Your walk-in cooler stopped cooling. Here's what to do first.

It's a bad feeling. You walk into the walk-in and it's warm. Maybe the fans aren't running, maybe they are and nothing's happening. Either way you've got a lot of product in there and not much time.

The short version. Move the food, write down the time and what the box is reading, check that the unit has power and the door's shut, then call a certified refrigeration technician. Your food safety plan and your health authority decide what's safe to keep.

What do I do first when my walk-in stops cooling?

Deal with the food first and the equipment second. The cooler isn't going anywhere, but the product is on a clock.

If you've got another working cooler or freezer, move the most perishable stuff there first. Keep the door shut as much as you can on whatever's staying put. Fraser Health's outage guide says to avoid opening fridge and freezer doors frequently, and to put refrigerated perishable foods on ice.

Then grab a thermometer and write down the time and what the box is reading. Fraser Health's guide for operators during a power outage tells them to record the time the power failed and to keep recording the temperature of their coolers and freezers as laid out in their food safety plan. It's written for outages, but it's a good habit any time a box stops holding temperature. When you're working out what's safe to keep, that time is the number you'll wish you had.

What does BC say about the food?

BC's Food Premises Regulation says potentially hazardous food has to be stored at no more than 4°C (or kept hot at 60°C or above), and frozen food at no more than minus 18°C. Those are ceilings, not targets.

How long food can sit above 4°C is the hard part. The clearest BC number we found is in Fraser Health's guide for operators after a power outage, which says to throw out refrigerated potentially hazardous food if its internal temperature has been above 4°C for more than 2 hours, and that if you're unsure about any food, throw it out. That guide was written for outages, not equipment failure, so check with your health authority on how it applies to a dead cooler.

Your food safety plan is the document for this. BC's Food Premises Regulation requires food service establishments to have a written one, and it has to be approved by your local health authority. The templates health authorities publish for these plans include corrective actions for a cooler that stops holding temperature, like moving the food to another unit and having the unit serviced. Pull yours out before you need it.

Not sure which health authority covers you? Vancouver, Richmond and North Vancouver are Vancouver Coastal Health. Burnaby, Coquitlam, Port Moody, Surrey, Langley and Delta are Fraser Health.

Is there anything I can check myself before I call?

A few things take two minutes.

Check whether the unit has power. If a breaker has tripped, that's the first thing to tell the technician. Make sure the door is fully shut and sealing, since one that didn't latch after a delivery can make a healthy unit look dead.

Then look at the evaporator, the unit inside the box with the fans. If ice has built up around the fan blades, shut the unit off at the controls before anyone goes near it. Don't chip at the ice either, because tools can damage the fins or puncture the tubing, and ice is usually a sign that something else is going on, like a door that isn't sealing or a defrost problem. We wrote a whole post on why a walk-in drifts and what's usually behind it if you want to look into it.

What should I tell the technician when I call?

Have a few things ready. What the box is reading and what it's supposed to read. How long it's been warm. Whether the fans or the compressor are running. Whether there's ice. Any new noise or smell.

It gets the conversation moving faster, and it's all stuff you can check in a minute.

Can I get someone out after hours?

Plain answer, we're a Monday to Friday, 8:30 to 5 shop. Refrigeration failures get priority dispatch during those hours, and the best way to reach us is to call directly, not fill out a web form.

So if your cooler goes down on a Friday night, that's a Monday morning call for us. It's worth knowing now what your plan is for a weekend failure, and it's one more reason to have your food safety plan out and read.

Before it happens

The best time to know what your box normally reads is before it fails. We wrote about the temperatures BC requires a cooler and freezer to hold and what your food safety plan should say about a failure.

If yours is down right now, call Air Comfort Systems at (778) 318-0321. We handle commercial refrigeration across Metro Vancouver, including walk-in coolers, freezers and display cases.

Sources: BC Food Premises Regulation (B.C. Reg. 210/99), sections 14, 23 and 24; Province of BC, Food Safety & Sanitation Plans and Regional Health Authorities; Fraser Health, Food safety during a power outage, what food premises operators need to know (March 2017); SkilledTradesBC, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Mechanic.