Leicester Cold room repair 2026

Project: January 2026 Leicester Cold room Icing up

Not all repair works are born of a failure of the equipment to maintain temperature as the equipment itself is maintaining -20deg c correctly. However damage to the lagging of this condensing unit’s suction line has resulted in a huge build up of ice and requires attention.

Initial Assessment

Upon arrival, we found the Condensing operating happily, the controller is cutting in and cutting out successfully when temperature is achieved, the compressor will then stop operation awaiting the call to start up again. The difference in time of stop and start, nor the duration of active defrost operation are enough to allow this ice build up to defrost or decrease in size due to the cooler ambient conditions this time of year.

Repair Procedure 

In an ideal world the Lagging will be fed down a disconnected pipe and Taped / Glued at any joining sections. In this instance the system is still in operation though, so to avoid disruption of operation we need to defrost the ice build up and re insulate the pipework with as little down time as possible. We operate a standard defrost cycle, during this time we can manually / safely remove the ice build up and re insulate the required section.

Defrost operation is manually started and last for 20 minutes, Lukewarm water is sprayed in a jet stream to “cut” through bulging section of the ice, once the ice is thin enough a wider spray is used to gently melt the rest. Once all the ice is cleared we can see that the expanded section of ice had also begun to push the liquid line out of shape, had this been allowed to continue it may have cause the pipe to kink or break entirely.

New insulation length are then cut to size and sliced to allow application to the copper pipe. The slices are glued down the length and the joins are taped to make a tidy finish.

Testing & Confirming repair

A few defrost cycles were required throughout the duration of repair, when the system comes back online and calls for cooling the room was allowed to drop back to temp before further defrost cycles were started, this prevented a temperature spike within the cold room and the stock remains at safe temperatures. A return a few days later confirmed the ice up has been completely prevented, confirming repair success.

Cold room Chillers & Freezers

There numerous manufacturers of the cold room refrigeration equipment. These systems are designed to work for the room size and temperature required. Danfoss in this instance was the brand of condensing unit, the evaporator coil and TEV / Solenoid are a generic type matched to suit the heat load.

Looking for Commercial Refrigeration Repairs or installation?

If your cold room systems require repair or maintenance, Or if you are looking for installation / renewal of equipment please contact Davenport Cooling Services Limited for professional assistance. Our Engineers are available for 24 hour call out for emergency repairs and service across Leicestershire and the East midlands.