A Restaurant’s Worst Nightmare? Mobile Dishwashers: An article about why mobile dishwashers are stressful for restaurants.

It’s the worst nightmare of many a restaurant manager: Dishwashers who come in late, leave early, or call in sick. Now, a technology that aims to put an end to those headaches is beginning to show up on restaurant back lots across the country. Called mobile dishwashers, these huge machines can be driven onto the premises and hooked up to existing water supplies at a moment’s notice.

On average, restaurant managers say they need about three of these mobile machines for every four regular dishwashing jobs they have filled; the rest are used as backups and fill-ins. What’s more, they can fetch rents of $125 or more a day–or $25,000 a year per machine. That’s especially high considering that no operator has yet been able to make much money on them so far because their cost is so high. The small company that makes them–Mobile Dishwashing Inc., of Anaheim, Calif.–is selling each machine for $150,000–more than double the price of equipment that does similar work in permanent installations.

The mobile dishwasher is one of those inventions that seem almost inevitable once someone points them

A restaurant’s worst nightmare? Mobile dishwashers: An article about why mobile dishwashers are stressful for restaurants.

The kitchen was a hectic place. At least 6 people were working at once, some cooking and some cleaning. The air was thick with the smell of grease and food. A man yelled out a line of orders to the staff, and they quickly worked together to complete them. It was a small restaurant, but it was popular in the area. It had been so successful that they were now building a new location.

However, this small restaurant was not as fancy as many others its size. In fact, it didn’t even have a dishwasher! The servers would clean all of their dishes by hand in a sink full of hot water and soap, which took quite some time. But that wasn’t important because the restaurant only had about 30 employees, so there were plenty of hands for cleaning dishes every day. However, after hearing about how much faster dishwashers could clean dishes than people could do it themselves, one employee decided to buy one for his workplace. He knew that if he convinced his boss then all other members of staff would follow along willingly too because they would all want to save time when washing up after work each evening.”

A restaurant’s worst nightmare? A mobile dishwasher. That is, an employee who has the ability to wash dishes while on the move. As a chef at one of the city’s top restaurants, I know that having a mobile dishwasher can mean the difference between success and failure.

I’ve had many experiences with mobile dishwashers, and this is what I have learned:

First of all, you should never go anywhere without a mobile dishwasher. They’re just not portable enough. You could be in the middle of cooking dinner when your mobile dishwasher will run out of battery power. This will result in you having to stop what you’re doing and go charge it up, which will cause problems for everyone else in your kitchen.

Second, don’t get a cheap one. You want something that’s going to last you a while and not break down after a couple of months. I’m not saying that cheap ones are bad; they just aren’t as good as more expensive ones.

Third, avoid getting one with a lot of bells and whistles. All those extra features add up to more money in the long run, so it’s best to stick with something simple but effective.

And lastly, don’t forget about cleaning! A dirty

So how do these mobile dishwashers work? The trick is to use the bus tubs that they collect dishes in as the dirty-dish holding component of a three-compartment sink (the other two compartments would be for washing and sanitizing). These units hook up to existing water and drain lines, so you don’t need anything fancy like a water heater. They’re also on wheels, so they can be moved around to different stations as needed.

So are these mobile dishwashers a restaurant’s worst nightmare? Not necessarily. Given the right circumstances and expectations, they can be very helpful. If you’re a busy chef who needs your dishes washed now, these units could be your savior. Just make sure whoever is operating them knows what he’s doing and is willing to do it properly.

When restaurants need to save money, they can turn to a company called Mobile Dishwashers.

The firm rents out dishwashers. It makes sure the equipment is up-to-date and in working order, too, which saves restaurants time and stress.

“It’s like an insurance policy,” says Michael Rubinstein, the CEO of Mobile Dishwashers. “We’re there 24/7.”

Mobile Dishwashers was founded in 2002, when many restaurants cut costs after 9/11. Now, during the recession, some restaurateurs are again turning to the firm for help. But some restaurant owners are not happy about renting dishwashers from Mobile Dishwashers. They say that the machines break down a lot and that Mobile Dishwashers doesn’t always respond quickly enough when problems occur.

“I’m not sure how they stay in business,” said Bill Rudofsky, who owns a barbecue restaurant called Bub City in Chicago. He has complained about Mobile Dishwashers on Twitter and Yelp. “They just ignore their customers.”

Mobile Dishwashers’ Rubinstein says that his company mostly works well with customers. “We’re not perfect,” he admits. “But we do our best.”

When we first saw the mobile dishwashers in action, we were impressed. As it turned out, however, we were not nearly as impressed as the staffs of the two restaurants we visited. Mobile dishwashers are currently being marketed to restaurants by a company called Clean Machine. We chose to visit two restaurants: one which used its mobile dishwasher for only three months and one which had used it for almost two years.

The first restaurant manager we talked to was enthusiastic about mobile dishwashers. He told us that his waitresses had easy access to clean glasses and no longer left their tables to wash dishes. The customers, he said, did not have to wait as long for their food because the waitresses could now spend more time serving them instead of washing dishes.

The second restaurant manager we talked to was also pleased with his mobile dishwasher, but he had several criticisms. First, he complained that the machine was too small. Even though his restaurant was smaller than the first one we visited, he still had trouble fitting all of his pans and utensils into it. Second, he thought that the washing time was too long; with conventional dishwashers, he said, a load takes only about ten minutes to wash and another ten minutes to dry

For two years, I’ve been working as a mobile dishwasher for a catering company in San Francisco. Unlike the cooks, who work at the catering company’s kitchen and are assigned to events by their managers, I receive all my work from the company’s online platform, where gigs are posted by event coordinators.

Some of these gigs are great: prestigious venues with good pay, easy setup/cleanup, and kind customers. But for every good gig, it seems there’s another one that nearly causes me to quit on the spot. Here are five types of bad gigs you might encounter as a mobile dishwasher — and some tips on how to deal when you do.