Discount Restaurant Equipment Parts

How to Sniff Out Knock-off and Substitute Parts Suppliers

When searching for restaurant equipment parts on the internet, it is important to know what you are actually buying. OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. OEM Parts are the items either made by, or made for, the manufacturer and designed specifically for your piece of equipment. These are the "Gold Standard" in replacement parts as they are the very ones used to build the original machine. These are considered exact match Genuine OEM replacement parts.

There are other kinds of parts having lesser standards that are called "OCM", generic, similar, substitute, maverick, refurbished, rebuilt, used, and so on. Look for codewords like "Fits Brand", "OCM", "reference" or "for reference only", "equivalent", "substitute", etc. somewhere within the product's description, or the site's Terms of Service, About, or FAQ pages.

If it doesn't say "Genuine OEM" and "Nothing Generic. Nothing "Equivalent". Nothing Off-Brand." you may want to keep looking. For more on OEM parts click here.