If you are cold, they are cold. Bring them in.

Winter can be a risky season for all kinds of water related gear, and espresso machines are no different. When the season starts to turn, it is common practice to drain your pool, turn off your outside water spigots, and bring in house plants. It is important for coffee equipment owners and businesses to remember that same rule. If the temperatures drop below freezing, your equipment runs the risk of major damage from freezing.

We all learned in our school science classes that water expands as it freezes. This can be seen by leaving a bucket of water outside in the winter. The ice will be higher in the bucket after it freezes. When the water is inside of a sealed container freezes and expands with no where to go, it can crack, disfigure, and break the pipes gauges and boilers that contain it.

This damage can easily run into a four figure repair bill, and several weeks of parts sourcing. It often takes several stages to repair, as the damage won’t show itself all at once. The major leaks will show first, and the smaller slow problems will be masked until the major repairs are done. This means down time for you, and a big repair bill that could have been completely avoided. 

It would not take too long for freezing conditions to take place if the outside temperatures are low enough. A drafty trailer being pulled for an hour through winter roads can be enough to cause some real damage. A machine left in a garage overnight, or in an unheated mobile unit can quickly suffer the same fate. However, the most common freeze damage cause is related to incorrect draining or winterizing and storage. Even when owners know the risk, a poorly winterized machine could crack fittings and leave a spring surprise. 

A broken water filter damaged by freezing water in a poorly prepared mobile trailer.
-Image credit: Technico Coffee, Nashville TN.

For companies staying all year, a few best practices can keep your gear safe and reliable year round. If possible, store your machine in an indoor climate controlled environment. While this is not always an option, a few precautions can help keep your machine warm through the colder months. When parked, keep your machines hooked up to grid power and switched on. This keeps your equipment hot and near boiling temperatures. To protect hydraulics on mobile setups, consider an electric space heater to bring up the ambient temperature as well. I usually recommend that clients keep a powered wifi camera on board for safety with the heater, and to use as an indicator for power failure. If you can’t access the camera, you may have lost power to the trailer. Time to go check it out before it starts costing big bucks. This holds true for your water delivery systems like pumps, storage, and lines as well. 

If your equipment is going to hibernate for the season, it is critical that you have your trailer water system and coffee equipment drained properly to avoid a freezing situation. The water should be completely drained from every part of the machine, and ideally blown out with compressed air to clear the entire hydraulic path. This can be very tricky with some machines that have heat exchanger systems (single boiler, and some multi boiler machines). Even multi boiler machines have a careful protocol to make sure boilers drain properly. Most machines have a vacuum air lock that must be broken to allow gravity drain. Missing just a small amount of water can be the difference between an easy spring time startup and a critical emergency call.

Thinking of buying online market equipment? You should be really careful if it comes from freeze prone areas. Look for signs of damage, and insist on a time stamped video of the entire machine working properly, including a panels off look for leaks while it is running. Inspect the gauges for accuracy too. Commonly, frozen machines will “pin out” the gauges so they read as off the charts and totally inaccurate. It is likely not just a gauge swap, its a telltale sign that deeper issues are likely. It is not a foolproof system, as some sellers know this and swap with a new gauge before the photos go up.

Winter can be a great time for coffee sales, but precautions need to be taken to keep your equipment in good working order. Like the animal-awareness ad says, “If you are cold, they are cold. Bring them inside.” This advice is true for your coffee equipment as well. 

If you need help getting your equipment properly winterized, or you’ve found us because it already happened to you, give Invoke a call. We’ll make sure you are kept safe from the freeze or back in action as soon as possible. Reach us on the contact sheet here: