Commercial Refrigeration Preventive Maintenance (PM)

It has always been a mystery to me why people will spend thousands of dollars on commercial refrigeration like a reach-in refrigerator, reach-in freezer, walk-in cooler or walk-in freezer and never perform preventive maintenance. You would never buy a car and not change the oil would you?  Preventive maintenance is not the cure all but just like changing your oil in the car it is important; preventive maintenance helps the equipment you worked so hard for last longer.  At J.E.S we not only sell commercial restaurant equipment we also have a service department that is cable of providing PM & repair on all major brands of restaurant equipment as well as commercial HVAC.  My guys cover the up state of South Carolina & when it's the middle of July and 95°+ the service department phone is ringing off the hook with calls from restaurants and other commercial facilities with refrigeration problems a lot of which could have been prevented.  The key to helping your profit dollars go further is to limit repairs, not just ignore the cause of damage... NEGLECT!   Here are a few simple items that I would suggest

1. Find a service company that you trust, that’s very important. It is sad to say but not all service companies are honest, Find one you trust.
2. All refrigeration need’s air flow so make sure all A/C filters are changed every 30 to 60 days.
3. The condensers is the part of the system that remove the heat so make sure they are washed and cleaned at least 3 times a year, we monitor our customers and perform a good cleaning in the spring and fall they may need more throughout the year but make sure they are cleaned throw spring and fall.
4. Evaporators need cleaning on the same schedule.
5. Drain lines need to be cleared and checked also. If a drain line gets clogged on a frig or freezer it will cause the evaporator to freeze up, that means the man in the truck needs to be called and there goes today’s profit.

Some of our chain customers like Red Lobster have their own PM schedule that we go by, but any service company worth their weight in gold should have a PM plan that has specific checks scheduled in certain increments depending on the piece of equipment.  I can promise you that if you start a PM plan you will see a decrease in things like your electric bill because your equipment will not run as long or work as hard, in other words the more efficiently the piece of equipment is running the less it costs to operate.  I could probably write a book about all problems I have fixed and all it would have taken is a minimal (inexpensive) PM plan to PREVENT the damage expensive repair. My wife has talked me into writing this blog and more is sure to follow so take heed and start a PM plan; I assure you will see a difference. For those of you in up state South Carolina give me a call and we'll discuss the PM plans we offer and all the ways J.E.S can save you money.