Health department requiring floor through drain for cleaning mixer

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Pizzoun

New member
I am looking for an advice. We have a floor type mixer with removable bowl. The bowl can be washed in three compartment sink. Health department says that the sink is too small for washing and we need to install floor through drain next to the mixer. It seems to us as not ideal solution to wash the mixer bowl on the floor with the hose. The kitchen is not too big and it seems that this approach will create a lot of mess. Also don’t believe it will be easier to clean or sanitize. Health department still insists or tell us to use table top mixer (which is very small for our purpose). Can anyone experienced help us with some suggestions? We are close to opening. All city inspectors signed off, only health department is pending. Los Angeles County
 
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This should have been caught on the plan check. Is your installed mixer different from the one on the plan check? Installing a floor sink will cost you several thousand easy and maybe closer to 10k, plus weeks or months of time. I would see if they would let you install a bigger dish sink that would hold the bowl. That would only be 1K to 2K.
 
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I had to deal with this issue in Orange County. I decided to purchase an adapter for my hobart mixer and a 30 qt bowl to fit into the 3 comp sink to pass inspection. While this may cost some money it will get the job done and get you open .

Steve
 
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Steve’s approach might be the cheapest and fastest as well as easiest to implement BUT remember with a smaller bowl you will also need the appropriate mixing attachments for the new, smaller bowl size. The part you will be looking for using this approach is called a “bowl adapter”. A single adapter will allow you to use the next smaller size bowl, if you need to go smaller than that you will need multiple adapters, for example: With an 80-quart mixer and bowl you can come down to a 60-quart bowl using a single adapter but if you need to come down to a 40-quart bowl size you will also need to have a 60 to 40-quart bowl adapter, and like I said, mixing attachments must be sized for your new bowl size.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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It looks like his bowl is from a spiral mixer. I didn’t know there were adapters for those type of mixers. But like Pizzapirate said, I’d check with them to see if a bigger comp sink will do the trick.
 
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If it’s a spiral mixer he’s stuck with what he has as there are no provisions that I’m aware of for installing a smaller bowl. If the bowl is on a dolly we usually wash the bowl and pull it over to where there is a floor drain and remove the drain plug from the bowl allowing it to drain directly into the floor drain. If the bowl doesn’t have a drain plug a metal fabricating shop can make one for the bowl. A 1/4-inch or thicker patch is welded onto the bowl, a hole is then drilled and the hole tapped for a plug which is easily made from a piece of UHMW round bar stock of appropriate diameter, the plug is tapped and the length is cut so when installed from the outside the plug is even with the inside of the bowl. Many spiral mixers come with this as a standard feature. I’m, on record as recommending that a mixer not be purchased unless it has a bowl drain plug…yes, they’re that handy.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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I just bought a shop. It has a Hobart 60qt and the bowl definitely does NOT fit in the sink. There is a floor drain very close to the mixer. Is it reasonable to assume that the previous owners used this drain and that the health inspector was okay with that?
 
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When I was at AIB we had to have a sink large enough to fit a Hobart 80-qt. bowl into it in our shops.
All health inspectors are different, the problem is that you might have one right now that has no problem with the smaller sink but the next one might have objections…that’s the good news, the bad news is that there isn’t much you can do about it. If you’re doing a new build out or replacing an existing sink make sure you get their approval for the sink dimensions first, then have them sign off on it after installation, this way if anyone ever comes back at you on the sink you can show that what you have met with their approval at the time and they’ll most likely grant you an exemption to any new change.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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