Wallace High School is a modern Scottish comprehensive situated at the heart of Stirling, with around 950 pupils plus teaching and ancillary staff. Wallace High is also the first Scottish School of Sport, committed to developing talent and supporting students in football, rugby, swimming, dance and basketball. The School’s ageing dishwasher (from another manufacturer) had come to the end of its working life in 2018, explains Helene Roebuck, Stirling Council’s Facilities Officer.
“We needed to source a new dishwasher and solve some of the issues found with the old machine, especially the high temperatures it generated in the wash up area,” says Roebuck.
The Catering Supervisor at Wallace High School, Zoe Brown, chose the rack type dishwashing machine UPster K-M250 by MEIKO in conjunction with Stirling Council and FES FM. FES FM provides facilities management services to Stirling’s Secondary Schools and looks after the maintenance of the dishwasher following its warranty.
The new machine has benefitted the kitchen staff by washing faster and with better results. It also immediately solved the temperature issue within the wash area, cutting the temperature from 40degC at peak activity, to a more comfortable 22 degC.
In a project managed by MEIKO Partner Distributor James Scott & Sons during the summer break, in August 2018, the dishwash area housing the MEIKO K-M250 received new floors, walls and ceiling.
The MEIKO rack-type dishwasher K-M250 is able to manage its own environment because it features integral heat recovery. This recycles hot air and steam from in and around the dishwasher to pre-heat incoming cold water. It also reduces the ventilation load in the dishwash area and means that dishwashers can be sited in areas that were previously thought unsuitable, such as tight corners or spaces with less than ideal ceiling height.
Catering Supervisor Zoe Brown manages a kitchen team that serves more than 600 covers during the 40-minute lunch break. She immediately noted an increase in throughput from the new rack-type dishwasher.
“It is much faster and washing is now finished within an hour compared to the 80 minutes previously needed.”
The rack-type dishwasher handles the pupil’s crockery, cutlery and trays plus pots, pans and utensils from the kitchen.
Zoe Brown has also noted that the dishwashing machine is easier to clean, thanks to its self-cleaning programme and also the blue colour-coded components. It is also easier to operate; the touch screen is self-explanatory and detergent consumption has been cut by half. But the biggest improvement that Zoe and her team noticed, besides the reduction in temperature in the dishwash area: “Has been an improvement to drying. Now the crockery, cutlery and trays dry as they come out of the machine, which also helps to speed things up.”
