St. Augustine · St. Johns County · Florida
Dual refrigeration
A Sub-Zero cools on two separate sealed systems. On this coast each of them fails for its own reasons.
One system holds the refrigerator, the other holds the freezer, and each has its own compressor, its own evaporator and its own way of going wrong. Which half fails first is rarely decided by the age of the cabinet. It is decided by the air reaching the condenser, the current arriving at the board, and how the unit was fitted into the cabinetry in the first place.
2 sealed systems inside one built-in cabinet
68 thunderstorm days in a typical year, hard on boards
40 miles of county and coast we drive to reach one
Call +1 (904) 604-7755 Book online How booking works
Monday – Friday, 8:00 am – 6:00 pm · Saturday, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm — Closed Sunday. Calls placed after hours are returned the next business morning.
Salt, current and clearance
Salt air
Within sight of the water, condenser fins, hinge pins and stainless take a load that inland cabinets never see. A fin pack you cannot see light through is no longer a maintenance item; it is a compressor doing more work than the kitchen has any idea about. We treat Anastasia Island and the Old City as coastal work.
Storm current
Around 68 thunderstorm days a year mean a control board here takes more surges than one in a drier climate, and a board that survives a strike can still lose a single output. The long outages after Matthew in 2016 and Irma in 2017 left faults that surfaced weeks later, not on the day the power came back.
Clearance
A built-in rejects its heat through a grille, not into the room. A valance fitted later, a panel added to match a remodel, or an opening framed for a smaller unit leaves the appliance running warm for years before anything reads as a fault. We measure the gap before we suspect the sealed system.
What we take on
- Ice machines that will not harvest, and ice makers that have stopped Thin cubes, a mould that will not release, a fill valve passing less than the control believes, or a unit that has quietly stopped making ice at all.
- Built-in refrigerators and freezers A cabinet that will not hold temperature, a compressor that never cycles off, frost where there should be none, or a door that no longer sits flush in its opening.
- Integrated refrigerator and freezer columns Panelled columns sit flush with the cabinetry, which makes access, alignment and airflow a different job from a standard built-in.
- Undercounter units that cool in winter and fail in August Small cabinets in hot locations — under an island, in a butler's pantry, or out on a lanai where the summer air is working against them.
- Wine storage cabinets and wine columns A wine cabinet is judged on stability rather than cold, and the faults that matter are the ones that let a zone drift a few degrees at a time.
- Sealed systems, compressors and refrigerant faults Refrigerant faults are the expensive end of the trade, which is exactly why they should be measured and proved before anybody quotes for them.
The terms, stated once
$80 Flat diagnostic, credited to the repair
90 / 365 Days of warranty — labour / parts
1 Manufacturer accepted, and no other
- A written estimate is presented before any part is ordered or any repair begins.
- Genuine OEM parts only.
- EPA Section 608 certified technicians for sealed-system refrigerant work.
- Liability insured.
The schedule of charges · The guarantee · Questions we are asked
Where we travel
Every district page is written about one place and one ZIP code, because a barrier-island kitchen, a downtown retrofit and a ten-year-old house west of the interstate are not the same job. Roughly 68 thunderstorm days a year are common to all of it; the salt, the cabinetry and the drive are not.
- Palencia A twenty-year-old master-planned community where the refrigeration was specified into the cabinetry — and where the first generation of it is now old enough to need us.
- World Golf Village One large inland ZIP code holding three distinct generations of kitchen, from late-1990s built-ins to appliances still under construction dust.
- Anastasia Island A barrier island ZIP code where ocean air, outdoor installations and long empty stretches decide how quickly an appliance ages.
- the Old City Old houses, narrow doorways, salt off the Matanzas, and cabinet openings that were never cut for a modern built-in.
- Fruit Cove The north-west corner of the county: newer kitchens, several machines per household, no salt in the air, and the longest drive on our map.
What does a Sub-Zero repair cost here?
The diagnostic is fixed and published. The repair that follows is quoted in writing, and these are the spans those written quotations actually fall inside.
$80 Flat $80 diagnostic covering the visit and the full diagnostic sequence, credited toward the repair once you approve the work.
| The work | Usual completed repair |
|---|---|
| Evaporator or condenser fan motor | $260–$570 |
| Electronic control board | $440–$850 |
| Defrost heater, thermostat or sensor | $250–$600 |
| Compressor or sealed-system repair | $920–$2,420 |
| Diagnostic visit | $80, credited to the repair |
A span is what an honest shop can publish before it has seen the cabinet. Parts and labour are itemised on a written estimate, the estimate is presented before anything is ordered, and the $80 figure comes off the invoice once you approve the work. Where the fault turns out to sit outside these bands, you are told before, not after.
What do callers ask first?
What does the first visit cost?
A flat $80 diagnostic fee covers the visit and the diagnosis. If you approve the repair, that $80 is credited against the invoice. You receive a written estimate before any part is ordered and before any repair work begins, so nothing is spent on your behalf without your say-so.
Which appliances do you take work on?
Sub-Zero refrigeration only: built-in and integrated columns, undercounter drawers and refrigerators, wine storage units, and ice machines. We do not take work on other manufacturers, we do not take work on cooking or laundry equipment of any make, and we do not take heating, air conditioning or ductwork of any kind. That last one is a separate trade with a separate licence, and it is not ours.
What is covered after the repair?
Ninety days on labour and three hundred and sixty-five days on parts, on every completed repair. Parts are genuine OEM. If the same fault returns inside those windows, the return visit is ours to make good.
What owners said afterwards
4.8 out of 5, across 60 customer reviews. Each entry below is one visit, described by the person whose kitchen it was.
The wet bar unit on the ocean side of the house had stopped cooling. He showed me the state of the fins, combed them back, and replaced a fan the salt had eaten. Cold ever since.
Esme R.2025-09-02
Our refrigerator column would not hold once the weather turned. He measured airflow at the vents, found the circulation fan turning at half speed and replaced it along with a worn door hinge.
Katya N.2026-03-31
Our machine had begun leaking onto the floor overnight. He found the drain pan cracked where it had been knocked during a cabinet fitting, replaced it and resealed the line into the wall.
Jarrod K.2026-06-16
From the notebook
- Sub-Zero Maintenance: A Year-Round Routine A practical Sub-Zero care calendar: condenser, water and air filters, door gaskets, stainless, ice makers and wine storage, with the intervals Sub-Zero gives and the point where a technician should take over.
- Sub-Zero Replacement Parts: Repair or Replace? Which Sub-Zero parts an owner can order, which go through a technician, what the warranty still pays for, and four questions that decide between a repair and a new built-in.
- Reading a Condenser Before It Fails A built-in refrigerator gives you two or three months of warning before it loses temperature. Most of that warning shows up at the condenser.
Speak to the shop
Old City Cold Storage Co. answers its own telephone during shop hours. Describe what the cabinet is doing and we will tell you plainly whether the work is ours to take on.