Cellar cooling for pubs, bars and venues
Cellar cooling in Kent: keep your beer at 11 to 13°C
Apex installs, repairs and services cellar cooling for pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants across Kent and south-east London, from our base in Dartford. Beer cellar too warm, cooler iced up, or fitting out a new cellar? Olly sorts it and keeps your F-gas records in order.
Cooler playing up? WhatsApp a photo of the unit and the controller.
What we do
Cellar cooler repair, installation and servicing
Cellar cooling is a separate job from the bar's air conditioning. It runs day and night, holds a narrow temperature band, and when it fails you lose stock. We cover all three sides of it.
Cellar cooler repair
Fault-finding on coolers that won't hold temperature, ice up, trip or leak: fans, controllers, thermostats, drains, refrigerant leaks and compressors. Tell us the make and what it's doing.
Cellar cooling installation
A new cooler sized to the cellar and the stock it holds, fitted neatly, with the outdoor condensing unit placed for airflow, access and to keep noise away from neighbours.
Cellar cooler servicing
Planned servicing that keeps the cooler efficient: coils cleaned, fans and drains checked, refrigerant and controls tested, plus the F-gas leak checks and records your business has to keep.
Warning signs
Beer cellar too warm? Signs your cellar cooler needs attention
Cask Marque reported in 2014 that 90% of pubs failing its assessment failed on temperature, often with cooling already installed. These are the signs to watch for.
Beer pouring as foam
Fobbing is the classic sign of a beer cellar that is too warm: beer that pours as froth, gets wasted and loses you money.
Cellar reading above 13°C
If a thermometer by the casks reads warmer than 13°C, the cooler isn't keeping up.
Cooler freezing up
Ice on the evaporator that won't clear usually means a door left open, a blocked fan, a faulty defrost or low refrigerant.
Tripping or noisy
A cooler that keeps stopping, buzzing or rattling is often close to failing.
Water on the floor
A blocked condensate drain or a failing pump on the cooler.
Never switching off
A compressor that runs flat out all day is struggling, and costing far more than it should to run.
Cellar cooler not working?
Quick checks before you call
Some cellar cooler faults have a simple cause. These checks are safe for staff and save time on the visit.
- Power. Is the outdoor unit's isolator on, and has anything tripped at the board?
- Set point. Has someone changed the controller? It should be set to hold 11 to 13°C.
- Door. Has the cellar door been propped open during a delivery?
- Airflow. Is stock stacked in front of the cooler, or is the outdoor unit covered or boxed in?
- Ice. If the cooler is iced solid, leave it and tell us. Don't chip at it.
If none of that explains it, send us a photo of the cooler, its label and the controller display. A cellar thermometer reading helps too.
How it works
How a cellar cooler works
Most pub cellars use a split cellar cooler. An evaporator on the cellar wall has fans that pull air across a cold coil and push it round the casks. Refrigerant carries that heat through pipes to a condensing unit outside, which gets rid of it. A controller with a thermostat switches the compressor on and off to hold the set temperature. Smaller cellars sometimes use a through-wall unit that does both jobs in one box.
Because cold air sinks and casks give off heat, the fans normally keep running to stop warm and cold layers forming. That is why a cooler should never be switched off at night.
New or replacement coolers
Sizing a new cellar cooling system
An undersized cooler runs flat out and still can't hold 12°C on a hot day. We size a new cooler from the cellar itself, not a rule of thumb:
- Cellar size and insulation, and any walls next to a kitchen, boiler room or the street.
- Heat from other kit in the cellar, such as line coolers, ice machines or glass washers.
- How busy it is: deliveries, door openings and how much stock comes in warm.
- Where the condensing unit can go, with enough air, safe access for servicing and neighbours in mind.
Replacing an old cooler? We recover the refrigerant from the old unit properly and plan the swap around opening hours and deliveries, so the cellar isn't left warm for long.
Photos of the cellar, the old cooler and its label give us a first idea.
F-gas rules
R404A leak checks and F-gas records
Many older cellar coolers run on R404A. Because its global warming potential is so high, a system holding about 1.3kg or more is over the 5 tonne CO2 threshold, so the operator, which means the pub, must have it leak-checked at least every 12 months and keep records.
R404A is also getting scarcer. The GB supply of HFC refrigerants steps down again on 1 January 2027, so topping up a leaking R404A cooler keeps getting dearer. On an old, leaky cooler, replacing it with a unit on a lower-impact refrigerant can work out cheaper than repeated repairs. We'll give you an honest view either way.
- Apex is an F-gas certified company (REFCOM REF1017376)
- Leak checks with written results for your records
- Refrigerant added or recovered, recorded every time
- Old coolers removed and their refrigerant recovered properly
- Work planned around opening hours and deliveries
- Air conditioning for the bar, restaurant and rooms too: see commercial air conditioning in Kent
Running costs
What makes a cellar cooler cost more to run?
A cellar cooler runs every hour of the year, so small habits show up on the electricity bill. The biggest culprits:
- Over-cooling. Setting the cellar colder than 11°C uses more power and harms cask ale.
- Doors left open. Warm, damp air pours in and ices the cooler. A strip curtain or self-closing door helps.
- Blocked airflow. Stock against the cooler, or a covered outdoor unit, makes it work much harder.
- Dirty coils. A condensing unit clogged with dust and leaves can't shed heat, which is why servicing pays for itself.
Daily habits
Simple habits that keep a cellar cool
- Keep it running. Never switch the cooler off at night.
- Keep the fans clear. Leave space in front of the cooler.
- Keep the outdoor unit clear. Don't cover it, block it or store things against it.
- Check the thermometer daily. 11 to 13°C by the casks. Write it down: it helps us find faults faster. More in our beer cellar temperature guide.
Commercial jobs
Refrigeration and cooling we've fitted
Photos from our own commercial work.
Business customers
What business customers say
Word for word from Google and Checkatrade.
First class service! Ollie is very knowledgeable, provided a thorough service and deep clean of all our units and fixed a leak.
We had Apex in to install are air conditioning and heating in our salon. I could not recommend olly enough. They stayed late to get the job finished. No mess left behind fully cleaned the unit and made sure it was all running well. Very polite and accommodating and they designed the unit to the exact specifications we required. Would highly recommend them.
Excellent job couldn’t fault the apex team they was very pleasant they gave me a competitive quote and done a very high standard of work I would definitely use them again and highly recommend them 10/10
We cover pubs, bars and venues from Dartford across north-west Kent, Sevenoaks, West Malling and Tunbridge Wells, and into Bromley and south-east London. See the areas we cover.
Questions
Cellar cooling FAQs
What temperature should a beer cellar be?
Between 11°C and 13°C, all year round, day and night. That is the range brewers recommend and Cask Marque checks against. Too warm and beer fobs and goes off faster. Too cold and cask ale won't condition properly and can turn hazy. More on beer cellar temperature.
Why is my cellar cooler freezing up?
The usual causes are a cellar door left open, which lets in warm, damp air, stock stacked against the cooler so the fans can't move air, a fault in the defrost, or the system running short of refrigerant after a leak. Don't chip the ice off, as you can puncture the coil. Send us a photo of the cooler and the controller.
Do cellar coolers need leak checks by law?
Often, yes. Many older cellar coolers run on R404A, a refrigerant with a very high warming effect. A system holding about 1.3kg or more of it is over the F-gas threshold and must be leak-checked at least every 12 months by a certified company, with records kept by the operator. We do the checks and give you the records.
Should a cellar cooler run all the time?
Yes. It should never be switched off at night or when the pub closes, even if it seems noisy. The fans keep air moving round the casks and the compressor cycles on and off to hold the set temperature. Once a cellar warms up, it can take many hours to bring the stock back down.
We're a tied pub. Can we still use you?
Whether you are free of tie, leased or tenanted, we'll work with you, and with your pub company's technical team where they look after the equipment. Check your agreement for who is responsible for the cellar cooler before booking work.
Do you look after beer line coolers too?
Our work is the cellar cooling: the unit that keeps the room at the right temperature. Line and python coolers are often looked after by the brewery. Tell us what you have and we will say honestly whether it is something we cover.
Get help with your cellar
Tell us the pub's town and what the cooler is doing.
Quickest way to a price: send on WhatsApp
- A photo of the cooler, its label and the controller
- The pub's town and what the cellar is doing
- Any error code or alarm on the controller
Free survey and a fixed written quote for new systems. No obligation.