I tell my clients buying equipment is a lot like buying a new car. You need to put a few miles on it before you know what adjustments need to be made in order to achieve peak performance.
Here are a few of the guidelines we gave them:

1. Buy your equipment from a reputable dealer.

Don’t choose a dealer just because they’re close by. Many of the restaurants we opened last year purchased their equipment from dealers outside their state. We had the dealers bid on the equipment and installation (see #2). We made sure to contact a number of the dealer’s previous customers to insure they were happy with the dealer and that the dealer stood by them when equipment went down.

2. The equipment dealer must also be responsible for the equipment installation.

The biggest problem that we have run into during openings is not that the equipment breaks down. The big problem is who is going to be responsible for the repair. We have found that when the equipment is purchased from one company and the installation is purchased from a second company, nobody takes responsibility for equipment that is down. The installer says the piece of equipment is bad and the dealer says that it is the way it was installed.

We have now made it a requirement during the bidding process that any company that wants to sell our customers equipment must also install or be responsible for the installation. This way we have a single contact for any equipment problem that may come up.

3. Bid the kitchen drawings out separately.

I know that you may have talked to equipment dealers who tell you if you buy your equipment through them, they will give you the kitchen design for free. Although that may sound like a great deal, we recommend that our customers pay for the drawings separately and the kitchen design company or equipment dealer doing the drawings put together our bid packages so that we can bid out the job. We inform them up-front that if the job is awarded to the same company that did our drawings, then we will expect them to give us a discount of 50% off the drawings after we have received their bid.

4. Test drive your new equipment.

We also tell our clients to set aside a day or two well in advance of the opening that are dedicated to testing and calibrating their new equipment. This not only can prevent some problems once you’re restaurant is really open to the public, it will also give your chef(s) an opportunity to “test drive” the equipment, determine reasonable production times and check the quality and appearance of the typical menu items you will be serving.

The one thing I always tell customers and potential customers is that if a restaurant is going to fail, it will fail 6 months to 1 year prior to opening! Not planning for equipment problems and who is going to fix that equipment can hurt your restaurant for years to come.

Isidore “Izzy” Kharasch is the President of Hospitality Works, Inc., an international foodservice consulting company, located in the Chicago area. He serves as an adjunct faculty member and Advisory Board member of Roosevelt University, Kendall College and the Lexington Institute of Hospitality.