Your restaurant’s or bar’s walk-in cooler or freezer is one of the most crucial pieces of equipment you’ll ever own. It’s a great way to guarantee the freshness and safety of your inventory while also prolonging the time period during which that food will be available for consumption. This can save you an awful lot of both money and headache over the long haul, so investing in the maintenance of this vital appliance is a great way for a restaurant owner or manager to minimize headaches.
Walk-in cooler maintenance in Delaware starts with you and your staff—a lot of these tips are DIY-oriented, but if you ever need a professional perspective, the team at Commercial Equipment Service Inc. is ready to put our 35-plus years of experience to work on your behalf!
Cleaning is key
There are a number of ways to practice good walk-in cooler preventative maintenance in Delaware, and regular cleaning is one of the best ways to ensure your appliance stays in optimal shape no matter what else happens. You want to clean the evaporator and condenser coil at least twice a year, and even more frequently if the coils are located outside.
Also, since good airflow is so vital to the operation of a cooling device, you need to be sure the fan blades are always kept clean to reduce drag and keep them moving air smoothly throughout. Along the same lines, be sure you never stack anything near the coil—this can easily restrict airflow, which can lead to inefficient operation and larger necessary repairs.
Schedule tasks to keep things running smoothly
There are other tasks that can help with walk-in cooler maintenance in Delaware, but they need to be performed regularly. Make sure all staff knows about these, and be sure to mark them on calendars so that everyone is on the same page.
For example, the hinges on the freezer should be lubricated at least once a year, so it might make sense to schedule that for the first day after the new year as an easy way to remember. You should have a technician come by and check the electrical connections once a year as well—again, this could be a good test to schedule around the first of the year.
Keep the area clear
Your walk-in cooler is a precise and intricate piece of machinery, so you need to have your staff pay close attention to how it’s treated. A lot of commercial freezer maintenance in Delaware might not even be necessary if you let the machine do what it was intended to do, and part of guaranteeing that is just a matter of keeping it free of obstructions. The back of a restaurant can get quite cluttered sometimes, but it’s imperative that this stuff not accumulate around the walk-in cooler. Otherwise, you can wind up messing with the critical airflow (as was mentioned earlier) or even damaging the unit by stacking items on top of it.
Walk in cooler maintenance in Delaware does not have to be a hugely expensive endeavor—a few simple DIY tasks can make it quite easy. If you need maintenance on your appliances or are in the market for new ones, please feel free to give Commercial Equipment Service Inc. a call anytime!