The soda machine is an important component of any food service provider. They offer a quick, inexpensive way to expand the products available to your customers without requiring almost any additional work. However, many of these machines aren’t properly maintained. This makes them a health hazard and increases the risk that your equipment may fail long before you expected it to. Learning how to maintain a soda machine is quite straightforward.
Even the highest quality soda fountain equipment requires regular maintenance to run properly. This maintenance enables the machine to deliver the same quality product to every customer you serve. Put simply, maintaining your equipment protects your initial investment and ensures that customer satisfaction stays predictable. To help you do what is best for your business, here are easy steps to cleaning and maintaining your soda fountain equipment Los Angeles.
Cleaning your Machine
Cleaning the soda fountain should be a normal part of closing procedures. It ensures that the nozzles get cleaned daily, allowing your morning staff to start off fresh. It’s quick and easy. Here’s the daily cleaning routine.
Remove the nozzles from each dispenser.
Clean them thoroughly using warm, soapy water.
Let the nozzles soak in warm, soapy water.
While they are soaking, remove the spill tray and clean it out with warm, soapy water.
Rinse the spill tray and allow it air dry.
Remove the soaking nozzles, rinse them, and allow to air dry.
Don’t Forget to Let Your Soda Machine Dry
To ensure that all of this is done, many restaurants leave the nozzles to dry overnight. The morning staff then place the clean nozzles back onto the machine.
The weekly cleaning routine is a little more thorough, so you may want to save it for the middle of the week when business is slow. You should not try going through this routine while your restaurant is open. Here’s what is entailed.
- Wash the diffusers in warm water.
- Empty the ice chute.
- Take a clean sponge soaked in warm water and wipe out the ice chute.
By doing this process after closing on a quiet weekday, you give your staff the time to do it right. The ice chute will dry and re-fill overnight.
How to Maintain a Soda Machine
Regularly cleaning the nozzles, diffusers, and ice chute is an important part of maintenance because your machine is less likely to experience clogging. However, that doesn’t mean we get to ignore the inner-workings of the machine. The syrup lines are the most crucial part that you can maintain yourself by simply flushing them about once a month.
Some restaurants choose to flush a syrup line every time the syrup has to be replaced. This ensures that the lines are being flushed frequently, but not every business has the excess staff to make this possible. Experts suggest flushing all of the lines at least once a month, so you can work it into the schedule regularly.
This is how you flush a syrup line.
- Remove the syrup bags/boxes from the lines.
- Place the intake end of the line and place it in a bucket of cleaning solution.
- Secure the line in the cleaning solution if it is likely to fall out.
- Dispense the cleaning solution through the syrup line until it runs clear.
- Attach the intake end of the line to a bucket of clean, warm water.
- Flush for several seconds to rinse out the cleaning solution.
- Re-attach your syrups.
- Dispense liquid through the nozzles until the soda is flowing normally.
- Do a taste test to make sure the syrup is being effectively delivered through your clean line.
Your nozzles, spill tray, ice chute, and syrup lines are all relatively easy to maintain. If you find yourself struggling with more severe mechanical problems, then you should speak to the original manufacturer and have the problem diagnosed by a mechanic familiar with soda machines.
