I Will Never Feel the Same About Hand Dryers Again

I have no idea how many hand dryers from public restrooms I have used in my life, and my guess is you have no idea either. What I do know is that I will never see (or should I say “feel”) hand dryers the same away again, after using an Xlerator. We have one here at my office and the first time I used it, it actually scared me a bit. I thought I had finished my bathroom business, but after waving my hand under the dryer I , uh…well lets just say, I was wrong. It was so powerful! My first thought was of Woody from the movie “Toy Story” when he is being propelled by a rocket trying to catch Andy in the car, his mouth wide open. (Yes I have small children, and have watched this movie multiple times). But this hand dryer is amazing. My hands were fully dry in a matter a 15 seconds. A normal hand dryer takes at least 30 seconds, and sometimes I even hit it twice just to get my hands fully dry. If you ever get the chance I highly recommend using, buying, and frankly, playing around with one of these things. I am convinced there is a small jet engine inside.

The bottom line is this. If you own a business, and you have a bathroom (which I really hope for your employees sake that you do); you need to consider splurging on an Xlerator. Not only is this device green (you obviously don’t have to use paper towels), but these bad boys use 80% less energy than an average hand dryer. So save money, be green, and entertain your employees. You will be glad you did.

3 Great Reasons To Buy Manitowoc

With a name like “Manitowoc” you might think that I am speaking about  some American Indian folklore; however, you would be very mistaken.  Manitowoc has been designing ice machines since 1964 and continues to be a leader in the food service industry. They designed the QuietQube technology and were the first in establishing a new category of innovative remote condensing. So why buy an ice machine from Manitowoc? Here are 3 good reasons!

1.) They have a 360,000 square foot manufacturing facility. The company designs, manufactures and markets a complete ice machine product line with 200+ models in ice-making capacities from 65 to 1,880 pounds (30 to 854 kgs.) per day.
(This means they can make a lot of ice machines, keeping demand high and more importantly keeping the cost low!)

2.) All Manitowoc ice machines use environmentally friendly non-CFC refrigerants. (This means that you can feel green by purchasing a Manitowoc Ice Machine)

3.)  Food Service Equipment and Supplies Magazine (FE&S) and Manitowoc Ice Makers won the 2010 “Best In Class” award! This is the 10th year in a row! (They don’t just hand these out. The awards demonstrate a high quality in service and in brand quality)

So that’s why you should by Manitowoc Ice Machines.

1.) They are reasonably priced

2.) They are green

3.) They are award winning

Innovation and customer support  has enabled Manitowoc Ice to become America’s #1 selling brand of ice machine.- Manitowoc.com

Related Articles

• How Much of a Bargain Is Manitowoc by the Numbers? (fool.com)
• New Frontiers for Smart Grid: Ice Machines, Refrigerators and Rock Radio (greentechmedia.com)
• Manitowoc Ice Machines (equipmenttrek.wordpress.com)

Restaurant Equipment

Lately it seems that restaurant equipment has been a topic on my mind. Working for prima-restaurant-equipment.com I am always trying to think of new ways to sell and promote products. Huh, that is why I even keep up this crazy blog. One of the best ways I can think to promote products is to tell you about how awesome they are. A few great products that we currently sell are self contained refrigeration products. These products are really needed in the restaurant industry today and many people have no idea where to find info on them. At Prima we are working on trying to educate buyers about products and equipment that will meet there needs. We have done a few blog posts on our main page that should really inform and entertain you. A few blog posts about stainless steel, grease traps, and walk-in coolers are only a few examples. We will be working on more articles as our sales team has the time.  I realize that this blog post may not be the best source for crazy awesome content or even original ideas, but it can help point you in the right direction. And that direction is Prima-Restaurant-Equipment. So check out the website and look forward to more articles on this blog about pointless stuff that will give you a chuckle and point you to a great source for buying kitchen equipment and and restaurant supplies.

A Blog I Recommend

If you are reading this blog, you are either extremely bored, a friend of mine, or you really want some novice information about restaurant equipment. Well, if you lean more to the end of this list and would like to take the next step in the direction of refrigeration and restaurant supplies, you really should check out the Prima-Restaurant-Equipment Blog. The writer of this blog is a salesman (or saleswoman- since it is actually a female blogger) for Prima-Restaurant-Equipment.com and she has extensive experience concerning the in’s and out’s of many True parts, Manitowoc Ice Machines, stainless work tables, bar equipment, restaurant grease traps, and kitchen supplies. Her latest blog post included an excellent article about walk-in coolers. So if you are a restaurant owner trying to make some detailed decisions on equipment, or if you just really love learning about the intricacies of restaurant equipment, check out the Prima-Restaurant-Equipment Blog. You can also explore the more personal side of this restaurant equipment guru at her other blog, Lifeinfridge.

Top 10 reasons why I loved growing up in the South

So my last blog sparked some good cheered fun here in the office. I work with people from all over the USA, both northerners, southerners, and those from out west. One of my fellow office bloggers wrote this “Northern” rebuttal to my blog. That sparked another rebuttal from a southern co-worker. So in light of this hot topic I decided to take a break from Restaurant Equipment blogging and write a few words about my own southern experience.

I was raised in Georgia and born in Florida. My parents were missionaries in the Bahamas, when I was born, so I lived there until I was two.  I would say that I grew up in the south.  I spend 23 years  in middle Georgia and here are my top ten reasons why I love the south.

10.) Land: I grew up on 18 acres of land and built so many forts, I can’t even remember them all.

9.) Pickup Trucks: I dreamed of having one my whole life and finally got one when I was 19. They are so practical and I used my pickup truck for more jobs and helping more people than I ever could have with a car.

8.) Respect: My momma taught me to say “Yes Ma’am and No Ma’am” and that has afforded me more job interviews, free stuff, and friends than most.

7.) Grits: My Dad makes the best cheese grits you have ever had in your life. He does all this without any fancy kitchen equipment, just an old pot and a stove.

6.) Small Towns: I grew up in a town where you couldn’t got to the local supermarket without knowing someone. This kind of friendship is taken  for granted often.

5.) Porches: Yes I know you can have porches anywhere, but there is nothing like sitting out on your front porch just after supper and watching the sun go down with that warm Georgia breeze cooling you off after a hard days work.

4.) Everything closes on Sunday: Now I don’t mean EVERYTHING- but it is obvious where I come from, that Sunday is a day where things slow down and God and family become more important than work.

3.) Hospitality: Down in the south its nothing to just show up at a friends house, just to say “hey” or to borrow a lawn mower or something. And most of the time the neighbor won’t be leaving without some sort of baked good from the Mrs, or at least being asked to stay for supper.  This kind of hospitality is definitely missed in other parts of the World.

2.) Football: We know how to get-er-done. SEC- Enough said

And the number one reason…… drum-roll……..

1.) Sweet Tea: The best of all–NO WHERE can you find the best sweet tea in the world but the deep South.

So I am not saying that I don’t like some things about the North, or that I don’t like visiting every now and then, but as far as growing up goes…I love the South.

Why I love the South

So over the weekend I studied, spent time with friends, and went to Chick-fil-a. I have recently moved here (Kentucky) from Georgia. If you didn’t know, Georgia is the Chick-fil-a capital of the World.   Back home in Georgia, my wife and I use to go to this wonderful fast food restaurant at least once a week. We could afford this luxury mainly due to the wonderful coupon policy that Chickfila offers. They will honor any coupon at any time no matter the expiration or the quality that the coupon is in. This is great for a family of four that is always on the go. I can’t tell you how many slobbered on and half chewed up 3 year old coupons we have turned in that my 2 year old son had first got a hold of.

This Saturday my wife and I were trying to decide what to eat for supper and we remembered…old Chickfila coupons! So being the frugal seminary family that we are right now we gathered all our old coupons and invited some friends to the local Chickfila.  Get this, we fed 4 adults, and 2 kids for $5.42. While we where there that night we even remembered that if you trade in the toys you get from the kids meal, you get a free ice cream! (My kids would rather have an ice cream than the toy anyway). Chickfila is awesome. As I was standing at the counter waiting on my ice cream, admiring how great their food, service, and coupons where; I also wondered if they used quality kitchen equipment. I bet they use True Refrigeration Parts in for there restaurant equipment. I would not be surprised to find a True stainless steel solid door refrigerator in the back.

Truett Cathy is such a great business man. What a great restaurant. Chickfila, another great reason to love the South.

Need Air?

The last few nights at my house have been pretty hectic. Along with a crazy school schedule and working a good bit, my air conditioner broke. Its crazy how these things happen at the wrong time. It started on Monday when my wife said, “Hey honey I don’t think our air-conditioner is cooling.” I somewhat begrudgingly checked, thinking “Here we go”. Sure enough the thing wasn’t blowing any cool air. By the time we realized this it was pretty late and fortunately the air had been cooling most of the day, so the consensus was to call the apartment complex in the morning. Well as the next day got crazier I forgot- well sort of.  I called the apartment complex, but no one picked up. I just forgot to call back.

Well needless to say I was in trouble that night when my wife asked me over dinner, “Did you call about the air?”. Immediately I panicked, AHHHH.  I tried to fix it myself, but I am no air conditioning mechanic. I would have called the maintenance man, but I thought the office was closed.  So that night we slept in 80 degree heat and to top it all off my poor little 8 month old had a 101 degree fever.  I felt horrible. He was so hot and sweaty, If I had owned a True stainless steel solid door refrigerator I would have got inside of it with him, just to cool him down! (Those things are huge if you didn’t know).

So anyway, I definitely didn’t forget to call the Apartment complex back on Wednesday, and I found out they have emergency services for issues like this (which definitely made them more favorable in my eyes). They said they would send a guy out right away. However, when I arrived home I came to the shocking realization that my house was still 82 degrees. All they did was change the filter! “Its not cooling! How in the world can changing a filter help that!” So I called the emergency maintenance man, but he didn’t get there until after 9:30pm! He was there until 11:30pm and still had not completely fixed it. He got it working- He said it was a problem with the breaker tripping (bad breaker). He let me know someone would fix it the next day. Well the next day came and upon my return from work I had a nice cool house- for about an hour- that’s when the breaker tripped. The guy NEVER FIXED IT! So I called the emergency maintenance guy back to my house (a different guy) and he finally changed out the breaker.

Needless to say, it has been a crazy hot the past couple of days. A word to the wise- never be afraid to call the maintenance guy on the first night Whether it is a air conditioning tripped breaker or something like a bad compressor for a True T49f Freezer, take care of it. If not you will have to put your kid in a refrigerator just to cool him down, and I think family children services wouldn’t like that too much