People hear “maintenance visit” and picture someone glancing at the thermostat and leaving. Most of the time actually goes into cleaning, and into a close look at parts you can’t easily get to yourself, like the coil on the roof or the fan motors behind the evaporator cover.
The condenser comes first
It gets dirtier than anything else in the system, and a dirty one does the most damage over time. On a walk-in it’s usually outside or on the roof. On reach-ins and prep tables it sits behind a grille at the top or bottom of the cabinet. The tech cleans the coil with whatever it needs (a brush and vacuum for dust, coil cleaner for grease) along with the fan blades. Our post on condenser coil cleaning goes into why.
Then the electrical side. Loose connections get tightened, and the contactor gets checked for burned contacts. The tech also measures how many amps the compressor and fans pull, because a compressor drawing more than it should is an early warning. They listen to the motors while they run as well, since a fan bearing on its way out usually gets noisy before it quits.
Inside the box
Inside, the tech looks over the evaporator coil and fans and clears the drain pan and line. On freezers, that includes making sure the defrost heaters and the drain line heater actually work. Gaskets get checked for tears and gaps, and hinges and closers get adjusted so the door swings shut on its own.
The thermostat gets checked against a separate thermometer. A control that’s three degrees off can have you running warmer than you think for months.
Gauges aren’t automatic
Some owners expect gauges to go on every unit every visit. Most techs only connect them when something points to a problem, such as high amp draw or frost in odd places. Every connection can let a tiny bit of refrigerant out, so there’s no reason to do it for its own sake.
Ice machines
If the ice machine is part of the visit, it gets a full descale and sanitize, plus a new water filter when one’s due. The ice machine cleaning guide explains why those are two separate steps.
The report and how often
You get a service report afterward listing what was cleaned and checked. Anything that looks close to failing goes on it with a written price, and nothing gets replaced until you OK it.
Twice a year suits most kitchens.
A kitchen with a lot of grease in the air may want visits more often, and so may a bakery or bar whose ice machine slimes up fast. The details are on our preventive maintenance page, or you can get in touch and talk through your equipment.
