In our ongoing effort to serve our customers in the restaurant community, we’ve partnered up with ResQ to help support restaurants with all repair and maintenance needs.
Proper management of restaurant equipment and facilities has always been the foundation of running an efficient restaurant operation but since the pandemic hit, restaurant maintenance measures have been heightened more than ever.
For staff and guest safety, restaurants are advised to keep a tighter ship when it comes to health and safety protocols. These safety measures are also extended to your facility and equipment maintenance. For example, ensuring your HVAC components are working properly not just for general health and safety reasons but to also prevent the transmission of COVID-19.
As a result of the pandemic, restaurants are operating at reduced capacity. This may lead to businesses pausing their repair and maintenance plans to save money while not realizing that not having a recurring maintenance plan will cost them up to twice as much for emergency fixes. Not to mention the increased risk of fire hazards caused by equipment breakdown and service time lost due to weak and faulty equipment.
ResQ has collected repair and maintenance data from over 50,000 restaurant service jobs completed through ResQ’s platform to share the most common repair and maintenance categories and recommended maintenance schedules (data collected from 1,000+ customers across North America).
Most Common Repair & Maintenance Categories
HVAC & Refrigeration
HVAC (Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning) refers to the different systems used for moving air between indoor and outdoor areas along with heating and cooling. Refrigeration/cooling can often be done by the same technician.
Preventive Maintenance: To ensure major HVAC components are performing, preventive maintenance should be performed every three months. HVAC and refrigeration preventive maintenance include checking the motors, changing the filters, cleaning condenser coils, checking temperature control settings.
Plumbing
Restaurant plumbing refers to the system of pipes, tanks, and fittings that carry clean water throughout a building (i.e. sinks, toilets, drains, backwater valves, faucets)
Preventive Maintenance: Maintenance plans can be scheduled semi-annually to drain flushing and for hot water tank maintenance.
Grease Traps
The grease trap is a container, generally placed underground (and usually under the dishwasher) that is required in all commercial kitchens. It collects fats, oils, and greases that run through the drains during kitchen operations.
Preventive Maintenance: Depending on the type of food you prepare you may need weekly or monthly collection and recycling of grease trap waste by pumping or vacuuming, changing grease trap gasket. For example, ResQ customers who serve mainly burgers and food that is mainly fried schedule weekly grease trap cleaning while pizzerias do monthly grease trap maintenance.
Image source: Russel Reid
Equipment Repair
Your dine-in establishment is not running at full capacity during the pandemic and the last thing you need is your kitchen equipment breaking on you further impacting operations and revenue. Maintaining the integrity of all kitchen equipment and machines is of utmost importance, especially now.
Preventive Maintenance: Hotline equipment should be scheduled for a maintenance check and tune-up every three months that includes equipment cleaning, checking the pilot lights (flame), and testing equipment. Hotline equipment includes deep fryers, salamanders (broiler), gas range, and rational oven (oven, steamer).
Hood Cleaning
An exhaust hood is one of the most important appliances in the kitchen. It extracts the air pollution caused by cooking. It filters out the airborne grease before it has a chance to settle everywhere making cleanup easier.
Preventative Maintenance:
Cleaning the exhaust of the ovens recommended being done every quarter to twice a year depending on the volume of the restaurant (for example, ResQ customers serving fast food such as burgers schedule hood cleaning every four weeks).
Waste Removal
Depending on the square footage of your restaurant, you may or may not be eligible for your city waste pick-up (which isn’t a completely free service anyway). Waste removal and management services can range from waste collection and disposal to offering sustainable solutions for your business when it comes to recycling (organic or other).
Maintenance Program: Waste removal schedules vary based on the volume of waste produced by the business and can range from waste collection and disposal once a week to every day.
Image source: Jesse Costa/WBUR
Pest Control
Pest control is a mandatory requirement by local food safety regulatory authorities and includes prevention of pests from entering buildings, detecting and eliminating pests, and preventing food contamination.
Maintenance Program: Restaurants are required to implement a pest control program and maintain records and documents of pest control that are completed one to two times a month.
Image source: ultrapro pest protection
Whether you’re a restaurant industry veteran or you’re relatively new to restaurant operations, the term “restaurant repair and maintenance” seems to evoke feelings of dread, frustration, and saying goodbye to a big chunk of cash flow.
That’s understandable because none of the existing repair and maintenance solutions are designed to set restaurants up for success. Repair and maintenance management shouldn’t have to consume all your time and energy when you could be focusing on delivering the best customer experience.
You deserve a partner who understands your repair and maintenance needs and takes them off your plate like ResQ does for over 1,000 restaurants across North America.
ResQ can manage all your repair and maintenance needs from on-demand emergency repairs to scheduling recurring maintenance plans so you can get back to why you opened your restaurant in the first place.
Request a demo today and a ResQ Expert will show you what it’s like to never have to worry about repair and maintenance ever again!
Who’s ResQ?
ResQ is not just another maintenance management solution. We rebuilt the entire repair and maintenance experience by stepping into your shoes. We own your maintenance problems and get jobs done so you can focus on the guest experience.
We’re obsessed with elevating the repair and maintenance experience powered by technology, insights, and a team of ResQ Experts working for you in real-time. With ResQ, you’ll never worry about repair and maintenance again.