Case Studies: Five Guys

Five Guys, named after the five Murrell brothers, is the highly recognisable burger restaurant chain that launched in Arlington, Virginia in 1986. Since then the brand has successfully expanded to the UK. Beginning a roll-out of branches in 2013, today, Five Guys has more than 100 sites across the UK and Northern Ireland.

Five Guys differentiates itself in the market by preparing and cooking food on-site to ensure maximum freshness. The restaurants pride themselves on not having freezers on site. As a result, Five Guy’s restaurants have a large hot water demand, peaking prior to 11 am for food preparation and then again at the end of the day as each restaurant receives a thorough flooding and wash down to ensure hygiene throughout the premises.

Having successfully implemented commercial water heaters from A.O. Smith in its US restaurants, Five Guys initially approached long-term A.O. Smith supplier Adveco for its UK sites. That partnership has grown, and today Adveco not only exclusively supplies Five Guys with A.O. Smith water heaters, but also works in close partnership to advise, generate system designs, commission appliances and provide full manufacturer quality planned maintenance and servicing. Adveco currently supports more than 80 restaurants across the chain’s portfolio which continues to grow, with new sites recently opening in Manchester, Camden, Braintree, Peterborough and on London’s Portobello Road.

As Five Guys locates all new restaurants in existing premises the domestic hot water (DHW) systems will be defined by supply (gas or electric) and square footage. Sites will typically see the installation of either an A.O. Smith BFC 50H Cyclone, a fully ducted stainless-steel condensing gas-fired water heater or a DRE 120/35 electric water heater. With a 54kW rating, 200 – 300 litres capacity and electric elements independently controlled via their own control thermostat (adjustable: 49 – 82°C) the DRE ensures steady and responsive heating for Five Guys’ applications. These appliances will be supported with an unvented kit, temperature and pressure gauge and commissioning to ensure installation has been completed correctly.

As part of a drive to deliver best-fit systems that are more cost-effective to purchase and operate, Adveco has worked closely with Five Guys to reassess DHW demands. Original sizing of the system requirements established in the US were deemed to over-compensate, especially when compared to the needs of typical UK sites. Apart from early and late in day peaks, hot water demand during the day is relatively limited in terms of kitchen and supply to the public washrooms. On the advice of Adveco, Five Guys has now begun trials at the Camden Parkway and Portobello Road restaurants with the A.O. Smith IR Innovo, a fully room-sealed condensing gas-fired water heater.

With a maximum temperature setting of 85°C, which exceeds the typical 60°C requirement within the restaurants, Innovo presents a highly efficient answer to the need for hot water. Low NOₓ emissions means it easily complies with the strictest European guidelines and the versatile flue option allows installations to be placed almost anywhere. Critically, construction of the heat exchangers limits the effect of scaling, which remains an ongoing issue in hard water areas. Typically, Adveco will service the hot water system at each restaurant once a year, with engineers onsite by 6 a.m. This ensures all work is complete by 10 a.m. so as not to disturb a restaurant’s daily operation. In hard water areas, such services can be required every six months.

As a provider of bespoke commercial hot systems for 50 years, Adveco recognises and understands that the provision of hot water is often a critical function of a customer’s business. This is certainly the case with Five Guys. To ensure service consistency, Adveco engineers provide a full planned maintenance service which can often include overnight descales, as well as remedial and flue work to preempt emergency call outs.

Adveco is committed to assuring that hot water is kept flowing so that Five Guys can keep serving customers across the length & breadth of UK, from Aberdeen to Exeter, London to Belfast and everywhere in between