Is a Maintenance Agreement Worth Signing?

Our maintenance checklist covers what should be done and when. This page covers the question that comes before it: whether to pay somebody else to do it on a contract, and how to tell a good agreement from an expensive one.

What we can tell you, and what nobody publishes

99 of the 117 verified companies in this directory offer preventive maintenance, which is 85% of them. It is close to a universal service.

Not one of them publishes what it costs. Verification records what each company puts on its own site, and across all 99 of them no maintenance rate, per-visit price or worked example was ever found. That is not evidence of anything sinister, because PM is genuinely quoted against an equipment list rather than sold off a shelf. But it does mean the price is unknowable until you ask, and it means the only way to compare is to send the same equipment list and the same scope to several companies. A quote against a different scope is not a comparison.

What an agreement usually is, and is not

The common misunderstanding is that a maintenance agreement is insurance. It generally is not. It normally buys scheduled inspection, cleaning and adjustment, with repairs billed separately at an agreed labour rate.

What it often buys that is worth more than the visits themselves is priority. Contract customers get answered first when three kitchens call on the same Friday night. If you are choosing between two quotes and one includes a defined response time, that is a concrete thing you are paying for, and it should be written down rather than implied.

The test that actually decides it

Look at your last three or four call-outs and ask what caused them.

• Scale, dirty condensers, blocked drains, worn gaskets, fouled probes. These are what maintenance prevents, and they account for a large share of emergency calls. Manufacturers reinforce it: several state that failure caused by liming or a dirty coil is not covered under warranty, which means neglect can cost you twice.
• Control boards, compressors, motors, sensors. Largely not preventable on a schedule. An agreement will not stop these, though it may get someone to you faster when they happen.

If your failures are mostly the first kind, an agreement usually pays for itself. If they are mostly the second, you may be better off with a good relationship and an agreed rate.

Questions to ask before signing

• How many visits a year, and what is done on each? Ask for the task list, not the word “service”.
• Is deliming included, or billed? It is the single most common exclusion, and the most common cause of failure.
• What is the labour rate for repairs under the agreement, and is it lower than standard?
• What response time is committed to, and does it differ after hours?
• Are parts discounted, at what percentage, and does that apply to OEM parts?
• Who is the technician? Ask whether the same person will normally attend, because familiarity with your kit is worth real money.
• What happens if you cancel, and is the term automatically renewing?
• Is a written report left after each visit? Without one you cannot tell whether the visits happened.

What these companies do publish

Since price is not published, the checkable signals are what a company commits to in writing. Among the 99 verified companies offering maintenance here, 33 publish some form of warranty or guarantee on their work, 15 hold CFESA certification confirmed against CFESA’s own locator, and 78 publish round-the-clock or emergency cover, though we have not tested those claims at night.

A company willing to publish its terms before you are a customer is telling you something about how it will behave once you are one.

Every company above has had its website checked by a person against our six-check standard. We have not audited anyone’s maintenance work and a listing is not a recommendation.