Proper care and preventative maintenance are critically important to keep your commercial refrigeration equipment functioning well at all times. Keeping food at safe temperatures is important in the correctional foodservice operation to ensure that you stay on budget as well as maintain appropriate inventory levels for your facilities population. These five problems are common in commercial refrigeration and freezer equipment.
1. Not Holding Proper Temperature – Did you set the control in your refrigerator and come back to see that it is not at the required temperature or that isn’t keeping food cold? Consider yourself lucky you got a warning and can take action. A refrigerator or freezer may not be holding temperature due to numerous issues. The first thing to check is to see that the thermostat is working properly. If this is fine, you should consider that your refrigerator may have dirty fans, a faulty compressor, or a leak in the refrigerant cooling line. You may also find that your refrigerator is in a position where it has restricted airflow so that it cannot cool properly and you need to reposition the unit.
2. Power Issues – If you check your commercial freezer or refrigerator and it doesn’t have power, you should first check to be sure that it wasn’t turned off accidentally or by a troublesome trustee. If it is turned on properly and the power plug or cord are correctly attached and connected to an outlet, there’s a problem and you need to act quickly. Your first step is to verify that the wall outlet and ground wiring is properly functioning to be sure there isn’t an issue with the wiring. You can use a voltage detector to test this. If there is a wiring problem, you will need a maintenance or trades man. While this is being done, you want to be sure to avoid using an extension cord for the refrigerator but rather move the contents to a different cold storage equipment option like a refrigerated walk-in cooler. As appealing as this action may sound, it’s important to know that many commercial refrigerator manufacturers will void a warranty if you do this and a repair problem occurs.
3. Interior Lighting Stops Working – Lighting that stops working in your system may be a small issue that is easily fixed. A first step is to see if it is due to disconnected lights. If you need to have the bulb replaced, you or your maintenance person should confirm that it is approved by the manufacturer to avoid any additional problems.
4. Ice Builds Up on the Interior – If you begin to see frost build up inside your commercial refrigerator it could be due to a variety of issues. These include defective door gaskets that don’t seal properly, poor air ventilation around the unit or possibly the doors have been left open too long and/or too often. Any issue that allows warm air to get inside the refrigeration unit may lead to condensation and will eventually form frost.
5. Strange Noises – As with any type of commercial kitchen equipment, abnormal noises may occur and they usually indicate a problem. With refrigeration, these may mean there is a problem with fans, motors, the compressor or other mechanical issues. It’s not a good idea to ignore a strange noise because it most likely means there is a problem with your equipment that you want to take care of before it becomes a failure to operate.
