Storms, power cuts and cool rooms
Midvale's position right at the base of the hills gives it a problem many suburbs closer to the coast see less of. Summer thunderstorms build over the scarp and roll down onto the eastern suburbs, often in the late afternoon, and with them come power cuts, voltage dips and surges. Refrigeration plant does not always cope with that.
When the power drops and returns, a cool room can be left in worse shape than a simple pause would suggest:
- The compressor may try to restart before the pressures in the system have balanced, trip on overload and stay off.
- Surges can burn out start capacitors, contactors and fan motors.
- Some electronic controllers lose their settings and return to factory defaults, which may not suit your room.
- If the outage was long, the defrost cycle may run at the wrong time, or a frozen evaporator may need a manual defrost before the room can recover.
Freezer rooms are the bigger worry after an outage. A loaded freezer room can hold its temperature for a while with the door shut, but once product starts to soften, refreezing it slowly in a struggling room affects quality and can push the room into a long, hard pull down that the compressor was never sized for. If the power has been off for hours, call before the room has warmed right through, so Sam can check the system is safe to restart and running properly.
Sam checks the electrical components and controller programming as well as the refrigeration circuit, because after a storm the fault is often in the wiring or a control part rather than the gas. If the room needs refrigerant, he handles regassing and leak repair under his ARCtick licence.
Cool room repairs in Midvale
Sam Celesti repairs cool rooms and freezer rooms for Midvale businesses, about 17 km from the Perth CBD and right next door to Midland. He has more than 20 years in commercial refrigeration, holds ARCtick licence AU55592 and does each job himself. Call with the symptoms for a free phone assessment; after inspecting the system he gives you a fixed quote, and nothing proceeds until you agree. Breakdowns with stock on the line take priority 7 days a week.
Right after a breakdown
Before you call, or while Sam is on his way, try these steps:
- If the power has just come back, check the breaker board and the isolator next to the condensing unit. Reset a tripped breaker once only; if it trips again, leave it off and tell Sam.
- Read the controller. If it is showing a temperature well above its set point or a code you do not recognise, write it down.
- Note when the power went off. Food safety depends on time out of temperature: potentially hazardous food held between 5°C and 60°C for under 2 hours can be refrigerated, 2 to 4 hours must be used straight away, and 4 hours or more must be thrown out.
Industry, trade and shops around Midvale
Midvale is a mix of housing, trade businesses and industrial sites, with the Midland town centre and the Hazelmere industrial area close by. Its refrigeration ranges from food distributors and caterers with larger cool rooms and freezer rooms to takeaways, butchers, delis and corner stores with a single walk-in room and a row of display fridges.
Dust is the everyday issue. Sites near busy roads and the scarp collect grit and leaves on their condenser coils, and hot easterlies in summer make it worse. A coil coated in dust cannot shed heat, so the compressor runs longer and hotter until something gives. A regular coil clean through a maintenance plan is cheap protection.
For display and reach in units in your shop, see commercial fridge repairs. For walk-in faults anywhere in the metro area, see cool room repairs around Perth.
