Commercial Appliance Repair seven days a week
Reach-in refrigeration, commercial dishwashers, ovens, ice machines and laundry for cafés, restaurants, offices and laundromats, repaired across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
Request a service callCall 604-900-2105What’s wrong with your equipment?
Pick the symptom to see what usually causes it and what we check.
Refrigeration won’t hold temperature
Dirty condenser coils, a fan, a door gasket or the sealed system
Dishwasher not cleaning or draining
Blocked wash arms, scale, the drain pump or the fill valve
Ovens and ranges heating unevenly
An igniter, a temperature sensor or the convection fan
Ice machine slowed or stopped
Scale on the evaporator, a clogged condenser or a failed inlet
Commercial washers and dryers down
Drain pumps, bearings, door locks or heating elements
Gas equipment faults
Work for a certified gas technician
Common commercial faults, and how we fix them
When a fridge fails at home, dinner is inconvenient. When it fails in a café, you are throwing out stock, turning customers away and watching a health-inspection problem build by the hour. Commercial equipment runs longer, hotter and harder than anything in a house, and when it stops, the cost is measured in lost trade rather than lost comfort.
Starfix now takes commercial work across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. We have repaired more than 6,000 appliances in this region, and the same certified technicians, the same 90-day warranty on parts and labour and the same 8am–8pm seven-day availability now apply to the equipment your business depends on.
Commercial failures are rarely mysterious. They are the same faults found in domestic machines, arriving years earlier because the equipment runs a duty cycle a household never reaches. The four below account for most of the calls a food business makes.
Refrigeration won’t hold temperature
Usually: Dirty condenser coils, a fan, a door gasket or the sealed systemThis is the most urgent call we get from food businesses, because it puts stock and compliance at risk at the same time. A reach-in or under-counter unit drifting above safe holding temperature usually comes down to one of four things: condenser coils packed with grease and dust, a failed evaporator fan, a door gasket that no longer seals after thousands of openings, or a sealed-system fault in the refrigerant or compressor.
The first three are routine repairs and often same-day. The fourth is the expensive one, and it is where the honest conversation about repair versus replacement belongs. When you call, tell us the temperature you are reading and whether the unit is running constantly — that single detail usually tells us which group the fault is in before we arrive.
Dishwasher not cleaning or draining
Usually: Blocked wash arms, scale, the drain pump or the fill valveAn under-counter or door-type machine that stops cleaning properly almost always has a water problem rather than a detergent problem: blocked wash arms, a scaled heating element that no longer reaches rinse temperature, a drain pump fouled with debris, or a fill valve not delivering enough water within the very short cycle these machines run.
Hard water scale is the most common underlying cause in this region, and it builds quietly — wash quality drops gradually enough that staff adjust to it before anyone reports a fault. If glassware has been coming out cloudy for weeks, that is the same problem at an earlier stage.
Ovens and ranges heating unevenly
Usually: An igniter, a temperature sensor or the convection fanConvection ovens and commercial ranges tend to show their faults in the food before they show them on the display: one tray browning faster than another, bake times creeping up, a pilot that will not hold. The usual causes are a failed igniter, a thermostat or temperature sensor drifting out of calibration, a convection fan motor losing speed, or a burner or element that has partially failed.
Uneven heat is worth calling in early. Kitchens compensate by turning the temperature up, which hides the fault, raises your energy bill and shortens the life of the component that is already struggling.
Ice machine slowed or stopped
Usually: Scale on the evaporator, a clogged condenser or a failed inletIce machines rarely fail suddenly. Production tails off over weeks as scale builds on the evaporator plate, the condenser clogs, a water inlet or float fails, or the harvest cycle stops releasing cleanly. In a bar or café this is the machine most often ignored until the day it produces nothing.
Descaling and a condenser clean resolve a large share of these calls, and both are cheaper than the emergency you get by waiting. If you are buying bagged ice to cover shortfalls, the machine is already telling you something.
Commercial washers and dryers down
Usually: Drain pumps, bearings, door locks or heating elementsLaundromats, strata laundry rooms, salons and short-term rentals run machines at a duty cycle no household reaches. The failures are familiar — drain pumps, bearings, door locks, heating elements — they simply arrive far sooner.
Blocked venting deserves singling out. It is the most common reason a commercial dryer needs two cycles to dry one load, it wastes gas or electricity on every run, and it is a real fire risk. We will tell you if a blocked vent is what we find, but clearing the duct run itself is specialist work we do not take on.
Gas equipment faults
Usually: Work for a certified gas technicianCommercial gas ranges, ovens and fryers must be worked on by a certified technician. Starfix has a gas-certified technician on the team, and gas calls go to them rather than being treated as general appliance work.
If you can smell gas, shut off the supply and call the gas emergency line before you call us.
What we service
We service the light commercial equipment found in cafés, restaurants, bakeries, offices, salons, laundromats, strata buildings and rental properties — the category that sits between a domestic appliance and heavy industrial plant.
That means reach-in and under-counter refrigerators and freezers, prep tables, under-counter and door-type dishwashers, convection ovens, commercial ranges and cooktops, ice machines, and coin-operated or multi-housing washers and dryers. Most of these use the same sealed systems, control boards, motors, pumps and heating elements as the domestic machines our technicians work on every day — built heavier, and run far harder. Gas equipment is routed to our gas-certified technician rather than handled as a general appliance call.
Who we work with
Cafés, restaurants and bakeries; offices and staff kitchens; salons and barbershops; laundromats and strata laundry rooms; property managers, landlords and short-term rental operators; small food producers.
If your equipment sits between a domestic appliance and industrial plant, it is probably something we can take on. If it is not — a walk-in cooler, a large refrigeration rack, a conveyor dishwasher — we will say so on the phone rather than charge you for a visit to find out.
On the job across Metro Vancouver
Booking, response times and warranty
Call 604-900-2105 or request a service call. We run 8am to 8pm, seven days, with same-day service available in most of our coverage area, and you get a time window rather than a whole day.
Repairs carry a 90-day warranty on parts and labour. For a business we will also tell you before starting whether a repair is worth doing or whether replacement is the better call — on commercial equipment that judgement usually turns on duty cycle and parts availability, not just the price of the repair.
Commercial appliance repair near you
Appliance repair across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley — from West Vancouver to Agassiz.
Vancouver, North Shore & Richmond
- Vancouver
- West Vancouver
- North Vancouver
- Kitsilano
- Dunbar
- Gastown
- Yaletown
- Richmond
Burnaby, Tri-Cities & Ridge Meadows
Delta, Surrey & White Rock
- Delta
- Tsawwassen
- White Rock
- South Surrey
- Surrey
- Guildford
- Fleetwood
- Cloverdale
Langley & the Fraser Valley
- Langley
- Mission
- Abbotsford
- Chilliwack
- Cultus Lake
- Rosedale
- Agassiz
- Harrison Mills
Commercial appliance repair: common questions
What commercial equipment do you repair?
Light commercial equipment: reach-in and under-counter refrigerators and freezers, prep tables, commercial dishwashers, convection ovens, ranges and cooktops, ice machines, and commercial washers and dryers.
Do you work on walk-in coolers or conveyor dishwashers?
Those are outside the light commercial equipment we service, and we will tell you so on the phone rather than send a technician.
How quickly can you come out?
We run 8am to 8pm, seven days, with same-day service available in most of our coverage area, and you get a time window rather than a whole day.
Do you repair commercial gas equipment?
Yes. Commercial gas ranges, ovens and fryers go to our gas-certified technician.
What warranty do you give on commercial repairs?
Repairs carry a 90-day warranty on parts and labour.
Before you call, DIY guides:
Related repairs: Refrigerator repair · Dishwasher repair · Gas appliance repair · All appliance repair services
