On a typical visit the tech works through each unit you have. The exact list depends on the equipment:
- Clean the condenser coil on every unit and comb out bent fins
- Check each evaporator coil for ice or dirt and clean the fan blades
- Flush the drain lines and clear out the drain pans
- Check door gaskets, hinges and closers, and note any door that isn’t sealing
- Compare each box’s temperature to a calibrated thermometer and check the thermostat setting
- Look for oil at fittings and other signs of a refrigerant leak, and put gauges on any system that’s acting off
- Check fan motors, and look at contactors and wiring for burned or loose connections
- Check defrost controls and heaters on freezers
- Descale and sanitize ice machines, and change the water filter if there is one
The report you get after each visit goes unit by unit. Anything that needs a repair is written up there with a price, and it waits until you approve it.
How often to schedule it
It depends on where the equipment lives. A condensing unit in a kitchen with fryers and a flat-top pulls greasy air through its coil all day, and that coil can mat over in a couple of months. Rooftop units near a kitchen exhaust fan get the same treatment from above. For those, every three months is about right.
Equipment in cleaner spaces can usually go six months between visits. Think of a florist’s cooler, or a church kitchen that only runs on weekends and for events.
Ice machines are their own schedule. Most manufacturers call for cleaning and sanitizing at least every six months, and machines in a bakery or brewery tend to need it more often because yeast and flour in the air feed slime. There’s more on that in how often to clean an ice machine.
One seasonal thing: for a couple of weeks in spring, cottonwood fluff blows onto outdoor condensers and plugs them almost overnight, right before the first hot days.
Dirty coils and slow problems
A dirty condenser coil is the cheapest problem in refrigeration to prevent and one of the most common reasons a compressor runs hot and fails early. We wrote a whole post on condenser coil cleaning if you want the long version. Visits also catch slow problems while they’re still small repairs, like a gasket starting to tear at the corner or a fan motor that’s begun to squeal.
It helps at inspection time too. Gaskets that seal and boxes that hold 41 F are what an inspector wants to see, and our post on getting ready for a health inspection covers the rest.
Pricing
There’s no price list for maintenance, since it depends on how much equipment you have and how often it needs a visit. A coffee shop with one reach-in and an undercounter ice machine is a much smaller job than a market with two walk-ins and a row of display cases. Someone looks at what you’ve got first, and you get the price in writing.
