What’s the Difference Between Commercial and Home Appliance Repair?

Appliances are something that almost every home has these days. Indeed, you’ll find it very hard to find an occupied house or apartment that doesn’t have even the most basic appliances like a stove or a refrigerator. However, aside from just homes, appliances can also be found in many businesses, such as restaurants, laundromats, and even offices. At first glance, it may not seem like home appliances and commercial appliances have big differences, except maybe for capacity. However, when you look below the surface, these two types of appliances are quite different.

Many appliance repair technicians specialize in either, or they may do both, but when they get a call, they will ask if the machines in question are commercial or residential. Why would such a question matter? That’s because commercial and home appliances may require different styles of repair or even different tools. Not to say that a home technician couldn’t fix a commercial appliance, but when they arrive at a job site, technicians want to be prepared. So, let’s look at way that home and commercial appliance repair can differ.

Qualifications and Experience

Many commercial repair technicians have special licenses to fix certain types or brands of professional appliances. While at the very basic level, most appliances function the same way, the stakes can be much higher in a commercial setting. For example, take a stove or oven. Commercial and home stovetops have the same function – heating food. However, a commercial stovetop will have many more features because that type of kitchen might require different types of cooking. In addition, if a home stove breaks down, the owner can just head to the nearest drive-thru for a quick dinner. However, if a commercial stove in a restaurant breaks down, that could mean hundreds or thousands of dollars lost in revenue. Aside from that, their reputation could also suffer. If, on a busy night, they should stop serving, customers already waiting to be served will certainly get angry, and they might retaliate by posting negative reviews on the Internet and on social media. In the worst case scenario, if food that has not been kept at the right temperature might make a diner sick, this could result in legal action.

A business owner cannot simply afford to have their appliances conk out for long periods. Aside from lost profit, they also have to think of their reputation in the long run. In addition, they also can’t risk having an unqualified repair person tinkering around their expensive machines. If anything, bringing in an unlicensed contractor might void their warranty or insurance might not cover them.

Specializations

Most home appliance repair technician will know to fix several types of machines. After all, this can help them find more jobs. After all, for most homeowners, their fridge, washer, or stove might break down once every years, if they take care of it properly. Homeowners also have a more predictable schedule – laundry once or twice a week, meals three times a day, so it’s easy to predict what could have gone wrong.

Commercial appliance technicians on the other hand, might have one or two specializations. Certifications to repair certain types or brands of commercial appliances take a lot of resources. Although a commercial stove and home stove might function the same way, they are also different. After all, commercial stoves will prepare hundred of meals per day, which means that these machines are much more heavy duty. They might also have complicated systems, many of which are connected to the kitchen’s central gas and electrical hookups, so repair technicians also need to know how a particular kitchen is wired and connected. And, because there’s so much going on at any time, problems may stem from a number of areas. A commercial repair technician will be able to narrow it down, because he or she might have encountered the problem before or through proper training.

Availability

Another difference between commercial and home appliance repairs is the availability of the technicians. When a person’s dishwasher at home breaks down, he or she can simply wait until the technician is available. In the meantime, they have to option of hand washing dishes or going out to eat. On the other hand, commercial appliance repair technicians have to be ready to come to a site at any given time. Some technicians might have a contract that states this. After all, appliances don’t always break down when it’s convenient. For businesses, a broken appliance will require repair right away, preferably before the next business day starts or even sooner. Imagine a restaurant kitchen with a broken fridge. If the owners wait too long for a technician, food that’s being kept fresh inside the fridge can go spoiled, which can amount to hundreds or thousands of dollars down the drain.

Resources

Lastly, many commercial appliance repair techs have access to certain resources that home appliance repair people simply don’t have. For one thing, many commercial grade appliances don’t have a home version. A company like Vulcan, for example, manufactures only commercial kitchen and retail outlet equipment. A home appliance tech might even have never worked with or heard of this company, and they wouldn’t know what their stoves look like under the hood. They also won’t know where to get repair manuals or parts for such types of equipment. Someone certified to repair this type of equipment, of course, will know where to order parts or already have their hands on the machine’s manuals. They might even know someone in the company who can help them obtain the right parts and also have proprietary tools to fix the malfunctioning equipment.

Finding the Right Appliance Repair Service

Commercial and home appliance repair services are quite different, but neither is better than the other. The point here is that when searching for appliance repair services, you need to know which one you should call and why. While you may think that you can save money by calling a home appliance repair technician to come to your business, it’s not worth it. Or if you think a commercial dishwasher or refrigerator repair technician is better than your regular handyman, you may end up wasting his time and your money. When searching for a technician, make sure you call the right type of repair person, so you can get your appliances repaired right away and for the right price.