How To Clean and Maintain Serving Counters

After months of planning and preparation for a busy install day, your new serving area is finally complete and ready for action. Now’s the time to get a handle on training, cleaning and maintenance. From stocking the proper supplies to tracking warranties, here’s how to make sure your new serving area is looking its best long past opening day.

Training Staff To Use Serving Counter Equipment

Before opening day, you’ll want to set aside dedicated time to acquaint your staff with your serving area’s new layout and equipment. After a job is completed by Houston-based serving counter manufacturer Mod-U-Serve, a representative schedules a demo session with staff. “They would talk first about how to utilize the equipment, turning it off and on and explaining the controls, whether they’re infinite controls or rocker switches,” says Colby McKinney, director of engineering and business development for Mod-U-Serve. “They’ll show you how to properly utilize drain valves and fill equipment like hot wells with the proper amount of water.”

Cleaning Serving Counters and Food Shields

If your new serving area features stone countertops or tray slides, be sure to follow the manufacturer’s guidelines based on the stone type. Using the wrong type of cleaner could cause surface damage; for example, ammonia-based cleaners can break down the resin binders used in quartz countertops. “Our stone is 100% quartz that is fully sealed, so they won’t stain,” McKinney says. “The best thing to use on it is Dawn soap and some water—it usually takes everything off.”

Glass food shields are best wiped clean with a standard glass cleaner, while an over-the-counter stainless cleaner can be used on all steel counters with a soft cloth.

Caring For Refrigeration Coils and Hot Wells

One of the more important maintenance tasks includes cleaning refrigeration coils. “Have a set routine where every couple of months you clean that coil to make sure the system is operating properly,” McKinney says. Mod-U-Serve recently started putting a magnetic, washable prefilter standard on all its coils. Now the messy job of cleaning the coil doesn’t have to be completed by a member of the maintenance team. It’s as simple as removing the filter, washing it in the dish sink, then reinstalling it which can be done by anyone on the team.

It’s as simple as removing the filter, washing it in the dish sink, then reinstalling it which can be done by anyone on the team.

Hot wells also require some extra attention, as they may naturally develop hard water stains over time depending on the conditions of your water supply. “We recommend putting a tablespoon of vinegar in each well with the water for cleaning. We really don’t advise much more than that,” McKinney says. “Oftentimes, staff will resort to using caustic cleaners or abrasive tools like a scour pad, and though those may work, they will fatigue the metal and when you do it again and again for a year or two, it ends up ruining your equipment. You just want to use vinegar and some elbow grease.”

If you’ve chosen waterless hot wells, make it a best practice to clean up spills promptly. “If you accidentally drop any food or spill anything into the dry well while it’s hot without a pan in it, it scorches to the bottom pretty quickly,” McKinney says. “If you don’t get it cleaned up fast, you are going to deal with a mess later that’s cooked on there.”

Tracking Serving Counter Maintenance and Warranties

Staying on top of required maintenance as well as warranties is the best way to ensure your serving area stays looking and working like new for as long as possible. To track maintenance and repair schedules as well as warranty lengths, choose a method that fits your organizational style best—whether that be an old-school notebook, a cloud-based digital spreadsheet or management software—and make sure key staff have access to your chosen method. Be sure to make note of pertinent warranty hotlines and, in the case of online portals, the necessary logins and passwords. “When our customers have a warranty request, they contact us directly,” McKinney says. “We have a sticker on every one of our counters that’s like its nameplate, and typically all we need is a picture of it and we can get someone out there immediately.”

Note: This article marks part three of a three-part series on how to remodel a serving area. For part one, see “How To Specify Serving Counters” and for part two, click “Preparing To Install Serving Counters.” To learn more about Mod-U-Serve, click here.

What To Look For When Specifying Serving Counters

Consider maintenance requirements when selecting serving counters, not just after installation. Features that improve access, simplify routine cleaning and support repairs ease maintenance over the equipment’s working life. Maintenance-related features to look for include the following:

• Quick access to components. Service techs should be able to easily remove panels to get inside the counters and fix a leak or work on a refrigerator, for example.
• User-friendly filters on coils. Mod-U-Serve adds a magnetic, washable prefilter on refrigeration coils that employees can remove and wash in the sink. They help reduce labor.
• Durable gaskets. Look for a high-end gasket material around drop-in well flanges versus silicone beads, which quickly fall apart.