Kalamazoo water runs about 20 grains per gallon. Hobart’s recommended maximum for a dish machine is 3.5. The gap shows up as scale in the dish machine, cloudy ice, a scaled espresso boiler and a booster heater working too hard. We install commercial softeners on the full Clack valve line, sized to your flow, and commercial reverse osmosis for ice, coffee and steam, off-hours, by the owner, and then keep them running on a service plan.
Every one of these is a repair bill, a chemical bill or an energy bill before it is a water bill. Sources under each card.
Hobart recommends 3.5 grains per gallon or less and says anything above it needs a softener. Kalamazoo water runs about 20. On untreated water the heating element, wash arms and pump scale over; you see spotted glassware, more detergent and rinse aid, more deliming, and eventually a dead element on a Friday night.
Hobart Corporation, Protecting Your Commercial Dishwasher from Hard WaterScale on the evaporator slows every harvest and brings the service tech; dissolved solids make cloudy ice that melts fast. Softened feed water and the right filter at the machine keep the plates clean and the ice clear, and keep the machine inside its manufacturer’s water requirements.
Manufacturer water-quality requirements vary by model; we check yoursEspresso boilers scale faster than anything else in the building because they sit hot all day. The industry targets are about 1 to 6 grains of hardness and 40 to 80 ppm of alkalinity; too little mineral is as bad as too much. We hit that window with RO plus controlled remineralization or a measured blend.
Industry espresso water targets, Prima Coffee water treatment guideThe Battelle study for the Water Quality Research Foundation measured water-heating efficiency losses of up to 24% on hard water, and nozzles clogging within 18 months. A booster heater, steamer or combi oven on untreated water is on a descaling schedule for life.
Battelle Memorial Institute for WQRF, 2009The same Clack platform we service in homes across Southwest Michigan, in the sizes a commercial kitchen needs.
Clack WS1, WS1.25, WS1.5, WS2 and WS3 valves • Single or twin-alternating • Sized to peak flow and daily gallons
For ice machines, coffee and espresso, steamers and combi ovens • Storage and booster pump sized to peak draw
Priced per visit or per month after the site visit, in writing.
We already install and service commercial systems in the Kalamazoo area. Restaurants and bars first, because the water hits them hardest.
No. We install between close and open, or between services, and the water is off for hours, not days. The dish machine and ice machine run on treated water by the next shift.
Almost always because it was sized like a house: one tank, a household valve, and a regeneration that leaves you on hard water in the middle of service. A commercial system is sized to your peak gallons per minute and your daily gallons, and a twin-alternating system regenerates one tank while the other stays in service, so the kitchen never sees hard water.
The one your flow needs. Clack makes valves from 1 inch to 3 inches, roughly 28 to 250 gallons a minute of service flow; a 2-inch valve on a 3/4-inch kitchen is money wasted and a 1-inch valve on a 100-seat restaurant is a scaled dish machine. We measure before we quote.
Pure RO water is: it is flat and it corrodes boilers. Espresso equipment wants a window of about 1 to 6 grains of hardness and 40 to 80 ppm of alkalinity, which our water misses by a mile in the other direction. We hit the window with RO followed by controlled remineralization or a measured blend, and we test it.
Yes. Salt delivered and loaded on a schedule sized to your use, with a hardness check at the dish machine and a look at the system on every visit, as part of the service plan.
The same person who installed it. Service-plan customers get priority response, and we keep the parts for your system on the truck.
We test the water, count the equipment, measure the flow and put a recommendation and a price in writing. No charge for the visit.
Kalamazoo, Portage and Southwest Michigan. Evenings and overnights for installs.
