There comes a point in food service operations where efficiency is measured on an industrial scale. For a restaurant, a hood type dishwasher is fast. For a large hotel, a rack conveyor is a necessity. But for the largest institutions—university campuses, major hospitals, convention centers, and airline caterers—even a rack conveyor system can become a bottleneck. When you need to process tens of thousands of dishes in a single meal service, the very act of loading and unloading racks is too slow. This is the realm of the commercial flight type dishwasher, the undisputed champion of high-volume warewashing.

What is a Commercial Flight Type Dishwasher?

A flight type dishwasher represents the pinnacle of automated cleaning technology. Its defining feature is that it is rackless. Instead of loading dishes into standard 20″x20″ racks, staff place plates, bowls, trays, and cutlery directly onto a wide, peg-style conveyor belt. This belt, known as the “flight,” moves continuously through a long tunnel containing multiple, dedicated zones: an extended pre-wash chamber, a high-power wash chamber, a final rinse, and often a long heat or blower-assisted drying tunnel. The entire system is a self-contained, automated cleaning factory for your dishware.

Where Is a Flight Type Dishwasher Used?

These machines are the exclusive domain of operations with massive and relentless warewashing demands.

• Large Universities and Colleges: Essential for feeding thousands of students in multiple dining halls.
• Major Hospitals and Healthcare Networks: The only way to manage the sanitation and volume needs of patient trays and kitchenware for an entire medical center.
• Convention and Exposition Centers: Capable of handling the immense load from banquets, galas, and food service for thousands of attendees.
• Airline Catering Kitchens: Provides the speed and capacity needed to prepare and wash items for hundreds of flights a day.
• Large-Scale Correctional Facilities and Military Bases: Offers a robust and efficient solution for feeding thousands of personnel daily.

Why Should You Choose a Flight Type Dishwasher?

Investing in a flight type dishwasher is a strategic decision to maximize output and efficiency on a massive scale.

• Unparalleled Capacity: This is their primary advantage. Flight type dishwashers can wash up to 20,000 dishes per hour, a volume that is simply impossible with any rack-based system.
• Maximum Labor Efficiency: By eliminating the need to load, unload, and transport racks, you drastically reduce labor requirements. Staff can clear tables and load soiled dishes directly onto the flight conveyor, streamlining the entire process.
• Superior Efficiency at Scale: While they are enormous machines, modern flight type dishwashers are incredibly efficient per dish. They feature advanced systems that recycle rinse water into the pre-wash sections and use heat recovery units to capture steam energy, significantly lowering water and energy consumption relative to their output.
• Highly Customizable: These are not off-the-shelf units. Flight dishwashers are modular and can be custom-configured with additional pre-wash zones, specialized drying tunnels, and layouts that fit your facility’s specific floor plan and workflow.

How Do You Operate a Flight Type Dishwasher?

The workflow is built for speed and continuous motion.

1. Direct Loading: Staff sort soiled items and place them directly onto the appropriate section of the moving flight conveyor—plates between pegs, trays on their side, and cutlery in designated baskets.
2. Automated Journey: The machine automatically pulls the ware through the entire multi-stage cleaning and sanitizing process.
3. Unloading and Stacking: At the end of the line, clean and dry dishes emerge ready for immediate stacking, storage, and reuse. The flow is constant.

What Should You Consider When Choosing a Flight Type Dishwasher?

This is a major capital investment that requires careful planning with industry experts.

• Exhaustive Volume Analysis: You must have a precise understanding of your peak demand, measuring not just racks, but the total number of individual plates, trays, and cutlery items per hour.
• Facility Infrastructure: A flight type dishwasher requires significant floor space, robust ventilation to handle steam, and heavy-duty electrical and plumbing connections. The installation is a major construction project.
• Energy and Water Recovery: For a machine of this scale, opting for heat recovery and water recycling systems is critical. The upfront cost is higher, but the long-term ROI from reduced utility bills is substantial.
• Custom Configuration: Work with an equipment specialist to design a machine that perfectly matches your needs, from the length of the loading zone to the power of the blow-dryers.

A flight type dishwasher is more than just a piece of equipment; it is the heart of a large-scale institutional kitchen. It is the solution for operations where there is no room for compromise and no time for bottlenecks.

Is your operation ready for the ultimate warewashing solution? Contact our institutional kitchen design specialists for a full operational analysis and to configure a flight type dishwasher built for your needs.