As we start preparing for Autumn & Winter service in the commercial catering industry, it’s essential to make time for a maintenance review. High temperatures (both inside and outside the kitchen), and heavy seasonal workloads can put immense strain on equipment. For catering professionals, taking time to carry out an end-of-summer maintenance check isn’t just beneficial for kitchen cleanliness – it also boosts operational safety, efficiency, and product lifespan, too!
We serve a range of clients, from five-star establishments to garden centre cafes and everything in between. Our team of engineers work closely with our clients to ensure optimal performance. So, we’d like to share our key end-of-season maintenance tasks with you. Not sure where to start, or need a professional hand? Get in touch with our team via our Contact Us page for a no-obligation chat.
In preparation for increased demand in the upcoming the Autumn/Winter period, the following maintenance checks ensure hygiene standards are maintained after the summer heat, preventing equipment breakdowns in peak seasons.
Refrigeration Equipment:
✅ Cold rooms/walk-ins: Check door seals, expansion valves, and defrost controls.
Why now? Summer heat puts strain on refrigeration, causing door seals and condensers to degrade faster. Checking now ensures reliable storage heading into the cooler months with potentially higher stock turnover.
✅ Ice machines: Check for scale build-up, clean condensers/filters, test pumps, and check the hot gas valve.
Why now? For obvious reasons, ice is in high demand over the summer months, resulting in heavy machine usage. Scheduling an end-of-summer maintenance check prevents breakdowns and hygiene issues through scale or bacteria build ups.
✅ Refrigerated cabinets/counters: Clean the condensers, check defrost controls, wiring and temperature stability.
Why now? The summer heat causes machines to work harder: condenser cleaning prevents any losses in efficiency ahead of the winter.
Warewash Equipment:
✅ Rack/flight dishwashers & front-loaders: Descale, check rinse arms, valves and heating elements.
Why now? The events, tourism and higher turnover of the summer months puts a lot of stress on these machines. End-of-summer servicing ensures efficiency and helps to identify any small issues before they become big ones!
✅ Water softeners: Check regeneration, brine tanks, and water hardness.
Why now? Limescale build up worsens with higher summer usage and warm water; essential to descale before winter to extend machine lifespan.
Gas & Electric Cooking Equipment:
✅ Combi/Steam Ovens (gas & electric): Clean the burner jets, check thermostats, descale float chambers, check door seals.
Why now? Summer menus often involve lighter cooking, so ovens may not be stress-tested. Before the heavier cooking that comes with winter, plan these checks in to safeguard reliability.
✅ Fryers (gas & electric): Check thermocouples, flame failure devices, wiring, and thermostat operation.
Why now? Oils degrade faster in hot kitchens during summer, risking contamination and equipment strain. Servicing ensures safety for upcoming heavier use.
✅ Grills, griddles & ovens: Clean the burners/elements, check thermostats, door seals, gas pressure and ventilation.
Why now? Carbon deposits and grease build up faster in summer kitchens with ventilation struggles. Cleaning now prevents autumn/winter fire hazards.
Miscellaneous Equipment:
✅ Mixers, peelers, veg prep units, slicers etc: Check bearings, lubricate, test seals and sharpen blades.
Bonus List:
These items are lower priority, so if you have the resources to add them into your end-of-summer maintenance checks then we recommend you do so. Otherwise, they can wait for your winter/spring checks (unless issues have already been flagged).
✅ Heated cupboard, bain-maries, heated trolleys, and beverage boilers: these are used less in summer, but frequently in winter. It’s beneficial to give them a once over ahead of their peak season.
✅ Waste disposals: this one isn’t necessarily seasonal, but regular maintenance checks are advised.
Planned preventative maintenance can extend the lifespan of your kitchen equipment and reduce downtime, paying dividends in the long run. Plus, it has the added bonus of keeping the kitchen team happy – because who wants to work in a poorly maintained kitchen?
If you don’t have the time or resource to complete this checklist, don’t worry! At Gratte Brothers | Foodservice Solutions, we offer comprehensive kitchen maintenance services, underpinned by our fantastic team who have a reputation for going above and beyond for our customers. Get in touch to see how we can help, or check out our case study for Wembley Stadium to see how we help to keep their kitchens running.