Walk-in cold rooms are the backbone of a trade kitchen
A cold room is not a large fridge. It is a plant room with a door. When the evaporator ices, the door heater fails, or the condensing unit on the roof trips, every shelf in that room starts to warm. Restaurants, pubs with food, hotels, butchers, sandwich production and supermarket back rooms all depend on that space staying in the chill band. Cold room repair is therefore one of the first numbers a duty manager should have on the wall.
Cold Direct attends commercial cold rooms across North London and London. We are North London Commercial Refrigeration Engineers working a 25 mile radius into Hertfordshire and Essex. We do not install fancy domestic wine walls. We repair walk-in chillers: panel rooms, evaporator coils, condensing units, controllers, door furniture, strip curtains and the drainage that floods a kitchen when it blocks.
The call we get most often is “the cold room is at 8 degrees and still rising”. Causes we find on site include a door left on the latch, torn gaskets, iced coils after a stock-up that blocked airflow, a failed evaporator fan, a dirty remote condenser on a hot roof, low refrigerant after a leak, or a controller that was set wrong after a power cut. We measure air on and off the coil, check the door seal with a paper test, and look at how the room is loaded. Stacking boxes against the evaporator is a common reason a “new” room fails in August.
Emergency cold room repair at 2am is normal work for us, not a favour. Night porters in Westminster hotels, chefs in the City, and pub managers in Camden and Islington need a team that will travel. The same applies to rooms in Enfield, Barnet, Wood Green, Tottenham, Edmonton, Walthamstow, Southgate, Harrow, Watford, Cheshunt, Harlow, Ilford, Romford and Stratford. Enfield is one area on the coverage list, not the story of the company. The story is North London coverage and a 25 mile radius.
We work on rooms paired with Williams, Foster, True, Polar, Blizzard, Gram and other pack systems. Brand on the door is less important than the compressor and controller we find on the unit. Send a photo of the data plate on the condensing unit and the evaporator if you can. We will tell you if we expect to need a part before we set off.
Safety first: we will not ask staff to smash ice with a metal bar. We will not leave a room in an unsafe electrical state. If you need a temporary hold - extra fans, a hired cabinet, or a plan to move high-risk food - we say that in plain English before we start a long repair. Then we quote. Then we fix. Call mobile, freephone or the London office. All three are in the header, footer and the buttons on this page.
Brands
Williams, Foster, True, Hoshizaki, Polar, Blizzard, Gram, Lec, Snomaster, Tefcold and other commercial pack systems.
Areas covered
North London, Enfield, Barnet, Finchley, Wood Green, Tottenham, Edmonton, Walthamstow, Chingford, Southgate, Palmers Green, Winchmore Hill, Cockfosters, Potters Bar, Borehamwood, Camden, Islington, Hackney, Haringey, City of London, Westminster, Harrow, Watford, St Albans, Cheshunt, Waltham Cross, Harlow, Ilford, Romford, Stratford, All London (25 mile radius North London).