How to Buy a Soup Warmer

If you want to offer a few different soups at your restaurant's salad bar, you need to buy attractive soup warmers to hold them. Many great soup warmers are available through some restaurant supply stores, but they may not always have the best prices. Here's how to buy high quality soup warmers to keep your culinary customers coming back.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Identify how many soup warmers you'll need to buy. If you will only be having one variety of soup a day, one soup warmer should suffice. If you want to offer two or more, make sure you have at least that many soup warmers. You can always fill more than one soup warmer with the same variety of soup.
2. Base your capacity choice on your clients' demands. You want your lunch rush to leave you almost, but not quite, out of soup. Soup warmers come in lots of different sizes, with a 7-quart capacity being a common size. Also keep in mind you'll be selling more soup in the winter months than in summer.
3. Choose a model with a variable temperature control. Some soup warmers have a single heat setting, like the Vollrath 72021, while others have variable temperature controls. An example of this is the Micom THCSC08XA.
4. Select a dry-type soup warmer. The dry-type doesn't require water for operation which makes it easier to operate.
5. Peruse shopping sites like nextag.com for competitive pricing. Here you'll find user reviews and restaurant supply companies competing for your business. You'll also get a good idea of what a soup warmer will cost for the size you are looking for.
6. Be sure of the supplier's return policy. Consumer electronics are notorious for not working properly, so be sure to test your soup warmer when you get it and know the return policy of the supplier before you make a purchase.