Want to do a job well done? Follow our preventive maintenance and troubleshooting tips to keep your restaurant flat top grill cooking consistently.
Welcome to another 86 Repairs Guide! In this series, we provide valuable troubleshooting, preventative maintenance, and warranty information on the equipment and infrastructure found in your restaurant. We hope this information will help you and your team become more informed about repairs and maintenance (R&M)—and save you time and money along the way.
It’s the smell of summer, the key to terrific tailgates, and the cornerstone of family cookouts. Using it is easy, but people still spend decades trying to master their skills with it. And when it comes to cooking, there are few things more satisfying than hearing it sizzle.
Restaurant flat top grills allow cooks to smash burgers, flip pancakes, chop cheesesteaks, and prepare all sorts of other foods with speed. Ignoring the performance of this equipment would be a missteak. (So would allowing this pun to go to print, but here we are...)
Some menu items must be cooked on a grill: if the flat top is out of service, you lose revenue. And if the flat top isn’t performing properly, you could be serving under or overcooked food.
So, if you want your restaurant to keep doing a job well-done, just follow our guide to keep your flat top grill cooking consistently and maintenance costs minimal.
A grill is a piece of equipment that allows food to be cooked over dry heat. A regular grill uses slatted metal to separate food from the flame, but still allows enough open surface area for those satisfying burn marks.
A restaurant flat top grill is also known as a griddle. It has a flat, smooth surface usually made of metal. Heat is applied from below for consistent cooking temperatures. If you run a busy breakfast spot, burger joint, or cheesesteak chain, you’re probably pretty reliant on your flat top grills.
The only big difference between grills and flat top grills is the top cover. Mechanically, the two pieces of equipment are nearly the same.
86 Repairs categorizes grills and griddles together when we collect data on restaurant repairs from our customers due to their similarities.
In The State of Repairs, we found that 5.5% of service requests in 2021 were associated with grills or griddles. The average invoice cost to repair a grill or griddle was $710.25.
Our solution tracks many repair and maintenance (R&M) data points for restaurants, including first-time fix rate (FTFR)—the average frequency in which a top-performing vendor can resolve an issue in one service request. For grills and griddles, the FTFR is relatively low at 84.5%.
Keep grill and griddle repair costs to a minimum with a preventative maintenance schedule, troubleshooting common issues, and smart parts replacement solutions. Although this guide is centered around flat top grills, keep in mind these tips can be used for regular grills as well.
The best griddle maintenance starts at the surface. Surface maintenance ensures the flat top of the grill can continue cooking with consistency.
If you remove your restaurant’s flat top grill surface for stripping and reseasoning, you should also clean the burner tubes. Remove these for scrubbing, and make sure their holes aren’t obscured or blocked so the grill can operate properly.
Like any piece of hot- or cold-side equipment, the temperature of the flat top grill must be appropriate before it’s used to cook food for customers. Just use a thermometer to make sure the grill is temping appropriately.
As soon as something isn’t working right in the kitchen, we know the heat is on to get it fixed quickly. So use these troubleshooting ideas the next time your flat top grill isn’t doing great.
Our State of Repairs report found that this was the top issue for grills and griddles in 2021, accounting for almost 25% of all service requests.
First, verify the pilot is still lit. For flat top grills, you can find this through the holes next to the burner knobs. Look for a flame.
Perform electrical checks to see if the unit itself is the problem, or if it’s an underlying electrical issue:
If troubleshooting doesn’t give your flat top grill heat or power, call a vendor to investigate further.
Parts replacement is actually the third most common need for grill and griddle R&M. But this is extremely easy—and cost-efficient—to do in-house.
Knobs are often lost, broken, or damaged in the hustle and bustle of a kitchen. Before you call a vendor to replace the knob for you, look up the manufacturer of your restaurant flat top grill.
Vendors tend to charge around $50-70 for this simple fix, but sourcing the knob and replacing it yourself should only cost around $20-30. Plus, there’s no need for downtime when you don’t have to wait for a vendor to show up!
For bigger parts in need of replacement, or issues that can’t get resolved for troubleshooting, always check your warranty before calling a vendor for repair. A lot of hot side equipment, like flat top grills, have 1-2 year warranties for mechanical components. But certain internal components, like burners, might be shorter than the rest of the unit.
As with any piece of kitchen equipment, always double-check your warranty because they can vary widely across different manufacturers. For example:
No need to get grilled over your R&M expenses for griddles. Keep the surface clean, take the time to troubleshoot, replace knobs using your know-how, and stay wise with your warranty to avoid losing money and time to repair this important piece of kitchen equipment.
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