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When your restaurant or catering business requires a large amount of hot water to be available, whether for peak serving hours or around-the-clock, it makes sense to invest in a water boiler.

You’ll have a large volume of fresh hot water ‘on tap’, right when you need it, so no need to wait for a kettle to boil – but which water boiler best suits the needs of your business?

At Lockhart Catering Equipment we have a comprehensive range of commercial Water Boilers to choose from, with a great choice of capacities, features, and water filling options to suit the kitchen or restaurant facilities you have. To help you select a water boiler that meets your requirements, and can help your business to be even more efficient, consult our complete water boiler buying guide below.

How much space do you have available?

Whether you’re purchasing a water boiler, or water urn for your kitchen, or for your customers to use to make their own hot drinks, your first consideration must be the space you have available. Water boilers are available in a wide choice of sizes and capacity, from 2.5 litre, 5 litre or 10 litre capacities, right up to 45 litre and even 60 litre capacities, for the busiest restaurants or caterers.

Our high capacity water boilers are available in ‘compact’ sizes with a smaller footprint, so they can fit in narrow spaces, but be sure to carefully check their dimensions first to ensure they can be located where they are needed. It’s worth remembering that high capacity water boilers will be heavy when they are filled with the maximum volume of water, so ensure that you have a sturdy table or worktop to place them on.

How will you fill your water boiler?

We sell both automatic fill and manual fill water boilers, so you have an option to suit the facilities you have available. An automatic, or auto-fill water boiler will require a water mains connection, so will need to be located close to a sink or taps, however if plumbing in a water boiler isn’t an option, then a manual fill water boiler is the ideal alternative.

Of course, an automatic fill water boiler offers optimum convenience, as you never need to worry about running out of hot water when you require it. Some models of water boilers also offer ‘eco’ functions, which reduce the amount of water that is fed into the boiler, ideal for quiet periods. This can also reduce the running costs of your water boiler. Some more advanced models of automatic fill water boiler can even ‘predict’ the volume of water that you will need at a certain time of day, and fill the tank accordingly, or even switch off when not needed.

On the other hand, a manual fill water boiler allows you to heat up only the amount of water that you need, plus offers maximum flexibility for location – making them ideal for mobile caterers or buffet restaurants.

Will you require water filtration?

Many of our water boilers feature built-in water filtration, which helps to prolong the life of your water boiler by reducing the build-up of limescale, as well as improve the taste of the water itself. This makes a water filtration water boiler ideal for making hot drinks, such as tea, coffee and hot chocolate.

If you opt for a water boiler with filtration, you’ll also need to remember to replace the water filters as and when this is required.

Would you need to adjust the temperature of the water?

When choosing a commercial water boiler, or water urn for your food business or restaurant, you should consider how hot you would need the water to be. Water boilers may operate at a pre-set temperature, or offer an adjustable temperature function – which you will find useful should you need to make specialist coffees or teas, for example, which may require the water to be at a specific temperature.

If an adjustable temperature water boiler would be most suitable for your business, read the specifications carefully to determine whether the model has a choice of pre-set temperatures, or if you have complete control over the temperature settings to suit all of your needs.

Who will be using the water boiler in your business?

Whilst all of our water boilers are designed to be user-friendly, you may wish to consider whether the end user at your business will be the customer, or your staff. If you are providing a water boiler for making self-service drinks, a button-operated or touchscreen water boiler not only looks sleek, but also offers ‘hands-free’ ease of use by your customers.

On the other hand, you may prefer the simplicity of a tap dispenser water boiler. Further to this, it’s worth noting that multiple tap water boilers are also available – which come in handy in high-volume businesses where more than one customer or member of staff may wish to user the water boiler at any time.

With all of these points in mind, browse our full range of Water Boilers and Water Urns now to choose the perfect product for your business, or take a look at our wider range of Beverage Machines for a selection of kettles and coffee machines if these may better suit your needs. For more helpful advice when choosing commercial catering equipment for your business, take a look at full collection of Buyer’s Guides, including an Ice Machine Buyer’s Guide and Pizza Oven Buyer’s Guide which covers everything you need to know.


Comments

Lockhart Catering on 1 August 2017 9:00 AM

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