The walk-in died at 11pm on a Friday and I lost $1,400 in product

Last Friday our walk-in cooler compressor quit around 11pm, right in the middle of dinner service at the restaurant where I work in Sacramento. I did not notice until almost midnight when I went to grab a case of butter and felt warm air hit my face. The temp gauge read 68 degrees and it had probably been creeping up since 8pm. We tossed about $1,400 worth of fish, cream, and produce into the dumpster behind the building. I called a repair guy I know and he got there at 1am, said the relay on the compressor was shot. Back when I started cooking in the 90s we had analog dials and you could hear the thing running from the dish pit, now everything is digital and silent until it just fails. Anybody else keep a thermometer with an alarm in their cooler just in case?

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ruby_jones3d ago

Same thing happened to me back in 2019 with a freezer full of shrimp and it was a nightmare. Having an alarm thermometer now is just smart, the silent digital stuff gives you zero warning until it's way too late. Dropping that much money on spoiled food stings bad but it beats finding out at midnight when everything's already gone.

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