Cooking Equipment ReviewsFind out what equipment best suits your needs. Share your experiences with various kitchen equipment products, gadgets, and more.
Not sure about hatco I had one of the first models and it was 1 temp if I remember correctly. Just look at the construction alone, the seams type of gauge of steel etc. Anything I ever used from Alto was good however the new Combi ovens are In my opinion better then alto , also a lot more $ but well worth it.
Why limit your indecision to two brands? There's a lot of good units out there -- and most are a lot more alike than they are different.
Actually ... if at all possible, don't buy new. Buy used with enough of a guarantee that you can at least find out whether it works or not. In this economy there's no need to drop more than $2K on something you can probably get for less than half. Don't let an afternoon of communing with a bottle of oven cleaner keep you away from saving $1500.
All depends on what you want to keep warm, I guess. For a lot of crispy things, use the hatco. For stuff like mashed potatoews, pasta, anything in a sauce, nothing beats a Cambro--they are cheaper and don't use any power. Thyen again, I've seen speed racks covered in aluminum sheet and rigged with car heaters to keep stacks of plates warm prior to plating as well.
We bought a 3 drware HATCO food warmers. Preferred it over alto sham because in HATCO each drawer has individual tempretaure control and alto sham had a single control for all drawers.