It pays to hire a qualified service technician. Take it from Dee Holt, service manager, and Bob Clipperton, certified master technician, at the Goodwin Tucker Group, Des Moines, Iowa. Holt recently took a call from the owner of a Mexican restaurant who had a broken down walk-in cooler. The owner said that someone from a…
At one university, the rubberized band-style belt on a soiled tray conveyor system was mysteriously snapping every couple nights. Techs from American Kitchen Machinery & Repair, Philadelphia, repeatedly mended the belt and replaced worn parts. But the emergency calls kept coming. “The operator would call us angry because we had just fixed the belt the…
“It’s making a funny noise.” That was how the maintenance head at the 500-bed Youngstown, Ohio, hospital described the sounds coming from the facility’s new pulper, installed only a month prior. The service technician who called for the repair found the sounds anything but funny. “It was more of a grinding, crunching, metallic sound,” says…
A service call came in about the margarita machine at a Mexican family-dining restaurant about three hours away from Refrigerated Specialist Inc., located in Mesquite, Texas. RSI had leased the machine to the restaurant owners about 10 months earlier. “They told us the machine had been making a squealing noise when it was running, and…
The weekend before February’s Super Bowl, Consolidated Appliance Services in Mount Vernon, N.Y., was fielding incoming calls from pizza-shop owners looking to ensure their gas ovens were operating at peak performance. “They couldn’t afford to have anything break down that weekend,” says Johnita Anthony, chief operating officer. While these proactive operators understand the importance of…
The igniters on ovens at a restaurant chain specializing in roasted chicken kept failing. One particular location called the service company four times in one month about the problem, but other nearby chain locations were experiencing igniter failure as well. “Since several igniters had failed, we contacted the manufacturer for new ones. We wondered if…
FER’s Young Lion Awards recognize individuals 40 or younger who already have made a meaningful impact on the foodservice equipment and supplies industry.