The cold line
$0to call · 24/7/365
- Answers on the first ring, always
- Four-hour on-site promise, harbour to hinterland
- Stock-save triage by phone while we roll
- Temperature log pull-back for the insurer
Time-and-materials if you are not on contract — stated before we roll.
The service contract
$180per month · per site
- Quarterly planned maintenance, logged
- Priority queue ahead of call-outs
- Gaskets, defrost and controls included
- HACCP temperature records maintained
Contract sites average 71% fewer emergency calls.
The cold-chain audit
$340one visit · whole site
- Every cabinet read and logged
- Refrigerant compliance and phase-down plan
- Door seals, drains and airflow corrected
- CO₂ / A2L roadmap for the retrofit years
Credited against any contract within the quarter.
A walk-in holding 4 °C climbs about two degrees an hour once the plant stops — four hours past 5 °C and the inventory is an insurance claim. Stock-save triage starts on the phone, before the van. (555) 908-3371, answered at 2 a.m. because that is when it rings.
Rates
The service card
Planned work by the job, emergencies by the hour, and the diagnostic read-out included in both — the superheat and subcooling numbers that separate a repair from a guess are on every invoice, because a cold room deserves evidence.
Emergency call-out, first hour$210
Four-hour on-site promise; stock-save triage starts on the phone
Additional hours, emergency$140
Stated before they start, always
Diagnostic visit, booked$120
Full read-out: superheat, subcooling, defrost, door seals
Compressor replacementfrom $1,850
Sized to the rack, evacuated to the micron gauge, commissioned
Walk-in service & rechargefrom $340
Leak found and fixed, not topped-and-run
Ice machine deep service$190
Descaled, sanitised, water filter replaced, harvest checked
Door gasket & hinge set$85
Cut to the cabinet, fitted, seal tested
HACCP temperature logging$46/mo
Sensors, calibration, records maintained for the inspector
Systems
The three cold-room disciplines
01
Design & new installs
Walk-ins and rack systems drawn around the trade they serve: load calculated from the deliveries you actually take, evaporators sited so the airflow reaches the back shelves, and refrigerant chosen with the phase-down in mind — CO₂ and A2L systems designed, installed and commissioned by the same crew that will service them in year ten.
02
Planned maintenance, logged
The quarterly visit that makes 2 a.m. quiet: coils brushed and washed, defrost cycles timed against the door traffic your kitchen actually has, condensate lines flushed, superheat and subcooling read and filed. Contract sites average seventy-one per cent fewer emergency calls — the arithmetic of small acts done on schedule.
03
Emergency response & stock-save
The discipline the cold line exists for: triage on the phone — what is holding, what is climbing, what can move to which cabinet — then a stocked van inside four hours, and dry ice dispatched when the arithmetic says so. The temperature logs come off the controller for the insurer the same morning, and the stock-save trail is documented from the first ring.
How it goes
The emergency protocol
The same four moves every time, in the same order — because at 2 a.m. nobody improvises well, and your stock cannot afford a learning curve.
The first ring
A refrigeration tech answers, not a service bureau: cabinet temperatures taken over the phone, the hold-time arithmetic run, and the stock-save decision made in the first five minutes — move, bag, or dry ice.
The roll
The van dispatched against the four-hour promise, carrying the parts a walk-in usually wants: contactors, fans, TXVs, a standby compressor. Eighty per cent of calls finish on the first visit because the van was loaded for them.
The save
Product moved to holding cabinets in the order the arithmetic set, temperatures logged through the move, and dry ice placed where the plan says. The inventory survives or the trail for the insurer is immaculate — both are the job.
The fix & the read-out
Fault found and fixed, system evacuated to the micron gauge, charged to the plate, and left running with readings recorded. The invoice carries the read-out, and the morning after carries a call asking how the night held.
The wall
Cold rooms we keep cold
The compressor died at half past midnight on a delivery Friday. The phone was answered by a person who knew what a rack system was, the van arrived before two, and they moved the whole load into our two holding rooms while they worked. The fish never knew. The temperature log they printed for the insurer was cleaner than our own paperwork.
We went on contract after our third call-out in a year. Four quarterly visits later: zero emergencies, a folder of read-outs the health inspector read with visible pleasure, and a gasket bill that vanished into the monthly.
They found the leak two other companies topped off and left. Pressure test, nitrogen, the joint in the wall they opened properly and repaired properly. Two summers held at temperature since, and the read-out is on every invoice exactly as promised.
The phase-down audit laid out our refrigerant future in one visit — what stays, what retrofits, what gets replaced and in what order. We budgeted a five-year plan off their sheet, and the board approved it in one sitting.
The four-hour promise
A call to the cold line has a tech on site inside four hours, harbour to hinterland, every day of the year — or the first hour is free and the stock-save advice was still yours from the first ring. The promise is in the contract, not the brochure, and it has been tested by every storm this harbour has thrown at it.
Fair questions
What actually counts as an emergency?
Anything climbing: a walk-in above 5 °C, a reach-in that will not pull down overnight, an ice machine feeding a service, a rack compressor that will not start. If you are unsure, call — the triage costs nothing, and the arithmetic of hold-time is better done five minutes early.
Do you service what other companies installed?
Yes, and the diagnostic visit is how we start: a full read-out of what is there — superheat, subcooling, defrost timing, door seals — filed before a spanner moves. Inherited systems get documented, not judged, and the file makes every future visit cheaper.
What is the refrigerant phase-down, practically?
The high-GWP gases are being retired on a schedule, and your equipment is somewhere on it. The audit maps your site onto that schedule — what a retrofit saves, what a replacement costs, which years each decision belongs to — so the phase-down is a budget line instead of a bad surprise.
Can one contract cover several sites?
Yes — kitchens, storage, and the odd cabinet across the harbour all ride one monthly line, one quarterly calendar, and one priority queue. Multi-site operators get the consolidated read-out folder their auditor has only dreamed of.
How do the HACCP records work?
Sensors in each cabinet, calibrated quarterly, logged continuously, and the record exported for the inspector whenever the inspection lands. The paper trail your food safety plan promises becomes a folder that already exists — which is the only kind of paper trail worth having.
Put the cold line where the night crew can see it.
Emergencies: (555) 908-3371, answered by a tech, 24/7/365. Contracts, audits and installs: the form, or dispatch@blackfrost.example — and the four-hour promise rides with all of it.