I am looking over information from Coke today from a meeting my wife had with their rep. VERY helpful and pleasant person to work with according to Kim. It was a nice change of pace. I have a question from the infor I got.
There was the suggestion that our health department will require a floor drain within 3 feet of the dispenser. It looks like it is for ice-melt draining. Is this some sort of “requirement” where you are? I have been planning all along to use a drain line with a pump since it will be somewhere along 30’ of concrete to bust up to get to the tie-in to put a drain in the floor. I undertand about what amounts to backflow prevention on any drain that leads to something that will be involved in edibles. I just never really planned for a floor drain where we need the fountain set up. It is my intention to contact our health department this week to ask their opinion (as well as scope other setups in the county). I’m just getting the lay of the land for when I speak to our health lady. She is often receptive to effective discussions about options if they are a possibility.
That said, if we end up being required to have said floor drain, then we will find a different location for the fountain. It will be in our server alley, and not a “free feed” system. We are driving towards a market perception just a little above the self-serve sort of feel.
Not only is the drain for the ice melting, it is also for the tray that is under the fountain nozzles (over fills, etc). You will want that to have a drain. I personally wouldn’t use a pump setup for that as the syrup likes to gel and puff up (it does for pepsi anyways) and can plug up some drains. If you put in a drain, i’d make it a 2 inch line, and if you were to have an ice maker draining into that drain, all the better to help keep it flushed out.
You will be glad that you have a drain as close to the unit as possible, it gets completely disgusting and can easily back up even if it is right there.
The amount of mold and crud that accumulates is alarming, even if you keep on top of it.
I would not want to use a drain line of any length because you are going to have issues with a clog and the wider the pipe the better if you ask me.
Here we are required to have an indirect drain under the ice bin of the fountain. If you can- you can attach the indirect drain with the funnel under the ice machine then run a pipe (PVC) to your closest drain. Sounds like alot of work but you can’t put a price on not chopping up your floor.
We had the same situation in one store. We ran a long drain line 1 1/2" thick to the nearest drain. I would recommend installing a clean-out so you can periodically snake it (one a month). As daily maintenance, we run hot water down the drain twice a day and Draino once a month. Over the past four years we have replaced large sections of the pipe twice because of build-up. The next time we will install a clean-out to prevent having to do this. It only takes about 20 minutes to replace some pvc pipe.
Our original location has a line that runs quite a ways to the drain. Probably a women’s 10 or 15 feet. The ice machine also has a line. (Garden hose size lines) Of course this set up was 16 years ago. Our new location has the drain right there. My husband said it was required to have it right there. Lucky for us we had the entire floor cut up to put in the bathrooms. The drain may have been there can’t remember. So that might be the new rule.
On a side note, I would be careful about the self serve soda. But that is a whole different thread. :lol: