Commercial kitchen equipment turns over constantly. Places refit, units change hands, second hand catering gear sells briskly, and somebody always has to move a fridge that weighs as much as a small car. Catering equipment van hire is a job defined by two things, which are weight and the fact that the item has to end up inside a building through a normal doorway. Booking van hire in Warrington is straightforward once you know what you are lifting.
Commercial Kit Is Built Heavier Than Domestic
The first surprise for anyone moving catering equipment for the first time is how much heavier it is than the domestic equivalent. A commercial upright fridge is stainless steel throughout with a compressor built for continuous running, and it can weigh several times what a household fridge does. Ranges, prep counters with refrigerated bases and dishwashers are the same story. None of this is a problem for what a van can carry, but all of it is a problem for two people and a tailgate. The weight is concentrated, there are rarely any handholds, and the stainless panels mark if they are dragged.
Why a Tail Lift Makes This Job Possible
The vertical transfer is the entire difficulty. Getting a two hundred kilogram upright fridge from a kitchen floor into a van, and back out again at the other end, is not something to attempt by lifting. The Luton van with tail lift turns it into a wheeling job. Get the unit onto a sack barrow or a pallet truck, roll it onto the platform at ground level, and let the lift do the work. If the seller can present the item on a pallet, better still. Everything we run sits within three and a half tonnes gross vehicle weight and is driveable on a standard category B car licence.
Refrigeration Needs Standing Time
Any unit with a compressor should travel upright and, if it has been laid down at all, must stand upright for a period before it is switched on. Oil from the compressor migrates into the refrigeration circuit when a unit is tipped, and running it before that oil has drained back can destroy the compressor. Manufacturers give their own guidance but several hours is a common minimum and overnight is safer. This catches people out on a same day install, so build the standing time into the plan rather than plugging the fridge in the moment it is through the door.
Measuring the Doorway Before the Purchase
Commercial kitchens are frequently at the back of a building down a corridor, and the equipment that is already in there arrived before the doors were hung or before a partition went up. Measure the narrowest point on the route, including any turn, before you commit to buying. Doors can come off hinges and handles can come off a fridge, but a stainless carcass has fixed dimensions. It is also worth checking floor coverings on the route, since dragging a heavy unit across vinyl leaves a permanent mark that a landlord will notice.
Cleanliness Between Loads
Equipment going into a food premises should not arrive covered in whatever the van carried last. Sweep the load space out before you load, put something clean down under the units, and keep anything that is going into a kitchen away from garden waste, building materials or anything else on the same trip. Sheeting stainless steel also protects it from scuffs in transit. Businesses collecting from suppliers around Widnes van hire bookings and the industrial estates often combine a collection with a disposal run, and if so, do the clean items first and the old units last.
Booking the Van and Timing the Install
Our depot on Tilley Street beside Asda at the main entrance to Cockhedge Shopping Centre is open Monday to Saturday from 8am to 4pm and closed on Sunday. Kitchens frequently want work done outside service hours, so plan the collection around both the supplier’s hours and ours. Bring your photocard licence and a DVLA check code, there is no deposit on most of our vehicles, and there is free secure parking on site. Most of the questions people ask before a first booking are answered on our van hire FAQs.
Disconnecting and Reconnecting Services
Commercial kitchen equipment is rarely just plugged in. Ranges may be on gas, larger units are frequently on three phase, and dishwashers and prep units have water and waste connections. None of that is a job for whoever is driving the van, and gas work in particular must be done by someone properly qualified. Arrange the disconnection before collection day and the reconnection before the unit arrives, because a fridge standing in the middle of a kitchen waiting for an electrician is a fridge in everybody’s way. Cap or protect any exposed pipework and tape loose cables neatly to the unit so that nothing snags on a doorframe or a trolley wheel on the way out. It is also worth photographing the existing connections before anything is undone, which makes the reinstallation considerably quicker and cheaper for whoever ends up doing it at the other end.
Tell us what the heaviest single item is and whether either end has a loading bay, and we will make sure the body suits the lift as well as the load. Call the depot on 01925 396 222 to book.
