It never pays to be penny-wise & dollar-foolish when it comes to maintenance of commercial refrigeration. Hopefully you can learn from this customer’s expensive lesson!
We received a call on a Saturday in August for emergency service. As Murphy’s Law would have it, their 2-door cooler broke down on the weekend, when repairs come at a premium.
Let’s backtrack for a minute. We quoted this customer a full comprehensive maintenance plan back in November of 2011. This maintenance, if performed, likely would have prevented the cooler in question from breaking down. The maintenance would definitely save the customer on energy usage & extend the life of the equipment. Unfortunately, as is all too often the case, the customer did not schedule or approve our refrigeration maintenance proposal. Have a look at our quote below for the maintenance work:
Fast forward to the emergency service call. Their 2 door cooler was running at 70 degrees, which we diagnosed as a bad condenser fan motor. Most likely, the fan motor overheated due to the condenser coil being plugged with grease. The compressor was extremely overheated & tripping off on overload. We had to cool the compressor with ice, degrease the coil several times & replace the condenser fan motor. All this was done at our Saturday rate, which is 1.5 times our regular rates. Now take a look at the invoice for emergency Saturday service:
(Note: Our current regular business hour rates are as follows $65 service charge $115.50 per hour plus parts)
Here is how it breaks down:
- The emergency service on the one cooler was almost $200 more than the entire maintenance proposal for 12 Refrigeration Units.
- The other 11 Refrigeration Units are still overdue for maintenance.
- The compressor on cooler serviced has been severely strained & may fail soon.
This scenario is something we see all the time: We try to preach the benefits of routine maintenance, but it is all too often ignored. For the handful of clients who routinely maintain their refrigeration equipment, the units are operating much more efficiently and have far fewer breakdowns than units that are not serviced regularly. We recommend a thorough maintenance inspection be done a minimum of twice per year.
Here are a couple other maintenance-related posts that are useful:
DIY Commercial Refrigeration Maintenance Inspection
5 Steps To Conserve Energy & Extend Life Of Refrigeration Equipment
Problems Caused By Lack Of Commercial Refrigeration Maintenance
Please contact us with any questions regarding commercial refrigeration.
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