Pot washing

Key takeaways

Pot washing belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Pot washing to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Pot washing from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Pot washing is the process of cleaning low to heavily baked-on items off of restaurant kitchen food equipment, including pots, pans, trays, tubs and more. Pot washing is often a heavy sector in restaurants and kitchens, ergonomically a burden and a bottleneck in the process. It is often difficult to keep the pot-washing area clean and overall can be quite labor-intensive.

Different pot-washing applications

Manual handwashing The classic and “old” process for cleaning pots and pans is the manual hand-washing method. Washing pots and pans by hand is still the ideal way to do the job. Cleaning by hand involves a pot-washing sink, which almost always is divided into 3 different sections. The first section, or "sink", is where the pots are washed and scrubbed. The middle section is for rinsing and the third for sanitizing.

Power scrubber In simple terms, the power scrubber is a pot brush with an electric motor. Recognizing the effort it takes to scrub pots with baked-on food or grease, at least one manufacturer has designed these brushes to rotate on flexible power shafts and scour pots, pans and utensils with minimal effort. The power unit for the scrubber typically mounts on the wall at the pot sink and is connected to a six-foot flexible shaft used to scrub the soiled dishware. One manufacturer makes a variety of brushes and scrubbers that can be easily changed on the shaft. In addition to the traditional brushes, there are wire brushes for scouring tougher soil and even an impregnated plastic composite head for scrubbing baked-on carbon deposits from pots and baking pans.

Recirculating soaker Fairly new to the restaurant industry, the recirculating soaker does most of the work itself with little manual scrubbing required. While the actual design is a bit more complex, these units basically consist of a big water pump built into a pot sink. The cleaning formula behind the recirculator is simply water agitation or water moving around soiled pots and pans to loosen and wash away food particles and dirt. While this motion will quickly wash away light to medium soil, heavy soil and baked-on carbon deposits could require some scrubbing. Some units also have built-in heaters that work in conjunction with the circulating jets. By keeping the water warm, these heaters act as an aid in loosening soil. Several types of recirculators are currently on the market. Effective and reasonably priced, the smaller units are composed of fractional horsepower attachments to a pot sink, which loops water through a pump at one end of the sink. All that is needed to retrofit most recirculators in the pot sink is an electrical outlet and a mechanic who will make the appropriate cutout in your sink. One manufacturer has introduced a unit that is able to recirculate, agitate and heat water using the existing drain hole as the water inlet. This new unit can be installed easily and does not require any holes to be punched in the sink itself. On the other hand, if you run a larger operation and use a lot of labor to wash pots, it might be worth the extra money to go big. Most of the larger recirculating soakers are bought as an entire specialized pot sink in an integral unit and cannot be retrofitted into an existing sink. These might have a 1¼ or 2 horsepower (1.5 kW) motor with water intakes and outlet jets perfectly positioned in a properly sized sink bowl. Essentially custom built for different types of operations and the space configuration available, the larger recirculators are available in three compartment sink sizes with various options. In addition to requiring a three-phase supply for the water pump and high-power heater, these larger units have wash sinks with up to 75 U.S. gallons (280 L) of water capacity for handling many pots and pans. Some of the other options available with recirculators include built-in waste disposers, drain boards of various lengths, shelves over or under and additional scraper sinks. Along with the standard heater for the wash tank that keeps the water at about 120 °F (49 °C), operators can choose sanitizer sink heaters that boost water to 180 °F (82 °C). As operators use these recirculating soakers as a replacement for ordinary pot washing, they will find that using this type of equipment has even more advantages: reduced labor, cleaner pots and pans, and improved morale among pot washers.

Heated soak tanks Another recent innovation is that of heated soak tanks. These tanks come in various sizes, but all act off the same principles. The tanks are heated to a temperature of approximately 185 °F (85 °C) which acts as a catalyst for the chemical reactions whereby the carbon and fats from the heavily soiled pots and pans break down. The chemicals used in these cleaning tanks are non caustic and often biodegradable, with a PH of 10-11. Lightly soiled items can be soaked for a couple of hours, whilst badly burnt pots should be soaked over night. The tanks are known to be used in no less than 20 000 restaurants worldwide.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pot washing

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pot washing claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Pot washing before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Pot washing ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Pot washing

In research: Pot washing appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Pot washing in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Pot washing is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cleaning, Dishwashing, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pot washing outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Pot washing in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Pot washing means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Pot washing out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pot washing in simple terms?

Pot washing is the process of cleaning low to heavily baked-on items off of restaurant kitchen food equipment, including pots, pans, trays, tubs and more. Pot washing is often a heavy sector in restaurants and kitchens, ergonomically a burden and a bottleneck in the process.

Why does Pot washing matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Pot washing?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Pot washing.