Spearwood cool rooms, repaired by Sam Celesti
Spearwood businesses that need a cool room or freezer room repaired deal directly with Sam Celesti. He brings 20+ years of commercial refrigeration work, holds ARCtick licence AU55592, and carries out each repair himself rather than sending a subcontractor. Spearwood is about 18 km from the Perth CBD in the City of Cockburn. Sam starts with a free phone assessment, then quotes a fixed price once he has seen the fault.
From market gardens to Phoenix: who keeps food cold here
For much of the last century Spearwood was market garden country, worked largely by European migrant families, many of them Croatian and Italian. Most of the gardens have long since become housing, but the food culture stayed. The suburb still has continental delis, butchers and smallgoods makers, bakeries and family wine and food importers, and the sheds and outbuildings on some older blocks still hold cool rooms put up decades ago.
Phoenix Shopping Centre is the commercial heart of the suburb, with supermarkets, a butcher, bakeries, cafés and takeaways. Along Rockingham Road and in the smaller strips there are more food shops, a scattering of restaurants and clubs, and light industrial units used by caterers and small producers.
| Business | What they run | Faults Sam sees |
|---|---|---|
| Delis and smallgoods makers | Cool rooms, serve-over cabinets, meat display | Temperature swings, failed evaporator fans, drifting probes |
| Butchers | Cool rooms near 0°C, freezer rooms | Iced coils, defrost heater failures, torn door gaskets |
| Clubs and restaurants | Keg cool rooms, bar fridges, ice machines | Slow pull-down on busy nights, blocked condensers |
| Family sheds and small producers | Older walk-ins, second-hand rooms | Panel damage, door seal failure, worn compressors |
Before the repair: protecting your stock
Close the door and keep it closed. In an older room with tired seals, every opening lets in more warm air than a modern room would, so collect what you need in a single trip.
Have a look at the door itself. If the seal is torn or the door no longer pulls shut on its own, prop something soft against it to hold it closed, and mention it to Sam when you call.
Then check the food. Smallgoods, cheese, cooked meats and dairy should all stay at 5°C or colder under FSANZ guidance. Anything that has been warmer than that for less than 2 hours can return to a working cool room, anything between 2 and 4 hours needs to be used immediately, and anything over 4 hours goes out. Keep a written record of temperatures and times.
Old panels, old doors and moisture in the walls
Spearwood's angle is age. Many cool rooms here were built in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, some by the families who still use them, and plenty were bought second-hand and moved from another site. The refrigeration may have been replaced along the way, but the insulated panels, joints and door are often original.
Panels fail slowly. The sealant in the joints dries and cracks, screws and fixings rust through the metal skins, and forklifts or trolleys dent the walls near the door. Moist outside air then works its way into the insulation, where it condenses or freezes. You may see ice forming in corners, bulging or soft panels, water seeping from the base of a wall, or a room that needs far more running time than it used to.
The door is usually the weakest point of all. Hinges wear, the door drops, the seal stops meeting the frame, and a freezer room door heater that has failed lets the gasket freeze to the jamb and rip.
Sam checks the box, not just the plant. A new compressor on a room with failed panels will run itself to death, so he tells you plainly whether resealing, a door overhaul or new panels make more sense than another refrigeration repair. If replacement is the better value, he can quote a new cool room build. Gas lost through ageing pipework is handled with leak detection and regas, and routine servicing helps older rooms last longer. You can also read about how Sam approaches cool room repairs in Perth.
