School Kitchen Maintenance and Repairs

RW Commercial Catering Engineers maintains, repairs and installs catering equipment in school kitchens across Hampshire, Surrey, Berkshire, Wiltshire and west London. We plan servicing and CP42 gas safety inspections around your term dates and lunch service, and give you the records your audits and inspections need.

Request a school kitchen quote Call 01252 214067

Why do school kitchens need planned maintenance?

A school kitchen has one job that cannot slip: lunch, on time, every school day. When a combination oven or the dishwasher fails at eleven o’clock, hundreds of children are waiting.

Planned preventative maintenance finds worn seals, drifting temperatures and poor gas pressures before they stop service, and helps your equipment last longer. We plan visits around your school day, for example finishing before breakfast club, and book bigger jobs for half term or the holidays.

For school business managers, bursars and trust estates teams, a contract is one less thing to chase. Visits happen on schedule, every visit ends with a full service report, and if something breaks down, contract customers get priority, with discounted call out and labour charges.

Every engineer we send into a school holds an enhanced DBS check.

RW engineer fitting a replacement part to a commercial upright fridge

What does a school kitchen maintenance visit include?

Every visit follows the schedule we agree for your kitchen. Depending on the equipment, it covers:

Electrical safety checks and a full function test.
Temperatures checked, verified and calibrated.
Seals, doors and hinges checked, and greased if necessary.
Refrigeration condensers cleaned and pressures checked.
Safety devices tested.
Gas equipment tested for soundness, working pressures, CO₂ levels and flame pictures.
A CP42 gas safety certificate issued.

Visits can be once a year, every six months or quarterly, and we can time them for the holidays. The full list is on our maintenance contracts page.

Request a school kitchen quote

Does a school kitchen need a CP42 gas safety certificate?

Yes, if it has gas appliances. Gas Safe Register advises that the gas equipment and the extraction and ventilation in a commercial kitchen are checked every year.

Like any workplace, a school must keep its gas appliances, pipework and flues safe under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, and a CP42 is the usual record that the checks have been done.

The inspection covers the gas supply, a tightness test on the pipework, the ventilation and the interlock that cuts the gas if the extraction stops, and then each appliance. A kitchen with five gas appliances takes around one to two hours, and we email the digital certificate as soon as the job is complete, ready for your compliance records.

If an appliance fails, it is made safe and labelled. If the parts are on our van, we can repair it on the same visit; if not, we send you a quote. More on our CP42 gas safety inspections.

Engineer fitting a control board inside a commercial oven

Replacing and upgrading school kitchen equipment

When equipment reaches the end of its life, we supply and install the replacement, commission it in line with the manufacturer’s instructions and remove and dispose of the old one.

Before we start, we look at the space, ventilation, power supply and access, so the new appliance fits your kitchen. Larger installations can be booked for the holidays, when the kitchen is empty.

New equipment can go straight onto your maintenance contract. See our equipment installation service.

Request an installation quote

Equipment we look after in school kitchens

Combination ovens
Ovens and ranges
Bratt pans and boiling pans
Steamers
Hot cupboards and servery counters
Fridges and freezers
Dishwashers

Gas or electric, and all makes. We are REFCOM F-gas certified for refrigeration work.

Who we work with

School business managers and bursars
Site and facilities managers
Catering managers and school cooks
Academy trust estates teams
Contract caterers running school kitchens

Many schools review their maintenance contracts around March. If yours is due, talk to us before it renews.

Accreditations

RW Commercial Catering Engineers is Gas Safe registered, REFCOM certified for refrigeration work and SafeContractor accredited, and a member of the catering equipment industry’s trade association, ceda.

Gas Safe Register

Registered to work on gas catering appliances in commercial kitchens.

Registration number: 662257
REFCOM F-gas certification

F-gas certified for work on commercial refrigeration.

Certificate number: REF1019305
SafeContractor

Health and safety contractor accreditation, relevant to work for schools, councils and care homes.

Certificate number: QP0598
ceda and cedabond

Members of ceda, the trade association for the catering equipment industry, and cedabond, its buying group of catering equipment distributors.

See our ceda member listing

Customers include

School kitchen questions

How often should a school kitchen be serviced?

Most schools choose a maintenance visit once a year, every six months or quarterly. A large secondary kitchen cooking hundreds of meals a day usually needs more frequent visits than a small primary, and we agree the schedule with you.

Can you work around lunch service and term dates?

Yes. We plan visits around the school day, for example finishing before breakfast club or keeping clear of lunch, and book larger jobs for half term and the holidays.

What happens if something breaks down during term?

Call us on 01252 214067. Wherever possible, we aim to reach you within 24 hours on working days, and our van stock means we can often fix the fault on the first visit. Maintenance contract customers get priority, with discounted call out and labour charges.

Are your engineers DBS checked?

Yes. Robert and the engineers who work in schools hold enhanced DBS checks.

Our catering is run by a contractor. Can you still help?

Yes. Whether the equipment is the school’s responsibility or your caterer’s, we can service and repair it and send the reports to whoever needs them.

Can one contract cover all the schools in our trust?

Yes. A multi-academy trust or a group of schools can put every kitchen on one maintenance contract, with the same service report for each site.

What records will we get for audits and inspections?

A full service report after every visit, with a condition report and electrical safety readings. Where they apply, you also get gas safety certification, F-gas leak checks on refrigeration and a quote for any remedial work. CP42 certificates are emailed to you as soon as the job is complete.

Our services for schools

Areas we cover

We work across Hampshire, Surrey, Berkshire, Wiltshire and west London, from our base in Church Crookham, Fleet, with an engineer in the Swindon area for Wiltshire.

Talk to us about your school kitchen

Tell us how many kitchens you have, what equipment is in them and when your current contract ends, and we will put together a maintenance schedule and quote.

Contact us

Whether it is a general enquiry or something specific, give us a call or send us a message and we will get straight back to you.

Call us today

01252 214067

service@rwcce.co.uk

Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm