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A probe thermometer in a food pan on a prep table, seen close.

Read first, book second

Commercial appliance
guides,
read first.

A commercial appliance repair guide is only useful if it answers the question you actually have, so these are split by what you are trying to find out — is this worth paying for, what is that noise, what can I check myself — rather than by which part of the appliance it concerns.

(844) 571-4566

Mon–Sat, 8am–8pm

  • 18 guides
  • 6 sections
  • No booking needed

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Work out what
you are dealing with.

Split by what you are trying to find out rather than by what part of the appliance it concerns.

All 18 guides
A thermometer on a walk-in cooler shelf reading warm, seen close.
What the box, the vat and the drum are telling you

Common problems

A finger on the controller keypad of a reach-in cabinet, the display dark.
Safe checks with the unit off

Troubleshooting

A soft brush and a shop vacuum at the condenser grille of a reach-in cabinet, the unit off.
A maintenance plan that keeps the line running

Maintenance and prevention

A Class K extinguisher mounted beside a fryer line under a hood.
Gas, fryer fires, safe holding and the health inspector

Gas, fire and food safety

A combi oven and a convection oven side by side on a restaurant line.
Gas or electric, repair or replace, lease or buy

Choosing and comparing

A gas quick-disconnect hose and a restraining cable behind a commercial fryer.
Clearances, utilities, drains and airflow

Installation and setup

Reading did not fix it?

The work itself

Every guide here ends in the same place: what a technician actually does about it, in the order it gets done.

10 kinds of workCheapest cause firstWhat a visit costs See what we do

Need a sense of what the repair might cost? That has a page of its own, because no honest figure exists until someone has watched the unit run under load — commercial appliance repair cost.

Not sure
where to start?

A handful of questions show up in almost every commercial booking. The four guides below are for the manager standing at a line that smells of gas, a walk-in whose log is climbing, a kitchen that keeps losing equipment in the middle of service, or a unit that has been repaired once too often, and more than one of them ends without a service call.

Or start from the symptom

Gas in the air on the lineGas odor along a restaurant cooking line: who closes the main, who clears the room, who calls

Why hoods and fryer smells hide a leak, the moves Vulcan, Frymaster and Southbend print, switches and pilots while gas hangs in the air, the sheet makers want on the wall, and the relight.

The box is above safe holdingWhen the walk-in cooler runs warm: the doorway, an iced coil and a condensing unit short of air

Probe the product before the air, move anything above 41°F and log it. Then the closers and strip curtain federal rules require, ice on the evaporator, a felted outdoor coil, and hot food shelved too soon.

Fewer breakdowns mid-shiftA Preventive Maintenance Plan That Pays: Daily, Monthly and Yearly Tasks From the Manuals

Why the plan belongs on paper, a schedule built from the makers' own intervals for fryers, combis, cold cabinets, dish machines and tumblers, who does which task, and logs that show where the next repair is coming from.

Fix it or budget a new unitRepair or Replace Commercial Equipment: The Failed Part, the Hours Lost and What a New Unit Asks

Which failures are routine and which point to a new unit, how to weigh downtime and lead times, the EPA limits on cooling gas in new cold storage, utility savings and the paperwork to check first.

When reading
is not enough.

If the checks in a guide did not settle it, a technician picks up from there. The visit, stop by stop.

What repairs cost
  1. 01Safety and supply before anything else
  2. 02The cause, and what it costs
  3. 03Parts that ride along
  4. 04Proved under load before we leave

When there is
no time to read.

These five put the crew, the guests or the product in the building at risk, and they mean the unit stays off, or the food moves, until we arrive: a gas smell on the cooking line, a fryer or grease fire, a walk-in or reach-in above 41°F with food inside, water on the floor near cords or a panel, and a hot electrical or burning smell. Each page puts the causes in the order worth checking, and says when to stop and book.

All 17 problems
An empty stainless restaurant cooking line after hours, every burner on the fryers and griddle dark and cold, a yellow gas shutoff handle on the pipe behind the line turned crosswise to closed, the back door of the commercial kitchen propped open to the night. Gas, fire, food at risk or water near power

Commercial Kitchen Gas Smell Along the Cooking Line: Clear the Room First

6 causes, cheapest first

 A bank of stainless commercial fryers under a steel exhaust hood, white wet chemical suppression agent coating the vats and the hood filters after a discharge, a thin haze of smoke drifting up into the hood, the frying station deserted. Gas, fire, food at risk or water near power

Commercial Fryer Fire or Grease Flare Under the Hood

6 causes, cheapest first

 The heavy stainless door of a walk-in cooler standing wide open onto a commercial kitchen, a torn clear strip curtain hanging to one side, shelves inside with covered food pans and crates, a digital thermometer on the wall showing only a warm amber glow. Gas, fire, food at risk or water near power

Walk-In Cooler Warm Above 41°F With Food Inside

6 causes, cheapest first

 A wide puddle of clear water spreading across red quarry tile in a commercial kitchen, running from under a stainless door-type dish machine toward a floor drain and a power cord along the wall, a yellow wet floor sign standing at the edge. Gas, fire, food at risk or water near power

Water on the Commercial Kitchen Floor Near Equipment and Outlets

6 causes, cheapest first

 A thin wisp of gray smoke rising from the lower grille of a stainless reach-in cabinet standing beside a commercial fryer line, the reach-in doors closed, the kitchen lights on and the line empty. Gas, fire, food at risk or water near power

Restaurant Equipment Burning Smell: Scorched Oil, Hot Wiring or Lint

6 causes, cheapest first
A restaurant team working a busy commercial kitchen line.
For the heart of your home.

Questions about
the guides.

Can a commercial guide save us a service call?
Often. Plenty of calls end at a dirty condenser coil, a door propped during a delivery, a clogged dish machine strainer, a lint screen nobody emptied, a fryer high-limit that tripped once and reset, or a breaker that was never switched back on. The guides explain why each happens and which checks are safe with the unit off; gas fittings, refrigerant lines, live wiring, fryer vats and machine drums stay with us.
Are the guides written for one maker?
Mostly not. A condensing unit rejects heat, a thermopile holds a fryer pilot and a booster heats rinse water in much the same way whatever the badge, so the guides follow the part, not the logo. Where a maker does it differently the guide says so, and your manual always outranks our text.
Guide or problem page: where should a manager start?
If a unit is misbehaving right now, start with the problem pages, which open with what the crew can see. The guides suit slower questions: a preventive-maintenance plan, what the health inspector looks at, where the data plate is, and when replacing a unit beats another repair.
Where do the facts in the commercial guides come from?
Every checkable fact names its source: a maker's installation, operation or service manual, the FDA Food Code, NFPA pages on commercial cooking fires, or ENERGY STAR and DOE material on commercial equipment. A line without a citation comes from our own service calls, and it says so.

Back to your everyday

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