 110-120 volts is common in most facilities for lighting and many small appliances, most large size commercial heavy duty equipment however, operates at higher voltages. Some of the common voltages available on heavy duty equipment are: 200V, 208V, 220V, 230V, 240V, 460V & 480V. It is also important to know if the equipment uses single or three phase electrical. Mostly you will find that 3 phase electricity is used mainly on equipment that has higher horsepower motors on preparation, dishwashing and refrigeration equipment or higher wattage heating elements when used in operating ovens, ranges and other cooking equipment. Therefore in addition to the voltage you will need to know if you have three phase electricity available or only single phase electricity available in your building. Usually the best way to determine what electrical supply is available at your facility is to consult with a licensed electrician who will be able to check what you have in your building and also can tell you what electrical is available in the location where you intend to place your new equipment. Just because you have 3 phase electricity in your building does not necessarily mean that you have a line available at the location where you intend to locate the equipment. The electrician will be able to tell you the cost of running an electrical line to the required location if one is not readily available to accommodate your new equipment.

In the past I have encountered customers who have purchased equipment because they found it at a bargain price and when they attempted to connect the equipment they found that they did not have the proper electrical supply to operate the equipment. In other occasions I have come across customers that bought equipment with the wrong voltage and connected and used them without knowing it and although the equipment may have been running, they would eventually burn out the motor or heating elements resulting in a much more costly repair to the equipment than it would have cost to purchase the right voltage on the equipment initially.

It is important to know that since many countries use 50 Hertz electrical systems, you may come across equipment that is made to operate under such specification. While in the U.S. we use 60 Hertz electric, suppliers that export equipment may have inventory that is made for 50 Hertz electric and may sometimes offer this equipment at bargain prices because it was leftover from a project or an order that may have been cancelled. In the use equipment world, Dealers often buy equipment at auctions and may not be aware of where the equipment was last used, for example if the equipment came from a ship’s galley it could well have been operating with a 50 Hertz system. Therefore be aware of the voltage and cycles when buying used equipment and make sure that your facility has the correct electrical supply to operate this equipment.

Some of the circumstances that you may encounter when using the wrong voltages are:

In cases where the voltage is lower than the rated requirement of the equipment, you may experience longer time required to reach set temperatures as well as longer time needed for temperature recovery when related to heating elements and lower wattage output to motors that will cause them to run slower and possibly not reaching their required RPM. In general you will experience lower efficiency.
In cases where voltage is higher than the rated specifications of the equipment, you will be boosting the wattage and can ultimately result in putting additional stress on components and may result eventually in burning out the heating elements or motor coils.
If you connect a single phase item to 3 phase electricity or single phase power to equipment with three phase specifications, you may be exposing yourself to danger and could end up causing damage to the equipment or breakers on your buildings electrical box.

It is important to always have a licensed electrician make your final connection on heavy duty equipment. In fact in many case equipment manufacturers requires that they be hard wired. The electrician can also confirm that your available power supply can be used on the equipment and should ensure that all connections and proper, wiring and amperage loads are correct and that all local electrical codes are met.

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NAFEM Show 2011 – February 10-12, 2011

By John Ferras

If you have never been to a NAFEM Show event, this could be an excellent year to attend. NAFEM (North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers) will be hosting their biennial trade show at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center February 10-12, 2011. The NAFEM Show is considered by most industry professionals in the United States as the most import foodservice equipment event in our industry. This is the show that most relevant foodservice equipment manufacturers introduce their new products, make major announcements pertaining to their company’s direction and show-off the latest technology available to kitchen operators from around the globe.

In addition to being a great exhibition, the NAFEM Show serves as a training ground for many manufacturers’ representatives, dealers, distributors and other people behind the scenes within the foodservice industry. On early mornings prior to the doors opening to visitors, many manufacturers schedule well planned sessions to thoroughly go over their new products and policies and make sure that their products will properly represented to the end users in their respective market segments. In addition to these early morning sessions, many manufacturers and industry associates take advantage of the fact that the event is so well attended and host award ceremonies and networking functions in the evenings. NAFEM also offers excellent free educational sessions during the event. The seminars are conducted by highly qualified professionals and are well worth attending.

Since the show is rather large, over 500 exhibitors and more than 750 different product categories for small, medium and large equipment plus supplies. I suggest that you carefully plan your visit by first determining what you would like to see, then looking up the manufacturers that will exhibit these items ahead of time. This will allow you to compare each products features and benefits allowing you to select the right product for you when you decide to purchase. By going to the NAFEM Show website, www.thenafemshow.org you will be able to get all of the pertinent Show information including reasonable savings for early registration and a list of exhibitor’s booth locations. The fact that the show is being held in Orlando, Florida will also allow many to take their families and enjoy the many recreational activities offered in Orlando during their visit.

Tags: Foodservice Show, Kitchen Equipment Show, Nafem 2011, NAFEM Show
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Product Review: Dyson Airblade Handryers

By John Ferras

Dyson Airblade Hand Dryer

Finally there is a product in the market that allows you to properly dry your hands; I mean really dry your hands without the use of paper towels. I have often found myself having to end up drying my hands on my clothes in places where they use electric hand dryers in place of paper towels. Usually when I have been in a hurry and did not want to wait the lengthy amount of time needed to completely dry my hands under the traditional electric hand dryers. Often you may be in a restroom where there may be a long line behind you and you feel guilty about the others in the long line waiting their turn to dry their hands, so you place your hands under the dryer and after about 15 seconds walk out with your hands dripping water, I usually end up drying them by just wiping them dry on my pants or shirt and move on with my life.

Well now thanks to the folks at Dyson, the Dyson Airblade dries your hands in just 12 seconds using clean filtered air and using up to 80% less energy than warm air hand dryers. The Dyson Airblade is NSF certified and they even offer a model that operates in accordance to a HACCP based food safety program. This means that you can now use these dryers even in the food prep and kitchen areas to help prevent cross contamination of bacteria in food. I have been in hundreds of kitchens and for some reason many of them don’t have paper towels at the hand sinks, and although the kitchen personnel do wash their hands often, if they must dry their hands in the wipe rags that may have bacteria, they can increase the risk of contaminating the food they are preparing. I have become a big fan of these units, although they are more costly than traditional electric handryers, they are built to last and truly get the job done when it comes to drying hands.

Dyson Airblade Handryer Features and Benefits

Construction/Finish: Available in Polycarbonate-ABS and Die Cast aluminum casing with homogenous anti-microbial additive.
Color: Metallic steel look and White
Dries hands in just 12 seconds.
Dyson Digital Motor operates at 81,000 RPM with only two moving parts and no carbon brushes to wear out.
Air is blown through an aperture the width of an eyelash to create a blade of air travelling at 400 mph.
Uses up to 80% less energy than warm air hand dryers.
Significant operational cost savings versus warm air hand dryers and paper towels resulting in less waste and labor savings from handling paper and reducing waste going to landfills or paper towels discarded into toilets causing clogged plumbing lines producing expensive repairs.
HEPA filter removes over 99.9% of bacteria from the air used to dry hands.
Starts and stops automatically using infra-red sensors. No dirty buttons to press.
No need to rub your hands together, so bacteria in lower skin layers are not brought to the surface.
Tough, sealed ergonomic design for easy cleaning.
Efficient standby mode – Uses only (1) Watt
Electrical supply: 110-120 V AC, Model AB02 also is available in 208 Volts
NSF Certified and GreenSpec Listed
Manufacturers 5 year warranty covering parts and a one year warranty for limited labor.

Green Advantages

Will dry hands fast: will alleviate congestion in high traffic situations
Less Cost to Operate: Since it dries hands quickly and does not require energy hungry heating elements the Dyson Airblade uses considerably less energy than warm air hand dryers.
Save on Costly Paper: Save labor on handling of paper, ordering, storage, loading dispensers, and having to discard after the paper is used.
Save on Potential Plumbing Repairs: Without the presence of heavy gauged paper towels, you will not need to worry about improper disposal in toilets that often cause plumbing nightmares and expensive repairs.
Save Our Planet: By reducing the amount of waste and toxins that are hauled to be disposed of in landfills.

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