Took me 3 hours to realize my steamer was clogged with a lime scale chunk

I was at Firehouse Bistro in Portland last Thursday, and my veg prep was taking forever. Kept wondering why my broccolini wouldn't soften up. Turns out there was a solid lime scale plug the size of a quarter blocking the steam holes on my combi oven. Had to descale the whole thing twice before it worked right again. Has anyone else been blindsided by a tiny piece of calcium ruining a whole service?

2 comments

2 Comments

jake_kelly248d ago

You ever just stare at a piece of equipment and feel personally attacked by it? I had the exact same thing happen with our dish machine last spring. Could not figure out why the glasses were coming out cloudy no matter how much rinse aid I dumped in. Three days of customers sending back waters and sodas before I finally pulled the spray arm off and found a calcified blob the size of my pinky nail blocking one hole. Ran four descaling cycles and it still took another week to get the cloudiness gone completely. The worst part was how simple the fix was compared to all the time I wasted angry troubleshooting.

rosek738d ago

@jake_kelly24 that calcified blob is a nightmare. Only thing that worked for me was pulling the whole spray arm off and soaking it in white vinegar overnight.