As a proprietor within the food service business, you know that your refrigeration equipment is just as important as the equipment you use to cook your food. That said, you may be wondering whether regular maintenance is truly necessary, or if it’s just a way for repairmen to make more money. The truth is, without regular maintenance, your equipment can fail sooner than its expiration date – perhaps even during the busiest time of the day for your business.
With regular maintenance, you lessen the chances that you will need a pricier service call when your refrigeration equipment goes on the fritz. Here at Ambient Edge, we offer preventative maintenance contracts so that you can stay on top of your equipment, tweaking it as necessary to prevent a future meltdown. Give us a call, and we’ll be happy to set you up with a contract that will prove invaluable to you and your business.
The Hazards of Skipping Routine Maintenance
There are several benefits to scheduling routine maintenance on your refrigeration equipment, rather than simply waiting for something to break and scheduling a service call. Here are some of the issues you can avoid when your refrigeration equipment receives regular maintenance.
Contaminated Ice
Something you definitely don’t want to do in the food services industry is make your customers sick. However, that is exactly what you risk when you don’t schedule regular maintenance for your refrigeration equipment. Dirty ice machines can become contaminated with harmful bacteria and viruses, like salmonella and E. coli.
As a baseline, you should schedule a professional cleaning for your ice machines twice a year. You should schedule it for more often if your ice machines see heavier usage, like during the summer when everyone wants a cold drink. A licensed maintenance expert will disassemble the machine for a proper and thorough cleaning.
Plus, another bonus: the cleaner your ice machine is, the more ice it will yield!
Emergencies
When you have your food equipment routinely checked and serviced, you minimize your chances at experiencing a tried-and-true emergency when your equipment breaks down during the height of the lunch rush. This is because the repairman will find and tweak any minor issues before they can ever turn into huge catastrophes.
The better the upkeep of your machines, the longer they will last, and the more energy-efficient they will be over the course of their lifetimes. This is why regular maintenance always wins vs. waiting for something to break down and calling someone in to fix it.
Higher Energy Costs
A machine that is not running up to snuff, refrigeration or otherwise, is a drain on your energy bill. This is because it takes twice as much energy to do the same work. When you regularly maintain your refrigeration equipment, you save money on your energy bills because your equipment is functioning as it should with no hiccups.
Leak Detection
Checking for leaks is another invaluable service that a repairman can provide when you sign up for regular maintenance. R-22 refrigerant is becoming more expensive, so it’s becoming even more important that none of your equipment is losing any of it. With regular maintenance, a licensed repairman with state-of-the-art leak detection equipment can check for leaks and repair them right away.
Dehumidification
Dehumidification is an issue affecting all businesses in the food services industry, especially those who live in climates that experience higher levels of humidity. Too much humidity can lead to condensation on your refrigerator’s coils, which increases the amount of energy you use. Too much humidity can cause frost and even ice to form on your refrigerator’s case and the products within it. This causes the quality of the product to decline.
If you’re trying to combat the problem by simply adjusting the temperature in your building, this is not an ideal solution. Not only are you hemorrhaging money on your energy bills, but it’s not a comfortable situation for your customers. A restaurant food equipment service company can install a dehumidification system which can save you tens of thousands of dollars every year, both in your energy bills and operating costs.
Schedule Your Routine Maintenance Today
As we all know, it is far smarter to go for our annual well visits at the doctor, rather than waiting until there’s a problem to make an appointment. The same goes for your refrigeration equipment. Regular maintenance will win out every time over waiting until something breaks to fix it because regular maintenance can stop many problems before they even start.
At Ambient Edge, we offer our customers a 100% satisfaction guarantee on all our products and services. And, if you happen to suffer an equipment breakdown, we have an emergency team available round-the-clock to help you fix the problem before your doors even open for business.
So, fill out our contact form, or give us a call, and we will help set you up with a preventative maintenance contract. Call now, and get ahead of any potential issues before they start!