Refrigeration and heat pumps in Tofino
We work the west coast out of Qualicum Beach: walk-ins, ice machines and rooftop units, plus heat pumps in the houses.
One road in, and a season to beat
There are more licensed kitchens here per resident than in Port Alberni, and the season concentrates all of them into a few months.
Tofino holds 35 active liquor licences, 23 of them Food Primary and 8 Liquor Primary. For 2,516 residents that is a lot of rooms serving food and drink, and almost all of them push hardest inside the same short stretch of the year. A walk-in that coped in March is the one that gets found out in July.
The town grew 27.9 percent between the 2016 and 2021 censuses. The District is now working on a Limits to Growth policy while it secures another water source, so the years ahead are about managing that growth rather than repeating it.
The houses are the other half of the day. Out here they are heated by electric baseboard, a wood stove, oil or delivered propane, and the first two are exactly the houses a heat pump suits and the provincial rebate is written for.
We are 164 kilometres away in Qualicum Beach and all of it is Highway 4, which the province calls the only east-west corridor serving the west coast communities. That distance is the argument for getting ahead of a season rather than waiting for a failure, and it is why nothing on this page promises you a time.
What we cover on refrigeration Heat pumps in a coastal houseBefore the season opens
Four steps worth taking before the season, done while the room is still quiet.
- 01 Send us the list What is on site, and what is on the data plates: walk-ins, reach-ins, prep tables, ice machines, display cases and the units on the roof. Photographs help more than descriptions.
- 02 One visit before you are busy We take readings on every piece rather than the one that is complaining: temperatures, pressures, condenser and coil condition, door gear, drains and controls. You get what we found in writing.
- 03 Do the small parts now What fails in July is usually what looked marginal in April. A tired contactor, a split gasket, a blocked drain and a corroded fan guard are all cheaper on a planned day than on a Saturday.
- 04 Agree what happens if it quits Which piece you cannot lose, which parts a job like that tends to need, and who we reach at your end after hours. Then the emergency call starts from a list instead of a description.
Commercial refrigeration in Tofino, and the HVAC beside it
Six things we get called out for on this coast, commercial first.
- Details
24/7 refrigeration repair
Compressors, controls, defrost faults and leaks. Refrigeration repair in Tofino starts on the phone, and on that call you hear what we can actually do tonight.
- Details
Walk-in coolers and freezers
Walk-in cooler repair in Tofino is door gear, gaskets and drains more often than it is a compressor. Wet air is hard on all three.
- Details
Ice machines
Ice machine repair in Tofino is usually water and cleaning. A machine that quits in August was telling you about it in June.
- Details
Restaurant and food service
Prep tables, line coolers and display cases, plus the cold holding readings you have to be able to show.
- Details
Heat pumps and home heating
Heat pump installation and heat pump repair in Tofino, for houses and rentals running on baseboard or a wood stove.
- Details
HVAC maintenance
One visit a year on the HVAC that is already there: airflow, charge, coil condition and the controls.
Three things about Tofino we plan around
Each of these changes what we look at on a job out here.
- 3,270 mm
It rains, and the number is worth knowing
The climate normals for the Tofino station give 3,270 millimetres of precipitation in an average year, 3,237 of it rain, across 208 days. Close to 44 of those days bring 25 millimetres or more. That is what we have in mind when we look at where a condenser sits, how a drain and a defrost line run, and what state cabinets, fasteners and fan guards are in.
Environment and Climate Change Canada, climate normals 1981 to 2010, station TOFINO A - One in 81
A licensed room for every 81 residents
Tofino holds 23 Food Primary and 8 Liquor Primary liquor licences. Set those 31 rooms against the 2,516 residents the 2021 Census counted and it comes out at one for every 81 people, where Port Alberni is one for every 351. That arithmetic is ours, across two published lists, rather than a published statistic. It is also why this page leads with refrigeration rather than with heat pumps.
B.C. liquor licensed establishment list, with the 2021 Census - Twice in 2022
The coast can be islanded for days
"Twice in 2022, we islanded West Coast customers for several days to allow crews to safely replace end-of-life structures on the transmission line near Port Alberni."
For a walk-in that means planning for days rather than a flicker, and it changes what gets checked when the power comes back. Product temperatures first, then whether the compressor short cycled, whether the crankcase heater has been off, whether defrost and the controls came back on the right schedule, and whether the drains ran while everything sat warm.
BC Hydro, Vancouver Island and Sunshine Coast regional annual report, 2022
Questions we get from Tofino
Six answers, including the two about money.
Do you take a refrigeration breakdown in Tofino at night?
How does a heat pump installation in Tofino work if the house is on baseboard?
Is there a rebate for a heat pump in Tofino?
Can you claim the Regional District wood stove exchange for me?
Do you do walk-in cooler repair and ice machine repair in Tofino?
What does salt air do to a heat pump out here?
The Home Renovation Rebate pays up to $4,000 towards a heat pump that carries a whole house heated by electricity or wood. The amount and the conditions are BetterHomesBC's, and they move, so check the official page before relying on them. The Alberni Valley, back up the same highway, has its own page.
Get Tofino work booked before the season
Quotes, installs and planned maintenance start with the form. We reply within 24 hours. A cooler that has stopped holding gets the phone, answered around the clock.