MEIKO — Bottle Rack System
Efficiently cleaning reusable bottles, especially those with a narrow neck, can pose a real challenge for operations that use them in high volumes. According to Abigail Jennings, marketing manager with MEIKO USA, Inc., the need to address that challenge is becoming increasingly prevalent. “Mandates from the government and expectations from customers are pushing operators to shift towards more sustainable measures,” Jennings says. “Operators have voiced concern over adding the difficult and time-consuming task of washing bottles to the long list of hourly tasks. They need their staff to focus on the essential tasks of their position.”
MEIKO’s unique bottle rack system was specifically engineered to eliminate the need to hand wash bottles, providing thorough cleaning of up to 16 bottles in a single cycle or up to 640 per hour. The system is compatible with MEIKO’s M-iClean UM and UM+ glass washers and is quickly installed by swapping out the machine’s bottom wash arm with an included adaptor. That flexibility gives operators the ability to have a standalone bottle washer or swap the adaptor in and out as needed for other glassware.
What Salespeople Need to Know
When talking with operators, it’s important for salespeople to understand how the bottle rack system achieves its quick cleaning times. “MEIKO’s system uses separate, sealed channels to first send wash water and then rinse water to specially designed nozzles positioned at the opening of each bottle in the rack,” Jennings says. “This guarantees that the full power of the jet sprays inside the bottle, ensuring that every surface of the bottle is hygienically cleaned.” While the bottle rack system cleans the bottles’ hard-to-reach interior, the top wash arm cleans the outside of each bottle.
Jennings has seen the system used most frequently in fine-dining environments like hotels with banquet facilities, airline lounges, boutique event and rental spaces, wineries, and craft breweries. In addition to eliminating time-consuming handwashing and the need to purchase and store bottle brushes, it benefits operators by providing consistent, hygienic results with thermal sanitization that aids drying as well. Reduced water consumption also contributes to the system’s overall cost savings, which Jennings says has led operators who currently use disposable bottles to reconsider that approach.
The MEIKO bottle rack system can accommodate bottlenecks as narrow as 0.7 inches. The rack itself is 20 inches in length and width, and 12 inches in height. It can be stacked like a standard glass rack, making it a great storage solution too.