Commercial Appliance Repair in Los Angeles
Restaurant ovens, commercial dishwashers, deep fryers, steamers, and cooking line equipment — repaired on-site by technicians who've worked on thousands of commercial kitchens across Greater Los Angeles since 1984.
A Vulcan convection oven that won't hold temperature at 11:30 AM on a Friday doesn't just inconvenience your kitchen — it destroys your lunch service. Your line cooks start improvising, tickets back up, and the food that does go out isn't at the standard your customers expect. One broken fryer means 86'd fish and chips, 86'd chicken tenders, 86'd everything that goes through the oil. A Hobart dishwasher that stops mid-cycle means your FOH is hand-washing plates while tables wait. These aren't hypothetical scenarios. We see them every week in restaurants, hotel kitchens, and catering operations across Los Angeles.
Arctic Cool Refrigeration has been fixing commercial kitchen equipment in LA since 1984. Not residential appliances relabeled as "commercial service" — actual restaurant-grade equipment from Garland, Rational, Pitco, Blodgett, and every other brand bolted into commercial cooking lines across this city. Our trucks carry the parts that fail most often — ignitors, thermostats, gas valves, heating elements, fan motors, control boards — because the difference between a $200 repair and a $2,000 lost service is whether the tech has the part on the truck or has to order it and come back next Tuesday.
Common Commercial Appliance Problems We Fix
Commercial kitchen equipment fails in predictable ways. Our technicians have diagnosed these issues thousands of times and carry the parts to fix most of them on the first visit.
Commercial Oven Won't Heat
Gas valve stuck closed, failed ignitor (hot surface or spark), thermostat reading wrong, or a control board that's lost communication with the safety circuit. We test each component in sequence — Garland, Vulcan, Blodgett, Rational — and replace what's actually failed, not what's easiest to sell.
Dishwasher Not Cleaning Properly
Weak wash pump losing pressure, clogged or corroded spray arms, a heating element that can't reach sanitization temp (180°F for high-temp machines), or a water inlet valve that's partially seized. We see this constantly on Hobart AM15s and Jackson Avenger units that haven't been descaled in six months.
Fryer Temperature Swings
Thermostat out of calibration, hi-limit safety tripped, gas valve not modulating properly, or a pilot assembly that keeps dying. A Pitco SG14 running 25 degrees hot burns product and oil — running 25 degrees cold means soggy food and angry tickets. We calibrate to the degree.
Commercial Refrigerator Not Cooling
Compressor struggling to start, condenser coils caked with grease and dust (the #1 cause we see in restaurant kitchens), evaporator fan motor seized, or a thermostat that's drifted out of range. True and Hoshizaki units are workhorses, but they need clean coils to function.
Steamer Malfunctions
Heating element burned out, water level controls misreading, lime scale choking the boiler, or a steam trap that won't drain. Cleveland and Alto-Shaam steamers in hard-water areas like parts of the Valley need descaling every 90 days or they'll eat through elements twice as fast.
Griddle & Range Problems
Burner ignition failure (piezo or electronic), thermostat calibration drift causing hot and cold spots, gas line connection issues, or a cracked burner tube on a Garland or Imperial range. We test surface temperature across the full cooking area — not just the center — to confirm the repair.
Equipment Types We Service
Commercial Ovens
Convection ovens, deck ovens, pizza ovens, and combination oven-steamers (combi ovens). We work on gas and electric units from Rational, Vulcan, Blodgett, Garland, Alto-Shaam, Southbend, and Imperial. Combi ovens like the Rational iCombi are sophisticated machines with steam generators, multi-point temperature probes, and CareControl descaling systems — our techs are trained on the specific diagnostic procedures these units require, not just general oven repair.
Commercial Dishwashers
High-temperature door machines, low-temperature chemical sanitizing units, conveyor dishwashers for high-volume operations, and flight-type machines used in large-scale food service. We service Hobart, Champion, Jackson, and Ecolab/Kay Chemical systems. A conveyor dishwasher processing 300 racks per hour in a hotel banquet kitchen can't wait until Monday — we carry wash pump motors, heating elements, rinse solenoids, and control boards on our trucks.
Deep Fryers
Gas floor fryers (the Pitco SG14 and Frymaster GF14 are the two units we see most often in LA restaurants), countertop electric fryers for smaller operations, and pressure fryers used in fried chicken concepts. We handle thermostat replacement, hi-limit reset and replacement, gas valve service, pilot assembly rebuilds, and full oil system flushes. A fryer that's running 10 degrees off spec wastes $40-$60 per week in excess oil consumption alone.
Commercial Refrigerators & Freezers
Reach-in refrigerators and freezers, under-counter prep refrigeration, sandwich and pizza prep tables, and pass-through units. True, Hoshizaki, Turbo Air, Traulsen, and Beverage-Air are the brands we service most frequently. When a two-door True reach-in stops holding 38°F during a Saturday dinner service, you're looking at $800-$3,000 in spoiled product if it's not addressed within hours. We get there fast.
Steam Equipment
Compartment steamers, pressureless convection steamers, combi ovens in steam mode, and steam-jacketed kettles. Cleveland, Alto-Shaam, Groen, and Vulcan are the primary brands in LA commercial kitchens. Steam equipment failures are almost always related to scale buildup, water quality, or heating element degradation — all of which we diagnose and repair on-site.
Cooking Line Equipment
Commercial ranges (gas and electric), flat-top griddles, charbroilers, salamanders, and cheese melters. Garland, Vulcan, Imperial, American Range, and Southbend manufacture the majority of cooking line equipment we encounter across LA. These are the backbone of every restaurant kitchen — a six-burner range with two dead burners during dinner service isn't half a range, it's a broken kitchen.
Brands We Service
Our technicians carry manufacturer-specific diagnostic knowledge and OEM-spec replacement parts for the brands that dominate commercial kitchens in Greater Los Angeles:
- Hobart — dishwashers, mixers, slicers, and food prep equipment
- Vulcan — ranges, ovens, griddles, fryers, and steamers
- Garland — ranges, griddles, charbroilers, and convection ovens
- Rational — iCombi and iVario combination oven-steamers
- True — reach-in refrigerators, freezers, prep tables, and underbar equipment
- Hoshizaki — refrigerators, freezers, ice machines, and prep tables
- Manitowoc — ice machines and refrigeration systems
- Alto-Shaam — combi ovens, cook-and-hold ovens, heated display cases
- Blodgett — convection ovens, pizza deck ovens, and hydrovection ovens
- Southbend — ranges, convection ovens, griddles, charbroilers
- Imperial — ranges, griddles, fryers, and charbroilers
- American Range — heavy-duty ranges, griddles, and salamanders
- Pitco — floor fryers, countertop fryers, and rethermalizers
- Frymaster — gas and electric fryers, oil filtration systems
- Champion — commercial dishwashers and glasswashers
- Jackson — dishwashers, glasswashers, and conveyor-type warewashing
If your brand isn't listed here, call us anyway. After 40 years in this market, we've worked on equipment from manufacturers that don't even exist anymore.
Industries We Serve
Commercial kitchen equipment repair is not one-size-fits-all. A hotel banquet kitchen has different demands than a food truck, and a hospital cafeteria operates under regulations that don't apply to a sports bar. We tailor our service approach to each environment:
- Restaurants — from single-unit independents to multi-location groups, covering fast-casual through fine dining. We understand that a dead oven during Friday dinner service is a revenue emergency, not a maintenance request.
- Hotels & Resorts — banquet kitchens, room service operations, pool bars, and restaurant outlets. We coordinate with engineering departments and work around guest-facing schedules.
- Hospital & Healthcare Cafeterias — dietary departments with strict HACCP requirements, temperature logging mandates, and zero tolerance for food safety gaps. Our repair documentation supports your compliance records.
- School & University Cafeterias — LAUSD and private school food service operations with tight budgets and equipment that runs hard for 180+ days a year. We repair what makes sense and recommend replacement when the math says repair is a losing bet.
- Catering Companies — commissary kitchens, event prep facilities, and mobile operations. Catering equipment failures before a 500-person event are not negotiable — we prioritize accordingly.
- Food Trucks — compact cooking systems with unique ventilation and power constraints. Fryer, griddle, and refrigeration repair in food truck configurations requires a tech who's actually worked in these spaces before.
- Corporate Dining & Office Cafeterias — managed food service operations in commercial office buildings throughout Century City, Downtown LA, and the Westside.
- Country Clubs & Golf Courses — multiple food and beverage outlets with high standards and equipment that often dates back to the original build-out. We service legacy equipment that newer companies don't know how to touch.
Service Areas
Arctic Cool Refrigeration dispatches from Calabasas and covers all of Greater Los Angeles. We dominate the western corridor from Malibu through the Valley, and extend east through Hollywood, Glendale, and Pasadena.
- Calabasas — our home base, typically on-site within 1-2 hours
- Thousand Oaks — restaurant corridor and commercial kitchen district along the 101
- Agoura Hills & Westlake Village — restaurants, corporate dining, and hospitality
- Woodland Hills & West Hills — dense restaurant and retail concentration in the west Valley
- Chatsworth & Northridge — industrial food operations, chain restaurants, and CSUN food service
- Sherman Oaks & Encino — Ventura Blvd restaurant row and surrounding neighborhoods
- Tarzana — specialty food retail and restaurant operations
- Malibu — beachfront restaurants where salt air corrodes equipment connections faster than inland locations
- Beverly Hills — fine dining, hotel kitchens, and catering operations where downtime is measured in lost covers, not hours
- Santa Monica — high-volume beachfront dining, hotel food service, Third Street Promenade restaurants
- Burbank — studio commissary kitchens, production catering, and the downtown Burbank restaurant district
- Glendale — dense restaurant concentration, grocery market kitchens, and bakery operations
- Pasadena — Old Town restaurants, hospital cafeterias, Caltech and institutional food service
- Downtown Los Angeles — hotel banquet kitchens, convention center food service, and Arts District restaurants
- West Hollywood & Hollywood — nightlife-heavy food operations with late-night service demands
Commercial Appliance Repair FAQ
What commercial appliances do you repair?
We repair the full spectrum of commercial kitchen equipment: gas and electric ovens (convection, deck, pizza, combi), commercial dishwashers (door-type, conveyor, flight-type), deep fryers (floor, countertop, pressure), commercial ranges, griddles, charbroilers, salamanders, steamers, steam kettles, reach-in refrigerators and freezers, prep tables, ice machines, and warming/holding equipment. We service all major manufacturers including Hobart, Vulcan, Garland, Rational, True, Hoshizaki, Pitco, Frymaster, Blodgett, and Alto-Shaam.
Do you offer same-day commercial appliance repair?
Yes. Same-day dispatch is our standard for commercial kitchen equipment. When you call (800) 685-5590, a live person answers — not a phone tree — gets your equipment details and location, and routes the nearest available technician. We operate 7 days a week across Greater Los Angeles. A broken fryer or oven during service hours is a revenue emergency, and we treat it that way.
How much does commercial appliance repair cost?
It depends on the equipment and the failure. Minor repairs — ignitor replacement, thermostat swap, gasket change, thermocouple — typically run $150-$400. Mid-range repairs like wash pump motors, fan motors, or gas valve replacements are usually $300-$700. Major component failures — compressor replacement, control board swap on a Rational combi, conveyor dishwasher motor — range from $600-$1,500. We provide a written estimate before touching anything, and our trucks are stocked with the most common parts to avoid a second trip markup.
Do you offer preventive maintenance plans for commercial kitchens?
Yes. Scheduled maintenance plans include equipment inspection, cleaning (condenser coils, burners, drain lines), calibration of thermostats and temperature controls, gas connection integrity checks, and electrical component assessment. Kitchens on maintenance plans see roughly 60-70% fewer emergency breakdowns compared to reactive-only service. We build custom plans based on your equipment list and operating hours — a hotel kitchen running 18 hours a day needs a different schedule than a lunch-only cafe.
Are your technicians certified to work on commercial kitchen equipment?
All Arctic Cool technicians carry EPA 608 certification for refrigerant handling and NATE (North American Technician Excellence) certification. We are licensed through the California Contractors State License Board (CSLB) and carry full liability insurance and workers' compensation on every job. Our techs have direct experience with gas appliance repair, commercial electrical systems, and refrigeration — the three core disciplines that cover 95% of commercial kitchen equipment failures.
Related Commercial Services
Kitchen Equipment Down? Call Now.
Same-day commercial appliance repair across Greater Los Angeles — parts on every truck, 7 days a week.
Call (800) 685-5590