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Do you know the biggest threat to commercial dishwashers? (Hint: it’s in the title.) Yes, hard water! Why is this such a problem? The simple answer is that hard water affects how well the cleaning machines do their job. It can cause issues that lead to dirty dishes and increased operating costs. Hard water is particularly common in the US Southwest, Mountain West, and Midwest and especially in areas using well water. It impacts a wide range of end-uses, but few examples are as problematic as the commercial dishwasher. These high-volume applications typically require hundreds of washing cycles daily. If the machines stop working unexpectedly, the entire operation could grind to a halt. In this post, we’ll look at what causes hard water and a few proven ways to deal with it.

What Creates Hard Water?

Remember learning about groundwater in earth science? If so, you might recall that it contains natural dissolved minerals such as calcium and magnesium. After water arrives to its destination and heats up, the minerals become less soluble and precipitate out. They then build up and form scale on critical machine components. These include spray arms, pumps, and internal surfaces. Scale accumulation leads to many problems, which include:

• Reduced Heat Transfer – scale acts as an insulator between the heating element and the water. This means the heater must work harder to reach or maintain proper sanitization temperatures.
• Restricted Water Flow – scale can easily build up inside pipes, nozzles, and valves. This reduces the diameters of their openings, which restricts water flow. Less water keeps the washer from properly cleaning. Oftentimes, dishes and glasses will have spots on them among other unwanted results.
• Component Failure – scale makes everything work harder, which increases wear and tear on the components, eventually leading to component failure.

Besides scale, these minerals create other problems. When dishwater evaporates, the dissolved minerals can leave a white, cloudy residue on the glasses, dishes, and flatware. Hard water can also indirectly lead to corrosion over time. This is due to the minerals themselves being corrosive, or to moisture getting trapped by scale, promoting oxidation.

Commercial Kitchen Booster Heaters

Booster heaters, such as our Expediter J models, are an excellent way to combat scale issues. They provide many benefits including:

• Flash Drying – boosters heat water to high temperatures (180°-195° F) enabling rapid flash drying. This prevents the heavy mineral water from sitting on surfaces and eventually evaporating into hard scale deposits.
• Continuous Flow - with a booster system, water does not sit in a storage tank where minerals can settle and form deposits. Instead, they supply water when needed. This significantly reduces contact time and the potential for scale buildup.
• Improved Water Solubility - higher temperatures allow for water to dissolve and wash away minerals before they can collect inside the washer and form scale.
• Better Detergent Activation – commercial detergents need to achieve high temperatures for optimal performance. If the water remains too cold, spots and film will form on glassware, dishes, and silverware.
• Grease Removal- in this case, grease is our friend! Melted grease, produced by the booster heater’s higher water temperatures, acts as a lubricant that discourages minerals from sticking to the dishwasher’s surfaces.
• Water Treatment Systems – options for booster heaters include softening solutions, such as our HBW-Clear. These systems feed a blend of scale control compounds into the water before it enters the heating system. They are a very effective method of scale reduction.

Conclusion

Hard water remains a challenge for commercial dishwasher applications. With the help of booster heaters, you can achieve clean dishes, glasses and flatware, with minimal downtime. By tackling hard water issues before they become bigger problems, you will reduce maintenance costs and extend the life of your commercial dishwasher.