It is important to the College that any new build is as environmentally friendly as possible, with this remit extending to the new kitchen and dining areas. Here, the idea was to incorporate innovative, energy saving, sustainable technologies, so it was no surprise that Meiko, the pioneering manufacturer of green warewashing equipment, was the preferred candidate when it came to specifying the new dishwasher.
Paul Neville, sales director of CHR Foodservice Equipment in Preston, Lancashire and project manager for the design and installation of the catering facilities explains why Meiko was the obvious choice, bearing in mind the College’s environmental stance alongside more practical considerations of lowering running costs, achieving top efficiency and cleaning, and reliable after sales service and training. “CHR has dealt with Meiko for 14 years, ever since we started up in business.
It is a good quality product, and a good quality company. We like them because they are easy to deal with. If there is a problem all we have to do is pick up the phone and Meiko will resolve it quickly and with no fuss or bother.
“Fourteen years ago we were first asked to design and install the ‘Colours’ fine dining restaurant at St Helens College as well as providing training kitchens and a bakery. We put two Meiko dishwashing machines in and they were perfect for the job at the time. They were reliable and efficient and everybody was pleased with them. Now, the brand new building in Phase I has a 250 seat Food Hall and a 125 cover, fine dining restaurant. We needed a dishwasher to cope with that throughput.
“We decided on the Meiko K200VPi rack transport fitted with an energy saving waste air heat recovery condenser and incorporating the unique environmentally beneficial CSS Top chemical saving system. The machine is sited between the two dining areas in the central production kitchen, and when you think that the Colours restaurant is serving maybe 4-5 courses a sitting while the Food Hall is still open, that’s a load of stuff going on at the same time,” says Neville.
Energy saving
Excess steam and vapours from the wash and rinse cycle are directed via an enclosed channel on the top of the machine to the waste air heat recovery condenser where the heat produced from the vapour condensation process is used to preheat the incoming cold water used in the final rinse cycle to around 43ºCelsius. This is free energy.
In addition to the approximate 14kW/hr of heat quantity saving that the unit generates, humidity within the remaining waste air being extracted to atmosphere is greatly reduced ensuring a more pleasant environment for the wash-up staff.
The highly innovative CSS Top chemical saving system is proven to save up to a whopping 80% on detergent consumption, and with the Meiko Low Energy Management (LEM) system now incorporated as a standard on all K-Tronic rack transport machines, operators can expect to slash costs dramatically by reducing overall energy, water and chemicals consumption costs.
“We have also installed a further Meiko ECO 530 under counter glass washer in the bar area,” says Neville. “In fact, when complete both Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the project will have Meiko dish and glass washers throughout.
“Meiko after sales is excellent and so is staff training. Meiko is good value for money all round,” says Neville – and that praise really means something coming from CHR, the company that won the coveted Outstanding Customer Service Award at the Catering Equipment Distributors Association Grand Prix Awards 2009.
