30 year old Winterhalter still going strong

Hotel Dunloe Castle’s Winterhalter dishwasher should have a long service record

There’s a lot of talk now of reducing carbon footprints and one way of doing that in the hospitality industry is to make equipment that lasts longer. This not only saves in raw materials, it saves in manufacturing energy, energy use for transportation and is far more economic all round.

Winterhalter has always boasted that its dishwashers are built to last and the one installed in The Hotel Dunloe Castle has certainly stood testament to time. For thirty years the Winterhalter machine, has been washing dishes in the main kitchen of the hotel day in, day out. So what are the secrets of its longevity?

“Its electrics are uncomplicated and mechanically it’s the most trouble-free dishwasher we’ve had,” says Mike Foley, Facilities Manager of the Killarney Hotels chain. And Mike should know – he’s responsible for all three hotels in the chain. But he can’t rival the Winterhalter in length of service – he’s only been there for twenty years himself!

“Regular maintenance is the key to prolonging the life of any machine,” Mike explains. “I believe in preventative maintenance not re-active maintenance.”

Certainly his policy seems to have paid off with the Winterhalter. “It’s always been very effective,” he says. “There’s been no instance where it’s failed to supply even at the busiest times.”

And it’s not as if it hasn’t been put through its paces over the years. The Hotel Dunloe Castle is a 120 bedroom hotel and every day for the past 30 years the Winterhalter machine has been running from 9 to 11.30 in the mornings, 6.30 to 9.30 in the evenings and for an hour in the afternoon– that’s over 71,000 hours in total!

Every winter it has a full service overhaul with inspection of all critical parts and repair where necessary. The part most often replaced has been the wash tank element but now Winterhalter has totally redesigned the heating element on its new machines to eliminate this problem. These use the innovative WIHTec (Winterhalter Indirect Heating Technology) in which the walls of the wash tank itself are flat-panel heating elements that prevent troublesome limescale build-up and increase efficiency.

After all these years there are now some signs of wear on the conveyor system of the dishwasher Mike admits, but for a machine of that age and after all that hard work you’d expect it to show a bit of fatigue – even if it’s a Winterhalter!

Winterhalter provides a total solution for warewashing, from pre-sales advice to after-sales service, training and maintenance. Alongside its market-leading dish and glasswashers, the company’s range includes utensil washers, advanced water treatment machines, cleaning chemicals and detergents. For further details, call Winterhalter on 01908 359000, see www.winterhalter.com/uk-en/ , or email info@winterhalter.co.uk.