[masklinn]

> I have always wondered why, exactly, we can't have that at home.

You can. It’s just way less efficient, way noisier, and way more expensive. A Hobart conveyor dishwasher has a cycle time south of 3mn (and throughput of 3 racks/mn, with conveyor speeds reaching 6ft/mn). But it’d probably take most of your kitchen and blow up your electric panel (they need an exclusive 208V 3-phase, and if you plonk for the booster heater that’s a separate supply of the same).

It might also be less reliable, as it won’t really have the occasion to get up to spec (like only running a car for a few miles at a time and never getting it to temp before stopping).

Home dishwashers are designed to work with essentially random inputs (with acceptable results), work very efficiently, and last for long at relatively middling loads / cycling. The middle one is an especially big factor, modern home dishwashers use very little water and less power, so e.g. they’ll often cycle between top and bottom racks rather than have the water and power to run both.

[_trampeltier]

Industrial dishwasher use much stronger detergent. So at home often have paintings, drawings or golden things on the dishes. With an industrial dishwasher such things would be a short joy.

Also you need much more electricity, because you need to make a lot of hot water in a very short time.

[masklinn]

I think just the thermal cycling of an industrial dishwasher would damage consumer dishes in just a few cycles, if they even survive the first.

[MereInterest]

To my understanding, restaurant dishwashers also assume that foods residue has already been removed, and are primarily to sanitize the surface with high temperatures. Residential dishwashers, by contrast, start by prewashing anything that is immediately removable, main wash to slowly break down anything stuck on, and only then go to the high temperature sanitization step.

Commercial dishwashers also assume they’re installed in a location with lots of airflow and ventilation, so they can just dump steam into the room and trust the HVAC to remove it. A residential dishwasher may instead have a cool-down step during which the steam condenses, which avoids releasing steam into the kitchen.

[masklinn]

Hobart’s prospectus don’t necessarily agree (there’s a fair bit on managing residue), but it’s definitely on the lighter side of dirty, and not for heavily soiled stuff like pots and pans.