Derriford Hospital

The Problem

We received a call from one of our very close contacts Kay at Alliance. Alliance provide wholesale catering services to customers and always call us for anything Rational, for which we are very grateful.

Kay asked us to carry out a Site Survey at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth at short notice for the installation of 2, 61 electric ovens which were initially planned to be stacked. Shaun arrived on site to find that the ovens were replacing two very old steamers and recognised that there was enough space to put these ovens on stands, side by side. The water and electrics were already in place for this installation and all that was required was a minor modification to one of the in house drains. This always presents a bit of a problem in a hospital, but after a few phone calls the modifications were agreed and date was set for installation.

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The Solution

We arrived early one morning to find the ovens in position and on their stands, ready for installation.

The first step on any install, once the ovens are in position, is to remove the fuses from the board and connect the units to the electrical supply. The removal of the fuses protects you against any accidently wiring faults, we often turn up to sites where this error has unfortunately occured and we’ve had to replace PCB’s, motors and transformers at the cost of installer before the oven has even been switched on. We then proceed to connecting the water supply, drainage and finally levelling the oven before switching the oven on for self test. The self test lasts round 40 to 60 minutes depending on the size of the oven and tests the oven in full, identifying the boiling point of water at its current sea level, its humidity parameters and various temperature tests amongst many other tests designed by Rational. Once this is completed, we finally function and power test the oven for our own records and normally give a operational presentation to the end users to introduce the kitchen staff how to use the oven. Although in this case Darren Hemsley was booked in to do this on behalf of Rational.

The installation went very smoothly and the customers were really pleased with their brand new Rational Ovens. We really enjoy working with Alliance, they are a very well organised company and very easy to work with.