If an industrial oven breaks, it can be very expensive to repair or replace. As such, it's important to take good care of this piece of equipment. Here are two ways to extend the lifespan of your industrial oven.

Shut the oven door gently

In a busy food manufacturing facility or commercial kitchen, the door of an industrial oven will be opened and shut dozens of times over the course of a single day.

If the employees who are putting food into the oven or taking it out of it are in a rush and as a result of this, are too rough when performing these actions (for example, if they slam the door quite hard when closing it), the oven could develop a defect.

Repeatedly slamming the door shut could, for example, potentially cause either its external or internal glass screen to crack or shatter.

Furthermore, the rubber seal around the door could end up being damaged by the impact of the door striking it each time it is closed. This could be particularly problematic as, without a functional seal, the temperatures inside the oven will become inconsistent; this could affect the safety and the quality of the food that is cooked inside it.

As such, employees who routinely use the oven should be instructed to be gentle when shutting the equipment's door.

Take care when using water to wash it

A lot of modern industrial ovens, like the Unox XEVC-2011-EPR  for instance, have self-cleaning programs, which eliminate the need for employees to wash the oven manually, using soap and water. This not only saves time (as no employees need to be involved in the cleaning process) but also reduces the possibility of the oven being damaged by exposure to water.

If you have an older oven that does not have a self-cleaning program and which therefore needs to be washed by hand, it is important to ensure that the employee tasked with this job understands how to do it in such a way that the oven will not sustain damage as a result of their efforts.

The reason for this is as follows; water can wreak havoc on electrical equipment. If the person cleaning the oven doesn't pull the plug out of the socket before they begin their work, and the bucket of water or damp cloths they are using then come into contact with any of the equipment's electrical components (such as its switches, buttons or wires), the oven could short-circuit.

Even if they remember to unplug the oven before they clean it, they could still cause its electrical system to short circuit if they fail to dry the oven thoroughly before switching it back on again. Just a few drops of water seeping in behind the back of a button or onto an exposed wire could cause major damage to the equipment.

As such, it is important for employees who are assigned this task to exercise extreme caution when washing the oven with water.

For more tips on caring for your industrial oven, talk to professionals at companies like Ian Boer Refrigeration.