Preventive Maintenance & Cleaning Schedule

Most fountain and bar-gun service calls trace back to skipped cleaning: sticky valves, sour or musty tastes, foaming from warm ice bins, and slow pours are all preventable. This guide lays out a realistic daily / weekly / monthly routine your closing staff can own, and what to leave for a technician.

The rules before anything else, straight from the official guide: use only an approved sanitizer — Kay-5® or a chlorine-based sanitizer solution mixed per its packet — and never soap, bleach, detergent, steel wool, scouring pads, or abrasives on dispensers or their components. Never leave nozzles soaking overnight. Handle sanitizer per the package instructions.

Daily (build it into closing)

The official daily sanitizing procedure:

1. Wash your hands with soap and water.
2. Mix 2.5 gallons of Kay-5® or chlorine-based sanitizer in a dedicated

bucket, stirred until dissolved (see the packet for precautions).

1. Remove nozzles and diffusers from the dispensing valves, scrub them

with a dedicated nozzle brush in the sanitizer, and leave them in the solution at least 3 minutes, then let them air-dry.

1. Clean each lower valve body and lever with a dedicated brush and

sanitizer; wipe with a clean cloth.

1. Drip pan: pour a half gallon of sanitizer over the cup rest and down

the drip-pan drain; remove the rack and wipe the pan inside and out.

1. Dispenser: wipe all exterior surfaces including levers with sanitizer;

clean the ice chute with a dedicated brush.

1. Reinstall nozzles and diffusers once dry, run each valve for about 10

seconds, and taste a drink from every valve.

1. Bar guns: wipe the gun face and clean the holster the same way.

A few minutes a night here prevents the majority of sticky-valve and off-taste problems. Keep the daily sanitizing log — a printable version is in the Alameda Soda resource library.

Weekly

• Sanitize the BIB syrup connectors: wash hands, mix sanitizer, disconnect

each syrup line from its box, soak the connectors in the sanitizer for 1 minute (multiple connectors can soak together if flavor-labeled), shake them off, and reconnect each line to the correct box.

• Clean the ice bin area (ice-cooled machines): as stock rotation allows,

clear old ice, wipe accessible surfaces, and break up any bridged or fused ice sitting over the cold plate.

• Look over the system: check syrup lines for kinks, confirm the CO₂

line-pressure gauge sits at its marked setting, and glance for drips or syrup residue that signal a developing leak.

Monthly

• **Deep-clean the inside of the ice bin — UNPLUG the dispenser and ice maker

first. Empty the bin, pour in a half gallon of sanitizer, and scrub the bin interior and chute with a dedicated soft, long-handled nylon** brush (never a metal brush).

• Clean the condenser fins with a dedicated stiff brush, and clean any

air filters; on refrigerated units, blocked condensers are why machines can't hold temperature.

• Check water filters are current (within their change-out date).
• Maintain the flavor labels on the valves and check the syrup lines.
• Check dates on BIB stock and rotate first-in, first-out.
• Check cylinders are secured upright and the storage area is ventilated

and uncluttered.

Ice handling rules (contamination prevention)

• Use only dedicated ice buckets and scoops for beverage ice; clean the

scoop and its holder daily and store them properly.

• Never store anything in the ice bin — it contaminates the ice and the

cold plate.

• Keep the ice bin closed when not in use.
• Store and handle cups, lids, and straws so they stay clean.

Leave these to the technician

Some maintenance requires tools, chemicals, or calibration and is part of service visits rather than in-house cleaning:

• Syrup line cleaning/sanitizing end-to-end on its recommended schedule.
• Water filter changes — a spent filter shows up as slow pours or off

tastes.

• Water/syrup ratio checks and adjustments on each valve.
• Regulator and carbonator service, and any pressure adjustments.
• Internal valve or pump repairs.

If it has been a long time since a line cleaning or filter change — or you do not know when the last one was — submit a service request and ask us to put the system on a routine maintenance schedule.

Signs you are overdue

• Drinks taste sour, musty, or "like yesterday's flavor" even after nozzle

cleaning.

• Valves or bar-gun buttons stick within a day of wiping.
• Pours are slow on every valve, or foamy despite cold product.
• Fruit flies around the drip tray or BIB rack.
• Visible buildup you cannot reach with removable-part cleaning.

Any of these persisting after your daily/weekly routine means it is time for a service visit — request service, and mention what you are seeing.