A restaurant kitchen maintenance checklist covers repair and upkeep tasks to help keep restaurant tools and equipment working properly.
What is a Commercial Kitchen Maintenance Checklist?
A commercial kitchen maintenance checklist is a list of daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance tasks for the different equipment you use in your restaurant kitchen. It should be one part of the larger systems you have in place to keep your kitchen functioning efficiently and safely. It helps you and your employees keep your restaurant and kitchen in the best possible condition, prevent equipment problems, and identify issues before they worsen. The benefits of your restaurant kitchen maintenance extend beyond the equipment and help your restaurant run more smoothly overall.
Why Do You Need an Equipment Maintenance Checklist?
A kitchen equipment maintenance checklist can not only help you extend the life of your kitchen tools, but it can also help you keep food safe, prevent the chance of fires, and lower energy costs, among other benefits. Here’s how:
- Extend the life of kitchen tools: When your equipment isn’t properly cared for, you’re more likely to need to repair or replace your tools. Regular maintenance of your equipment will reduce the chances of unexpected breakdowns, failures, and the need for replacements because you will have prevented those issues completely or caught them early enough to prevent the damage from escalating.
- Save on repair costs: With commercial equipment, repairs and replacements can be very costly, so another perk of kitchen tools with longer lives and fewer breakdowns is saving money.
- Reduce service interruptions: Unexpected equipment repairs or time-consuming repairs can interrupt your service or force you to close your restaurant, hurting your customer experience and your bottom line. A kitchen equipment maintenance checklist can help prevent issues from occuring during service and having a negative impact on your business.
- Ensure food safety: Without commercial kitchen equipment maintenance, your equipment can contaminate your food. By ensuring regular maintenance, you’re also maintaining a healthy and safe kitchen for your employees to use and for your customers to enjoy food from.
- Prevent fires and emergencies: Kitchen equipment that isn’t properly maintained can become unsafe for employees to use or cause other safety issues, like fire hazards or poor air circulation. Restaurant kitchen maintenance will help you avoid such emergencies and keep your restaurant safe for employees and customers alike.
- Lower energy costs: When kitchen tools aren’t working correctly, they can lead to other issues like leaks and overuse that drive up your utility bills. You can avoid these extra costs by regularly checking your equipment’s performance and condition.
Besides the basics, there are many additional, long-term gains from using a checklist for commercial kitchen equipment maintenance. If you’re not sure where to start, we’ll help you learn what to include in your checklist. You can also start with our downloadable kitchen equipment preventive maintenance checklist template and tweak the list to fit your specific kitchen needs.
What to Include In Your Checklist
A checklist for commercial kitchen maintenance includes all the tools you use, the specific maintenance tasks for each tool, how often you need to complete those tasks, and, of course, date checkboxes so everyone using the list will know when a task was last completed.
Equipment You Use
Equipment you use frequently, such as ranges, ovens, griddles, and fryers, will be on your checklist. When they need repairs, being unable to use those tools will have large scale consequences on your restaurant. Maintaining them properly will save you money and allow your kitchen to operate efficiently.
The equipment you use to store your food, like refrigerators and freezers, should also be on your checklist. Ensuring they’re clean, running smoothly, and are set at the correct temperatures is important to preserve your ingredients and prevent loss of food and money.
The equipment you use to clean your dishes, such as dishwashers and sinks, is another important part of your checklist. Maintaining these tools will not only help you keep your kitchen clean and sanitary, but also ensure it runs efficiently and safely.
Below are more examples of equipment you’ll want to include in your maintenance checklist.
- Ranges and ovens
- Griddles and fryers
- Ice machine
- Stand mixer
- Soda dispenser
- General maintenance
Frequency of Tasks
Not all maintenance tasks need to be done on the same cadence. Below are some examples of daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance tasks for your kitchen equipment.
Daily Cleaning and Maintenance Tasks:
- Ranges and ovens: Ensure gas valves turn easily.
- Griddles and fryers: Extract and clean oil from dirty grease cups.
- Refrigerators and freezers: Ensure hinges are lubricated.
Weekly Cleaning and Maintenance Tasks
- Ranges and ovens: Inspect ducts for grease and clean them.
- Refrigerators and freezers: Clean condenser (warm air) and evaporator coils (cold air).
- Dishwasher: Check for water and chemical leaks.
- General Maintenance: Ensure combustion fan motors are working properly.
Monthly Cleaning and Maintenance Tasks
- Ranges and ovens: Check grease drawer for leaks and clean it.
- Refrigerators and freezers: Inspect evaporator coils for ice build-up.
- Griddles and fryers: Inspect refrigerant level.
- Dishwasher: Inspect gaskets for debris build-up and clean them.
For a fuller list of tasks per equipment type, download our Commercial Kitchen Maintenance Checklist. Also, keep in mind that it isn’t just the tasks on a checklist that will keep your tools in tip-top shape – below we have some tips to help you with general equipment maintenance.
Tips for Maintaining Commercial Kitchen Equipment
On top of having a checklist for maintaining your restaurant kitchen, here are some other ways to help you and your team extend the life of your equipment.
- Train your team on the correct way to handle and maintain your different equipment to reduce the chances of damage from mishandling. Also, ensure they know about the maintenance checklist, any maintenance systems you have already performed, and where proper kitchen cleaning supplies are.
- Follow any specific instructions that your equipment manufacturer has provided and call a professional when issues arise.
- Keep records of all maintenance checks so you can identify recurring maintenance issues more quickly and (hopefully) before they become more expensive problems.
- Use high-quality equipment where you’re able to, especially for things that you use regularly, to avoid having to replace them more often.
- Keep up to date on local and national regulations and standards so your restaurant kitchen will always be in compliance.
- Stay up to date with your equipment warranties so that if issues do crop up, you can save money on getting things fixed if the warranty hasn’t expired yet.
- Replace broken parts quickly to avoid tools incurring further damage or slowing down your kitchen, which will also negatively affect service.
Use these tips and a checklist for kitchen equipment maintenance to help prevent any injuries, reduce the chances of costly last-minute repairs, and even avoid unexpected restaurant closures. You’ll also gain peace of mind when you use an equipment maintenance checklist because you’ll know that your kitchen is running efficiently and safely.
Best of all, the kitchen equipment preventive maintenance checklist template comes in a PDF format so you can easily print your daily, weekly, and monthly task lists to use at any time. Remember that each kitchen is different, so only use this restaurant equipment maintenance checklist as a general guideline.
