Commercial Catering Equipment Service Newcastle

When something in a commercial kitchen stops, service does not pause while you find a contractor. Summit Air and Refrigeration repairs and services commercial catering equipment across Newcastle, the Hunter Valley and the Central Coast, for pubs, clubs, restaurants, hotels, aged care facilities, schools and function centres.

Most kitchens run four or five separate contractors — one for cooking equipment, one for refrigeration, one for dishwashers, one for air conditioning. We cover all of it. One call, one invoice, and a technician who already knows the site.

ARC certified, licence AU56998. Emergency breakdowns attended within 2 hours, urgent breakdowns same day.

Equipment we service

Combi ovens and commercial ovens. Door seals, self-cleaning systems, water inlet solenoids, steam generators, control boards, temperature probes and calibration. Combi ovens are the most expensive item in most kitchens and the most disruptive when they fail.

Commercial dishwashers and glasswashers. Underbench, passthrough and hood machines. Wash and rinse pumps, heating elements, rinse aid dosing, temperature faults, water leaks and control faults.

Coolrooms and freezer rooms. Panels, doors, refrigeration plant, controllers and defrost, door seals, hinges and closers, and internal shelving.

Commercial refrigeration. Display fridges and cabinets, underbench and upright fridges and freezers, and refrigerated prep benches.

Ice machines. Descaling, water treatment, harvest faults, production drop-off and full servicing.

Fryers, griddles, hot plates and cooktops. Thermostat and temperature control faults, element and burner replacement, gas valve and ignition faults on gas units, oil drain and filtration problems on fryers, and pilot or flame failure. Fryers in particular fail on thermostats and high-limit cutouts more than anything else, and a unit that trips out repeatedly is usually a control fault rather than an element.

Bain maries, holding cabinets and food warmers. Element and thermostat faults, uneven or insufficient heating, door seals and hinges on holding cabinets, and controller faults. Worth taking seriously beyond the inconvenience — a unit that will not hold temperature is a food safety problem before it is a maintenance one.

Beer systems and keg rooms. Line cleaning, glycol chillers, taps and fonts, and keg room refrigeration.

All makes and models

We service all makes and models of commercial catering equipment, including Rational, Convotherm, Unox, Electrolux, Moffat, Turbofan, Blue Seal, Waldorf, Goldstein, Norris, Washtech, Meiko, Skope, Williams and Turbo Air.

We are an independent service company and hold no manufacturer warranty agency. That means we are not restricted to one brand, and it also means warranty work needs to go through your manufacturer's appointed agent. If your equipment is still under warranty, check that first — we will tell you if it is.

What actually causes most kitchen equipment failures

Three things account for most of the callouts we attend, and all three are preventable.

Water. Untreated or poorly treated water destroys more commercial kitchen equipment than anything else. Scale builds on every heated surface in combi ovens, dishwashers, glasswashers and ice machines. It insulates, forces elements to work harder, and eventually kills the component. If you are replacing parts in the same machine more than once a year, look at the water treatment before you look at the machine.

Airflow and heat. Refrigeration and ice machines reject heat into a room that is already hot. Condensers packed with kitchen grease and dust, or plant installed in a space with no ventilation, lose capacity gradually. The complaint is usually that something is not as cold as it used to be, rather than a breakdown.

Door seals. On combi ovens, coolrooms, freezers, dishwashers and display fridges, a failed seal produces symptoms that look like plant faults. Long run times, temperature drift, ice, rising power bills. The plant is doing its job; the door is not. Seals are a wear part on a replacement schedule, not a breakdown.

We manufacture and supply commercial door seals, so a failed seal gets measured and fitted rather than ordered in and waited on.

Preventative maintenance

Kitchens on a scheduled maintenance program get fewer breakdowns, and the breakdowns they do get tend to happen on a Tuesday morning rather than a Saturday night.

A program is built around the site rather than a generic checklist, and typically covers:

Condenser cleaning and coil condition on all refrigeration
Descaling and water filter condition on steam and wash equipment
Door seal condition across all equipment
Temperature calibration and verification
Element, contactor and electrical checks
Fault log review, which often shows a developing fault before it becomes a breakdown
Written report on what was done and what needs attention

Installation and replacement

We install new commercial catering equipment and carry out all work up to the point of connection. Final gas and electrical point-of-connection installation is completed by a licensed subcontractor we organise, so it is handled as part of the job rather than something you arrange separately.

Worth checking before you buy anything: power supply capacity, gas supply sizing, water pressure and treatment, extraction capacity, and physical access to get the unit into the kitchen. Site measurement beforehand is cheaper than return freight.

Servicing Newcastle, the Hunter and the Central Coast

We service commercial kitchens across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Cessnock, the Hunter Valley, Port Stephens and the Central Coast, including pubs and clubs, restaurants, hotels, aged care facilities, schools, function centres and food production sites.

Call 0418 979 116 or request a quote.