Ice on a commercial fridge is a symptom. Here is what it usually means, and when to call.
A commercial fridge that is icing up is telling you that moisture is landing on something colder than it should, or that a defrost is not finishing. The ice is not the fault on its own. Chip it off and it comes back, often with a damaged fin or a split drain hose. This note is the order we use when a London kitchen calls about ice on a coil, a back wall, or a door frame.
Kept Cold works inside the M25, strongest in central, north, and east London. We are on site within 4 hours, usually within 2. Seven senior engineers, each F-Gas and City and Guilds qualified, with at least five years on commercial plant. Kept Cold is Refcom certified. The phone is answered 24 hours a day, every day. Out of hours starts at 17:00.
Ice on the coil means air cannot cross the fins. The cabinet then runs warm while the compressor works. The usual causes are a defrost heater that has failed, a termination probe that ends the defrost while the coil is still white, or a drain that has frozen so water from the last defrost runs back onto the fins. A door that does not seal feeds the same coil with warm wet air all service, and the ice builds in a thick uneven coat rather than a thin even one.
A fridge should not freeze its back wall into a sheet. If it does, the cabinet is running too cold, the defrost is not happening, or warm air is leaking in and condensing on the cold plate. Product frozen at the back and warm at the front is this fault. It is not "just a cold spot".
Ice in a line on a freezer door frame is a heater wire or a seal. The frame should be just warm enough to stay dry. A cold patch you can feel with the back of your hand is a break in that wire. A torn gasket does the same job more slowly. On a walk in, this is the fault that wets the floor and then ices the threshold so the door will not shut. That is covered on cold room repair.
Water on the floor under a fridge is often a blocked condensate drain, not a leak from a pipe. The defrost melts, the water has nowhere to go, and it overflows the tray. Leave it and the water freezes into the tray and then onto the coil. A drain that is clear when you pour a cup of water through it is not the fault. A drain that holds the water is.
Turning the cabinet colder does not clear ice. It makes more of it. Leaving the door open "to let it thaw" warms the food and loads the coil with moisture. Covering the condenser so the kitchen looks tidy starves the plant of air and is a different fault, overheating, which can sit next to icing if the defrost has also failed. Two faults at once are common. We still name them separately.
A display fridge ices the coil behind the fan panel and shows it as water on the glass and warm shelves. An undercounter or a prep counter ices under the deck, where you see it as pans that freeze and drawers that do not. A freezer ices faster because the coil is colder. A walk in shows the ice on a coil you can stand in front of. The equipment pages are display fridge repair, undercounter fridges, commercial freezers, and commercial fridge repair.
Call if the ice is on the coil and the food is warm, if a door frame is iced so the door will not shut, if water is on the floor, or if you have already cleared the ice and it is back. Call if you suspect gas, if you smell burning, or if the cabinet is silent. Do not scrape the coil with a knife. Fins bend, and a punctured coil is a leak.
Call 020 8146 9071 or book a call out. Emergency attendance is on site within 4 hours, usually within 2. Prices exclude VAT. A weekday call out from 08:00 to 17:00 is £120 and includes the first hour, then £40 per 30 minutes. Evening, weekend, and from 17:00, the call out is £180 and includes the first hour, then £60 per 30 minutes. The emergency call out is £240, then £40 per 30 minutes in weekday hours and £60 per 30 minutes out of hours. Parts are at cost. There is no repair guarantee.
If the same cabinet ices between services, it wants a planned visit, not another emergency. Standalone cabinets are £60 per unit per visit plus VAT, minimum two units. We recommend two visits a year. Each visit is charged at that price. That is on the maintenance contracts page. A freezer that has stopped rather than iced is in commercial freezer breakdown. Signs that show up before the ice is thick are in signs a commercial fridge needs repair.