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Polar Express HVAC & Refrigeration

Commercial Refrigeration

Refrigeration installed for the load, not the catalog.

Polar Express installs commercial refrigeration across the San Antonio metro, with 24/7 emergency dispatch and same-day service on most repair calls. One flat-rate price is approved in writing before work begins for systems sized to product load, door traffic, pull-down, and heat rejection. TDLR license TACLA00127982C.

Most of the problems we get called out for on newer systems were designed in. Sizing, heat rejection, and refrigerant choice come before the order.

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  • Licensed TACLA00127982C
  • Since 2023
  • 4.9 Google rating

24/7 emergency dispatch

Call now. A person answers.

Any hour, any day of the year, including holidays. Tell us what the equipment is reading and we will tell you what to do with the product while a technician is on the way.

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Flat-rate price approved before any work starts, on emergency calls the same as on scheduled ones.

Most refrigeration problems we get called out for on newer equipment were designed in, not worn in. A box sized for the menu somebody planned two years ago. A condensing unit stuffed into an alcove with no air. A drain run uphill. A system built around a refrigerant that is working its way out of the supply chain. Polar Express installs commercial refrigeration in San Antonio by doing the slow part first: what the equipment has to accomplish on your worst day, where the heat is going to go, how the line will be serviced in five years, and which refrigerant makes sense for a system you intend to own for a decade. Then we install it, commission it, and hand you the readings.

What we handle

Refrigeration Installation covers more than one failure.

The complaint that gets called in is rarely the whole job. These are the things a technician is actually looking at on this equipment.

  • Sizing and load calculation

    Product load, door traffic, ambient conditions, and the pull-down you actually need, rather than a box picked off a catalog page by square footage.

  • Walk-in cooler and freezer installation

    New boxes, panel assembly, floors, doors, and the refrigeration system that serves them, coordinated with the other trades on the job.

  • Condensing units and line sets

    Self-contained, remote, and rooftop condensing units, correctly sized line runs, traps where they belong, and heat rejection with somewhere to go.

  • Equipment replacement and swaps

    Replacing a failed system inside an operating kitchen, planned around your service hours so the doors stay open through the changeover.

  • Refrigerant transition planning

    Straight answers about newer blends such as R-448A and R-449A, what your existing equipment runs, and what that means for parts and service later.

  • Startup, commissioning, and handoff

    Charge verification, superheat and subcooling, control setup, defrost programming, and a walkthrough with whoever opens the building.

Signs and causes

What you are seeing, and what usually causes it.

Read these before you call. Knowing which one matches gets the right parts on the truck, and a couple of them are worth acting on in the next ten minutes.

  • The system cannot keep up on your busiest day

    Equipment that holds fine on a Tuesday and drifts every Friday night is undersized for the real load, not broken. Adding capacity is an installation conversation, and it is a much cheaper one to have before the compressor gives out than after.

  • Repairs are stacking up on the same unit

    Two or three significant repairs inside a year on one condensing unit is the equipment telling you something. At that point the repair-versus-replace math usually favors a planned install over another emergency at the worst possible hour.

  • The condensing unit has nowhere to breathe

    A unit in a closet, under a stair, or boxed in by a later renovation will run hot for its entire life and fail early. Relocating it is part of a proper installation, and it is the fix that makes every other repair on that system last longer.

  • The menu or the floor plan is changing

    New equipment, longer hours, a second prep line, or a new bar all change the load a system was built around. Refrigeration is dramatically easier and cheaper to get right while the walls are still open.

  • The equipment runs a refrigerant that is getting scarce

    Older systems built around phased-down refrigerants get more expensive to service as supply tightens. That is not a reason to replace anything today, but it belongs in the plan for what gets replaced next and when.

What it costs

You approve the price before the work starts.

An installation quote from us is a real quote, not an estimate that drifts. We walk the site, take the measurements, ask what the business intends to be doing in three years, and then put a number on paper with the scope written out: equipment, refrigerant, line runs, electrical coordination, startup, and warranty. You approve it before anything gets ordered. What we will not do is publish a per-box price here, because a walk-in for a coffee shop and a walk-in for a barbecue operation share a name and nothing else.

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What moves the number

  • Box size and temperature, and whether the project is a cooler, a freezer, or both
  • Self-contained versus remote or rooftop condensing, and how far the line run travels
  • Site conditions: access, ceiling height, floor work, drainage, and available electrical capacity
  • Refrigerant choice and what it means for parts and service over the life of the system
  • Whether the work happens in an empty shell or in an operating kitchen after hours
  • Permitting and coordination with the other trades already on the schedule

How the job runs

What happens between your call and a working system.

  1. Step 1

    Site visit and load conversation

    We measure, we look at where heat can realistically go, and we ask what the operation looks like on its busiest shift. Undersizing is the most expensive mistake in this trade and the easiest one to avoid at this stage.

  2. Step 2

    Written scope and equipment selection

    You get the specific equipment, the refrigerant, the full scope of work, and the price in writing, along with the reasoning behind each selection rather than a model number and a total.

  3. Step 3

    Installation around your hours

    Existing kitchens get work scheduled outside service. New construction gets coordinated with the general contractor so that we are never the trade holding up an inspection.

  4. Step 4

    Commissioning and handoff

    Charge, superheat, subcooling, defrost settings, controls, and alarms are verified and documented, and we walk your team through the daily checks that keep the system healthy.

Questions

Straight answers, before you call.

Still not covered here? The person who answers the phone can usually settle it in a sentence, day or night.

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Sizing starts with load rather than square footage: how much warm product goes in per day, how often the door opens, what the ambient temperature around the box looks like, and how fast a pull-down has to happen. A correctly sized box runs a normal duty cycle and lasts. An undersized one runs almost continuously, wears out early, and never quite recovers on your busiest day.

New commercial refrigeration in this market is generally built around lower-GWP blends such as R-448A or R-449A rather than the older R-404A generation, as the industry works through a scheduled phase-down. We tell you exactly what the proposed system uses, what your existing equipment runs, and what each means for parts availability and service cost over the years you will own it.

In most cases, yes. Equipment swaps and system replacements inside an operating kitchen get scheduled overnight or between services, with a plan agreed in advance for where product lives during the changeover. Ground-up builds work differently and get coordinated against the general contractor's schedule instead of yours.

Yes, and we will look at it honestly first. If the unit you purchased is the wrong capacity or the wrong configuration for the space, telling you before it goes in is worth more than a smooth invoice. When it is the right equipment, we install, start up, and commission it exactly the way we would something we supplied.

The commissioning readings, the control settings, the warranty terms, and a walkthrough with whoever opens the building. You also get the maintenance interval the equipment genuinely needs, and a service agreement stays optional rather than being a condition of the warranty we provide on our own work.

Polar Express provides one written flat-rate price for refrigeration installation in San Antonio, approved before equipment is ordered or work begins. The total depends on box size and temperature, condensing-unit placement and line length, and site access, drainage, electrical, or floor work. Polar Express also offers a free second opinion on a written replacement quote from a licensed competitor.

Polar Express works with all major commercial refrigeration brands across San Antonio, including walk-in cooler and freezer systems, self-contained equipment, and remote or rooftop condensing units. Equipment is selected for product load, door traffic, ambient conditions, heat rejection, refrigerant, parts support, and the pull-down the operation needs on its busiest shift.

Related services

The work that usually comes with this one.

Nearby

We run this service across the San Antonio metro. These are three of the areas we cover, and the full list lives on the service areas page.

One call, day or night.

Licensed, locally owned, and answering the phone around the clock. You get the diagnosis in plain language and the price before the work starts.

Call 24/7 · (210) 376-0781Book Service