A refrigeration equipment meltdown will stop your business cold. That is why it is important for you to be vigilant about preventative refrigeration maintenance. Having a refrigeration preventative maintenance checklist will help you complete your commercial refrigerator maintenance tasks, and it can prevent untimely breakdowns and headaches.
Keep everything clean.
The first step to ensuring that your unit operates as it should is to keep it clean. Make sure that drips, splashes, and splatters are wiped up immediately, and be used to use cleaning solutions and abrasives that will not harm your unit. Not only can they place your equipment at risk, but also the food within your freezer and refrigerator should be cleaned out at a regular schedule to prevent overcrowding.
Other important areas in your unit that you need to keep clean are the blades and the coils. When fan motors collect dirt, they have to work harder to rotate the blades. When coils fill with grime and dirt, they work harder too. This includes frost build-up inside the unit.
Ensure airflow.
It is the air that you are conditioning, so air must be free to move around the cavity of your unit. If exhausts and vents are clogged or covered, either inside or outside the unit, your refrigeration system will have to work harder in order to maintain the proper temperature.
Check additional refrigerator and freezer parts.
When air escapes your unit, it causes the compressor to work harder. This means that it is important to make sure that the doors are closed properly because this effectively seals in the cold air. When the seals are worn out or torn, they can allow cold air to escape, which is not only costly but also risky.
Parts inside a refrigerator or freezer can generate heat. When lights are left on, the bulbs will create heat in quantities that will cause refrigeration units to work a lot harder.
Create a maintenance checklist.
The best way to make sure that everything gets done is to make a preventative maintenance checklist for your refrigeration system. Though the items on this list may not prevent all kinds of malfunctions, they will reduce the chance that they will happen, and they will help save your operation money by making your systems operate efficiently.
One of the things that should be on your refrigeration preventative maintenance checklist is to check your temperature and you defrost frequency settings daily. If the temperature is set lower than needed, your system will be working too hard, and it can shorten its life. If the unit is too cold, ice could form. If your temperature is not cold enough, your food could spoil.
It is also important that you defrost on schedule. Make sure that you follow the recommendations for defrosting made by your manufacturer. Defrosting your unit too often can create unnecessary work for your unit.
Another task that should be a part of your list is air leak inspections. When the seals or gaskets on your doors are loose or ripped, air can escape, which is another reason why your unit might be overworked and your electric bill increased.
Minor gasket leaks can be repaired with silicone caulk. Make sure that your unit’s door hinges and latches are secured and tightly sealed. If the doors are not aligned properly, cool air is likely escaping. This should be done monthly.
The majority of sub-par conditions that can affect your refrigeration system will eventually result in your system working harder, which will likely hasten repairs and drive up electricity costs. A problem that is ignored can result in a breakdown that will cost you more. Other consequences of an unchecked problem is a failed health inspection, a complete system failure, or a customer getting sick on food that is not properly refrigerated.