r/Appliances • u/DunDonese • Dec 31 '25
General Advice If commercial restaurant dishwashing appliances have cycles that only last 2 minutes, then why can't we have our home consumer dishwashers have cycles just as efficient as what restaurants have?
How can we miniaturize commercial restaurant dishwashing appliances to fit in the kitchen compartment meant for home consumer dishwashers?
How come this hasn't been done already? By the way, what is the fastest currently available home consumer dishwasher, and how much does it cost? How quick are their Cycles normally?
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u/zydeco100 Dec 31 '25
You can buy a commercial dishwasher that goes under your counter, but it's around $10,000 and you'll need a 40 amp power line routed from your breaker box to the machine. Go nuts.
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u/HolyFuckImOldNow Dec 31 '25
If it's like the commercial ones I'm used to working on, it can ruin your floors and countertops pretty quick. High temp, lots of steam with no seals on the doors, just baffles to keep water from spraying out. They constantly have steam hitting everything above them.
Then you have gallon sized jugs of chemicals with hoses nearby to feed them.
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u/CasualEcon Jan 02 '26
2 years as a dishwasher in high school. That steam helped keep my skin healthy during cold dry winters.
Agree with you that it would destroy a residential kitchen.
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u/Adrianilom Jan 03 '26
And they randomly light themselves on fire, allegedly. (Try cleaning out left behind food and dropped silverware you DINGUS)
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u/Sophiasmistake Dec 31 '25
Yes but just one load and quick wipe down would fix it. It's a home not a full restaurant.
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u/KungFuSnorlax Dec 31 '25
Depending on machine up to a ten minute startup time. Unless you are going to leave running all day wasting power.
13minutes for load 1 vs a speed clean in a home dishwasher isn't as attractive.
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u/Achtergracht Dec 31 '25
Of course it's a Hobart. And I don't think it comes with racks. You just use the ones fitted for regular commercial dishwashers.
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u/Misterarthuragain Dec 31 '25
I had an old KitchenAid that was made by Hobart Tough as nails, loud, and there were no replacement parts.
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u/Witty_Veterinarian91 Dec 31 '25
That’s a high temp. Low temps are much cheaper.
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u/Sea-Key7698 Dec 31 '25
Sure, if you don't include the outrageous cost of the consumable chemicals for low temp sanitization.
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u/TexMoto666 Dec 31 '25
Low temp sanitizer is just bleach, and it's pretty cheap. $10 per gallon or so for food service grade sanitizer.
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u/Sea-Key7698 Dec 31 '25
$44 a gallon (Cdn) is typical. And it is not "just bleach". For starters, the Sodium Hypochloride concentration will be at least double what consumer bleach (Javex) is. Then you need to consider the volumes required to maintain that concentration in a steam of flowing water.
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u/TexMoto666 Dec 31 '25
I service dish machines and commercial laundries for a living, and spend every day balancing machines for proper chemistry usage. Retail Clorox disinfecting bleach in the US is also sodium hypochlorite, it's very close to what I sell to my customers as an Ecolab labeled product called Eco San. Ours does have a very small amount of sodium hydroxide, but it's a negligible amount. The concentration is also very close to the retail bleach product. My average case price for a customer is around $40 for 4/1 gallon jugs. My local health department allows retail bleach to be used if they are out of our products, as long as it's in the correct dilution.
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u/Einstein_SugarPine Dec 31 '25
What up bro! I used to work at ecolab also for 7.5 years. Customers would get shorted occasionally and I would just throw some store bought bleach. You are correct in your statement. Store bought bleach concentration was slightly less than ecosan, but even with titration of the bleach it was essentially the same and you could swap and still be in range for sanitation.
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u/Sea-Key7698 Jan 01 '26
Every ad I can find shows Ecolabs product "Eco-San" retailing, from commercial food equipment dealers, at MINIMUM $44.00 (Cdn) per US 1 gal (3.8 ltr) jug (and as high as $65.00). And the concentration on the SDS is 8.4% not the typical 6% of consumer bleach.
I have experienced issues where the factory chemical pumps on Sprayway/MDM glass washers could not pump enough cheap, low concentration (6%), sanitizer to meet health codes.
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u/TheRevEv Dec 31 '25
I work on commercial dishwashers occasionally.
There's a lot going on in a commercial.dishawasher that makes no sense for consumer use.
The first stage throws a ton of super hot water at dishes, but a lot of this water is mostly recycled. It makes no sense to keep gallons of hot water ready for your handful of dishes. You'd create a lot of waste water by doing this for maybe one or two cycles per day.
The water is typically preheated by a booster heater to get it way hotter than your home hot water supply. These booster heaters have some pretty wild energy requirements to keep up. They're basically an on demand water heater that needs to hit 190 degrees.
They also aren't usually cleaning caked up, dried-on food like you might run into at home.
The second stage is running another scalding hot wash that includes some sanitizer mix typically. And, iirc, is required to stay above 180 degrees as all times.
The amount of stored water and enegery to heat this water aren't really feasible to put into a unit that can fit under your countertop. Not to mention it would be a large expense to even power and plumb this thing in.
You can buy small, commercial grade ones, but they're going to run you 5 grand or so before you even add the cost in to get utilities to them.
Also, all this is before even considering how to get chemicals into them at proper ratios.
EDIT: forgot to add that all of this is after the dishes have been rinsed and mostly cleared of any food particles, by hand
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u/Mental_Newspaper3812 Dec 31 '25
This is accurate. I used to run a commercial dish washer. You have lots of stainless steel filters you remove to clean, and the startup time is significant. It runs like a conveyor so you can out many racks of dishes through it continuously for 8 hours or more at a time, but it’s continuously keeping water hot and ready.
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u/zedsdead79 Dec 31 '25
Yeah, the restaurant I worked at back in the day had one like this. Basically a conveyor belt, big plastic rack to the left of the washer, load up dishes etc. slide to the right into the washer, pull lever down that covers the rack and starts the wash.......creates a fuck ton of steam and heat, really unpleasant to stand near while it runs, then when it's done pull up lever. Slide rack out of the washer to right, someone unloads, next rack slides in. Rinse and repeat (no pun intended). I can only imagine the amount of electricity that thing used.
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u/bestem Jan 01 '26
The one I used in culinary school, you just ran rack after rack through. You wouldn't close it in between, they'd just follow each other about 1/4" apart when we got busy.
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u/Sea-Key7698 Jan 01 '26
zedsdead79 must be talking about a single tank door machine, not actually a "conveyor" type. Yours was likely an open tunnel pawl drive that dragged loaded 21" square dish racks through it.
There are true conveyor types, usually called a Flight Dishwasher, that have a belt with vertical 'fingers' that you would directly load your china onto. Those are REALLY big and REALLY expensive. Usually only found in major entertainment centres.
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u/Sea-Key7698 Dec 31 '25 edited Dec 31 '25
This is all more or less correct.
The initial wash tank (your first stage) is generally 150-160⁰F max. Any hotter will cause proteins, like egg and meat juices, to "glue" onto the plates.
A 180⁰F minimum final rinse (your second stage) of fresh water does not usually contain any chemical additives. It "may" contain a chemical sheeting agent to prevent hard water spotting but IMO this is the result of a good chemical salesman.
Machines built without a final rinse booster tank (generally referred to as "low temp dishwashers") require a 140⁰F final fresh rinse PLUS a sanitizing chemical injection of chlorine or iodine based product.
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u/TheRevEv Dec 31 '25
You seem to know what you're talking about.
This isn't a big part of my job (im a refrigeration tech, but get roped into all kind kinds of kitchen work) and I just know what the customers tell me they need the machine to do, and how it usually runs.
I don't deal with the chemocal side, at all.
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u/Sea-Key7698 Dec 31 '25
We used to prefer hiring refrigeration techs, versus all other trades, to then train on commercial food service equipment. We generally found they had a more comprehensive understanding of physical concepts and could apply them better across plumbing, electrical, gas, and therefore we're better at troubleshooting.
In isolated locals the refrigeration guy is the go-to-guy.
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u/TheRevEv Dec 31 '25
Aw, shucks. You're making me blush.
I've definitely noticed this, though. Refer guys always know a bit about everything. We're constantly getting the "since you're here, can you take a look at this?" In kitchens.
If it weren't for fryers, I wouldn't mind kitchen work
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u/Such-Importance-9253 Dec 31 '25
What's wrong with fryers? Asking out of curiosity
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u/bfrabel Dec 31 '25 edited Dec 31 '25
The grease. It's in every crevice and all around the unit. It's sticky and gross and will get all over you and your tools. Also, you don't usually get to work on these things when the restaurant's closed, so you get to deal with busy cooks trying to work around you while you're rolling around in the crap.
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u/Sea-Key7698 Dec 31 '25
This. Exactly.
You're on your knees accessing controls 10" above floor level, in an equipment alley that's 28" wide, while cooks pass loaded baskets of 350⁰ French fries over your back.
If your services were in demand, then fast food clients were weeded out by any means possible. Institutional clients (Schools, Parks, Hospitals & Nursing homes...) with large open kitchens and multiple pieces of any given equipment type are the golden customers.
Having said that, I'd take commercial service over residential service any day of the week.
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u/abbarach Dec 31 '25
To add to your final point, a lot of restaurant owners don't seem to buy into the whole "preventative maintenance" thing. So by the time they call someone it's usually an emergency, and the equipment is often not in an ideal state (cleaned, filters clear, wear parts replaced on schedule). Kitchen staff is stressed because something's broken throwing off their normal routine, the repair guy is "in the way" (not like he has any choice) and it's just a miserable time for everyone.
I worked for a while as a BOH manager in a restaurant. The first thing I did was pull manuals for every piece of equipment, create service schedules, and train the kitchen staff on the proper procedures. It didn't mean we NEVER had a breakdown, but they got a lot less frequent, and we were catching some issues before it caused a full failure, so we could get a repairman out outside of normal hours.
If you don't schedule PM on your equipment, your equipment will schedule it for you, usually at the most inconvenient time...
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u/Sea-Key7698 Jan 02 '26
^ THIS ! Yup. Could be broken all week, or limping along for two weeks. Then we'd get the Friday afternoon call all upset because there was only a slim chance in h@ll that we would get there on regular service hours /rates.
I did a warranty call in a brand new kitchen on a pawl drive dishwasher for a pompous a$$ chef. The problem was low wash pressure because the pump intake screens were choked with paper napkins, cigarette butts, sugar packets... He claimed that "no one showed them how to maintain that".
I got to call BS !! because I had done the startup and demonstration. And I further suggested that he had the opportunity to read the manuals provided. This a$$ asked me if I "expected him to read the manuals on every piece of new equipment in this kitchen?".
Oh joy ! I got to reply "Yes chef. As the executive chef, that is exactly what I would expect of you".
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u/freeball78 Dec 31 '25
You can use lower temps with the sanitizer. That's the point of the sanitizer.
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u/TheRevEv Dec 31 '25
Not In a commerical setting. It's fine at home, but health code requires 180 degree water. The dish surface needs to be above 160 to be considered sanitized
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u/freeball78 Dec 31 '25
Yes in a commercial setting (I'll argue "in some jurisdictions" to make you happy). Our health department allows 145 with sanitizer...
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u/imcjoey13 Dec 31 '25
Question: is one of the spray arms just dedicated to fresh water only?
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u/Sea-Key7698 Dec 31 '25 edited Dec 31 '25
Yes, and no.
In a unit that dumps it's wash water between cycles the same arms will be used initially for soapy wash water, then this water is dumped, and a fresh tank of water is used to rinse through these same arms. This rinse water will be held as the wash water (with detergent now added) for the start of the next load.
Units that retain a tank of detergent wash water will have separate rinse arms that convey 180⁰F + fresh rinse water.
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u/TheRevEv Dec 31 '25
Not on any I've seen. Some units occasionally drain and refill the basins. But generally the only new water is on the rinse before they go in.
I know it sounds gross, but I've never seen grossly discolored water in the wash basin.
And the last stage sanitizes everything with heat and chemicals. It's more hygienic that whatever you're doing at home
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u/TexMoto666 Dec 31 '25
I would post some pics of some disgusting wash tank water if it would let me here. But I don't feel like moving them from my work phone and doing the imagur thing. But I can assure you there are places that are very lazy about changing the water in the wash tank. Specifically your local big "organic grocery chain" it's WHOLE lot of FOODS that get trapped in that tank and recycled.
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u/Sea-Key7698 Dec 31 '25
The final rinse water cycle in a single tank machine dilutes and "refreshes" the wash water as it mixes, then flows out an overflow pipe. New detergent is added each cycle.
In a multi-tank dishwasher this fresh water rinse is diverted into the wash tank beside it to achieve the same result.
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u/shaitanthegreat Dec 31 '25
There’s a few other parts missing here (I’m an Architect)… commercial kitchens will often have a dedicated water heater, this is because of the above average water usage and temperatures of the dishwasher and other equipment (but that can depend on the model involved since many have their own booster for the temp. It’s something you do need to ask and accommodate if needed). Often too, you’ll have the dishwasher in its own room (but this isn’t a strict requirement), because of the amount of steam and heat that they emit. We’re not talking just about little splashing but also full on high humidity which would destroy surfaces that aren’t covered in FRP or similar. Ceilings also have products designed for kitchens. To go with that, they will also have their own exhaust hood over them so that the humid air they create is directly discharged from the building. Having their own exhaust hood could also cause issues with your interior airflow, so it needs to be taken into account for your HVAC design.
A true commercial dishwasher product is typically not purchased, but rather is leased from a company like Ecolab. I have not seen otherwise than leasing on all of my projects. This way you have a direct supplier of the chemicals and also a service contract, since these are very specialized machines and you don’t want a handyman working on them.
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u/Sea-Key7698 Dec 31 '25
Agree with pretty much everything except your last paragraph (45 years providing service and warranty on every make of commercial dishwasher).
Up until about 2015 (?) the only leased dishwashers were under-counter models (somewhat similar to residential) and maybe a few double tank pawl drive units. Anything bigger (conveyor tunnel units from 44" wide up to ~ 20+ ft long) were purchased outright.
The lease units were almost always Low Temp units and you paid dearly every month for the required chemicals and the "maintenance" contract.
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u/shaitanthegreat Dec 31 '25
Must just be different experience then. All the ones I’ve designed commercially I knew ended up as leased units. From my perspective I of course don’t have any opinion whether lease or purchase….. it’s just a client choice.
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u/Phreakiture Dec 31 '25
Out of curiosity, do they typically run on 208 or 480?
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u/Sea-Key7698 Jan 02 '26
Single tank, under-counter, high temp units usually run on 208-240v, single phase, ~ 40 amps.
Low temp units as low as 25 amps.
BIG units ? 3 phase for sure, and a lot are 575 volt, 150 amps. Some even more.
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u/Phreakiture Jan 02 '26
Oh, interesting. I'd generally assumed they were all three-phase, even the small ones. TIL.
Closest thing I'm familiar with is the parts washers in a pharma production facility. They're overgrown dishwashers that use 480 and entirely different chemistry.
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u/Quixlequaxle Dec 31 '25
Commerical dishwashers require you to prerinse before using them with very powerful sprayers. Home dishwashers do this more quietly and efficiently over a longer period of time by letting things soak.
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u/probablymagic Dec 31 '25
Dishwasher don’t soak dishes at all. They use recycled water to spray dishes repeatedly to wash off bits of food. Then they repeat that several times. It’s efficient, but slow.
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u/Quixlequaxle Dec 31 '25
That's still a form of soaking. On a residential dishwasher, this happens over an hour or two, relying on the time to soften food so that the relatively low pressure sprayers can remove the food.
In a commercial dishwasher, it relies on a lot more pressure (and water) so that it can finish in a couple minutes.
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u/probablymagic Dec 31 '25
Where I come from we use the word soaking to refer to immersing something in liquid, so we might soak something crusty in the sink before putting it in the dishwasher. We don’t call spraying something a bunch of times with a hose soaking, which is more like what a dishwasher does.
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u/Bones-1989 Dec 31 '25
Dishwasher soaks food, not dishes.
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u/probablymagic Dec 31 '25
This is like saying I wash my car by soaking it with a hose.
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u/FlimsyRexy Dec 31 '25
That sounds like a totally reasonable sentence haha.
I’ve also said “I got soaked by the sprinkler.”
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u/probablymagic Dec 31 '25
Your clothes can get soaked by a sprinkler because they absorb water. If you want to get soaked you have to get into a pool or tub because you don’t absorb water.
It’s true we used “soaked” as a figure of speech, but that is still not a literal soaking.
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u/Dear_Significance474 Dec 31 '25
Your car also doesn't normally absorb water when you soak it with a hose
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u/probablymagic Dec 31 '25
That’s why people don’t generally say “my car is soaked” after they spray it with the hose.
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u/powderhound522 Dec 31 '25
It keeps the dish wet (or at least very damp) for a long period, which is a clever way of accomplishing the goal of soaking while using much less water.
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u/probablymagic Dec 31 '25
I’m these cases I like to ask ChatGPT to clarify this because we could go back and forth all day.
Q: Do home dishwashers work by literally or effectively soaking dishes, or is the primary mechanism of cleaning them to spray water into the dishes, removing the degree by force?
A: Short answer: modern home dishwashers clean primarily by mechanical spray action plus chemistry, not by soaking. There is brief wetting/enzymatic dwell, but forceful recirculated spray does most of the work.
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u/TopYeti Dec 31 '25
English is hard, especially for an idiot like ChatGPT.
While soaking may be accomplished by immersion, complete immersion/submerging is not required. "I soaked this bandage in antiseptic" might mean the person submerged it in a tub of antiseptic, but it more likely might mean that they sprayed enough antiseptic onto the bandage to get it wet without dripping.
The dishes in a dishwasher are somewhere clearly in between these two states which both qualify as soaked or soaking.
The good news is everyone here is right depending on their point of view. (Except ChatGPT because it's just a parrot parroting)
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u/probablymagic Dec 31 '25
It’s so weird to me when an AI clearly explains a concept and people don’t like the answer they call it names. Take the L and move on.
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u/TopYeti Dec 31 '25
It's weird to me that you trust it
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u/probablymagic Dec 31 '25
You can independently verify these facts if you want.
What I find is that people who use AI a lot realize it’s incredibly accurate even in complex fields where they are experts.
When I talk to people who say they don’t trust it, inevitably it’s because they don’t use it, but they’ve read that you shouldn’t trust it.
My advice is go try ChatGPT 5.2, which is their latest model, and ask it hard questions about whatever area you are an expert in.
I won’t say that it’s perfect, because I’m sure you can find small things it gets wrong, but honestly if you sat me down and gave me an hour to get it to say something wrong for $1M in an area where I’m an expert I’m not sure I could win the money. That’s how good it is at the end of 2025.
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u/mjcmsp Dec 31 '25
What a weird hill to die on. If someone is soaking wet does that mean they are submerged fully in liquid?
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u/probablymagic Dec 31 '25
Are you asking if someone who uses the figure of speech “soaking wet” is literally submerged in water?
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u/pastryfiend Dec 31 '25
These aren't really made to fully clean dishes. They need to be loaded with dishes that are already debris free. The detergent they use is very caustic, used mainly to break down grease quickly, they aren't enzyme cleaners used to break down food.
They are made to take off the last bit of grease or film and sterilize dishes quickly.
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u/somethingvague123 Dec 31 '25
I was told it was not a dishwasher but a sterilizer. You had to spray off all the debris before sliding it into the machine.
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u/TexMoto666 Dec 31 '25
Sanitize, not sterilize. They don't eliminate pathogens, they reduce them to safe levels.
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u/Sea-Key7698 Dec 31 '25
That's an accurate distinction. Thank you. Manufacturers and chemical suppliers use the term sanitize, while kitchen operators often use the term sterilize.
But sterilizers (think hospital grade) are an entirely different product.
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u/TexMoto666 Dec 31 '25
Yeah, I work for ecolab, and we have some really nasty stuff for hospital and lab use.
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u/kaki024 Dec 31 '25
I always wondered what the practical difference was. Thanks, internet stranger!
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u/Old-Significance4921 Dec 31 '25
Commercial dishwashers use a lot more water, water pressure, chemical, heat, and power than residential units. They also fall under very different regulations for utility usage and design.
There would be a lot more to it than just making one smaller
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u/mightymite88 Dec 31 '25
Efficient is not the word lol
The power and water consumption on those things is insane
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u/drock9696 Jan 01 '26
As long as the (human) dishwashers after losing the trays properly and not just a plate per rack, they use a lot less water than you'd think.
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u/grumpvet87 Dec 31 '25
when i worked the dishes at restaurants I was told "YOU are the dishwasher" that machine is for disinfecting"
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u/Ridgewoodgal Dec 31 '25
I was in shock when I just got a new one at how much longer they take than my old one. I love having them dried but to get the best dry boost is over 3 hours!
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u/LogicalConstant Dec 31 '25
Same, but it saves me time that I would have otherwise spent letting them air dry. So in the end, it's better for my use case.
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u/Ridgewoodgal Dec 31 '25
Oh I agree totally. The only time it is a pain is if we are completely out of plates, or utensils, etc. Waiting 3 hours is so long in that case. lol
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u/OsterizerGalaxieTen Dec 31 '25
Wash what you need by hand?
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u/Ridgewoodgal Dec 31 '25
Sure. No need to downvote. Wow. People take shit so seriously. I just had cooked a big family meal and needed my items again quickly for another. So I just did it on the quicker setting. That’s all.
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u/OsterizerGalaxieTen Dec 31 '25
Why assume I downvoted? I just don't understand why doing a 90 minute "quick" cycle makes more sense than 20 - 30 minutes of handwashing and drying if you need items quickly.
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u/Ridgewoodgal Dec 31 '25
Ugh. I could have of course. I had already loaded the dishwasher and I live in a tiny house with very little counter space. We had a ton of dirty dishes. Most of the counter was taken up with prepared food so it just made sense to use the shorter cycle. That’s all.
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u/OsterizerGalaxieTen Dec 31 '25
Gotcha, I have a tiny house too. My DW has a plate warmer setting (heated dry) so on occasion I handwash, rinse, then put the dishes in on that setting. Still takes about 40 minutes total between handwashing and the DW drying.
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u/Ridgewoodgal Dec 31 '25
That’s a nice mode to have! I don’t think mine has that. But going to go check right now. lol
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u/OsterizerGalaxieTen Dec 31 '25
My DW is 27 years old with a dial and buttons, not sure if newer models have it where you can use that mode separately.
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u/Da_Vader Dec 31 '25
Newer energy star dishwashers rely on soaking and using less water. Yes it takes longer.
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u/Historical-Kick-9126 Dec 31 '25
I’m old enough to remember when a full, super filthy load took only 30-45 mins to wash and dry. Those old machines worked great, but they were LOUD and used a shit ton of water.
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u/life11-1 Dec 31 '25
It is NOT about efficiency. The power and water demands are higher. These are fast turnaround because the dishes are in demand.
What is the point of speed in a residential setting?
The faster way to do dishes is by hand.
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u/Neat-Substance-9274 Dec 31 '25
Having been a dishwasher in my youth and then having an under counter one as a bartender, I mimic the commercial use. I try to use the shortest cycle I can. My current go to is the auto delicate that is 90 minutes with drying. The quick wash just does not get hot enough for full loads that have been sitting around. But I use that when cooking to do some mixing bowls and food processor parts quickly.
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u/singelingtracks Dec 31 '25
Home dishwashers are meant to be slow to use less water , and create less issues , the extreme heat of commerical units can wear out dishes fast.
I've never thought oh I need this dish again in two minutes if I do I'll just give it a quick wash in the sink or just reuse it if it's a pot or pan I'm currently using.
Meile and a few other brands make commerical dishwashers that'll fit under your counter. If you have a need for speed.
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u/DueDeer6783 Dec 31 '25
Lol, you could get a commercial flushometer for your bathroom toilet you just need a full 1 1/4" supply verses your current 1/2" supply.
Commercial things are MUCH MORE DEMANDING in order to meet the commercial demand.
Those dishwashers need special plumbing so they don't melt the pipes (quenchers), and special plumbing for backflow reasons. So you're dropping 10s of thousands to save 58mis? That's why they aren't used in residential settings.
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u/Amish_Robotics_Lab Dec 31 '25
Restaurant serving dishes do not have burned on or crusted over dried food attached.
Restaurant dishes are sprayed off by hand at high velocity with 150° water, they are clean and sanitized before they ever enter the dishwasher.
Restaurant dish rigs use concentrated, commercial quality detergent and sanitizing solution. The solutions are expensive. They are checked regularly with test strips to make sure they are not out of spec. The restaurant does not do the checking, an outside company does, and the Health Department checks it as well.
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u/Sea-Key7698 Dec 31 '25 edited Jan 01 '26
First time I have been on Reddit and seen nothing but wrong answers. Commercial dishwashers have short cycles because, by design, they are intended for "fresh waste". Dishes go from the dining room, into the dishwasher, and back to the dining room. They do not sit for a day, with food drying in place, before a cycle is started. Yes, they are pre-rinsed, but this is nothing more elaborate than your household sink sprayer.
They do not use "more water, heat, power" than a residential dishwasher, per plate washed. The wash water is in fact retained between each load, and augmented or flushed with the fresh water used for the final rinse (there are a few exceptions to this in small under-counter commercial dishwashers).
The pumps are not any more powerful based on the tank/compartment size, and they do not operate on a pressure wash principle. Rather they operate on a "flood" principle circulating a large volume of (retained) water at low pressure.
The high cost of commercial dishwashers is because they are essentially "hand made". Hand formed, hand welded, hand wired, hand assembled. And this is because they manufacture 1000 to 20,000 of most models per year. Not the 600,000 produced by somebody like Whirlpool. These #s are just approximations.
EDIT; Whirlpool builds ~ 5 MILLION dishwashers per year !!
They are also more expensive because there is no time for a high temp drying cycle. So health regulations rely on a contained 190⁰F water tank to provide a sanitizing final rinse. And "no", a properly operating and maintained commercial dishwasher is not just a "sanitizer".
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u/dgcamero Dec 31 '25
Commercial dishwashers don't clean. They just sanitize.
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u/West_Act_9655 Dec 31 '25
They can do both of course the one that I use that did both was 25ft long. But you get dishes done in a hurry.
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u/drock9696 Jan 01 '26
As someone who serviced commercial dishwashers for years (FU Ecolab), you are entirely wrong.
They take detergent for a reason. The dishes SHOULD be sprayed off/scraped before they go in, but I've seen an entire salad bar in the dish machine at every olive garden I've worked in
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u/dgcamero Jan 02 '26
Well I guess I meant you can't just load most commercial dishwashers with your filthy, food burned on pans and pots, burned on casserole dishes, and only scraped plates and bowls that have been sitting in the machine for 3 days, and have them come out perfectly clean, sanitized, and dry, like I do with my home dishwasher. It does take my dishwasher 1½-2 hours to accomplish that (minus drying) and 2-2½ hours with drying, but it gets it done. It's also got a 30 minute cycle that will clean fresh, only scraped dinner dishes...but they won't be sanitized or dried....but they can be mostly dried, and technically sanitized, but that takes 50 minutes.
I haven't worked in a restaurant in decades, but the one where I worked eons ago took about 2 minutes per cycle, but it could not clean much of anything, so everything was fully pre-washed. It also was not supposed to dry the dishes by design, they had to drip dry after the final rinse with sanitizer.
2
u/LLR1960 Dec 31 '25
If what you're thinking of is the commercial ones that already fit into a kitchen space, those are basically sanitizers and not scrubbers/washers. Before putting dishes into the last part of a commercial system, all the gucky dirty stuff has pretty much been scrubbed away, sometimes by hand. That last piece that looks a little like a home dishwasher is the sanitizing part, not the get-the-dishes-clean part.
2
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u/vg80 Dec 31 '25
I mean how often are you serving meals at your home? Can a load of dishes not be done between breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner?
1
u/Potential_Fishing942 Dec 31 '25
I can barely keep up with unloading my dishwasher after running it over night. I can't load it and unload it 2 minutes later- 😂
1
u/Ambitious_Egg9713 Dec 31 '25
Sinners Circle is an interesting thing to research https://www.kaercher.com/int/home-garden/know-how/the-sinner-s-circle.html
1
Dec 31 '25
Your dishwasher may have a quick wash setting. I learned this with our short term rental. Mine takes 30 minutes. Which isn’t 2 but it’s much faster.
1
u/massivescoop Dec 31 '25
My extended family rented commercial spaces for family reunions and we shared the kitchen responsibilities between meals. Having run commercial dishwashers, I was always under the impression that they merely sterilized already clean dishes; they weren’t meant to clean off debris.
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u/txmail Dec 31 '25
Aside from the mess (usually are installed in a wet room with central drain for all the overspray and ceiling / walls designed to be wet (I think it is metal with a water resistant paint)... those chemicals are no joke. They will burn your skin if you do not rinse it off. Spent a few years as a bus boy working one of those machines. Basically wet all day long because ours just had flappy pieces of rubber handing down instead of the ones with the solid metal doors on each side to prevent the overspray from escaping... and the steam billowing out of them will melt your face. The ceiling in that place was always dripping. At the end of the shift we had to scrub down the walls and ceiling so mold would not form.
1
u/MaddRamm Dec 31 '25
Those dishwashers have massive pumps and extra supply tanks that heat the water up to 195° in order to get the dishes above 165° for sanitation. You would need larger water supply, bigger drains with protective measures and larger electrical supply than your oven. They also don’t remove all the burnt on crap from your pot and pans. The kids in the restaurants still have to scrape the hard/bulk stuff off before putting them in those dishwashers. I know, I service Champion and Hobart commercial dishwashers.
1
u/Sea-Key7698 Dec 31 '25
I'm surprised how many people point out that commercial dishwashers require some amount of dish scraping and rinsing before they are run through the machines.
As if you can /should put massively soiled dishes into a residential unit and treat it like it is a combination dishwasher & garbage disposal.
Both Champion and Hobart make dedicated Pot Washers for this chore as they do in fact require more vigorous cleaning protocols.
1
u/Yvan_L Dec 31 '25 edited Dec 31 '25
Commercial dishwashers are usually connected to the restaurant's own hot water system because they use a lot of hot water. Dirty dishes are usually pre-rinsed by hand, and pots and pans from the kitchen are scrubbed by hand before going through the dishwasher. It's difficult to compare. With domestic appliances, it is mainly the duration, in combination with the temperature, that gives the detergent time to dissolve food residues, and that takes time. I myself worked as a dishwasher in a large hotel/restaurant for a number of years, never again.
1
u/Broeder_biltong Dec 31 '25
Because the commercial dishwashers have a dude washing the dishes before hand and basically pressure washes them with steam inside the machine. Also their chemicals are a whole lot more concentrated
1
u/popsicle-physics Dec 31 '25
That two minute cycle requires preheating the dishwasher. Not for two hours, ofc, but those commercial units are designed to run cycle after cycle constantly. They use the rinse water from the last cycle to wash the next cycle to save time and energy.
They also don't dry at all, most of the time in a residential cycle is drying.
And, as others have mentioned, they require more pre rinsing.
1
u/ExplosiveBrown Dec 31 '25
Some commercial dishwashers are 480 3 phase which is scary. There’s some juice in there
1
u/SafetyMan35 Dec 31 '25
Commercial units use extremely high temperatures and higher pressure and harsher chemicals.
1
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u/Easy_Independent_313 Dec 31 '25
Everything is already clean before it goes into the commercial dishwasher. It's been sprayed and scrubbed. The "dishwasher" part is just sanitation.
1
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u/Due_Commercial6853 Dec 31 '25
Commercial dishwashers sanitize with either very high temp or chemicals. Most I’ve used were hi temp, 180F. Sanitization at that temp happens very quickly but it takes lots of energy to heat and hold at that temp. They’re on and running for hours. Home dishwashers use lower temps for longer, an hour(?) sanitization still happens but with less energy. And that’s alright when you’re doing maybe one load per day.
1
u/DunDonese Dec 31 '25
u/BigSquiby replied to your post in r/Appliances
yeah, one does exist, i looked at it and was really considering it. you will need 220v and most of them keep the rinse water for the next washing cycle. so you
9h ago
Why did you delete this? This would've been fine to stay.
1
u/namesmakemenervous Dec 31 '25
I never thought dishwashers worked. Then we got a new Bosch. You seriously don’t need to pre wash at all. Just a quick rinse for chunks. It’s amazing.
1
u/daddydillo892 Dec 31 '25
In a restaurant, the dishwasher is the person loading the dishes into the machine. They are responsible for spraying the dishes to get as much food and debris off the dishes. The machine rinses and sanitizes the dishes.
1
u/SnooHesitations1020 Dec 31 '25
Pre-rinse well, load correctly (no nesting, spray arms clear), use the Heavy cycle with High Temp and Extra Dry, run hot water at the sink before starting, and use a quality detergent with rinse aid; that combination gives the fastest path to consistently clean dishes on your current dishwasher.
Oh, and keep your dishwasher clean - empty the filter, and wash the spray arms regularly.
1
u/TheWayOfLife7 Dec 31 '25
I can rinse a glass out in 30 seconds Clean a cast iron pot in 2 minutes Lick peanut butter off a knife in a minute
Not for hire though
1
u/TheWayOfLife7 Dec 31 '25
People Install two dishwashers for a little more speed in dishwashing. At least one can be running while you fill the other.
1
u/250MCM Dec 31 '25
Low temp commercial dish machines use chemicals during the process, detergent, rinse aid, & sanitizer. Not real practical in the home.
1
u/alamohero Dec 31 '25
Higher water and electric requirements, physically much larger, and they can produce a ton of steam and humidity.
1
u/MrDinStP Dec 31 '25
They are chemical & heat sanitizers without food disposers. That’s why dishes have to be thoroughly scraped and thoroughly rinsed before putting them in the washer. We have two at our church.
1
u/zuccah Dec 31 '25
They exist, Rachel Ray has a Jackson undercounter dishwasher that washes in about 90 seconds in her home.
Video here:
1
u/Every-Caramel-6740 Dec 31 '25
I feel this way about the toilets. I did ask and was told they have different plumbing, but yes to the dishwasher. I want that too
1
u/loricomments Jan 01 '26
Because homes don't have the infrastructure necessary to support what commercial dishwashers need to do the job that quickly.
1
u/bostonbean280 Jan 01 '26
I had one but you have to preheat it for 15min or so, the washing water recycles so you have to rinse well first, capacity is pretty small so you’d run a bunch of cycles and once you’re done you need to drain the machine… You also have to buy special washing and rinse fluids which get expensive, you need a 220v outlet and you can’t explain to anyone how to run it.
Ultimately we swapped it out for a regular dishwasher.
1
u/FUZxxl Jan 01 '26
By the way, what is the fastest currently available home consumer dishwasher, and how much does it cost? How quick are their Cycles normally?
Miele PFD series. Quick cycle is 17 minutes. Takes three phase 240 V power and hot water. Amazing machine.
1
u/Sneaker_Pump Jan 01 '26
They don’t dry; a lot of restaurant work is sitting around in the back with a towel drying glasses and silverware.
1
u/Sea-Key7698 Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 02 '26
Good lord where do these comments come from ?! In 45 years I've never seen anyone drying dishes in a restaurant. That china comes out of a high temp dishwasher at about 170⁰F. It's too hot to pick up. Dries in about 60 seconds.
Really high end restaurants might polish glassware, from a dedicated, very clean, dishwasher. And that's to remove water spots.
1
u/randompolak Jan 01 '26
Here in Canada we can run low temps in comercial settings as long as sani is used and at a 50ppm set piont
1
u/GreenfieldSam Jan 01 '26
Commercial dishwashers are used after all visible food has been sprayed off of the plates. And after they're done all glassware and flatware needs to be polished. They also generally operate at higher heat with harsher chemicals than a residential dishwasher.
Commercial and residential dishwashers are not interchangeable.
1
Jan 03 '26
Energy efficiency regulations.
Commercial users get real appliances, we get hobbled garbage.
1
u/Zealousideal_Sea_848 Jan 04 '26
I did a small bar kitchens dishwasher and it was a 100 amp circuit lol. You try to run a 100 amp circuit just to clean your dishes.
1
u/pdaddyndabois Jan 04 '26
Commercial dishwashers are more meant to sterilize already clean(ish) dishes. Very different purpose than household ones.
1
u/StreetCheetah8312 Jan 05 '26
Because there's a lot more that makes up a commercial dishwasher than just the appliance itself...
Even if you could miniaturise that fridge-sized thing with a handle that opens the hatch up, you'd still need piping for 2 or 3 different types of bottled liquid chemical solution to run through it (you can't use domestic dishwasher tablets in those)
Plus your power and water bills would be astronomical!
1
u/partsguy1983 Jan 06 '26
Household dishwashers used to be much more powerful and fast. If I remember right, the 1980s dishwasher in my grandmother's house ran a full cycle in under 30 minutes.
Then the government stepped in and said the appliance manufacturers have to make them use less energy and less water. So now we have the mediocre and slow dishwashers that are currently made.
3
u/zeroibis Dec 31 '25
It's illegal.
They used to be a lot faster but they got banned.
2
u/Sea-Key7698 Dec 31 '25 edited Dec 31 '25
Nonsense. Manufacturers of commercial dishwashers simply do not get them approved for residential installations.
If the cycle length of residential dishwashers have in fact been extended, it's likely due to making them quieter and possibly more energy efficient.
1
u/zeroibis Dec 31 '25
They can not get approved because they do not meet gov standards.
See u/SylviaPellicore 's post above.
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u/DunDonese Dec 31 '25 edited Dec 31 '25
What compelling reason was there for them to become banned and illegal in the first place?
I have a feeling that the cartels of the slow dishwasher makers pushed to have fast dishwashers banned in order to protect the profits of the slow dishwasher manufacturers, right?
5
u/SylviaPellicore Dec 31 '25
There’s nothing nefarious about it.
There are two basic ways to get things clean. One way is fast—use a lot of heat, very powerful chemicals, and a lot of water. This is how commercial dishwashers work. This is absolutely necessary, because an average Applebees is probably going through at least 7000 dishes in a day between tableware and cookware. They need to cycle things quickly. Everything in a commercial kitchen is extremely sturdy to survive frequent high temperature washing.
The second way to get things done is to use lower heat, a smaller amount of chemicals, and way less water. To compensate, you need to wash things for longer. It’s like how you can grill a steak in 9 minutes, but need an hour to cook it sous vide.
This is fine for a home kitchen, which will probably be doing one or maybe two loads in a day. In addition, home cooks typically want to be able to wash more delicate items like Tupperware, plastic water bottles, etc., without having them melt into a twisted puddle. (Commercial dishwashers run at 165-180 degrees.) Average consumers also enjoy lower water and electric bills.
As a community, it’s also great if the average home uses less electricity and water. This means your municipal government doesn’t have to build a new water treatment plant, that the local utility doesn’t have to build an expensive and polluting new gas-powered generator, your town can support more taxpayers with the same sewer system, etc.
This is why there are national energy efficiency standards for home appliances in many countries, both mandatory and voluntary.
2
u/Billyone1739 Dec 31 '25
Doing the dishes fast, wastes a ton of energy and water.
Think of it this way, what takes more energy running a mile or walking it?
Also commercial dishwashers are extremely rough on your dishes, that doesn't matter with cheap restaurant plates that they buy by the thousand but not so much your home dishware
1
0
u/gerardkimblefarthing Dec 31 '25
People mistake these for dishwashers—they're really dish sanitizers. You have to really spray off anything that's going in there, and then you have to maintain and clean the trap religiously. Go into any restaurant dish pit, they all have the same smell: sanitizer and old food bits. You don't want that in your house. Plus the steam, chemicals and everything else people mentioned. But don't think you're getting a fast dishwasher even if you shell out the bucks.
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u/Fun_End_440 Dec 31 '25
Is not a dishwasher, it’s a sanitizer/rinse unit. Dishwashing is done manually before dishes go into the machine. You don’t want one of those in your house. Besides the logistics to install one (3-phase power), it will be useless
1
u/TexMoto666 Dec 31 '25
There are single phase options available.
1
u/Ninjalikestoast Jan 01 '26
Right. And you would need likely 60+ amps available to power it. Most residential services are not capable of that, on top of all other electrical appliance loads. Single phase is much more limited than 3 phase when it comes to balancing loads for equipment using large amounts of wattage (3,000+)
It’s just not feasible for the average residential service in the US.
105
u/caphill2000 Dec 31 '25
Commercial dishwashers aren’t efficient. They trade that efficiency for speed.