The Importance of Preventative Refrigeration Maintenance
When it comes to businesses that rely on commercial fridges to store their products safely, an equipment malfunction can bring operations to a grinding halt. At Cold-Rite, we provide our clients with refrigerator breakdown services and technical support, which is focused on prevention, rather than waiting for something bad to happen. To ensure that your business has continuous and steady refrigeration at all times, we’ve put together a comprehensive refrigeration maintenance checklist to keep your equipment working efficiently and to increase its life cycle.
DIY Preventative Maintenance Checklist
Training your staff to conduct in-house checks on a weekly basis is an excellent way to catch potential problems before they turn into something serious. Read on for our expert tips on cool room maintenance.
Clean Your Equipment
Depending on the way your business uses refrigerators, you may find that over a week of busy business hours, small spills are missed or not properly cleaned. We recommend doing a cleanliness check at least once a week to keep the interior of your unit in good condition. Do not use abrasive materials like steel wool or chemicals like bleach to clean the fridge. Poorly cleaned refrigerators can develop odours which can seep into other products and cause mould growth which can create food safety risks.
Check Your Settings
Keep a note of the optimal settings of your refrigeration to ensure they are dialled in correctly for each day. Setting the temperature too low can increase energy costs by making the unit work too hard and could form ice. If the temperature is set too high, sensitive inventory can be ruined overnight
Don’t Forget to Defrost
Make yourself familiar with the owner’s manual of your commercial refrigeration units so that important maintenance measures such as defrosting can be done correctly. Defrosting large refrigeration units more often than required can drastically increase energy usage
Prevent Over-Crowding
One of the best ways to get the most out of your cooling units is to standardise the amount of inventory that is stored in each refrigerator. When conducting a weekly check, make sure that fridges are not overcrowded as this can negatively affect airflow that is critical to the functioning of the cooling unit. At Cool-Rite, we provide our clients with information on the best way to stock their units without compromising on quality, energy efficient cooling capabilities.
Maximise Exterior Airflow
Every inch of space in your business is valuable, and it can be tempting to cram as many refrigerators as possible into the space that is available. Unfortunately, this can prove costly in the long run as improper air flow through the intake and exhaust vents can really slow down your unit’s performance and increase the amount of electricity usage per machine. The team at Cold-Rite has years of experience in commercial refrigerator installation where fridge placement is a critical step in the process. We advise clients on how best to use the space they have available so that your cooling units do not become a liability due to lack of space
Inspect Seals
Gaskets and seals on most units are made of materials which wear away over time. This is a weak point as an improper seal can cause outside air to leak into your refrigerator and cause temperature fluctuations.
Commercial Refrigerator Installation in Sydney
When it comes to refrigeration maintenance tasks that require technical expertise, our team of highly fully licensed refrigeration experts provide pan-industry clients with the highest standards of excellence. Whether you have cool rooms, blast chillers or commercial walk-in refrigerators, our team has every solution you need.
