What is a Pre Rinse Tap?

What is a Pre Rinse Tap?

What is a Pre Rinse Tap? Let our experts guide you. A commercial kitchen needs the right washing facilities to help it run smoothly and efficiently. That is why having the best-suited tap is essential! Choosing a commercial pre rinse spray tap over a standard commercial mixer tap has many benefits.

There are a number of considerations when choosing a restaurant kitchen tap, so it’s worth taking your time to get it right.  Pre rinse spray taps have proven to be an asset in any catering kitchen but particularly commercial kitchens such as restaurants.  You may have heard of them, but what specifically is a pre rinse spray tap, and how can they help you in your commercial kitchen?

Commercial Pre Rinse Tap – The Basics

Anyone who has worked in a restaurant kitchen knows efficiency is key to excellent food service. One of the pinch-point areas can often be washing and cleaning dishes.

If sufficient utensils, pots, pans and other vital components of food preparation aren’t immediately ready to be used, this can rapidly affect the wider service standards of your kitchen.  It’s, therefore, a staple to have a cleaning station with an effective commercial sink. A good quality pre rinse spray tap should handle everything thrown at it during your busiest of times.

Pre rinse spray taps consist of a high arc nozzle that directs a strong spray at high pressure from a pull-down spray trigger head or nozzle.  They are very large, often over 1000mm high and flexible, so they can reach all parts of your sink bowl and item that you’re cleaning.  This is opposed to a standard commercial mixer tap which is fixed to the sink and you must move the item that you’re cleaning under the flow of water, often at a lower pressure.

Key Features of a Pre Rinse Tap

You should look out for key features as found on our commercial pre rinse spray taps, such as:

• Food grade EPDM spray hose nozzle with easy press trigger – directs the powerful jets of water to the specific area you intend and provides a more intense clean.
• 2 x 600mm water supply hoses combined for a mixer style base
• Zinc alloy dual lever handles
• Heavy duty brass construction
• Two year core valve warranty

Securing to the deck of your commercial sink with an optional wall bracket, this can still move thanks to the spring-loaded coils in the neck of the tap.

Perhaps you’d like the best of both worlds – a large spray hose with the benefits of a bowl filler tap simultaneously?  Models known as pre rinse tap with add-on faucet have exactly this – a large, flexible hose which can powerfully clean your dishes with the added option of a bowl filler nozzle to fill your sink bowl quickly.

Commercial pre rinse tap with add on bowl filler  faucet

A Reliable Kitchen Sink Staple

The quality of pre rinse taps can vary wildly.  Some cheaper models may appear the same, but inside have cheap, low-quality components which are prone to leaking.

Alternatively, all of Cater Kitchen’s commercial grade taps are made from the highest quality materials. You can tell this straight out of the box because high quality taps = heavier weight.  This is because they’re made from a more durable and long-lasting brass construction.  We’re so proud of the commercial taps we stock. They come with at least a 2 year warranty as standard.

Choosing a flexible, strong and reliable pre rinse tap makes them excellent tools in a commercial kitchen.  They have the ability to easily blast the thick food remnants from cutlery, saucepans and crockery before placing into your commercial dishwasher.  This process ensures your dishwasher remains free from potentially costly blockages.

From our years of experience, we find the ideal combination for most double bowl commercial sinks is one pre rinse tap supported by one other commercial mixer tap.  For example our commercial bowl filler is neat and very reliable.  This way, you benefit from the large spray hose while having a separate bowl for general washing up. It’s also worth noting that pre rinse spray taps also have been proven to save energy and can provide a water saving of up to 20%. For large-volume cleaning and washing, this tap is an invaluable and worthwhile purchase.

Commercial Taps – Helping Kitchen Hygiene

Not only used for dirty dishes, but you can also quickly rinse fruits, vegetables and other food before preparing.  Directing a quick blast of water will remove leftover soil or other debris and easily rinse bacteria or pathogens that can occur when handling food.

Without strict food disposal policies, commercial sinks can often become clogged with food waste.  Therefore the immensely powerful spray can be directed straight down the plug, unclogging and clearing any nasty food debris blockages.

However, it’s very important that thick, greasy food residues aren’t allowed to accumulate in your kitchen sink pipework. To protect this and the wider public drainage system, you should have a grease management system in place. If you don’t already have one installed, it’s strongly advisable to consider a commercial grease trap.  This will help your sink and drains to continue flowing freely and avoid costly unblocking call outs! Indeed as a matter of routine, it’s always important to remind and refresh your staff on the basics of disposing of food and health and safety guidance.

Commercial tap for food service hygiene standard

What is a pre rinse tap, and do I need a pre rinse spray tap in my commercial kitchen? Final thoughts

It is evident that a pre rinse spray tap for your commercial kitchen sink is a must-have component in any food service kitchen.  It is not a luxury item but an extremely functional kitchen staple.  A pre rinse spray tap will, no doubt, add a professional touch to your kitchen but help you keep on the right side of food industry standards.  They’re designed to make it super easy to direct water, preventing excess usage.  Rinse spray taps also help speed up food preparation and kitchen cleaning.