Commercial Steamers Go Green and Make Green

FT. WAYNE , IN - It’s not often that restaurants and commercial kitchens get excited about replacing a piece of equipment.  But that is exactly what the buzz is on some of the connectionless steamers that are on the market today.

For quite some time the food service industry has received a bad rap for not taking enough steps towards protecting the environment.  It is no longer whether to go green, but how to get there that is the question.  While the majority of facilities have switched to bio-degradable cleaning solutions there are still many areas where the industry is considered to be “e-co hogs”.  According to USGBC, LEED “promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health:  sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.”

Connectionless Steamers

Connectionless steamers address two of the five key areas.  A typical steamer design incorporates a separate boiler or steam generator to produce steam for the cooking compartment.  They force steam from the boiler into the cooking cavity. Inside the cooking cavity, excess steam leaves the cavity through a drain, where it is condensed by a stream of cold water.  The cooling water must lower the temperature of the condensate below 160°F.

A typical connectionless steamer returns condensed steam to the reservoir, instead of draining it outside the compartment.  There is no continuous flow of water cooling the condensate.  A typical 6-pan connectionless steamer consumes only one to two gallons of water/hour when operating at peak capacity.  This is a savings of 174,500 gallons of water per year.  And as an added cost saving advantage, no water run off means lower sewage costs. 

Energy-Star Rated Steamer

Besides the water savings many connectionless steamers have earned the Energy Star rating. Tests show traditional steamers use as much as 101 kw/day while the connectionless steamers will use as little as 12 kw/day. This saves on average 89 kw/day. If you use the formula of 1 kw/hour is equal to 1.5 lbs. of carbon you save 48,727.5 lbs of carbon yearly.  It would take about 125 trees to offset one year of co2 emission from traditional steamers.*  When you look at it this way connectionless steamers are one of the easiest ways the food service industry can become eco-friendly.

Even with the money savings in water and energy costs most operators who use a connectionless steamer are happier with the dramatic reduction in maintenance time and repair costs.  De-liming and maintaining a conventional steamer takes a great deal of time which translates into payroll dollars.  Since the connectionless steamer does not need a water line, requires little maintenance, and utilizes no plumbing connections the maintenance savings drop right to the bottom line.

To highlight a few of the advantages of a connectionless steamer:

1. Does not utilize a boiler. Therefore, there is not an atmospheric generator, pump, float, or solenoid valve to clog, break, or need service.

2.  Does not need a water line.  Therefore no need to strategically place water and drain connections.

3. Uses 90-99% less water than conventional steamers.  Translates to not only water usage savings but sewer savings as well.

4.  Uses 60-67% less energy when compared to same size conventional steamer.

5.  No de-liming required.  Daily wiping of the chamber is all the maintenance necessary.

6.  Easy to install.

In summary, installing connectionless steamers could be not only the easiest way to make an impact on going green, but also the best move for an operator’s bottom line.  To view more information and compare different brands of connectionless steamers go to www.comparesteamers.com.

*Tree calculation done at http://www.carbonify.com/carbon-calculator.htm

Evaluating the Water Savings Potential of Commercial “Connectionless” Food Steamers

In response to an increased emphasis by the food service industry on operating cost reductions, numerous manufacturers have introduced a “connectionless” technology within their steam cooker product lines. Connectionless steamers (alternatively referred to as boilerless steamers) have a heated water reservoir in the bottom of the cooking compartment in lieu of a dedicated boiler or steam generator. There is no periodic de-scaling (de-liming) of a boiler required, the open reservoir is readily cleaned and, in electric steamers, the heating elements are isolated from the water and therefore not subjected to damaging scale build-up or corrosion. In addition to mitigating a maintenance burden associated with conventional boiler-based steamers, both water and energy consumption are dramatically reduced. What differentiates the connectionless technology from its counterpart is that in connectionless steamers, the steam that condenses on the food product and compartment walls remains within the cavity and returns to the reservoir as opposed to being rejected to an open condensate drain. Since the hot condensate returned to the reservoir is recycled, the overall consumption of steam (i.e., water and energy) is reduced. Furthermore, since there is no steam rejected to a drain, there is no requirement for condensate-cooling water, which represents a large portion of the water used by boiler-based steamers. The absence of water and drain connections also simplifies the installation and reduces the associated cost of the connectionless steamers.

Since the development of the ASTM Standard Test Method for the Performance of Steam Cookers by the Food Service Technology Center in 1995, the FSTC has tested various connectionless and boiler-based compartment steamers under controlled laboratory test conditions. In addition to determining cooking-energy efficiency and production capacities, researchers recorded water consumption rates of between 20 and 40 gallons per hour per compartment for boiler-based steamers, while the consumption rate for connectionless steamers was less than 2 gallons per hour. While it was reasonable to extrapolate a foodservice operation’s total water consumption of a connectionless steamer based on the consumption rate test data from the lab (because of the low order of magnitude), there was no authoritative “real-world” field test data documenting the total water consumption for boiler-based units. Since it is the quantity of water used by the old technology (rather than the lack of water used by the new technology) that impacts the water-saving potential of this new steamer technology, an end-use monitoring project to explore the water savings potential of connectionless compartment steamers in commercial kitchens was initiated by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Also participating in the project was the East Bay Municipal Utility District of Oakland, CA, the Southern California Edison Company, and the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. The main objective of this study was to quantify the annual water savings that could be achieved in commercial kitchens by replacing conventional boiler-based, atmospheric compartment steamers with equivalently sized models of the new generation connectionless steamers. Southern California Edison and PG&E added an energy-measurement component to the project because the water and energy consumption of food steamers is closely linked.

The information in this report is based on data generated by Fisher-Nickel, inc and the Food Service Technology Center
MWD ICP: Evaluating the Water Savings Potential of Commercial Connectionless Steamers
Agreement No. 55354-Final Report

The field test consisted of a total of twelve sites in which eleven boiler-based and three boilerless steamers were monitored to determine water and energy consumption in real-world kitchen settings, where the energy and water consumption was dependent on many factors including daily operating time, food products and cooking procedures, as well as the design and control strategy of the steamer itself. The data shows that the boiler-based steamers averaged approximately 30 times more water consumption than the boilerless, high-efficiency counterparts (407 gal/day vs. 14 gal/day), and on a per-compartment basis, the boiler-based units had an average water consumption rate of 40.5 gal/hour, while the connectionless steamers used les than 2 gal/hour. For the electric boiler-based steamers, the daily energy consumption was five times more (89 kWh/day vs. 17kWh/day), and the average energy consumption rate was almost twice as much (8kW vs. 4.5kW).

Data from one of the sites tested are shown below. In [Case Study 1], a restaurant with an older 3-pan boiler-based steamer was compared to an identical restaurant from the same chain that had replaced its old steamer with a 6-pan boilerless unit. The new boilerless unit’s nominal water consumption rate of 2 gallons per hour, as compared to the boiler-based steamer’s consumption rate of 66 gallons per hour, returned a $1,937 reduction in combined water and sewer charges. In terms of energy usage, the boiler-based steamer was consuming 101 kWh per day, while the boilerless unit used only 12 kWh per day. The combined savings from water and electrical utility costs realized by replacing the boiler-based steamer was $6,083.

Case Study 1: Annual Operating Costs

The study confirmed that boiler-based steamers consume significantly more water than compartment steamers incorporating the “connectionless” or “boilerless” technology. The EPA has already recognized the majority of boilerless steamers as Energy Star® qualified commercial products. The field-monitoring project clearly demonstrated that the installation of high-efficiency steamers would yield lower utility costs due to significantly lower water and energy consumption. Almost any commercial kitchen can and should take advantage of the benefits of boilerless steamers. They are easier to install and maintain, are absolutely more water and energy efficient, resulting in a win-win combination for the food service operator.

The information in this report is based on data generated by Fisher-Nickel, inc and the Food Service Technology Center
MWD ICP: Evaluating the Water Savings Potential of Commercial Connectionless Steamers
Agreement No. 55354-Final Report

Intek Moves into Larger Manufacturing Facility

Fort Wayne, IN – Intek Manufacturing LLC, a leader in steam cooking technology and manufacturing, is proud to announce the move into a new manufacturing facility. “With sales growth exceeding our projections and contracts with several restaurant chains and large school systems, we outgrew our current facility,” said Chip Tippmann, President and CEO. Intek manufactures the increasingly popular and award winning Xtreme Steam steamer. In recent independent testing, the Intek steamer proved to be the most productive and most energy efficient steamer tested to date. All Xtreme Steam models have earned the ENERGY STAR rating by exceeding the energy efficiency criteria established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for commercial food steamers.

“You won’t find a higher quality - better performing steamer on the market, and with our larger facility, which includes our new R&D center, we’re very excited about developing and introducing additional products,” said Lon Lehman, Vice President of Operations.