Commercial Refrigeration · Bay Area

What we do

ADRIUM repairs working back-of-house refrigeration across 39 East Bay and Tri-Valley cities: bar fridges and back-bar systems, glycol-chilled beer trunks, walk-ins, reach-ins, prep tables, undercounter beverage centers, and refrigerated display cases. We service Perlick, Atosa, Hoshizaki, and the common foodservice platforms a bar or kitchen actually runs. The diagnostic is $75, waived with repair, and we quote parts and labor in writing before any work.

Most commercial-refrigeration calls have a clear pattern: a gasket has stretched, a coil is filthy, a condensate line is clogged, or the glycol concentration has drifted. We carry common gaskets, condenser-fan motors, evap-fan motors, and an inline condensate-clearing tool. Sealed-system work runs in-house with full recovery, evacuation, and weigh-in. We are HC(A3) certified (Mainstream Engineering) and trained for R290 hydrocarbon refrigerant, which most current Atosa units use. That is why your last service guy “couldn’t get parts.”

After-hours line for bar and restaurant work: (925) 999-4095. Bar emergencies do not wait for Monday.

What the common failures cost

Common issues. Typical repair.

Perlick back-bar, beer pouring warm. Glycol trunk-line insulation has soaked condensate or the glycol concentration has drifted out of spec. We check the glycol percentage with a refractometer, flush and refill if needed, and re-insulate the leg between chiller and tower. Most cases fix in one visit.

Perlick back-bar fridge icing after rush. Door gasket has stretched from bartenders propping the door open during service. The evap ices the moment the rush ends. Gasket swap is under 30 minutes. We carry the common Perlick gaskets on the truck.

Atosa prep table, water on the floor. Condensate drain clogged with grease and food debris. We pull the line, blow it clear, install an inline screen if the kitchen layout allows it. We log the clean interval and tell you when to expect the next one.

Atosa MBF reach-in icing inside. Door gasket stretched, warm air entering, evap icing up. Same gasket swap pattern as the Perlick. We verify door closure across the full sweep before closing the panel.

Hoshizaki sushi case warm. The discharge-airflow thermistor drifts on the older platforms and the unit holds six to eight degrees warmer than setpoint. We carry the calibrated thermistor on the truck and verify the hold over a service-cycle.

Walk-in evaporator icing. Defrost-cycle timer drift or a failed defrost termination thermostat. We adjust the cycle, verify the hot-gas defrost or electric-defrost works through a full cycle, and document the changes inside the panel.

Preventive-maintenance contracts

Quarterly visits with documented coil cleaning, glycol testing, condensate-line clearing, and gasket inspection. The standard plan for high-volume bars and kitchens. Adds about two years to the service life of most Atosa units and keeps Perlick draft systems pouring at setpoint year-round.

A dirty condenser coil is the single most common cause of a commercial refrigeration or ice machine unit running into high head pressure and high amp draw, and it doesn’t discriminate by brand. We recently pulled the panel on a commercial ice machine that had never once had its condenser coil cleaned. Years of buildup had driven the compressor into sustained high-pressure, high-amp operation until a run capacitor gave out under the strain.

Full writeup: ice machine condenser coil and capacitor repair at Cafe 1277, Walnut Creek. A quarterly coil clean is the cheapest insurance any kitchen or cafe can buy against this exact failure, on any brand of commercial ice or refrigeration equipment.

The four things that actually break

Across all the commercial work, four problems account for most of the calls.

Refrigerant leaks are number one, and the one most handyman techs cannot legally or technically handle. Finding the leak, repairing the sealed system, and recharging takes EPA certification and the right tools. We have both. See refrigerant leak repair.

Compressors are the heart of the system. When one goes, the unit stops cooling entirely. A reach-in compressor runs from $500 labor plus materials plus the compressor. See commercial compressor replacement.

Controllers, the control boards and thermostats, lose calibration or fail outright. Usually $250 to $350 plus the part.

Door gaskets are the quiet killer. A worn gasket makes the compressor run nonstop, spikes the power bill, and shortens the unit’s life. Most operators ignore it until something bigger fails. Catching it is what preventive maintenance is for, from $200 per unit.

A sealed-system repair is the most expensive fix on a commercial box, so we always tell you straight whether it is worth repairing or replacing before we start. And a WiFi temperature monitor flags a unit drifting out of range before you lose a walk-in full of product.