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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
guides.

The routines that keep commercial equipment off our schedule, from cleaning condenser coils and filtering fryer oil to deliming combis and boosters, checking gaskets and emptying lint screens.

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Mon–Sat, 8am–8pm

  • Three guides
  • Read before you book
  • Says where to stop

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Maintenance and prevention,
guide by guide.

These guides turn the maintenance pages of the makers' manuals into routines a business can actually keep. They cover the three jobs that prevent the largest share of avoidable breakdowns in commercial kitchens: keeping condenser coils on cold cabinets clear, removing scale from steamers, combis and dish machines, and holding the whole building to one written plan with daily, monthly and yearly tasks.

All 18 guides
A clean restaurant kitchen after close with a row of stainless fryers drained and covered, a combi oven beside them with its door open and cavity wiped bright, a clipboard maintenance log and a filter pad box on the stainless shelf above the fryers, a staff member seen only from behind carrying a crumb tray away, nothing outdoors.
5-minute read

A 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.

The lower front of a stainless commercial reach-in cabinet in a restaurant kitchen with its louvered grille lifted up to show a dusty finned condenser coil, a soft-bristle coil brush and a small shop vacuum on the tiled floor in front of the reach-in, the cabinet's power cord unplugged and lying beside it, nothing outdoors.
4-minute read

Cleaning Condenser Coils on a Schedule: Reach-In Intervals, Grille Access and Greasy Fins

Why a matted coil shortens compressor life, the intervals Delfield, Turbo Air and Traulsen publish, where the coil sits on each cabinet, the power-off steps from the manuals, and when a greasy coil goes to a technician.

A commercial kitchen after close with a stainless countertop steamer standing open and empty, its pan racks lifted out onto the worktop, a pale chalky scale ring visible inside the steamer's reservoir, a combi oven beside it with its door shut, a pair of rubber gloves and safety goggles on the stainless counter, nothing outdoors.
4-minute read

Deliming Steamers and Combi Ovens: Hard Water, Maker Intervals and a Descaling Cycle Step by Step

What scale does to elements, probes and drains, how often Alto-Shaam, Blodgett, Rational and Cleveland ask for descaling, water limits, a SteamChef procedure from its manual, and handling delimer safely.

A maintenance plan that keeps the line running.

Every interval and every step comes from a maker's own published manual, and the source sits under the section that quotes it. Where makers disagree, such as monthly coil cleaning for one reach-in line and every 90 days for another, both are shown, because the right interval for your unit is the one printed for your model.

Each routine also marks where the crew's work ends. Brushing a coil behind a front grille, changing a fryer filter pad, cleaning a lint screen or starting a delime cycle from the control panel are crew tasks. Gas pressure, burners, cooling gas, live wiring and anything behind a guard with power present are a technician's, and the guides say so at the point where it matters.

Read them when you open a new location, take over an existing one, or notice that the same unit keeps drifting warm, scaling up or throwing the same alarm. A few minutes of closing work, logged with a date and initials, is also the record that keeps the maker's coverage and the health inspector on your side.

Not sure where to start?

The short answerA Preventive Maintenance Plan That Pays: Daily, Monthly and Yearly Tasks From the Manuals

Restaurant equipment preventive maintenance works when it is written down per unit, taken from each maker's manual, and split into daily, weekly, monthly and yearly tasks with a named person for each.

The short answerCleaning Condenser Coils on a Schedule: Reach-In Intervals, Grille Access and Greasy Fins

A condenser coil cleaning schedule for commercial cold cabinets starts with the maker's interval, monthly for Delfield reach-ins and at least every 90 days for Turbo Air's M3 line, and shortens it wherever grease or flour reaches the coil.

The short answerDeliming Steamers and Combi Ovens: Hard Water, Maker Intervals and a Descaling Cycle Step by Step

Deliming steamers and combi ovens removes the mineral scale that boiling leaves on elements, probes and drains.

When reading
is not enough.

If the checks in these guides did not settle it, the visit picks up from there, 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

The problems
these answer.

Each has a page of its own, with the causes in the order worth checking.

All 17 problems
A two-door stainless reach-in cabinet in a busy commercial kitchen, one door standing slightly ajar with a torn gray gasket at the hinge edge, shelves inside crowded with food pans pressed to the back, a probe thermometer resting on the top shelf. Problem

Reach-In Cooler Not Holding Temperature Through a Shift

6 causes, cheapest first

 A stainless commercial fryer on a kitchen line with its oil sitting still and pale in the vat, two empty wire baskets hanging on the rack above, the burner sight opening at the front dark. Problem

Commercial Fryer Not Heating or Slow to Recover Between Baskets

6 causes, cheapest first

 A stainless combi oven with its glass door open on an empty cavity, white mineral scale crusted around the steam outlet at the back wall, a stack of hotel pans with pale steamed vegetables on the counter beside it. Problem

Combi Oven Steam Problem: Weak Steam, Scale or a Dry Cavity

6 causes, cheapest first

 A stacked pair of stainless commercial tumblers in a laundromat, the lower door open on a drum of damp towels, the lint screen drawer pulled out and thick with gray lint on the top of a folding cart. Problem

Commercial Laundry Tumbler Not Heating: Loads Still Damp After a Full Cycle

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

Questions about
maintenance and prevention.

Who should own the maintenance plan in a restaurant?
One named manager, usually the kitchen or facilities manager. Daily tasks belong to each station's closing crew, but a single person should check the logs and book the yearly visits.
Will regular maintenance void anything if the crew does it?
Not when it follows the manual. The makers expect owners to clean coils, filters and screens and to run delime cycles; what they warn against is unapproved chemicals and opening panels meant for a technician.
What records does a health inspector usually want to see?
Temperature logs for cold and hot holding, and evidence that equipment is in good repair. Maintenance and service logs are not always asked for, but they explain a unit's history quickly when a question comes up.
Can a technician set up the plan for us?
Yes. A preventive maintenance visit can inventory each unit from its data plate, pull the maker's intervals and leave a written checklist per station, with the technician's share of the tasks on a calendar.

The other
sections.

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

All 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 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

Not sure which section?

Start from your question

The four questions most visits start with, each with the guide that answers it.

18 guidesWhere to start Where to start

Back to your everyday

Let’s get your commercial appliance working again.

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