A restaurant maintenance contract should treat the kitchen as its own environment. It covers rooftop units exposed to grease, walk-in coolers and freezers, ice machines, water heaters and make-up air as separate asset classes with their own checklists and frequencies. Visits are scheduled around service hours, and every visit leaves dated records that show cold-holding equipment was maintained and working when an inspector asks.
- A kitchen is a harsher environment than an office. Grease, heat, steam and constant door traffic shorten the interval between problems, so frequencies should be set by exposure, not by a generic template.
- The contract should list each asset class (rooftop units, make-up air, walk-ins, reach-ins, ice machines, water heaters) with its own checklist rather than one line that says HVAC and refrigeration.
- Scheduling is part of the scope. Prep windows, deliveries and dinner service decide when a technician can open a walk-in or shut down a unit, and the agreement should say so.
- Cold holding at 41 F or below is what the health department cares about. Service records that show the equipment was maintained make an inspection conversation much easier.
- Kitchen balance, meaning exhaust against make-up air, is the most common hidden cause of hot kitchens and struggling refrigeration. It belongs in the scope.
Why a kitchen cannot be maintained like an office
An office rooftop unit sees filters clog slowly and coils collect dust. A restaurant rooftop unit sits near an exhaust fan outlet, breathes air that carries a fine film of cooking grease, and often serves a dining room that swings from empty to full in a single hour. The same unit that would run happily for years over a tenant suite can foul its condenser coil and clog its filters in a fraction of the time.
Refrigeration is the other half of the story. A walk-in cooler in a busy kitchen has its door opened constantly, often with warm product, and its condensing unit may be on a roof or a back wall that gets hot, greasy or both. Ice machines add water, scale and sanitation concerns that no other building type shares to the same degree.
This is why a one-size contract written for offices tends to disappoint restaurants. The visits happen, the paperwork is signed, and the equipment that actually fails is the equipment the contract only mentioned in passing. If you are comparing proposals, the guidance in how to compare commercial maintenance proposals applies, with the kitchen-specific checks below layered on top.
The assets a restaurant contract should name
Each of these has a different failure pattern, so each deserves its own line in the scope and its own checklist. The table is a starting point for a conversation, not a fixed schedule.
| Asset class | What goes wrong in a kitchen | What the visit should cover |
|---|---|---|
| Rooftop units and splits | Greasy coils and filters, restricted airflow, drain pans that foul, units working against kitchen heat | Coil and filter condition, drain pan and condensate line, refrigerant and electrical readings, belts and blower, economizer operation where fitted |
| Make-up air units | Filters loaded by dust and grease, gas or heating section problems, belt wear, controls that no longer follow the exhaust fans | Filters, burner or heating section inspection, blower and belts, controls and interlock with exhaust, discharge temperature |
| Walk-in coolers and freezers | Dirty condensers, iced evaporators, failed door gaskets and heaters, defrost faults, fan motor wear | Condenser cleaning, evaporator and drain line, door seals and heater wire, defrost operation, temperature and pressure readings |
| Reach-ins and prep tables | Condenser lint and grease, gasket wear, failing fans, drifting temperatures at the line | Condenser cleaning, gaskets, fans, thermostat accuracy, drain |
| Ice machines | Scale, slime, dirty condensers, failing water filtration, bin sanitation | Clean and sanitize per manufacturer procedure, water filter status, condenser, harvest cycle observation |
| Water heaters | Scale buildup, failing relief valves, burner or element problems, recirculation issues | Combustion or element check, relief valve and expansion tank, anode or flush where appropriate, temperature at the point of use |
For depth on the refrigeration side, see the walk-in cooler and freezer guide and the refrigeration PM checklist. Ice machine specifics are in the commercial ice machine guide.
Grease, heat and the kitchen air balance
Hood and duct cleaning is a separate trade with its own fire code requirements, and it is not part of a mechanical maintenance contract. What a mechanical contract does cover is everything the grease and heat do to the equipment around the hood.
Exhaust against make-up air
Every cubic foot of air the exhaust fan pulls out has to come back in from somewhere. When make-up air is undersized, off, or poorly controlled, the building goes negative. Doors become hard to open, the pilot lights and burners behave oddly, the dining room feels drafty, and the kitchen pulls untreated air through every gap. Rooftop units and refrigeration condensers then work harder against the resulting heat and humidity.
A visit that only changes filters will miss this. The technician needs to look at how the make-up air unit and exhaust fans actually operate together, which is covered in more detail on the kitchen ventilation and make-up air service page. If the balance is wrong, that is a finding to put in the report, not a quiet adjustment.
Condensers near grease
Outdoor condensers for walk-ins and rooftop units that sit downwind of an exhaust outlet pick up a sticky film that traps lint and dust. Cleaning intervals for these coils are shorter than for equipment elsewhere on the same property. Ask the contractor to state the cleaning interval for each condenser, and ask what product and method they use so the coil fins are not damaged.
Scheduling around service hours
A restaurant has fewer good windows than almost any other building type. Deliveries arrive in the morning, prep fills the middle of the day, and service pushes everything into the evening. A technician who needs to shut down a walk-in condensing unit or open a rooftop unit has to find a gap that does not put product or guests at risk.
- Agree on windows in writing. Name the days and hours when routine visits happen, and the hours that are off limits, such as the lunch and dinner peaks.
- Plan for product. If a walk-in has to be worked on for more than a short while, decide in advance where product goes and who moves it.
- Separate routine from urgent. Routine PM follows the agreed windows. A warm walk-in on a Saturday night does not wait for a window, and the agreement should say how urgent calls are handled.
- Use the quiet days. Many operators prefer a slower weekday for the visits that take equipment offline, and the early morning for exterior and rooftop work.
- Coordinate with other trades. Hood cleaning crews, pest control and health inspectors all compete for the same windows.
For emergencies, the restaurant refrigeration emergency playbook walks through what to do in the first minutes of a failure. A well-written contract connects to that plan, so the person on your team who finds the problem knows who to call and what to say.
Health inspection readiness
Under the California Retail Food Code, potentially hazardous food is held cold at 41 F or below. An inspector is not going to ask for your maintenance report first, but a failing reading on a walk-in or a prep table can turn into a problem quickly, and records that show the equipment was serviced and performing help the conversation.
The records worth having are simple: dated service reports by asset, cold-holding readings taken by the technician, notes on any gasket, door or defrost issues, and a record of what was fixed and when. If your staff keep daily temperature logs, the maintenance records and the logs support each other. The restaurant temperature logs and health inspections page covers the logging side in more detail.
Service records show that equipment was maintained and what condition it was in on the day. They do not guarantee an inspection outcome, and local environmental health requirements vary, so confirm current requirements with your county environmental health office.
Ice machines deserve a specific mention. Ice is food, and the sanitation visit for the machine and bin should be dated and attributed. The ice machine service page describes what that visit involves.
Reporting that an operator can use
Restaurant managers rarely have time to read a long report. The most useful format separates three things: what was done today, what needs a decision, and what to watch. A walk-in with a worn gasket that still holds temperature is a watch item. A failing evaporator fan motor on a freezer is a decision item.
Each asset in the DaVinci Portal has a QR-coded tag, so the history for a particular walk-in or ice machine is a scan away. That history is also what lets an owner decide when repair stops making sense and replacement planning begins. For multi-unit operators, the same records support the restaurant refrigeration replacement planning conversation and the multi-location service agreement structure.
Questions to ask before you sign
- Which assets are named in the scope, and does each have a checklist?
- How often are condensers near the kitchen cleaned, and who decides when that interval changes?
- What are the agreed service windows, and how are urgent calls handled outside them?
- Does the visit include a look at make-up air and exhaust balance, or only filters?
- What does the report look like, and can you see a sample before signing?
- Is the crew doing the work employed by the contractor? Davinci's mechanical, refrigeration and controls work is performed by its own UA Local 250 crew, with no subcontractors.
- What is excluded, such as hood cleaning, grease trap service, or electrical work, and who is responsible for those?
Davinci Mechanical is commercial only, and restaurants are one of the main building types it serves. See the restaurants industry page and the commercial maintenance plans for how programs are structured.