Perlick Repair · Bay Area

Perlick is the bar industry’s default for back-bar refrigeration and beer dispensing. When a Perlick goes down on a Friday night, the bar bleeds money. We answer the phone on Friday nights.

Beer dispensing systems fail at the glycol chiller or the trunk-line insulation. Symptom is warm beer at the tap with the glycol chiller running normally. Trunk-line insulation has soaked up condensate or the glycol concentration has drifted. We check glycol percentage, flush if needed, and re-insulate the leg between the chiller and the tower. Long-line draft systems in basement-to-bar layouts are most prone.

Tobin Ellis Signature bar refrigeration and the C-Series undercounter units share a forced-air evaporator that ices over when the door gasket fails. Bartenders prop doors open during rush, the seal stretches, and the evap ices the second the rush ends. We carry the OEM gaskets in 24-inch and 36-inch lengths and can swap a gasket in under 30 minutes.

Glass washers (HC and DBC series) have a wash-pump and a rinse-booster that work together. When the rinse comes out cold or the glass comes out spotty, it’s almost always the rinse-aid pump or the booster element. Hard-water scale on the booster element is the most common failure on this side of the Bay.

Back-bar refrigeration door cylinders and hinge cartridges wear under heavy use. We have the parts. We also rebuild the door rather than replace if the panel is in good shape.

Service contracts on Perlick equipment are common. Ask about quarterly visits with documented coil cleaning and glycol testing.

Premium equipment, worth repairing

Perlick is high-quality bar and specialty refrigeration built for the trade, and with a quality box the problems show up with age and use rather than out of the gate. The pattern is thermostats drifting off setpoint, door gaskets worn from a bar unit opened all night, and refrigerant leaks the sealed system develops with age. That sealed-system work is the part most general techs cannot legally or properly do. We are EPA-certified for it, and we back our sealed-system repairs on Perlick built-in refrigeration with a 2-year warranty.

Because the build is good, repair usually beats replacement on a Perlick. A thermostat or control board runs $250 to $350 plus part. A basic leak test is from $150, a full infrared or ultrasonic test up to $400, UV dye add-on plus $200, and a recharge $200 to $400 by type and volume. If a piercing valve is needed to access the sealed system, that is added labor plus the part. Keeping the gaskets in shape with preventive maintenance, from $200 per unit, heads off the worst of it. The $75 service call includes full diagnostics, and we quote before any work.