Household appliances used in commercial buildings and vice versa

[fan-of-fans]

I remember going into a small sandwich shop on our promenade circle and the cooking area behind the counter was all houshold appliances. It had two two basket fryers that looked kind of commercial but were household. I think the griddles were small commercial units, probably 120V. Over that were two household hoods. There were no fire nozzles.

I went to a wedding and graduation at a venue. Its kitchen had a BOL Hotpoint range in white/black with no clock or timer. There was a stainless household range hood above, but there were fire suppresion nozzles below it. There was a commercial double door Alto Shaam Halo Heat warming cabinet also.

I don't have any commercial appliances in my kitchen, but I would like a Vollrath countertop steam table for my steam pans. I also might like to have a small Alto Shaam Halo Heat warming cabinet if I had space under the counter for one.

 

[johnrk]

I Work With Commercial Appliances

at the parish where I belong. We in the Knights of Columbus do pancake breakfasts on several Sundays annually to benefit various organizations, and I'm the "egg man". That huge Wolf range is hot as hell because it doesn't have any insulation, or at least not enough. I can look down through the gas burners and see the oven burners below, where we cook the bacon. I'd sure never want it in my home. But I love the commercial fridge with the glass doors. I also love the commercial ice maker and the huge 2-basin sink with the step-on pedals like I used to use in hospital surgeries.

We have two educational wings at St. Michael's, and each has a small, residential type kitchen in a couple of large meeting rooms. We also have a smaller meeting room in the main hall in our family life center. They all have residential appliances. I really love one wing 'cause the appliances there must be at least 30 years old, and work beautifully because only the fridge gets used regularly. It has one of those cool old ranges, I think it's GE, with the surface unit and then the oven is at eye level, with cabinetry below. I know it works but again, it's seldom used. We did just replace the fridge in the hall meeting room. These do all have commercial Bunn coffeemakers.

In yet another building on campus, the Knights barbecue chickens monthly as a fund raiser, selling them after Masses. The machine used for that is enormous, holds a few dozen chickens on it, and looks rather like some huge rat-exercise cage. Makes damn good barbecue. We also do Lenten fish fries and for that, the catfish is fried in two commercial fry machines like you'd see in a restaurant. But again, this isn't for home use at all.

I've always loved going to diners or coffee shops where I could sit at the counter and watch the action. Harder to hide shady dealings in the kithen, too.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Hmm, I remember our Kmart Cafe, when it was open had all Wells countertop appliances behind the counter. A griddle, two fryers, a convection oven and two four slot toasters. The fryers were later supplemented by plastic Rival household fryers. I also like to watch them cook behind the counter at IHOP.

Never really cooked with any commercial equipment, other than last month at an airshow, that was limited to raising basket of fries out of the Pitco gas fryer and serving food off a countertop warmer. Was always fascinated by the equipment in school though, I'd stare and watch the fryers back in the kitchen while I was waiting in line. They had the auto lifts on the baskets, and I'd watch them go up and down. Plus I loved when they pulled the pans out of the steam table and the steam would wooosh out from the water.

No definitely wouldn't want those commercial gas ranges in my house. Just the heat from the pilot lights on top is enough. My Hotpoint electric is good enough for me.

 

[westingguelph]

O

The commercial kitchen I work in has a Garland six burner, two oven and flat top griddle. The heat produced from the gas burners is unreal. Much hotter I believe than anything you'd find in a domestic model. You have to really watch that the flame matches the pot size or "sting" of the flame comes up the side of the pot and can burn you badly. On the flip, we have a commercial Waring 240 volt 4 slice toaster that is slower than any 120 volt two slice toaster on the planet. Just the opposite of what you'd expect. We paid over $700 for this thing...what a rip off!

 

[polkanut]

A little off topic

In the movie 9 to 5, there's a scene in the breakroom where Lily Tomlin pours her boss (Dabney Coleman) a cup of coffee from a Norelco Dial-A-Brew coffeemaker.  You can see it at 1:00 in this clip.

http://https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwDMFOLIHxU

 

[gizmo]

commercial toasters

I worked for about 30 years for two restaurants, 15 years for one and just shy of 15 for the other. The second one when I started had a 4 slice commercial toaster that was just useless. It also cost several hundred dollars when purchased so the business owner was reluctant to replace it, but it was really slow, with very uneven browning. Much of the other equipment was domestic - two Chef* brand domestic gas stoves; two GEC rangehoods which were ineffective but stupidly noisy; a Kenwood Chef mixer; laminex benchtops and melamine covered chipboard shelving.

Later we renovated the whole kitchen, with LUUS brand gas stove, hotplate (=grill in USA) and fryer; custom made stainless steel benches, shelves and overhead canopy; big stainless steel dishwasher with a 2 minute cycle; a Breville mixer which was a Chinese "almost-copy" of a Kenwood Chef, much quieter but a weak design, I had to be careful making my carrot cakes, the mix tightened up when beating and if left too long, the Breville would strip a planetary gear and grind to a noisy halt. We eventually went back to the Kenwood Chef which had been a wedding gift for my employers in the 1970s, then mixed 2 or 3 cakes a day for 10 plus years in the cafe. We also got a Sunbeam 4 slice toaster, a "Cafe Series" which in reality was a domestic model styled to look like a commercial unit. It worked much better than a real commercial one, and cost way less.

* ironically, "Chef" is a very popular brand of domestic stoves in Australia, gas and electric. They were pretty good quality and used to be made in Melbourne, now they are part of the Electrolux group and nothing special any longer.

 

[circlew]

The church I belong to has community dinners every month except Dec., and I'm one of the main people running the kitchen.

Up until a couple years ago we had a Vulcan commercial range (electric), with 6 surface units, 2 ovens, griddle, and broiler. It was installed in '59. It was having some issues, and needed new surface units. The ovens also took forever to get up to the right temp. The church board decided to purchase 2 30" GE ranges with smooth tops as a replacement. They have a small warming oven directly below the cooktop, and the main oven below that. They also have touch controls. I would not want one of these, as the main oven is so close to the floor, and therefore difficult to place and remove heavy pans. Otherwise they are OK.

Other home type appliances include a Hamilton Beach coffee maker, and 3 electric roaster ovens (2 Westinghouse, 1 HB), Frigidaire refrigerator, off brand freezer, and microwave ovens.

Commercial equipment includes a SECO steam table, and West Bend and Regal Ware 100 cup coffee makers.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Dolly Parton video

Interesting, and I never knew that the jingle from the recent Winn-Dixie commercial was from a Dolly Parton song. Shows how little I know about country music.

http://https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5mhC4UjyfA

 

[firedome]

worked for 5 years...

as a restaurant and food facility inspector (Sanitarian) right out of college as a Bio major. In Maryland, at least, all equipment in any type of commercial food facility must be NSF approved, but churches and others such as smaller social halls and organizations were sometimes allowed to slip through the cracks, if small or infrequent food producers to the public, more or less at the discretion of the inspector and depending on the observable level of sanitation and food handling practices, when observable. However in general no residential cooking or food prep equipment was allowable in commercial kitchens. Not true in all states, though, in Vermont some kitchens I've casually observed - yikes!