Pub & Club Refrigeration and Air Conditioning
The cellar, the kitchen, the bars
and the gaming room, under one contractor.
Standby installs, maintains and repairs the refrigeration, beer systems and air conditioning that pubs, clubs and RSLs run on, across Wollongong, the Illawarra and Sydney.
One venue, twenty-odd things that have to stay cold
A club with a bistro, three bars and a bottle shop can run twenty or more separate pieces of refrigeration and air conditioning. Plenty of venues end up with one contractor for the cool room, another for the beer and a third for the air conditioning. That means three phone calls when something fails mid-service.
Standby covers the lot. Adam Magick served his apprenticeship and then spent around thirteen years at Shannon Refrigeration working pubs, clubs and commercial kitchens before starting Standby, so beer cellars and bar refrigeration are where the business began rather than something added later.
What we look after in a pub or club
Cellar and cool rooms
The keg cellar and the kitchen cool room are the two rooms a venue cannot trade without. We build, repair and maintain commercial cool rooms to hold temperature through a full Saturday.
Glycol beer systems
Glycol chillers, python lines and fonts that keep beer cold from the keg to the glass. See our beer and brewery systems page.
Freezer rooms
Walk-in freezer rooms for the bistro and function kitchen, built and serviced to hold frozen stock safely.
Bar and kitchen refrigeration
Under-bar and under-bench fridges, bottle fridges and the kitchen units that get opened hundreds of times a night.
Air conditioning
Bistros, function rooms and gaming rooms that stay comfortable when the venue is full. Our commercial air conditioning team installs and services the systems.
Maintenance and breakdowns
Scheduled visits for every item on one list, plus an after-hours number for when something fails between them.
Breakdown cover that answers on a Friday night
A cool room that drifts warm during service puts the whole kitchen at risk. A glycol chiller that stops leaves every tap pouring foam. Our maintenance technician takes after-hours breakdown calls. Once we have walked your venue, the tech arrives already knowing what is there.
How the maintenance schedule and the after-hours cover fit together is set out on our maintenance and breakdown page. New installs and upgrades include two maintenance visits in the first year. After that a set price per visit covers each check, with parts quoted separately.
How we take on a venue
Whether it is one pub or several venues in a group, the start is the same.
Step 1
Walk the venue
We go through the cellar, kitchens, bars and plant with the venue manager and list every refrigeration and air conditioning item.
Step 2
Report what we find
You get a plain account of what is in good shape, what is close to the end of its life and what needs work now.
Step 3
Agree a schedule
We set maintenance visits for each item and book planned work with the venue manager so it causes the least disruption to trade.
Step 4
Stay on call
Between visits, breakdowns go to our maintenance technician, day or night.
Why a cool room gives trouble in summer
Cool rooms and cellar systems work hardest in the hottest weeks, when doors open constantly and the condensers on the roof sit in full sun. Our guide to cool room temperature explains what a room should hold and why it drifts before it fails. For beer that pours warm or foamy, see how a glycol beer system works.
Venues near the water have one more thing to deal with: salt air on the condensers. Our page on commercial refrigeration in Wollongong covers how we spec coastal installs.
Qualified, licensed and insured
Pub and club questions
Do you come out after hours when a pub cool room fails?
Yes. Our maintenance technician takes after-hours breakdown calls, so a cool room or beer system that fails on a Friday night gets someone on the phone and on the way rather than a voicemail.
Will you work on equipment another contractor installed?
Yes. Plenty of refrigeration contractors turn down service work on systems they did not build. We take it on, note what is there on the first visit and put it on a maintenance schedule so the next breakdown is less likely.
Do you look after glycol beer systems as well as cool rooms?
Yes. Beer systems are core work for Standby: glycol chillers, python lines and the cellar cool room that holds the kegs, plus the fonts and dispense equipment at the bar.
How much does refrigeration maintenance cost for a pub or club?
It depends on how many items the venue runs, how old they are and how often they need a visit. A club with three bars, a bistro kitchen and a bottle shop needs more time on site than a single-bar pub. We walk the venue, list the equipment and give you a fixed price per visit before anything is booked in.
Which areas do you cover?
Standby is based in Wollongong and covers pubs, clubs and RSLs across the Illawarra, plus venues across Sydney metro.
Related pages
One call for the whole venue
Cool rooms, beer, kitchen and air conditioning, installed and looked after by the same team.