Chef Base Refrigerators

It is a refrigerated counter built low, so a griddle, chargrill, salamander or cooking suite can stand on top of it at working height. The cold storage goes directly beneath the equipment it feeds, which saves a cook walking to an under bench fridge in the middle of service.

The food is held in drawers or behind doors. The top is stainless steel and built to take the weight of the cooking equipment above it, which is the difference between a chef base and an ordinary under bench fridge.

Drawers for anything held in gastronorm pans. A cook opens the drawer, takes what they need and shuts it, and the pans stay where they were put. Most chef bases REO offers are drawer units, in one, two, three, four and six drawer layouts.

Doors for tubs, boxes, trays of protein and anything that won't fit a gastronorm pan. You get one open cavity with shelves instead of fixed pan positions, and the Electrolux 700XP refrigerated base is offered in a two door version. Doors also cost less to maintain, because every drawer runs on slides and a gasket that wear with each pull.

Measure the gap in the bench line and the cooking equipment going on top before anything else. REO offers chef bases from 900mm up to 2790mm wide, so a single griddle station and a full cooking suite are both covered.

Check the height as well. The griddle or chargrill standing on the top has to finish at a height your staff can work at, so it is the base height plus the equipment height that decides whether the line works. Dimensions are shown on each product page.

Yes, as long as the condenser gets air. A chef base is built to work under hot equipment, but every fridge sheds heat through its condenser and that heat has to go somewhere. Box the unit into a tight run of benching with no clearance and the compressor will run far longer to hold the same temperature.

Keep the vents clear and clean the condenser on a schedule. On a cook line it picks up grease as well as dust, and a greasy condenser is the most common reason a chef base starts running warm. Leave the clearance the manufacturer specifies, which is shown on each product page.

Gastronorm pans, and the drawer layout decides how many. The Turbo Air TCB15-4-N has four drawers and holds six 1/1 gastronorm pans. Other units are configured differently, so the pan count is shown on each product page.

Buy your gastronorm pans from the same supplier as the chef base. Gastronorm is a standard size, but slight differences between brands mean a cross-brand pan cannot be guaranteed to seat properly in the drawer. REO offers gastronorm trays to go with them.

Some units can. The Williams Vari Temp drawer cabinets hold a variable temperature, so the same unit can be set to run as a fridge or as a freezer, and they come in a single drawer and a two drawer version. That suits a line where the job changes between breakfast and dinner service.

Most chef bases are refrigeration only. If you need frozen product under the cook line and the unit you want is a fridge, buy a separate under bench freezer. A fridge turned down as far as it goes will not hold frozen product safely. The temperature each unit holds is shown on its product page.

Drawer gaskets and drawer slides, most often. A drawer is opened and shut hundreds of times in a service, and the gasket flattens where it takes the wear, so warm air leaks in around the pans. Gaskets and slides are wear and tear components that need to be replaced periodically, and they cost very little next to the cabinet.

The condenser is the other one. Grease from the griddle or chargrill above settles on the fins along with dust, the heat can't escape and the compressor runs flat out. A pan overfilled so the drawer won't shut properly does the same thing from the other direction, and a drawer left open through service will stop the unit holding temperature on its own.

Warm soapy water and a non-abrasive cloth on the stainless steel top and the drawer interiors. Avoid bleach and abrasive cleaners, because they pit stainless steel and damage gaskets. Take the pans out and wash them separately.

Wipe the drawer gaskets every week, because grease left sitting in the seal is what makes it go hard and stop sealing. Clean the condenser on a schedule as well, with a brush and a vacuum and the power off. On a cook line that is a monthly job, not a quarterly one.

Check the power requirement on the product page before you book a delivery date. A 15 amp plug has a wider earth pin and won't fit a standard 10 amp socket until an electrician installs one, so confirm what the unit needs while the kitchen is still being wired.

Give the unit its own circuit if the switchboard allows it. A compressor draws a surge every time it starts, and sharing a circuit with a griddle, a microwave and a toaster will eventually trip a breaker overnight and leave you with warm food in the morning.

Access first. A chef base is heavy and up to 2790mm wide, so measure the doorways, the corridor and any lift between the truck and the spot it is going into before delivery day.

Stand the unit upright and leave it a few hours before you switch it on, particularly if it has travelled on its back or on a lean, so the compressor oil can drain back. Then run it empty with the drawers shut and let it pull down, with your own thermometer inside, before you load any food into it.

Check the unit for transit damage as soon as it arrives and tell REO within 24 hours. Not two days, not two weeks. REO offers a 24-hour replacement guarantee on transit damage, and it only applies if you tell us inside that window.

Get the wrapping off while the driver is still there if you can, and look over the stainless top, the drawer fronts, the corners and the base rail. Photograph the packaging and any damage before the unit is moved, and send the photographs through with the order number. A chef base is heavy, and a knock in the truck can bend a drawer frame without leaving a mark on the carton.

Buy on best value for money, not the lowest ticket price. That means the longest warranty and the lowest total cost of ownership over the life of the unit, taking in what it costs to run and what it costs to repair across the years you keep it. Warranty terms are shown on each product page. Williams, True Refrigeration, Electrolux, Turbo Air and Skope sit at the premium end, and Thermaster and FED-X carry warranty and after-sales support that are unbeatable for their price point.

Silverchef Rent-Try-Buy is how a lot of venues pay for the unit they actually want. You rent the chef base instead of buying it outright, the rental payments go through as an operating expense, and your cash stays in the rest of the fit-out. Buy the unit out later or move up to a wider model as the business grows.