Walk-in box is a must-have for any restaurant to stay competitive.
Walk-in box shutdown is a nightmare, routine maintenance is time-consuming, and repairs are costly.
What is a good balance to reduce shutdown, maintenance, and repairs?
Here are some easy steps to reduce walk-in box repair while keeping the box temperature in check.
Walk-in Box Tips & Minimum Maintenance
This list includes best practices some are routine maintenance and some require purchasing and/or installing other items. The sequence of the steps does not suggest the order of importance. Our goal is to inform you of potential problems we observed over the years.
- Keep Condenser Coil clean
- Keep Drain Line clean & ice-free
- Install Door timer alarm. When the door is kept open for longer than 2 min alarm will sound
- Use a cart to bring food supplies inside the walk-in (this will reduce the time the door is open)
- Install air curtains or strip curtains at the door
- Replace "heat generating" incandescent light bulb with less heat generating LED bulb
- Ensure door gaskets are in good shape and door hinges shut the door properly
- Make sure you have a quality Evaporator
- Defrost timer with automatic defrost termination
Defrost Timer with defrost TERMINATION option
Most Walk-in coolers are equipped with defrost timers except maybe for a few legacy products or cheaply designed units. Defrost timers will shut the power to the compressor and ensure that ice formed on the evaporator is melted. These switches are timers and shut the power to the condensing unit for a configurable time period. Some HVAC experts use 20min while others are up to 45min cycling about 3 times per 24 hours.
Long defrost time will lead to a hotter-than-desired box temperature and contribute to premature food spoilage.
Thankfully, some defrost timers are equipped with a walk-in Box Defrost Termination Option. In lament terms, it means if there is no ice formation in the evaporator, or if the ice on the evaporator melts, the defrost timer will bypass the defrost cycle and allow the default operating cycle, the compressor runs again keeping the walk-in box cool.
Drain Line Cleaning & Heaters tips for Walkin Box
Walk-in Box Drain Line Cleaning
Drain Line clogs are among the top reasons a walk-in box fails and stops working. This piping is not part of the refrigeration system but it is required peripheral for the excess water. The easy part is to keep this pipe clean and allow wastewater to flow freely. A monthly visual inspection at the interface of the evaporator would indicate if the line is clogged. Typically feeding a drain snake once a year as part of an HVAC preventive maintenance program will spare owners a lot of headaches.