Commercial refrigeration is a high-stakes service business. Your customers sell food, and when a walk-in freezer fails on a Saturday night, their inventory, their health inspection and sometimes their week depend on how fast you get there. The work pays well, but only if your pricing, your dispatch and your records keep up with it.
How a refrigeration business makes money
Emergency service. Walk-ins, reach-ins, display cases and ice machines that stop working. Emergencies pay a premium rate, but they disrupt the schedule and pull techs off planned work. Track them separately.
Preventive maintenance agreements. Quarterly or monthly visits to clean condenser coils, check drains, door gaskets, fan motors, defrost cycles and refrigerant levels. Agreements smooth revenue and reduce emergency calls, and they make you the first call when something breaks.
Repairs and replacements. Compressors, condensing units, evaporators, controls and complete systems. Replacements are larger tickets that usually follow a pattern of repeat failures or leaks the owner is tired of paying for.
Refrigerant work. Leak searches, repairs, verification tests and refrigerant itself. Under current EPA rules, this work carries deadlines and records, which makes it more valuable to the customer.
Running the day
Commercial refrigeration dispatch is built around emergencies. Keep a clear on-call rotation, know which tech is nearest each site, and make sure trucks carry common fan motors, controls, valves, contactors and the refrigerants your customer base uses.
At intake, capture what matters for billing as well as the repair: the site, the unit, the PO or work order number, the not-to-exceed limit and who can approve more. A perfect repair invoiced without the customer's PO number can sit unpaid for a month.
On site, stabilize first. Get the box holding temperature, then diagnose properly. If the permanent repair is over the NTE, document readings and photos and get approval before ordering parts.
Refrigerant leak rules
EPA's Section 608 regulations require owners and operators of commercial refrigeration appliances with 50 or more pounds of ozone-depleting refrigerant to repair leaks when the annualized leak rate exceeds 20 percent, generally within 30 days, with verification tests and records (EPA). EPA's 2024 Emissions Reduction and Reclamation rule extends similar leak repair requirements to appliances with 15 pounds or more of HFC refrigerant, with the same 20 percent threshold for commercial refrigeration and compliance beginning in 2026 (EPA fact sheet). The ER&R rule also brings automatic leak detection requirements for some larger systems.
What this means for you: every pound added or recovered should be logged against a specific appliance, with the tech's certification and the date. Leaking appliances need a repair deadline, a verification test and a follow-up test on the calendar. TradesWork logs refrigerant per unit and per tech with the 608 number, and gives leaking units a repair deadline and a report. Our EPA 608 guide covers certification.
Pricing your work
Emergency rates. Set a separate after-hours rate or multiplier that covers on-call pay, overtime and the planned work that gets bumped. Put it in writing in every agreement.
PM agreements. Price per unit, per visit:
agreement price = ((visit hours + drive time) × loaded hourly cost + materials) ÷ (1 − target margin)
Build your loaded hourly cost with the labor rate calculator, and use the markup and margin calculator for parts.
Refrigerant. Price per pound from current replacement cost. The HFC phasedown affects supply and price, so review it regularly.
Multi-site accounts. Agree on a rate sheet, NTE limits and approval contacts before the first call. Consistency is what chains are buying.
Marketing that works for refrigeration
Commercial refrigeration is relationship selling. The best sources of work are:
- Restaurant and grocery operators you already serve: ask for referrals and for their other locations.
- Equipment dealers and kitchen designers who need install and warranty partners.
- Property managers and facility managers for multi-tenant buildings.
- Response time and records as your pitch. "We answer at 2 a.m. and we keep your leak records" beats a lower rate.
A simple website, a strong Google Business Profile and reviews still matter for independent restaurants searching in an emergency.
Building PM agreements that renew
Restaurants and grocers renew agreements when they can see what they got. After each PM visit, send a short service report per unit: tasks completed, readings, photos of coils before and after cleaning, refrigerant added, and any findings with a quote attached.
Group findings by urgency: fix now (risk of product loss), fix soon (efficiency or wear), and monitor. Operators approve more when they can plan the spend. Review each agreement's real cost (labor, drive time, materials and emergency calls it generated) before renewal, and adjust the price or scope if it's losing money.
Choosing refrigeration software
Look for:
- Refrigerant tracking per appliance, with leak deadlines and verification tests.
- Equipment history by site and unit.
- Emergency dispatch with on-call rotation and after-hours answering.
- Commercial billing: PO numbers, NTE limits, multi-location customers.
- PM agreement scheduling with visits that come due automatically.
TradesWork is strong on refrigerant logs, leak deadlines, equipment records and dispatch today. Commercial agreement profitability, SLA clocks and facility-manager portals are not built yet, so national-account-heavy shops should weigh commercial-first tools as well. The software buyer's guide has a full scorecard.
