Commercial Water Filters for Your Restaurant: An Essential Pairing

Fears about lead in residential drinking water, along with concerns about VOCs, heavy metals, turbidity, untoward tastes and odors, and microbial infection have been sufficient to convince many homeowners around the country that they need drinking water filtration systems in their homes.

But what about businesses, specifically, businesses in the food service and hospitality industries, whose livelihoods depend on the quality of the food and drinks they serve?

Should they use commercial water filters for their restaurants and other establishments?

The answer is a clear, resounding, “yes.” Here’s what you need to know. 

Advantages to Your Customers

The advantages to the customers of restaurants and other commercial food service establishments are similar to those afforded to homeowners who invest in water filter systems.

Commercial water filtration systems, like residential water filtration systems, can variously remove lead, heavy metals, oxidized iron, manganese, and dissolved hard water minerals (calcium and magnesium) from water.

Additionally, many commercial water filtration systems can also remove fine particulate matter from the water, such as the silt, dirt, and other detritus and organic debris that can cause turbidity, cloudiness, and off-putting tastes and odors.

Water filtration systems can also remove chloramines from water, along with microbial cysts, such as those of Giardia and Cryptosporidium.

This results in a safer environment for customers that patronize such establishments, as well as a more enjoyable dining experience. Pure, clean water and overall better water quality results in better tasting beverages (and food)!

But restaurant owners and managers that make the decision to invest in commercial water filtration systems can reap additional benefits, too - specifically those that protect ice machines, coffee makers, and other kitchen equipment.

Advantages to Your Ice Machines

What restaurant doesn’t operate an ice machine? Well, guess what - commercial water filters for restaurants can substantially improve ice machine maintenance while boosting productivity and efficiency.

First and foremost, filtering your water before you feed it to an ice machine will improve the safety, color, and flavor of the ice you produce.

It will improve safety because many microbes cannot be killed (or at least cannot be effectively killed) by freezing. A qualified filter system can instead remove them from the water before it is used to make ice.

A filter system can also improve the clarity and flavor of ice by eliminating the concentration of minerals in the water that is used to make it. Clearer, purer water makes better-tasting ice, and you get purer, clearer water from a filter system!

Most importantly, eliminating a surplus of dissolved minerals will improve the efficiency of your ice machine and protect it against scale damage.

Advantages to Your Coffee and Espresso Machines

Just as is the case with preparing ice makers with commercial water filters for restaurants, using filters with coffee machines can improve food (drink) safety, boost productivity, improve the quality of the coffee you produce, and protect the machine.

Water filtration systems prevent contaminants, sediments, and minerals from getting inside your coffee machines and spray heads, where they can trap oils, which can become rancid or harbor insidious microbial life.

Filtration systems will keep your coffee machines cleaner, which will improve the safety of your protocols, and of course, will protect the equipment itself. Dirty, scale-ridden coffee machines are inefficient, consume more energy, and fail sooner than machines that are properly maintained and used in conjunction with filtered water.

And, of course, coffee brewed in a machine using filtered water will taste so much better!

Advantages to Your Steam Cooking Equipment

Many food service establishments have steam cookers that can easily and efficiently cook a large volume of food in a high-humidity environment that prevents the food from drying out.

However, it is imperative to use only high-quality, properly filtered water with a steam cooker. The majority of common issues associated with steam cookers have to do with calcification of the boiler system, or with general sediment buildup that prevents proper operation of the machine.

Filtering water before you use it to power your steam cooker can improve the quality of your food while also protecting the machine itself. Filtered water can help prevent the deposition and accumulation of sediment, lime scale, microbial cysts, and so much more.

Not only does this help protect the machine, but using purer water will also result in better tasting food by removing dissolved calcium and minerals, and thereby the untoward flavors that accompany them.

Preventing calcification of the heating element as well as preventing scale accumulation can also improve the efficiency of steam cookers while protecting them from costly, long-term damage that would incur even more costly downtime and maintenance.

Types of Commercial Water Filters for Restaurants

There are two main types of commercial water filters for restaurants, both of which work in slightly different ways.

Predominantly, we offer cartridge-based water filtration systems and reverse osmosis or RO systems. Here’s how they work and what they offer.

Cartridge Bases Water Filtration Systems

Cartridge-based filter systems, which typically use carbon filters, utilize a system that accepts replacement cartridges that contain carbon or activated charcoal, which is highly porous.

Carbon-based filters often have several layers engaged in particulate reduction and some even use a scale inhibitor to ensure that your water is free of contaminants including scale.

Many of these types of systems can remove lead and heavy metals, chlorine and chloramines, dissolved contaminants and sediments, and certain bacteria and microbial cysts.

Reverse Osmosis (RO) Systems

Reverse osmosis systems (which are sometimes used with traditional filter-based systems) force water through a semi-permeable membrane. As water passes through the membrane, it loses dissolved heavy metals, lead, chlorine, particulate contaminants, and other chemicals.

Reverse osmosis systems are typically more effective at removing dissolved contaminants than filter-based systems, but they waste more water during the process of filtration.

Need to Choose a Commercial Water Filter for Your Restaurant?

We carry many different filter types and reverse osmosis systems on our website. If you have any questions about our filters or systems or would like recommendations based on the demands of your establishment, our team is here to help.

Feel free to contact us and we will be happy to help you find the right commercial water filtration system for your restaurant.