MaintScope · Pharmacy
Pharmacy vaccine fridge service
A purpose-built vaccine fridge holding 2-8°C with twice-daily records is the standard. But documented compliance means nothing if the sensor is out by a degree and a half — and almost nobody has ever verified theirs against a calibrated reference.
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.
Equipment someone else has already decided must keep working.
Get a health checkWorked example · Pharmacy · Erina
What the report actually says
What you’ve got
| Equipment | Age | Condition | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose-built vaccine fridge | ~5 yrs | Watch | Holding 2–8°C but door alarm not tested |
| Data logger | Current | Serviceable | Downloads weekly, never verified against a reference |
| Dispensary split system | ~8 yrs | Watch | Filters loaded |
| Shop split system | ~8 yrs | Serviceable |
Needs attention now
- The fridge holds temperature. Nobody’s proven the sensor is right. A logger reading 1.5°C off is worse than no logger — you’d have documented compliance through a breach you never knew about.
- Door alarm untested. It’s the thing standing between an ajar door overnight and a written-off fridge of stock.
- Dispensary AC. Ambient in that room affects how hard the vaccine fridge works. It’s not a separate problem.
Compliance context
Under the national guidelines your fridge must be purpose-built, held 2–8°C, temperature recorded twice daily, and the logger downloaded and reviewed weekly, with breaches reported. This report covers whether the equipment can actually deliver that — it isn’t a compliance audit.
Your service year
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Twice daily | Temperature record (you already do this) |
| Weekly | Logger download and review |
| 6-monthly | Calibration check against reference, alarm test |
| Annual | Full fridge service, splits service |
What it costs — next 12 months
| Item | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Vaccine fridge service | $220 | $420 |
| Calibration verification, 2x | $180 | $360 |
| Split systems x2 | $360 | $560 |
| Total | $760 | $1,340 |
Coming in five years
- Purpose-built vaccine fridge replacement — $3,500–9,000
- Split system replacement — $2,200–4,000 each
Quietly costing you money
Not money — stock and exposure. A single cold chain breach can write off a fridge of vaccine and triggers a reportable incident. The annual service cost here is less than the value sitting on one shelf.
What I’d do first
- Verify the logger against a calibrated reference — settle whether your records are true
- Test the door alarm
- Service the dispensary split so the fridge isn’t fighting the room
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.