Start with the cleaning scope, not the equipment list
Before any quotation is compared, write down exactly what is being cleaned. In large-scale catering the same trolley of equipment is washed differently depending on where it sits: a tilt kettle needs a different approach from a combi oven, and a conveyor dishwasher housing cannot be treated the way you would treat a work table. Build a simple inventory that records, for each item, its surface area, how heavy the soiling is, whether it is cleaned daily or weekly, and whether it must be taken out of service to be cleaned.
That inventory matters because cost is driven by frequency and access, not by the number of machines. A hood and duct system cleaned quarterly, for example, looks cheap per event but is expensive per hour of technician time. A steaming cabinet cleaned every evening looks small per event but dominates the annual budget once you multiply it by 300 or more cycles. Cost per year, not cost per clean, is the figure that supports a purchase decision.
The five cost lines a facility should price
1. Labour hours, including waiting time
In most kitchens, labour is the largest single line in cleaning cost. Price it honestly: include scraping and pre-treatment, the cleaning pass, rinsing, drying, and the time staff spend waiting for a machine to heat up or for a surface to cool before it can be touched. When a method requires repeated scrubbing to lift carbonised fat, that scrubbing time belongs to the method, not to the operator.
2. Water and the cost of handling it
Water appears in the bill as supply and, in many facilities, as heating energy and waste-water disposal. It also appears as floor time: heavy hosing leaves standing water that must be squeegeed, mopped and dried before the area is safe to walk on. If your kitchen operates during service hours, that drying window is a capacity cost. A central kitchen cleaning equipment option that applies heat with low water volume changes this line, because it trades water and drying time against machine time.
3. Chemicals, dwell time and rinse steps
Chemical degreasers carry a purchase cost, but the larger cost is usually hidden in the process: dwell time while the product works, the rinse water that follows, storage and handling controls, staff training, and the disposal of the resulting effluent. In food areas you also pay for separation — keeping chemical work away from exposed food and open preparation surfaces. Ask suppliers of PowerDe cleaning equipment and chemical vendors the same question: how many process steps remain after the cleaning agent is applied, and what does each step cost in labour and water?
4. Production downtime
For a cook-chill central kitchen supplying many outlets, one hour out of service is measured in lost portions, not in square metres. Clean-in-place or clean-while-warm methods can be scheduled inside an existing gap between production runs, whereas strip-and-clean work often needs a quiet window or a weekend shift with overtime rates. When comparing two options, convert downtime into the value of the production you would otherwise lose, plus the premium wage rate required to do the job outside normal hours.
5. Compliance, records and wear on assets
Auditors expect evidence, so cost includes the paperwork: the cleaning schedule, the log of who did what and when, and the temperature or contact-time records that support your procedure. Aggressive mechanical scrubbing and strong alkaline products also shorten the life of gaskets, painted panels, insulation and non-stick surfaces, and that replacement cost belongs in the comparison. A method that removes grease without abrasion usually shows up on the maintenance budget rather than the cleaning budget.
How a steam-based method changes the arithmetic
Where a facility relies on hot water and chemicals, a central kitchen degreasing programme based on saturated steam shifts cost between lines: it reduces water and drying time, and it removes most chemical handling, but it puts more weight on the equipment and on operator technique. Fixed installations, such as the PowerDe HW02 described on its product page as a 220 V high-temperature, high-pressure machine with switchable dry and wet steam, suit a permanent position in a kitchen where the same equipment is cleaned on a fixed routine. Dry steam is the lower-moisture setting, useful where you want heat on a surface without flooding the floor; wet steam carries more moisture and is used where the soil needs to be loosened first.
Because steam is energy-intensive and slower to cover large floor areas, evaluate it against the surface where it actually helps: vertical stainless panels, hoods, filter frames, the exterior of kettles and steam cabinets, and joints where grease rebuilds. Floor areas are usually still cheaper to wash by conventional means. A realistic model uses steam where the soil is greasy and access is tight, and hot water where the area is large and open.
A simple way to run the numbers
Take your five highest-cost cleaning tasks. For each one, record the operator minutes per cycle, machine or equipment minutes per cycle, litres of water used, chemical cost per cycle, and whether the task requires a premium shift. Multiply each by its annual frequency and add the results. Then price one alternative method on the same sheet, keeping every other variable identical so the comparison measures the method rather than the site. Where a supplier offers a trial or demonstration on your own equipment, run that same sheet during the trial — a demonstration that shows reduced operator minutes on a hood or a kettle exterior is worth more than a specification sheet.
Finally, keep the model honest by reviewing it quarterly. Grease load changes with the menu, menus change with season, and a method chosen for one production pattern may not suit the next one. A cost model you maintain is a decision tool; a cost model you file is just paperwork.
Questions to put to suppliers
- What is the heat-up time from cold to the setting you will actually use, and is that time inside or outside my labour figure?
- What is the water inlet requirement, and can the unit run on the taps and power already available in my kitchen?
- Which parts are wear items, how often are they replaced, and what do they cost?
- Can you demonstrate on my own equipment, on my shift pattern, and let me time the operator?
- What training does my team need, and how long until they are productive?
PowerDe presents itself as a manufacturer of intelligent cleaning equipment, with engineering services covering customisation and testing. If your cleaning programme needs a configuration matched to a specific production line or kitchen layout, discuss the requirement as an application rather than as a catalogue item, and ask for the parameters of the unit in writing before the trial.
