Many restaurants and bars use refrigerated drink dispensers to save costs on beverages while offering cold and refreshing beverages to their guests. Beyond the food and beverage industry, however, are movie theaters, schools, and hotels, which also use drink dispensers to keep customers’ cups filled. Ensuring these drink dispensers are clean and maintained is important to the health of people being served, and also important for the long-term use of the machine.
Thanks to advances in ozone generation technology, disinfecting drink dispensers with the powerful oxidizing power of ozone has become a smarter option for many of these businesses. Ozonated water is safe and effective in keeping drink dispensers at your business free of harmful bacteria and free from unwanted chemical residues leftover by conventional cleaning chemicals. For more info on the advantages of cleaning with ozone, read our article: How Ozonated Water Works
Why ozone for drink dispensers?
Thanks to the reactivity of ozone on a molecular level, the O3 molecule begins breaking down almost instantly after being generated in the water supply. This leaves behind only clean, fresh water, and regular stable oxygen. Ozone’s reactivity is also why ozonated water is most effective as a disinfectant if it is used within the first five to ten minutes after being generated. For more info on how ozonated water is created, check out our article (link).
While most quality drink dispensers are used seven to ten years on average, they must be cleaned regularly for a business to get the most out of their purchase. With ozonated water, these machines can be kept running constantly clean for customer safety and giving peace of mind to business owners.
How to clean a drink dispenser with ozonated water
Below are basic instructions for how to integrate the power of ozone into the cleaning routine for your business’ drink dispenser(s).
1. Daily Cleaning
The dispensers, nozzles, drain area, and external surface of the drink dispenser should be cleaned at least once at the end of each business day. Turn off the machine before disassembling the pieces from the front of the machine.
For basic daily cleaning, the nozzles, as well as any diffusers, which add the drink’s syrup to the carbonated water, should be detached from the machine. With ozonated water available on-premise, we recommend a two-part disinfectant process.
For plastic or metal nozzles and diffusers, they can be submerged in a plastic tub of active ozonated water from the Water Disinfection System (WDS) and left to sit for two to three minutes. Meanwhile, with an Ozone Spray Bottle (OSB) full of active ozonated water and a clean cloth, an employee can wipe down the exterior face of the drink dispenser. They should pay close attention to the drain area and the area around where the nozzle connects to the machine.
Any containers on top of the machine should also be disconnected and wiped down inside and out with the ozonated water solution. Give all implements several minutes to air dry before re-assembling the machine, making it ready for immediate use at the start of the next work shift.
2. Weekly beverage line cleaning drink dispensers
Each week, it is recommended that any tubes supplying beverages be disconnected and thoroughly sanitized. This can be done by switching the water source to the ozonated water pipeline supplied by the PFDS series. Fill the entire pipeline and the equipment with ozonated water through the water discharge of the equipment, and switch the water source back to the beverage dispenser after the sanitation is completed.
3. Monthly Cleaning
It is also important to clean the ice tray and ice dispenser, along with other parts of the machine at least every four weeks (or more frequently). Typically an ice machine may need to be deep cleaned every four to six months to ensure the ice cubes consumed by customers reach a proper hygiene standard. Using the IDS (Ice Disinfection System) by Biosure will make this process easier, as you only need to deal with the problem every half a year. This helps reduce the costs of labor, time, and money when deep cleaning if the ice machine is required.
Benefits of Ozonated Water
Some top-of-the-line water dispensers are even integrating ozone generation as part of the machine’s cleaning system. The ozone in the water supply will quickly dissipate and poses no threat to people drinking from the water dispenser provided the ozone is given sufficient time to break down, and not even affect the taste.
In addition to the power of ozonated water as a potent anti-bacterial agent, in the long term, business owners will save money and space that would have been used on purchasing and storing cleaning chemicals. Using ozone as a cleaning agent will contribute to your business’s commitment to sustainability.
A business’ drink dispenser can be an important tool for promoting the public image of a business. This is especially true if the machine is located in front of the house for self-service by customers. While style and service capabilities are always important, cleanliness, both internally and on external surfaces, is no less important to the image a business provides to its customers. With the power of ozone-generation technology, there is no need to worry about the cleanliness of your equipment or the health of your customers being compromised ever again.
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