Welcome to another 86 Repairs Guide! In this series, we provide valuable data and maintenance and troubleshooting information for 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.
Restaurants can be cutthroat. Competition is fierce, margins are tight, and spare time—along with customer patience—is minimal. It takes a special kind of person to be able to thrive in that environment.
Let’s just say that, in most industries, you either sink or swim—but in restaurants, you actually need the sinks to be able to swim! 🏊
So in this Guide, we’re taking a deep dive into restaurant sinks, how to maintain them, and how to troubleshoot their most common issues without calling in a vendor for service.
Restaurants need various types of sinks throughout their four walls to keep service flowing:
The number and type of sinks in your restaurant will vary depending on its size, type of service, and local health codes. Without proper maintenance, repairs to these sinks could really drain your R&M budget.
86 Repairs collects data from every service call our customers submit to give operators a better idea of what they’ll spend on repairs. We include all restaurant sink requests within our general plumbing category.
On average, our restaurant customers spent $592.80 in 2022 for each plumber visit. Only 8% of those plumbing problems had to be resolved with multiple vendor visits.
But with proper maintenance, common restaurant sink issues can mostly be prevented.
Restaurant sink maintenance should only take teams a few minutes to complete every day. And when you consider the downtime and extra expenses that could be associated with a broken sink, those extra minutes are a worthwhile investment.
First thing’s first: check that every sink has hot water and is stocked with soap. Your health inspection score depends on it! Even sinks that don’t see a lot of action should have hot water run through them a few times weekly to eliminate fumes and reduce the chance the line will dry up.
At close, staff should be cleaning every sink drain to help avoid fruit flies and mold growth. Never use bleach to do this; it can damage stainless steel pipes. Any sink that is used to discard beverages or food should be cleaned with a drain sanitizer or bio-enzymatic cleaner to break down buildup. After a rinse, the drains can be covered with rocks glasses or simple plastic wrap to avoid fruit flies coming into the restaurant.
Outfit sinks that see a lot of debris with fine mesh colanders or other straining contraptions to protect the pipes. Food and garnishes should never go directly down any of your sinks—they’ll clog your plumbing and create a breeding ground for those pesky fruit flies.
Routine maintenance can stop the frequency and severity of common sink issues—but it’s not a failsafe. For additional coverage, we recommend plumbing preventative maintenance twice per year at each restaurant you run.
During a preventative maintenance call, your plumber will clean and examine the pipes that lead from your sinks to the rest of your plumbing system, like:
Line jetting is another important component of plumbing preventative maintenance. Grease and grime cause the restaurant pipes to get narrow over time, which will cause the entire system to slow down and create complicated clogs. During line jetting, those layers of debris are removed so your staff can keep going with the flow.
Read The 86 Repairs Guide to Restaurant Grease Traps for more information about line jetting.
Want to know your next line of defense against sinking money into vendor visits? Troubleshooting!
Try resolving the most common restaurant sink issues with in-house troubleshooting. Roll up your sleeves and dive in with these tips!
Lots of funky stuff winds up down restaurant sinks. Leftover sugary drinks that grow mold; dirty cloth napkins that were accidentally shoved down the drain. As a result, clogs are extremely common.
Think you have a clogged sink? Try:
If the sink drain is still clogged after following those four steps, call in a professional for help.
Restaurant sinks are already a bit wet and wild. Leaks not only make sink areas even messier, but they also waste water! In an industry where every dollar matters to stay profitable, you need to eliminate as much of that waste as possible.
Identify the source of the sink leak, and proceed accordingly:
If a faucet leak is still present, the sink could have a failed cartridge. Have a facility manager on your staff? They can take a look and potentially replace it instead of calling in a specialist.
They’re called restaurant sinks, not restaurant stinks. If any unpleasant odors are coming up out of your sinks,
If an odor is still present, a plumber needs to take a look.
Restaurant sink issues don’t have to drain your R&M budget. With simple routine maintenance, ongoing preventative maintenance, and easy in-house troubleshooting, repair-related expenses can be kept to a minimum.