Not all gelato cases are created equal

With many brands in the market place today and so many used cases available I must shout out to try to help. Not all gelato display cases are created equally. In fact not all display cases saying they are gelato cases are really gelato cases. I will go over what makes a gelato case a true gelato case and what should be thought of before the purchase.

A true gelato case displays the gelato in a 5lt pan that is 14"L x 6 .5"W x 5"T. This European pan size is close to our American 3rd pan but not really. If the display case is showing an American 3rd pan run! This is typical from some crafty dealers with cheap ice cream cases, usually a slide top for novelties or a normal ice cream case. This is a sad situation when we hear of this, the customer typically pays around $3,000.00 for a case that cost under id="mce_marker",000.00 but they hang a rack to hold pans. Sadly the freezer was made to display loose novelties or tubs of ice cream. The cold air plumes off of the side walls and should move around the display but with the rack in place the cold is below the pans at knee level and makes the bottom of the pans too hard to scoop while the top is melts. This customer would have been better off just buying the ice cream case the way it comes and use round tubs. In this case whether the gelato is in pans or tubs it does not matter since the display is not showing the gelato properly. The gelato is way too low in the case and typically displayed erratically.

The proper way to display gelato is at a slant so the customer can see the gelato anywhere they get a glance at the display case. To achieve the slant, a true gelato display is made like a walk in freezer with evaporator coils and fans to blow the cold air around the gelato allowing for the shelf slant. This is called a vented display. The big thing to watch out for is how well the vented display defrosts. As the air flows through the evaporator coils the humidity in the air sticks to the coils as ice. Ice is the enemy blocking the air flow making warm spots in the case. Some gelato display cases boast a patented defrost cycle with hot gas while others use an electric element to heat up and melt the ice. A few brands have to be thawed out every night and list their cases as daily merchandizers. These units take a bit more back room freezer to hold your display gelato each evening. Even the best gelato cases must be thawed out weekly.

Some beneficial features that make life easier when operating a gelato case are: *A pull down screen instead of plastic doors is nice because it allows more than one arm in the display and doors do not fall into your display when you bump into the plastic doors. *If the display has a controller with more than 4 buttons it will help when you need to adjust your temperature or do a manual defrost. If all your settings take a code of button pushing expect problems. It's nice to push a button that says set point or defrost. *A good gelato case will have an Engine that has a site glass to check for leeks with in the gas charge. This is a great tool to see if you're having a problem with a gas leak before calling a technician. *Multiple fans for pushing the cold air around, the more the better! *Drain Hose or condensate pan is an option; the drain hose is a nice option if you have a floor drain by the case so the hose can be directed to the drain. This is nice when it comes time to clean the display and drain the water, if a drip pan (condensate pan) is used its important not to allow dirty water into the pan.

Buying used is scary, just in the past few weeks we have got many calls from new gelato customers that have been swindled by a restaurant equipment dealer. Please be careful with used equipment. It's best to hold 50% of the payment to make sure the seller is being honest. It's typical in the used market to hear "as good as new" but the case is really spent and should be sold for scraps. If you are lucky enough to find a good used case hopefully you got it through your gelato supplier so you have someone on the hook when you have problems. We view it as a vested interest to keep our clients up and running because if there case is down and there not selling gelato we also are down and not selling gelato.

Proper certification for the United States is needed for all restaurant equipment. In Europe the simple is CE but our American inspectors do not except the CE stamp and are looking for NSF-7 and UL. In Italy they use the certification company ETL to certify the equipment to the American standard of NSF-7 and UL. Make sure the certification is active. Most dealers and companies from Italy will chance that you and your inspector will not be checking this and as far as they know the CE stamp is adequate but it's not. NSF-7 is the safety to have open food in the display case and the UL is for the safety of electric.