Are Public BBQs Too Complex?

When recently approached to supply 26 double cabinet barbecues to a remote mining town, the team at PARKQUIP were asked the inevitable Australian question – what happens if there’s a problem with one of the barbies?

The public demand for recreational barbecue facilities has never been greater. These days, built in BBQs are being installed in a variety of locations across Australia, from city apartment rooftops to caravan parks and mining towns of the remote outback.

For providers of public use barbecues, one of the most important considerations when choosing the right barbecue to install is the cost and downtime due to maintenance.

Recently the industry has seen a trend towards incorporating complex electronic circuitry into barbecue designs. Yet as changes like this are introduced, so too are increased risks of faults, complexities with servicing, and downtime when issues arise.

Currently Australia’s largest supplier of public use barbecues, PARKQUIP are hesitant to introduce products with overly complicated operational requirements to their range.

When reviewing potential products, the most important questions the team consider are how complex the fault-finding process is, whether replacement parts are readily available, what the costs of servicing the unit are, and how minimal the impact of downtime will be in the event of a fault.

With Australia’s vast size and the widespread installation of barbecues across the country, it is impossible for any manufacturer to have local service agents in every location. Barbecues that can be readily serviced by a local sparky or plumber will reduce the impact of downtime when an issue arises and greatly reduce the cost of returning complex units to the manufacturer for repairs.

PARKQUIP’s reputation for supplying simple, reliable and durable barbecues left them well placed to answer the question posed by the mining town maintenance crew. The ability to quickly and easily solve any potential faults in-house without the need to fly in specially trained technicians or return units was just the answer they needed.

The barbecues in PARKQUIP’s Park Pro range have a proven track record of over 40 years and are widely popular due to their simple and reliable design. All units are manufactured locally in Australia, which means there is ready access to parts in the rare event they are needed.