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Restaurant / cafe · Customer story

A walk-in cooler failed overnight — once

A two-location café stopped losing inventory to overnight equipment failures and lost sales to dead espresso machines by catching problems early.

The business
Marlowe & Finch Café
Two-location café & kitchen · full back-of-house equipment
app.uptimehq.app/dashboard
Critical insight
Walk-in Cooler #1: temp-related reports 5× in 30 days — compressor trending to failure.
Downtime
6 hrs/yr
Spoilage (yr)
$400
PM compliance
93%
Monthly spend
The results

What tracking maintenance actually saved

$21,300
Saved per year
Avoided spoilage + lost sales + repairs
60%
Less equipment downtime
Problems caught early
7 hrs/wk
Admin time saved
Logs & scheduling automated
35% → 93%
PM compliance
Cleaning & checks on time
Before UptimeHQ

The problem

The night the walk-in cooler quit, Marlowe & Finch lost a full weekend's inventory before anyone noticed at open — and had no record showing the compressor had been struggling for weeks.

When the espresso machine goes down during the morning rush, it's not a repair bill — it's the highest-margin hour of the day walking out the door.

Hood cleaning, filter changes and cooler temperature checks were somebody's job in theory, but nothing reminded anyone, and health-code logs were a scramble before inspections.

What they track

The equipment

Walk-in cooler & freezer
Inventory-critical
Espresso machines
Revenue-critical
Ovens & ranges
Service-critical
Dishwasher
Chemical & temp checks
Ice machine
Scale & sanitation
Hood & exhaust
Health-code compliance
A day with UptimeHQ

How Marlowe & Finch Café uses it

  1. 1

    Back-of-house gets labeled

    Every cooler, the espresso machines, ovens, dishwasher and ice machine got a QR label. Staff can report an issue the moment something feels off — no manager needed.

  2. 2

    Early warning beats spoilage

    When the walk-in started running warm, a barista scanned it and tapped “Not cooling / warm.” Repeated reports surfaced the failing compressor before it quit for good.

  3. 3

    Cleaning & checks run on schedule

    Hood cleaning, filter changes, cooler temp logs and descaling are recurring PMs with reminders — so health-code tasks stop depending on memory.

  4. 4

    Inspection logs are always ready

    Each piece of equipment carries its full service history, so pulling records for a health inspection takes minutes, not a frantic morning.

9:41No login
Report a problem
Walk-in Cooler #1
Won't turn onNot cooling / warmLeaking
Add a photo or note…
Send report

The login-free scan a tech sees

Where the savings come from

Before & after, line by line

MeasureBeforeWith UptimeHQ
Inventory lost to cooler failures~$3,200 / year~$400 / year
Espresso/rush hours lost to downtime~18 hrs / year~6 hrs / year
Health-code prep time~half a day~15 min
Overdue hood/filter cleaningroutine0
Losing a walk-in overnight is the kind of mistake you only want to make once. Now the cooler basically tells us it's getting tired before it actually gives up.
Owner, Marlowe & Finch Café

Picture this for your restaurant / cafe.

Start free, label your first machines before lunch, and see your own numbers instead of ours.