| It was early on a Friday night, and already the front | | | | leaving the rear coils exposed while hiding the interior |
| of the house was packed. My kitchen looked like a | | | | set. The manufacturer put the thin sheet of metal |
| beehive, and as usual, my whole staff was working | | | | between the coils to act as a heat transference |
| furiously to keep everybody happy. It's a necessity | | | | device, as the heat produced between two sets of |
| both they and I have come to live with as a result of | | | | coils on a commercial refrigeration unit can be pretty |
| our setup. You see, our kitchen is entirely too small | | | | intense. The sheet would absorb heat from both sets |
| for the amount of business we get. Because of my | | | | of coils and help to dissipate it, since it had more |
| location, which I wouldn't give up for the world, | | | | surface area. |
| there's not a lot I can do about it. | | | | The bottom line is that we had been cleaning the |
| Anyway, things were running as smoothly as they | | | | exterior set of coils, but not the interior set. My |
| ever do, when one of my main refrigeration units | | | | restaurant equipment supplier mentioned that this |
| went down. One of my line cooks came from the | | | | was an unorthodox (yet effective) setup for the |
| back and informed that we were going to lose a lot | | | | back of a cooler, so he wasn't surprised we weren't |
| of steaks if we didn't act fast. | | | | aware of the interior coils. He told how to remove |
| Since we have no room, we formulated a plan to get | | | | the metal sheet and suggested I clean the interior |
| the meat into one of the bar coolers until we could | | | | coils to see if that might be the problem. |
| figure out what to do. While some of my staff was | | | | My GM and I took the unit out back and removed |
| working on that, I made a call to a repair service, | | | | the sheet and took a look at the inset coils. They |
| since I didn't think I would be able to reach my | | | | were in bad shape, having never been cleaned before |
| equipment supplier on a Friday night. They told me | | | | (or at least no as long as I owned them). To make a |
| the next time they could come by to take a look | | | | long story short, we cleaned them thoroughly and |
| would be on Monday. In desperation, I called my | | | | tried the unit again. Within five minutes, things were |
| restaurant equipment supplier. Luckily, he was still in | | | | nice and frosty on the inside again. I called my |
| the office. | | | | equipment supplier back to thank him for his help. Of |
| I explained what had happened and he thought about | | | | course, he told me to call him first before I use a |
| it for a minute. After grilling me (no pun intended) for | | | | repair service for out-of-warranty equipment, which I |
| a while on the preventive maintenance measures I | | | | should have done in the first place. |
| had taken with the unit, we got on the subject of | | | | Having a knowledgeable equipment supplier is of the |
| coils. It seems this particular unit has a sheet of metal | | | | utmost importance of my business. This particular |
| between two sets of coils on the rear of the unit, | | | | Friday night, I was reminded of that in a big way. |