Do you own a restaurant? Are you thinking about giving your commercial cool room a cleaning? Maybe even a deep cleaning if you haven’t done it in a while?
Regularly washing down your cool room is integral to a good kitchen cleaning and hygiene routine. Ideally, a commercial cool room should be professionally deep cleaned every six months.
So, if you’re looking for restaurant cool room tips, we’ve got some great ones lined up for you, so you know how to care for your cool room.
Key Takeaways
- Regularly scheduled cleaning can keep unwanted issues from forming
- A strict maintenance routine carried out daily, weekly, and monthly is key
- Don’t neglect cleaning your canopy cleaning
- Don’t pack stock too tightly; otherwise, unit efficiency may be compromised
- Never use harsh detergents
- Repeated issues may mean repairs are needed
What Is a Cool Room?
A cool room is a temperature-controlled room in which food or other items that require cold temperatures are kept. They can vary in shape but typically are square or rectangular, are controlled by a refrigeration system, and have no windows and only a door.
They provide a hygienic way to store food products but only if they’re correctly maintained. This includes investing in some canopy cleaning if you have a canopy range hood.
Cool Room Care: Cleaning Procedures
Following specific cleaning procedures will keep your cool room up to hygiene standards. Here are four cool room budget-friendly tips for you that we at Lotus Commercial recommend:
1. Keep the Walls Clean
Keeping the walls clean will help you notice when an issue keeps reappearing, which often can indicate that you need maintenance or repairs. Use a mild detergent and a damp cloth and give all the walls a deep cleaning, using a lot of elbow grease if needed.
2. Clean all Shelving
To properly ensure your shelving is clean, you must empty each one. You can take this time to dispose of expired products or produce that’s gone bad.
3. Clean the Seal
Using a damp cloth and warm water, clean any build-up that’s gathered in the seal. If it’s particularly dirty, you can use a mild detergent. Using anything harsher can damage the rubber seal. Try to get a cool room cleaner explicitly made for this purpose.
4. Keep the Floors Clean
Once you’ve cleaned the walls and the shelving, you can finish by cleaning the floor. You can use a broom and vacuum cleaner to dust, followed by a mop and mild detergent. Ensure everything is adequately dry after kitchen cleaning before repacking your cool room.
Cool Room Maintenance
Caring for your cool room is an excellent way to guarantee it stays clean and hygienic. However, it needs to be appropriately maintained to keep it running at its top performance. Therefore, getting your cool room professionally serviced every six months is recommended.
Without daily inspection, it’s easy to miss critical issues as they arise. As a part of your day-to-day maintenance, the following should be done daily:
- Check the head pressure of the secondary systems
- Check the temperatures are correct and log it on paper for future reference
- Check the Freon levels
- Clean any spillage
- Check for ice on the evaporators
- Check compressors for leakage of any oil
Alongside a rigorous daily schedule, you also have weekly tasks to schedule in. Your weekly routine should include a thorough cleaning of the cool room, focusing on:
- Cleaning the walls
- Cleaning the floors
- Cleaning the shelving
- Cleaning the seal
- Checking the seal for any damage
Finally, some inspections you don’t have to carry out as often. Your monthly maintenance routine should include the following:
- Cleaning the condenser coils
- Cleaning the evaporator, evaporator casing, and cooler fins
- Checking the cooling performance
- Confirm refrigerant levels are working adequately
- Checking the control valves are working efficiently
- Checking defrosting system is working correctly
- Calibration of the temperature
- Performing a functional test of the whole system
A logbook handy for noting changes, maintenance notes, and temperature levels is also helpful if you need to refer back to it at any point.
Common Issues of Cool Rooms
Things can still go wrong no matter how well you take care of your cool room, so here are some common issues you can encounter and how to handle them.
Higher Electricity Consumption
If you notice an increase in your electricity consumption, this could indicate that the air intake is clogged. This results in the refrigeration system working extra hard to keep the cool room at the desired temperature.
How to Solve:
Using a stiff brush, brush the fan unit and coils and wipe down using a self-rinsing cleaner. These cleaners are also marketed as simple spray-on-and-leave coil cleaners.
A Musty Smell
This smell can be a significant indicator that something is not right in the cool room. Unfortunately, when the cool room smells, musty mould has most likely taken hold. Mould is commonly caused by liquid condensation and poor ventilation.
How to Solve:
Regular cleaning of the shelves will ensure nothing is stacked tight for too long, which can hinder air circulation in areas. Also, checking the seal is still in good condition, as condensation can accumulate and cause mould.
Clogged Drain Lines
Drain lines can periodically become clogged due to something like debris build-up. Mould can also cause drain lines to become clogged, which may mean it will be more challenging to handle.
How to Solve:
Giving your drains a good clean can sometimes be accomplished with a strong drain cleaner, but this is a cool room cleaning job that is best left to the professionals with the know-how and the tools to tackle the job.
Know How to Care for Your Cool Room Correctly
Knowing how to care for your cool room correctly can keep it running efficiently and at optimal performance. In addition, making a daily, weekly, and monthly care and maintenance schedule means that you will notice when something is not correct, and you will be able to attend to it before it becomes a more significant, more costly issue.
Following the affordable cold room cleaning methods laid out in this article should have your cool room running optimally.
Suppose you’re looking for a company with 30 years of experience in commercial kitchen cleaning. In that case, we at Lotus Australia have a range of services, from kitchen filter sales and kitchen catering equipment cleaning to sanitization and deep cleaning services. Visit our site for more information on each service.