Refurbished Commercial Cooktops & Hobs

Count the pans on the stove at the busiest five minutes of service, not the dishes on the menu. A kitchen that plates sauces to order needs more burners than one that holds them in a bain marie, and a kitchen with a combi oven and a chargrill carrying half the menu needs fewer than its covers would suggest.

Then think about the shape of the burners rather than the count. Two large burners and four small ones is a different machine from six identical ones, and stockpots need a burner that will take the diameter and the weight. In refurbished stock you choose from what exists, so decide the minimum you can run a service on.

The appliance is built and jetted for one or the other, and this is the first thing to confirm against your site. Converting between them is licensed work, it needs the correct conversion kit for that model, and for older imported machines that kit does not always still exist.

Do not assume and do not buy on the expectation of a conversion. Check the product page, and ask us about the specific unit if it is not clear. Getting this wrong is the one mistake in this category that cannot be fixed with a part.

It depends on what else the kitchen has to deal with. Induction puts heat into the pan rather than into the room, so the kitchen is cooler, the control is instant and there is no flame, which can reduce what your ventilation has to shift. Against that, you need induction-compatible pans, and the power supply has to carry it. Commercial induction cooking covers the range.

Gas remains the default for most Australian commercial kitchens, it works in a blackout where induction does not, and any pan works on it. If the site has limited electrical capacity or no gas at all, induction answers the question for you. Otherwise it is a cost-and-comfort decision rather than a cooking one.

Light every burner and watch the flame. It should be stable and even around the ring, and each pilot should hold. Then the burner caps and trivets for cracking, the gas taps for feel, and the drip trays and the body for the kind of corrosion that comes from years of boil-overs.

On an oven range, open the oven and check the door, the seal and the hinges as well, because they are the parts that fail first on the oven half. Ask us what was replaced during the refurbishment rather than what was looked at, and confirm the brand still has service agents in Australia.

Yes to both. Mechanical exhaust is required over commercial cooking appliances and the requirement follows the appliance, not its age or price, so check that your exhaust hood covers the unit and that the total load under it has not outgrown the system.

Connection is a licensed gasfitter's job. They will connect the unit, leak test it and check the burners once it is in position, and that visit needs to be in your timeline because the machine is not ready to cook the day it arrives. Allow for a bayonet and a commercial hose if the unit rolls out for cleaning.

Measure the gap, the depth including any rear gas connection, and the height against the benches either side. Commercial cook lines are built around common bench heights and most freestanding units land in that range, but a refurbished machine comes in the height it was built in, with only feet or castors for adjustment.

Also measure the path in and under the canopy. Machines arrive on castors or a stand and still have to come through the door and around the corner. If the line is being matched across cooktops, grills and fryers, sort the widths together rather than one unit at a time.

Often yes. Silverchef Rent-Try-Buy lets you rent the unit rather than buy it, which keeps cash for the rest of the fit-out and makes the payments an operating expense while the menu settles.

The cooktop is the piece a kitchen is least likely to outgrow and most likely to mis-size at the start, so being able to step up a burner count after the first year is useful. Ask us which units in stock can be put on a rental.