What to Prioritise for Your Walk In Cooler Maintenance Checklist

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by WEPL Editor Mgmt March 20, 2023

If you are in the food industry, you must be aware about the importance of keeping food items at a consistent, safe temperature for human consumption. A walk in cooler keeps the food at an optimum temperature to maintain the quality of the food. To remain compliant with health and food safety guidelines, you need to rely on your walk-in coolers for dependable and spacious cold food storage.

An underperforming walk-in cooler can be havoc, especially in the summer months in Los Angeles. It can risk the food inventory leading to contamination and food going bad. It negatively impacts your business. Hence it is vital to stay vigilant with the Walk in Cooler maintenance as required. Following is the checklist that we have compiled for you to know What to Prioritise for Your Walk-In Cooler Maintenance

Walk in Cooler Maintenance Checklist

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Follow some simple steps of walk in cooler maintenance to extend the life of your units.

Clean the equipment

It is important for you to clean food and beverage spills and drips on a timely basis as part of your daily walk in cooler cleaning. The longer you let a spill settle, the harder it will be for you to clean it without the use of a harmful cleaning agent. Be careful not to use steel wool and other abrasives and chemicals, such as bleach. This can damage your appliance’s finish.

Moreover, uncleaned spills also lead to unpleasant odor that can affect the quality of your ingredients. Furthermore, mold growth can jeopardise the safety of your food.

Check frequency settings

Another tip for your walk in cooler maintenance checklist is to check your temperature and defrost frequency settings daily. If the temperature is set lower than it is necessary, your system will be working too hard. This can shorten its life. Moreover, ice could form, especially on liquids. On the other hand, if your temperature is not cool enough, your food will spoil.

Defrost

Excessive ice buildup is caused by fluctuating temperatures inside the cooler. As fluctuating temperatures mean inventory is melting and then refreezing, it can compromise the food items inside. Ice buildup on the evaporator coil, air ventilation, or drain pipe is also alarming and can be threatening to your food inventory

Make sure you follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for defrosting for regular commercial fridge maintenance. Similarly, defrosting your unit too often can create unnecessary work for your walk-in cooler

Thorough Cleaning of Condenser Coils

One of the important tasks in the Walk in Cooler maintenance checklist is to clean the condenser coils. A walk-in cooler can not do its work properly when the coils are blocked with dust and debris. These coils must be clear so that the refrigerant can cool the refrigerator to maintain a constant temperature.

Prevent overcrowding

When coming up with a walk-in cooler maintenance checklist, make sure you are not over crowding the cooler with unnecessary food items. . The air will not be able to freely circulate in a refrigerator packed to the gills. This will make the unit work harder to maintain its set temperature.

Maximise airflow by clearing the surrounding area

Besides the proper interior airflow, appropriate exterior airflow is equally important and shouldn’t be overlooked. Unfortunately, kitchens are often cramped spaces. Even if you have little room to spare, it’s important that you don’t block the air intake and exhaust

vents of your walk-in cooler. If you do, your unit will have to work harder to cool the food stored inside.

This not only consumes extra electricity units but could also decrease the life expectancy of your equipment. That’s why this task on What to Prioritise for Your Walk-In Cooler Maintenance Checklist is vital.

Inspect hinges and door sealings

Another regularly performed task on your walk in cooler maintenance checklist should be air leak inspections. Any tear in the gaskets or broken or misaligned door hinges and latches can cause cold air to escape and warm air from outside to seep into the refrigerator. It can compromise the food and cause an excessive load on the refrigerator’s compressor to maintain the optimum temperature. Inspect walk-in cooler hinges and door sealings once in a month.

Check interior lights

Although checking the interior lights may seem trivial in a walk in cooler maintenance. But lights generate heat, which is another reason your refrigeration units might be working harder than necessary.

Walk in Cooler Maintenance Checklist: Tasks that require HVAC company

As long as you are using the right tools, cleaners and cleaning methods, there are many tasks that you can manage yourself. However, most busy restaurant managers choose to assign these tasks to a professional HVAC company. HVAC technicians can do the job

better as they have proper equipment and supplies to do the work safely and efficiently. Following are the tasks that can be handled by an HVAC company

Clean coils

Coil cleaning is critical for an efficient operation of your HVAC system. It should be on every walk-in cooler preventative maintenance checklist. Each month, you should inspect and clean your unit’s condenser and evaporator coils. If your coils are accumulated with dirt and grime, it will interfere with the transfer of heat from your system. This will cause your system to run inefficiency and your system working overtime, which will accelerate repairs.

Clean fan blades

Blade cleaning is another monthly job that should be carried out by HVAC professionals for a regular Walk in Cooler maintenance . Dirty blades will force the fan motors to work harder to rotate the blades. Make sure that screws are tight before cleaning the fan blades.

Schedule Walk In Cooler Maintenance or Repairs With Alturas

HVAC contractors

Are you looking for your commercial walk-in cooler maintenance or repair service? Then don’t look any further and call Alturas HVAC contractors right away. We are a wellknown and trust-worthy HVAC company who provides HVAC installation and HVAC repair services in Los Angeles. We are well-aware of What to Prioritise for Your WalkIn Cooler Maintenance. Our professional commercial HVAC installers and technicians ensure each installation and repair is according to your requirements. This way you can focus on your business rather than your equipment’s upkeep. Alturas will guarantee you solutions and quality assistance for any walk-in cooler queries with our extensive industry expertise.