Restaurant Equipment Maintenance Checklist

Run baffle filters through the dish machine on a degrease cycle, or soak overnight in hot caustic if buildup is heavy. NFPA 96 requires the exhaust system itself be cleaned by a certified vendor on a quarterly to annual cadence depending on cooking volume — log the last vendor service date so you know when the next one is due.

Set the oven to 350°F, let it cycle for 20 minutes, and verify with a calibrated thermocouple at rack center. Drift over 25°F means the thermostat or sensor needs a tech — pizza ovens and convection units especially. Record the actual reading so you can trend the drift across months.

Drain oil to a shuttle, boil out with fryer cleaner per manufacturer dilution, scrub the wells, and rinse to neutral pH. Inspect the heating elements and high-limit switch — a tripped high-limit is the most common reason a fryer won't recover.

Walk-in cooler must hold at or below 41°F; freezers at or below 0°F. Take readings with a calibrated thermometer at the warmest spot (usually near the door) — not just the dial. Any unit running warm is a TCS food risk and a health-department citation waiting to happen.

Pull the kickplate, vacuum lint and grease off the condenser fins, and brush down the evaporator fan blades. Dirty coils are the #1 cause of compressor burnout — a $40 cleaning prevents a $4,000 repair.

Call the refrigeration vendor before the next service. While you wait, move TCS product to a unit that is in spec and document the transfer time on the cooling/holding log so you can defend the chain of custody if there's a complaint.

Use MERV 8 minimum for dining-room RTUs; kitchen makeup-air units take their own filters. Date and initial each filter so the next person knows when they were changed — quarterly is a reasonable cadence for most dining rooms.

Compare each thermostat reading against a handheld at table height. Bar areas, window-line tables, and the host stand all run differently from the thermostat location — adjust setpoints by zone if needed.

Run a descaler cycle (Cafiza for espresso group heads, Urnex for drip brewers), then backflush the group with a blind filter. Hard-water lines need this monthly; softened-water setups can stretch to quarterly.

Pull the curtain, run the manufacturer's clean cycle (Manitowoc, Hoshizaki, and Scotsman each have specific sequences), then sanitize the bin with a no-rinse food-contact sanitizer. Pink slime in the bin is biofilm — a health-inspection finding and a guest-complaint generator.

Disassemble valves, soak nozzles and diffusers in warm water (no soap — it changes the taste), and brush. Check BIB connectors for syrup leaks underneath. Brix-test each flavor against the spec card if guests have flagged drinks tasting off.

Run a delime cycle with Ecolab Lime-A-Way or equivalent, then clear the wash and rinse arms of debris. Scale buildup on the rinse jets is what drops the final-rinse temperature below 180°F and fails sanitization.

High-temp machines: 180°F final rinse at the manifold (160°F at the dish surface) per FDA Food Code. Chemical-sanitizer machines: 50–100 ppm chlorine or 200 ppm quat at the rack. Use a thermolabel or test strip — the gauge on the machine is not enough for an inspector.

Tag the machine out of service and switch to the three-bay sink with quat or bleach until repaired. Document the variance time on the sanitation log so you can show inspectors the gap was covered.

Record this month's readings, parts replaced, and any open service tickets per asset (model and serial number). Operators on R365 or MarginEdge can log against the asset record; paper logs work too as long as they live where the next manager can find them.

Use the pre-shift to walk one piece of equipment with the line — how to break it down, what not to spray water into (control panels, gas valves), and how to flag a fault. Most equipment damage is a training problem.