As a business owner, you can’t afford any downtime when it comes to your refrigeration system. Refrigeration equipment of all types requires regular service in order to continue working efficiently and to help you avoid costly breakdowns. In this article, our team of skilled commercial HVAC contractors has taken the time to put together this short article identifying several tips when it comes to commercial refrigeration services. If you take the time to perform these tasks regularly, they should keep your appliances working for years.

MAINTAIN DOOR SEALS

Part of your regular maintenance checklist should be checking the door seals. They form the seal that keeps cool air in and warm air out, so they are perhaps one of the most important components. Check them once a month using the dollar bill test. Put a dollar bill in the door frame with some sticking out, and shut the door. Try to pull the note out. If it comes out easily, you might need your door seals repaired. Then, give the door seals a good clean every six months. In a commercial setting, you might need to use a strong cleaner.

A mix of sodium bicarbonate and water also works wonders. You might find that bits of food collect in the door seal. In that case, you can remove these with a damp cloth and then use a small brush (such as a toothbrush) for deep cleaning.

All refrigeration appliances must be nearly full to work properly, from coolers to commercial walk-in freezers and everything else in between. They need thermal mass, which means having enough frozen stock inside to maintain a stable temperature.

If a freezer is empty, it’s impacted more by opening it than a full one. This simple trick reduces commercial refrigeration repairs because the cooling units don’t need to work as hard. For obvious reasons, it shouldn’t be too difficult to keep a commercial unit full.

One of the biggest causes of refrigeration maintenance is broken thermostats. If left alone, a thermostat can gradually stop reading the correct temperature. Fortunately, it’s easy to avoid this by adding regular checks to your refrigeration maintenance checklist.

Buy a thermometer and make sure your appliance reads the correct temperature. You can check this in your owner’s manual, as commercial and residential units often have different working temperatures. If you notice issues with the temperature your unit’s thermostat reads, it’s easy to call a professional before you need emergency refrigeration service.

This step might not be possible on all commercial units because it depends on their cooling system. But, where you can, ensure you keep the condenser coils clean. You should include the cleaning as part of your routine refrigeration units and also include walk-in coolers and freezers repair and maintenance. To clean the condenser coils, do the following: Unplug the unit from the wall and move it so you can access the coils. If the coils are on the front, remove the grille to expose them.

Use a vacuum cleaner with the brush attachment and gently run it over the coils. You might need to get in a cloth to wipe the dust off. Put everything back where it was and turn the unit back on. Ideally, you should do this at least twice a year, if not more, depending on where you keep the unit. Make it part of your refrigeration maintenance list to inspect the condenser coils regularly and clean them as needed.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is keeping the unit itself clean. If you work in a kitchen, you probably do this already as part of your refrigeration maintenance checklist. Regular cleaning should be part of any refrigerator or freezer maintenance schedule. Although many appliances automatically defrost, you can combine this with your defrosting routine. If yours doesn’t, do it manually at least once a year. You’ll know when it’s time because lots of ice will build up around the sides.

To defrost, remove the food and unplug the unit. After the ice melts, you can let the water out through the built-in drain. Then, you can get started with cleaning. Cleaning a freezer is pretty easy. Use dish soap and hot water mix, starting from the top and working down. Clean the inside first and then the outside. Once you’ve gone over everything, give it a rinse with clean water and dry it with a towel. If there’s any glass, clean it with vinegar.

As a business owner, you rely on your building’s HVAC system to help you keep your space comfortable for employees and customers alike, but like any other expensive equipment, your system is going to require maintenance from time to time to continue operating effectively. In order to reduce operating costs and cut down on the need for repairs, ongoing commercial HVAC maintenance is an absolute necessity. In this article, our team of skilled commercial HVAC contractor professionals will go over several of the key benefits that commercial HVAC maintenance has to offer for your business. We invite you to read through and give our team of skilled pros a call to schedule your next Enhanced Planned Maintenance service.

DECREASE OF COSTLY REPAIRS

Scheduled maintenance can greatly reduce the potential for costly unplanned repairs. It is, unfortunately, impossible to avoid all HVAC repair situations. However, scheduled Enhanced Planned Maintenance can help alleviate unplanned emergency breakdowns. Scheduled commercial HVAC maintenance allows facility managers to understand the condition of their building equipment and plan for repairs before they become an emergency.

Commercial HVAC maintenance is very similar to conducting maintenance on your vehicle. Frequent oil changes, belt replacements & filter changes extend the life of your vehicle. If you don’t change the oil, the engine gets clogged and eventually fails. This is the same concept for air conditioning & heating equipment. Equipment that has dirty coils & clogged moving parts has to work much harder to operate properly, which leads to burn-out & failure. Smart facility managers spend more on Enhanced Planned Maintenance to extend the shelf life of their existing equipment and less on replacements & frequent component change-outs.

An estimated 39% of the energy used in U.S. commercial buildings is from heating and air conditioning equipment. According to some studies, the use of high-performance commercial HVAC equipment can result in energy savings of between 10%-40%. The only way to keep your equipment running at high performance is through proper recurring commercial HVAC maintenance.

Dirty coils and blower parts within your air conditioning system can cause polluted indoor air quality, raising concern for an increase in pollen, fungi, and bacteria buildup. This sort of build-up can cause many health-related concerns, including asthma attacks, eye, nose & throat inflammation, and flu-like illnesses. Proper commercial HVAC maintenance reduces contamination of your system’s airstream and makes for a healthier environment for your building occupants.

If you’re like most business owners out there, you’re always on the lookout for ways that you can save yourself a bit of money on your overhead costs. Whether you realize it or not, your electrical costs make up a significant part of your business’s overhead, and one of the most effective ways that you can work to reduce these costs is by investing in an energy-efficient commercial lighting retrofit. To help identify just a few of the benefits you stand to gain from a commercial lighting retrofit, our team of skilled commercial HVAC contractors here at First In Services has taken the time to put together this short article for your reading pleasure.

HIGHER ROI

One of the primary benefits of an energy-efficient lighting retrofit comes in the form of reduced energy usage and utility bills. While it’s easy to think that a commercial LED lighting retrofit will be a significant investment for your company, that’s often not the case. Since energy-efficient LED bulbs consume around 75% less energy on average than your typical incandescent bulb, this decreased energy consumption is something you’re likely to notice savings from almost right away.

LED bulbs often last a great deal longer than your typical incandescent bulbs, netting you a bigger payoff for your investment than you would likely see with the latter.

Maintaining your building’s lighting is a time-consuming process, requiring you to either take up your employees’ time when they could be working with your customers or requiring you to hire outside contractors in order to get the job done. In the case of your employees, this often results in some serious safety risks as experience on tall ladders can vary from employee to employee, and if something happens, you are liable.

Since energy-efficient LED lighting lasts an average of about 25 times longer than your typical incandescent bulb, however, it can greatly reduce how often you have to get your employees up there to change out bulbs or how often you have to have a contractor come in and do so for you. Not only will this save you on labor costs, but it will provide you with a significant reduction in material costs as well.

While it might not seem like it, LED lighting can be a big help to your business, especially in the case of car dealerships and retail outlets, as it’s a proven way to boost sales. Improved lighting not only provides your customers with a more comfortable atmosphere, but it can enhance your product displays, making the items you’re selling look that much more appealing to your customers.

In addition to the impact this can have on your revenue, better lighting can also have a marked effect on the mood and productivity of your workforce. Studies have shown that better facility lighting not only leads to more productive and happier staff but also results in fewer mistakes, less damage to goods, and a safer working environment for everyone.