commercial refrigeration

The Complete Guide to Commercial Refrigerator Maintenance

Whether it’s keeping your food fresh or protecting your product, commercial refrigerators play a huge role in a business. When this equipment goes down, you’ll be forced to move things around to avoid ruining whatever was inside. Given how large some commercial refrigerators are, this could take up a lot of valuable time.

To avoid losing productivity or the product itself, it’s often wise to schedule a commercial refrigeration service and get professionals to inspect your equipment.

Of course, this is only part of the maintenance process and there are several things that you can do to protect your commercial refrigerator and keep it functional, for as long as possible. These refrigerators can be rather costly as well, but committing to these maintenance habits will help you minimise the risk of a breakdown and avoid having to buy a new refrigerator prematurely.

Schedule Regular Maintenance Visits From Professionals

If your refrigerator is acting funny or making strange noises, you should probably get a technician out to your property as soon as possible. A technician can operate on the unit while it’s still running and you can potentially avoid a breakdown altogether.

That being said, it’s also a good idea to schedule a commercial refrigeration service on a regular basis. This will help you uncover issues that haven’t developed yet and a technician would also be able to clean and tune up the machine so that it’s operating at the highest level. Working with a commercial repair service ensures you get expert advice, reliable repairs, and access to authentic replacement parts.

Always Keep Your Equipment Clean

However, you shouldn’t rely solely on a technician and keeping the equipment clean is essential to making sure that it has a long life. Restaurant refrigerators, especially, get dirty and covered in grease. It’s important to keep these clean so that they function properly and that goes for both the interior and the exterior. There are certain areas that can get clogged and when things such as food crumbs and grease build up, they are increasingly difficult to remove.

This is not only essential as a maintenance practice but it also ensures that your restaurant complies with health and safety regulations.

Protect the Moving Parts

Commercial refrigerators have many moving parts such as the motor and the fan. Condenser coils and air filters don’t really move but they are equally, if not more, important to keep clean. You don’t want grease building up on your fan blades and you don’t want your air filters or condenser coils to get clogged. When that happens, the whole system can shut down, potentially for good. When cleaning the mechanical parts of your refrigerator, make sure that you are using an appropriate cleaner and follow any guidelines that have been laid out in the manual.

There will usually be a compartment underneath or behind your refrigerator that provides access to these parts.

Use Only Recommended Replacement Parts

Replacing a part is much better than replacing an entire refrigerator so if something is broken or not working properly, you should consider replacing it as soon as possible. Your commercial refrigeration service technician can tell you what you need and he or she will even be able to supply the part in most cases. If you get the part through the technician, you can feel confident that it’s the right part for the unit. However, if you shop for parts on your own, you want to be careful to buy the right things.

Usually, you can find this information in the owner’s manual but don’t hesitate to contact the manufacturer if you are confused. Most manufacturers have recommended suppliers and this not only ensures that you get the right parts, but it also ensures that you don’t void your warranty.