MaintScope · Gelato bar
Gelato & dessert bar refrigeration
Your batch freezer and display cabinet aren't just equipment, they're quality control. Grainy or icy product is a temperature problem almost every operator treats as a recipe problem, and a condenser full of dust is usually where it starts.
And if it's still running
Know what it's going to cost you — before it costs you
A licenced tech goes through every bit of air conditioning, ventilation and refrigeration you've got, and writes down what condition it's in, what needs doing and when, and what it's realistically going to cost you over the next year and the next five. Plain English, one PDF.
When this equipment stops, stock starts dying the same day.
Get a health checkWorked example · Gelato bar · Terrigal
What the report actually says
What you’ve got
| Equipment | Age | Condition | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Batch freezer | ~5 yrs | Action | Condenser packed with dust, running hot |
| Display cabinet (pozzetti/vetrine) | ~5 yrs | Watch | Holding temp but cycling more than it should |
| Blast chiller | ~5 yrs | Serviceable | |
| Underbench freezer | ~7 yrs | Serviceable | Door seal marginal |
| Shop split system | ~7 yrs | Watch | Undersized for summer foot traffic |
Needs attention now
- Batch freezer condenser. Running hot means longer batch times, softer product, and a compressor working itself to death. This is the single most expensive machine in the shop.
- Display cabinet cycling. If temperature swings even a couple of degrees, you get ice crystals and grainy texture. You’ll taste it before you measure it — and so will customers.
Your service year
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Monthly | Condenser coil check on batch freezer (you can do this) |
| April | Full service — batch freezer, blast chiller, cabinets |
| Sept | Pre-summer service, all units |
| Annual | Split system, seals, calibration |
What it costs — next 12 months
| Item | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Batch freezer service, 2 visits | $480 | $900 |
| Display cabinet service | $280 | $560 |
| Blast chiller service | $240 | $480 |
| Underbench + seals | $180 | $360 |
| Split system | $180 | $280 |
| Total | $1,360 | $2,580 |
Coming in five years
- Batch freezer compressor — $2,800–5,500, and you’re shut while it’s out
- Display cabinet — $4,000–12,000 depending on format
- Split system upsize — if it can’t hold the room in February it never will: $2,200–4,000
Quietly costing you money
Texture is a temperature problem. Product that goes grainy or icy gets discounted or binned, and most operators blame the recipe. A cabinet holding a stable temperature is a quality control tool you already own — it just isn’t calibrated.
What I’d do first
- Clean the batch freezer condenser, then keep it monthly
- Calibrate and log the display cabinet for a week — see how much it actually swings
- Get the split sized properly before next summer, not during it
How it works
$150 to come out. Everything else depends on what's there.
- I come out — $150.I go through the lot: what you've got, how old it is, what condition it's in. Takes an hour or two depending on how much is in the place.
- You get it in writing within 48 hours.One PDF. What's there, what needs doing and when, what it should cost you over the year, and what's coming further out.
- Anything that needs fixing, I quote on what I find.I can't price a service off a website — it depends on the unit, the access and what turns up when it's open. You'll get a real number, not a guess.
- If you'd rather not think about it again, I'll handle it.Scheduled servicing across the year, timed around your trade. No lock-in — plenty of people take the report and go it alone, and that's genuinely fine.