Commercial Refrigeration in Coffs Harbour

Stock is generally at risk once a system has been down for around 2 hours, as the temperature starts climbing. How fast depends on whether it's a fridge or a freezer and what's in it, but 2 hours is the point at which it stops being an inconvenience.

A typical service station or fast food cool room holds $5,000 to $10,000 of stock at any given time. Some hold considerably more. Against that, the repair is almost always the cheaper number.

That's why commercial work runs differently to residential. We don't stop to write a formal quote while a room is warming up. Verbal approval is usually enough to get started.

What should I do if my cool room is climbing?

Keep the door shut.

Every time it opens, cold air spills out and the temperature rises faster. Leaving it closed buys time, and time is the thing that decides whether the stock survives.

Then ring us. If you know what temperature your stock has to be held at for safe sale, have that ready, because it tells us how long we've actually got.

Do you do after hours callouts?

Yes. After hours callouts are charged at double time with a three hour minimum, which is $264 per hour and $792 minimum. The same applies to residential and commercial. Standard hours are 6am to 6pm.

Refrigeration doesn't fail politely. A cool room going down at 9pm on a Friday is a different problem to an air conditioner not working, and it gets treated that way.

What goes wrong with cool rooms and freezer rooms?

Five faults account for most of what we get called to.

• Refrigerant leak or shortage. Usually gradual, but a large enough leak can drop the charge quickly.
• Evaporator fan failure. Normally a seized motor or a failed capacitor, and normally age.
• Damaged or deteriorated door seals. Can be gradual wear, or sudden if something cuts or tears one.
• Condenser fan failure. Same causes as the evaporator fans.
• Electrical faults. Mostly age, but voltage spikes from storms and surges catch people out.

What's the most preventable failure?

Ice ups, and they're the most common thing we see.

They come from two causes. Doors left open too long, and maintenance being skipped, particularly checking door seals and defrost components.

Door seals are behind a surprising number of them. Most people leave their equipment alone until something goes wrong, and by then a seal that's been letting warm air in for months has already caused the ice buildup that's now the problem.

How does defrost work on a cool room?

Refrigeration is designed to frost up and then clear it on a schedule. Air conditioning isn't, which is where the confusion usually starts.

Most cool rooms run 3 to 4 defrosts a day, commonly around 30 minutes each. What the right number is depends on door traffic, the size of the room, and humidity.

There are two ways it's done.

Electric defrost uses an element to melt the ice off the coil.

Hot gas defrost plumbs the system so hot refrigerant is sent through the evaporator itself. The whole coil heats, so the ice clears significantly faster and more completely. It's typically fitted to freezer rooms.

Both work. Clayton's preference is hot gas where the room suits it.

If a room isn't defrosting properly, it's usually one of three things: a faulty component, the defrost not initiating because of a fault, or a door being left open far more than it should be.

What does a commercial refrigeration service include?

Every service covers the refrigeration system and the room itself, because plenty of temperature problems aren't the plant at all.

On the system:

• Evaporator clean, chemically where the situation allows
• Electrical components checked
• Condenser cleaned to the same standard
• Refrigerant pressure check where the system calls for it, to confirm operating pressures are where they should be

On the room:

• Door seals
• Door hinges and springs
• Room condition assessed for air leaks and any faulty equipment that isn't part of the refrigeration system

That last part is the one most quotes leave out. A perfect system on a room with a failed seal will still ice up and still cost you money.

How often should a cool room be serviced?

Every 3 to 6 months, depending on how hard it's used.

The interval isn't really about the compressor. It's about door seals and the maintenance items that get neglected until they cause something bigger. A seal checked in autumn is cheap. The same seal found in January, after it's iced the coil and driven the temperature up, is not.

Freezer rooms are the same schedule, with more attention to defrost components.

Do you offer maintenance agreements?

Yes, and for commercial customers it's the better arrangement.

Job by job works, but an agreement means the servicing gets booked well ahead and actually happens, rather than being remembered after something's gone wrong.

What kinds of business do you work with?

Clayton has worked across most of the commercial range: service stations, pubs, cafes and restaurants, medical fridges, small commercial units like Skope fridges and freezers, and transcritical CO2 rack systems in major supermarkets.

One that sticks: a midnight callout to a supermarket where a CO2 rack was high temping on a freezer aisle. Inspection of the control system found a large leak on a ball valve. Once isolated, the repair was carried out, the system recharged to the correct volume, and operation confirmed before leaving.

That's the level the experience goes to.

What are you not set up for?

Very large commercial contracts.

FHC is Clayton, and the staff aren't there to service a contract of that size. Anything short of that is fair game, and the goal is servicing, repairs and maintenance, with small commercial installs alongside.

Being straightforward about the ceiling saves everyone a wasted conversation.