Need recommendations on a heated holding cabinet
 

I'm wondering if anyone can give recommendations on a holding cabinet. This will be for home use, but I'm putting here as the catering/food service crowd would have the best information/experience with these units.

While it is for home (will be set up in the garage), I'm dead set on a full size electric cabinet, preferably insulated to keep electricity usage down. I want to be able to do 12 hour brisket holds, for more than 1 brisket plus ribs, butts and other stuff so I'm not interested in the turkey roaster idea which I'm sure will be mentioned. Also, my oven only goes down to 175 so it's too hot so not looking for comments on the home oven either, I'm dead set on a holding cabinet.

For budget I'm looking at $2,500 and down because I want something good, but I can't justify more than that really, so Alto Sham is out.

I was originally looking at this but the reviews suck and scared me away:
https://www.webstaurantstore.com/ava...77HPI1836.html

So now I'm thinking of this one with the low wattage NEMA 5-15P option: https://www.webstaurantstore.com/met...1C539CFS4.html

Any other recommendations would be appreciated!

You might check for local restaurant liquidation auctions and see if you can find one there. The equipment at the auctions around here usually sells for a fraction of new. Granted, it’s used, but if you aren’t trying to run a business day to day used might fit well. I picked up a smaller Alto Shaam and have had fun doing “active holds” with it. Mine is out of warranty but I had some questions and emailed support and they were very helpful and responsive, I was pleased with the level of service they provided.

Yeah, I've been looking for used for a while but haven't found anything yet.

I ordered a similar warming cabinet from Webstaurantstore.com a few months ago. I gave my home address as the delivery address because I was going to put it on my food trailer. They sent me an email stating that if I used the warming cabinet in my home (or garage) it would void the warranty. I told them it was for my food trailer and they would only warranty it for 30 days. They said this is the case for just about all of their electrical equipment.

So just consider this before you drop $2500. As you've seen these things are super hard to find at liquidation auctions. I ended up just going with pre-heated coolers and was able to hot-hold brisket and pork butts without issue for 8+ hours, which was plenty of time for my business.

I have two of these and love them https://www.webstaurantstore.com/met...1C539HDSU.html

Based on SmoothboarBBQ's post above, I'm wondering are you using these for personal use at your home or in a commercial setting?

Have you had any issues with them and is it easy to dial in a holding temp of 145?

Thanks for the heads up. I still might be crazy enough to pull the trigger but it may require more thought based on this.

Basically, I want to cook briskets the day before and hot hold for 12+ hours like Franklin's etc. so I don't think the cooler idea would work.

I use them in my catering and food trailer business. I have one on the food trailer and one in my commercial kitchen. Dial it to any temp I want and it holds indefinitely. I even use it to proof dough at 90 degrees or so sometimes. You will get a small fluctuation in temp as the heater kicks on and off but most all of them do that.

Update....

So I talked to Webstaurant and they told me the same thing, if you use it at home it voids the warranty. They said it's because they can't send a technician to your home. BUT they also said that for warranty claims they instruct you to contact the manufacturer.

So I called and spoke with Metro and they advised that what Webstaurant said is totally incorrect and that they have many customers running small food businesses from their homes and they are absolutely covered under the manufacturers warranty. The only thing that would void the warranty is improper use (such as trying to plug the unit in to the wrong outlet type etc. which was the CS reps example).

She also said these units have minimal problems and the module is removable, so in the case of a problem I could just take it to the nearest service center which she gave me the info for and is pretty close.

I am going to see about maybe installing a separate circuit for it in the garage, but either way I'm seriously thinking about picking one of these up.

Good to go and thanks for responding with the new information. Good luck with whatever you choose to do and I hope it works out.

Wouldn't an electric cambro work for your needs. It will hold everything at 150 forever
https://www.katom.com/144-UPCH800110.html

I view those as single use catering tools. A cabinet is much more versatile.

So use it once and throw it away?