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Hobart vs. Mieko
This past May my school system replaced 2 Hobart CRS66A dishwashers with 2 Meiko KA66 washers. The entire experience was about as good as it could get. I was able to strip down the old Hobart units for parts as I still have 2 more of the same machine. I must say that we have been very impressed with the KA66 and while I understand that it is new, we have not had one hick-up out of either machine. We did have a steam issue, but that was from our exhaust fan. Given Hobarts track record on tech support, I won’t be recommending Hobart any time soon.
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13 Replies
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They have been at the dishwasher side longer than Hobart. When we get a new machine we like them all. But I always want to see what one thinks of it 5 years down the road. I do believe you’ll like them.
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We actually had representatives from Germany come and look at our machines. Hobart and Meiko used to be one company (pre WW2). Meiko is now a 100% employee owned company. At the time of our install, they only had 3 of the KA66 with blower dryers in the field and we had 2 of them. I have beed able to form some good relationships with the field engineers and we have high hopes for their machines, like you I will be interested in how well they are doing in several years. But so far so good.
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We have a fleet of Hobarts and then one Mieko.
It’s been a good machine. Of the functional components, I think we’ve only needed to replace a heating element and contactor. I can’t recall any water valve problems, which frequently fail on Hobarts (all Parker valves). I think Hobart is slowly migrating to using the much pricier, German-designed Bürkert valves -which (from my experience) RARELY fail.
The only design aspect I truly dislike about our Mieko machine are the door springs, which break allot and are a pain to replace.
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There are usually one or two items that seem to be an issues with any manufacturers. I still have two Hobart C-line machines and they are both working very well and are 20 years or older.
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I never had a lot of exposure to flight machines except for Inmans. Brass roller chains for transport and a nightmare gas heat system with open burner under the tanks.
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You made me look up Shawn’s KA66. It’s a conveyor machine.
I know what you mean about flight machines, though. I might’ve seen two or three of them during my fourteen years in the field. I had always found them intimidating – because of their size, I guess.
Where I work(ed) at for the past eight years, there are eight Hobart FT900s. I know those machines VERY well.
Flight machines I saw always had some interesting ways to trigger the final rinse – usually something mechanical.
Those FT900s use IR sensors at the LOAD end of the machine to detect wares placed onto the conveyor. Much like the garage door openers sensors used as a safety, the dish on the conveyor breaks the IR beam. From THAT, a microprocessor board and a VFD, the machine will know when to turn on the final rinse based on the conveyor’s travel of that section where the dish is at. The microprocessor does THAT by “knowing” the number of conveyor motor revolutions necessary to get the dish into the final rinse section.
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Knowing the problems with moisture and IR, can’t believe that they can be that reliable. I’ve worked on a lot of different sensing systems over the years. Scotsman bin sensors with the old CME’s was a nightmare. You were always getting calls to clean the eyes on them. Dirt, dust and moisture just isn’t good with Iight. No matter the wave length. I have seen a filtered air stream over the lens help. And even a heated reflective head style to keep the glass free of condensation. I like inductive proximity over micro switches. They last a long time.
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I know what you mean about those Scotsmans’
Actually the IR sensors on the Hobarts hold up pretty well, but I’ve had to replace a few. Sometimes they’ll accumulate some “muck” on them, which blocks the beam. But I blame the poor machine care practices of our stewarding department on that.
HECK, they’ll continue using that not heating until one of their few supervisors realizes the problem and calls it in.
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We are replacing all our dish machines with MEIKO, we’ve done several already and are doing the rest as they age out. We had Hobarts and Stero. I have nothing but good things to say about the MEIKO product. It’s an extremely well designed machine, you just need to get familiar with them. Also they SUPPORT theirproducts very well. You can call tech support and they will walk you through it.For an establishment trying to maintain their own equipment, you’ll find MEIKO is willing to work with you unlike a lot of the other brands. There wiring diagrams and the way they do things are a little different because it’s a German basedcompany,but once you figure it out it’s actually very simple. They have an excellent school also in Tennessee that you probably wanna go to if you’re getting alot of them. It’s about a week, but well worth the time.
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I’m actually scheduled to go to the school in Laverne TN at the end of May should this mess clear up by then. I’m very excited at the opportunity. They also cover the entire cost of the class, room and board are included.
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At my first exposure to German schematics it was a oh hell. But after working on some Italian machines I was OK, let’s take a look. It wasn’t but a short time that they made more sense than any I had worked on. Even machines that had 400 pages were a breeze to troubleshoot. I also like there plug designs.
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Yeah, to me the wiring diagrams are similar to a blueprint, but once you can look everything up, it’s prettynice. I also like the way every part has a number on it, so tech support can tell you exactly what part your looking for . They can walk you through it if you hav even a basic idea of what you’re doing. Just gotta remember to put a new label on the parts when you replace em. If your used to Hobart FT machines, you’ll love how much easier a lot of the repairs are….. pimps, elements, door springs…. are all much easier with the MI-Q. And the rack machines look easier also, but I haven’t really had to dig into one yet.
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