What to do when commercial kitchen equipment breaks down

When commercial kitchen equipment fails, the clock starts immediately. Service slows, tickets pile up, and every hour offline costs money. Here’s a clear sequence that keeps the kitchen moving while you get the right engineer in.

1. Make it safe

Switch off and isolate the appliance if it’s safe to do so. Keep staff clear of hot oil, gas, steam or electrical faults. If there’s any risk of fire or gas leak, follow your site emergency procedure first. Repairs come second.

2. Capture what’s wrong

Engineers work faster when they know what they’re walking into. Note:

• The appliance type and make/model if you can see it
• What happened (won’t heat, won’t cool, error code, unusual noise)
• When it started and whether it’s urgent for service
• Photos of the fault, error display or damage

That detail is exactly what you can attach when you post a repair on Coriva.

3. Decide: temporary workaround or full stop

Some faults can be worked around for a shift (swap to another oven, use a backup fridge). Others mean you stop using the kit until it’s fixed. Be honest with the team. Half-working equipment is how small faults become expensive ones.

4. Get a catering engineer without the phone book

The old way is ringing round, leaving voicemails, and hoping someone can come today. The better way is posting once and letting local engineers apply with their profiles, qualifications and reviews visible before you book.

Coriva is built for that: free for kitchens, no lead fees, and payment stays between you and the engineer.

5. Book, then brief on arrival

Once you’ve chosen an engineer, share access details, parking and any site rules. On arrival, walk them through the fault and any temporary measures you’ve taken. Clear briefing shortens the job.

Keep planned maintenance on the radar

Breakdowns happen. Planned servicing reduces how often they do. Use quiet periods to schedule checks on high-use kit (ovens, fryers, refrigeration and extraction) so you’re not always firefighting mid-service.

When the next fault hits, you’ll already know the drill: safe, document, post, compare, book.