Your cold room, looked after monthly — not fixed in a panic

Kelvin services fridges, freezers and cold rooms across Cape Town on a fixed monthly plan, with a four-hour callout when load-shedding brings a compressor back wrong.

See the plans

What a care plan actually buys you

Most of our customers phoned us the first time because something had already gone wrong. A butchery in Woodstock at half past five on a Friday, a display fridge sitting at nine degrees, and a whole weekend of stock in it. That call costs you twice: once for the callout, and again for everything you throw away on Monday. A care plan is the boring alternative. We come every month, clean the condensers, read the pressures, check the door seals and log the temperatures. Then we tell you which part is going to fail before it fails. When something does go down you are in a queue of one instead of a queue of forty, and the labour is already paid for.

What we do

The monthly visit

Condensers cleaned, gas pressures read, door seals and hinges checked, drain lines cleared. Same technician on your site every month wherever we can manage it.

Load-shedding gear

A compressor that restarts against pressure is our most common callout by a mile. We fit time-delay relays and test the start capacitors before summer, not after.

Temperature logs

Every visit is written up on site and emailed as a PDF the same day. When a chain buyer or an inspector asks, you have twelve months of readings in one file.

Four-hour callout

On a plan you get a technician within four working hours. After hours we come out the same night for anything that is holding stock.

Vehicle units

Bakkie chillers, panel-van units and small delivery trucks. We service the unit, the box and the door seals, and we do it at your depot before the morning run.

Gas and paperwork

Registered handlers for R404A, R134a and R290. Recovery, top-ups and leak repairs done properly, logged properly, and signed off on the sheet.

What we check, every visit

Condenser coils washed and the fan motor checked for play. A dirty coil is the single biggest reason a unit runs hot through February.
Suction and discharge pressures read against the plate, superheat calculated, and both written on the sheet so next month has something to compare to.
Door seals, hinges and closers. A worn gasket on a walk-in costs more in electricity every month than a new gasket costs once.
Defrost timer and heater element tested, drain line flushed, drip tray emptied and the heat tape checked where there is one.
Controller set points confirmed against what the product actually needs, not whatever the last technician happened to leave them on.
Electrical: contactors, overloads, start capacitors and the isolator, plus a current reading on each phase against the nameplate.

The people who arrive

Riaan de BeerOwner, lead technician

Twenty-two years on refrigeration, eleven of them on trawlers out of Duncan Dock. Takes the diagnostics nobody else wants and prices every cold-room job himself.

Nomsa DlaminiService manager

Runs the callout board and the monthly schedule. If you phone the landline between seven and five, you get Nomsa, and she knows what is on your site.

Ashwin PetersenTechnician, Southern Suburbs

Trade-tested fitter. Looks after the restaurants and delis from Observatory down to Wynberg, and does most of the vehicle work at the depots.

Sipho MahlanguTechnician, Epping and north

Our cold-room and rack man. Spends most of the week in Epping, Montague Gardens and the Philippi market sheds, where the rooms are biggest and oldest.

Who we look after

We lost a cold room on the Friday of a long weekend two years ago. That one weekend cost us more than a year of the plan. Kelvin has been through the door every month since.

Dawie Marais · Marais Slaghuis, Woodstock

The temperature sheets are what got us through our last audit. Twelve months of readings in one PDF, no scratching through a drawer of scribbled notes.

Lerato Khoza · Ubuntu Kitchens, Salt River

The chiller on our delivery bakkie packed up in Philippi at six in the morning. Someone was standing next to it before eight and the load went out.

Faried Abrahams · Cape Fresh Produce

4 hours The longest anyone on a Kelvin plan has waited for a technician in the last eighteen months. After hours we come out the same night for anything holding stock.

Zero Cold rooms lost to a load-shedding restart on any site where we have fitted the time-delay gear and tested the start capacitors before the season turned.

Plans

Priced per site, per month. Month to month — thirty days' notice and you are out, with no penalty and no exit fee.

Counter

R690 / month

One under-counter or display fridge
Monthly service visit
Temperature log emailed as a PDF
Four-hour callout, labour included
Parts at cost plus ten percent

Choose Counter

Kitchen

R1 450 / month

Up to six units on one site
Monthly service visit
Door seals and gaskets included
Four-hour callout, labour included
Gas top-ups to 500g a year

Choose Kitchen

Cold Room

R2 900 / month

One walk-in plus six units
Two visits a month
Load-shedding restart gear fitted
Four-hour callout, day or night
Gas top-ups to 2kg a year

Choose Cold Room

Cold Chain

R5 400 / month

Multi-site, or a vehicle fleet
Weekly visits by arrangement
Vehicle units and door seals
Two-hour callout, day or night
Standby unit while yours is out

Talk to us

Before the heat, not during it

The calls all come in December. A plan started in September means the things that would have failed in the heat get sorted while it is still cool.

Book a callout

Cape Town from Paarden Eiland to Wynberg, and out to Epping, Montague Gardens and the Philippi market. After-hours callouts until 22h00, seven days, for anyone on a plan. 021 447 3180 · service@kelvincold.co.za