Rooftop & Package Unit Repair
Repairs on rooftop and ground-mounted package units: belts, contactors, economizers, compressors and gas heat sections.
Learn moreSystems & Commercial in Pasadena, CA
Commercial HVAC repair in Pasadena for restaurants, offices and shops
Repairs for restaurants, offices, clinics and retail spaces, scheduled around business hours so your doors stay open.
- Answering 24/7
- Price quoted before work
- Pasadena and nearby cities
Quick answer
Commercial HVAC repair covers rooftop package units, split systems, ductless units and make-up air tied to kitchen exhaust in small and mid-size businesses. Marco's sends our own technicians any hour, so a dining room or office does not sit hot through a full business day. A typical commercial diagnostic in Pasadena runs $217 to $389 before repairs. Call (626) 879-0711.
Commercial HVAC Repair
What commercial hvac repair covers at your home
When the AC fails in a house, the family is uncomfortable. When it fails in a restaurant on a Friday afternoon, the cooks are working beside 500 degree equipment in a hot kitchen, the dining room empties early, and the walk-in cooler's condenser fights warmer air. In an office, people go home. In a retail shop, customers leave. Commercial repair is about getting the space usable again fast, and doing it without making the business close for the day.
Marco's works on the systems common in Pasadena's small and mid-size commercial buildings: rooftop package units, split systems in older storefronts, ductless units in converted offices, and make-up air units that replace air pulled out by kitchen hoods. Our technicians coordinate with managers and property owners, work early or late when needed, and explain findings in terms a business owner can act on. Call (626) 879-0711 any hour.
Warning signs
Signs your business needs a commercial HVAC repair
Space will not hold temperature
If the thermostat says 74 but the dining room or sales floor sits near 80 by mid-afternoon, a stage of cooling may have failed, a belt may be slipping, or the economizer may be stuck open.
Kitchen feels hot and stuffy
A failed make-up air unit or a hood exhaust running without tempered replacement air can pull hot outdoor air through doors and make the kitchen far hotter than the dining room.
Water dripping from ceiling tiles
Clogged condensate drains on rooftop units or above-ceiling air handlers often show up as stained tiles. Left alone, the water damages ceilings, inventory and electrical fixtures.
Squealing or grinding from the roof
Belt-drive blowers on rooftop units squeal when a belt glazes or loosens and grind when bearings wear. A broken belt stops all airflow even while the compressor runs.
Odd smells through the vents
Musty smells point to a wet drain pan or dirty coil. Burning smells point to a motor or electrical fault. Kitchen odors spreading into offices can mean pressure imbalance.
Thermostat shows errors
Many commercial thermostats and controls log fault codes. A screen showing a lockout, a communication error or a high-pressure trip tells the technician where to start.
Restaurants and food service along Colorado Boulevard
Restaurants put more strain on HVAC than almost any other small business. Kitchen hoods exhaust a large volume of air, and that air has to be replaced, either by a dedicated make-up air unit or by the building's rooftop units pulling air in. When the make-up air fails or is undersized, the building goes negative: doors are hard to open, hot air rushes in through every gap, flames under hoods can misbehave, and the dining room AC cannot keep up. Grease and cooking residue also coat coils and filters faster than in an office.
Our restaurant repairs often start with the balance between exhaust and replacement air. We check that the make-up air unit runs whenever the hood fan runs, that its filters and belts are in good shape, and that the rooftop units serving the dining room are not fighting a building that is pulling hot outside air through the front door all afternoon.
Offices, clinics and retail spaces on Lake Avenue
Offices and medical suites along Lake Avenue and in the buildings around it often have one rooftop unit serving several tenants or several rooms with one thermostat. Comfort complaints come from people sitting near west windows, from server closets that need cooling all night, and from conference rooms that fill up and overheat. Retail spaces have their own patterns: tall ceilings, display lighting that adds heat, and front doors that open hundreds of times a day.
Repairs here often mean finding why one area lags: a stuck damper, a disconnected duct above the ceiling grid, a failed second cooling stage, or a thermostat in the wrong place. We check the whole path from the unit to the diffusers, not just the equipment on the roof.
- Stuck or failed zone and VAV dampers above suspended ceilings
- Second compressor stage not engaging on hot afternoons
- Server or IT closets overheating on nights and weekends
- Thermostats placed beside copiers, windows or warm display lighting
Working around business hours
Many commercial repairs can be done while the business stays open, because most work happens on the roof or above the ceiling. When we need to shut a unit down, we plan it before opening, after closing, or during a slow part of the day. For restaurants, early morning before prep is often best. For offices, evenings or weekends. We check in with the manager on arrival, explain what we will shut off and for how long, and clean up before leaving so tiles and floors look the way we found them.
We also keep records by unit. A building with four rooftop units gets each one labeled in our notes with model, refrigerant type, belt size and filter size, so the next technician arrives with the right parts. Property managers can get written summaries for tenants or owners.
Step by step
How a commercial repair call is handled
- 1
Call and triage
Tell us the business type, which areas are affected and when the space is busiest. We schedule around service hours and send the technician with the right parts for your equipment.
- 2
Check in on site
The technician meets the manager, confirms roof access and ladder location, and asks what changed before the problem started, such as a power outage or new equipment.
- 3
Diagnose the unit
We read controller fault codes, check electrical parts, belts, motors, refrigerant circuits and the economizer, and trace airflow to the spaces that are not comfortable.
- 4
Price and approval
You or the property manager get a clear price before work starts, with photos when helpful. For tenant spaces, we can send the summary to the owner or manager directly.
- 5
Repair and verify
After the repair, we run the unit through full cycles, check supply air temperatures at the diffusers and confirm the space reaches setpoint before we leave.
Typical prices
What commercial HVAC repair costs in Pasadena
Commercial repairs vary with equipment size, roof access and whether a lift or crane is needed. Costs also change with time of day, because after-hours work takes planning. These are typical 2026 ranges in the Pasadena area for small and mid-size buildings. We quote the price before we start the work.
| Job | Typical range | What is included |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial diagnostic visit | $217 to $389 | Daytime visit including roof access and fault diagnosis on one unit |
| Belt, contactor or capacitor repair | $267 to $643 | Common rooftop unit repairs, usually done on the first visit |
| Condenser fan or blower motor | $687 to $1,893 | Depends on horsepower, motor type and whether the unit is belt or direct drive |
| Make-up air unit repair | $397 to $1,487 | Burner, blower, belt or control repairs on restaurant replacement air units |
| Refrigerant leak search and repair | $587 to $2,437 | Depends on leak location, refrigerant type and how much charge is lost |
Roof access without a fixed ladder, tall buildings, crane lifts, after-hours scheduling and older units with hard-to-find parts raise the price. Compressor or heat exchanger failures on older units usually lead to a repair or replacement comparison before we proceed. Compare other jobs in our Pasadena HVAC price guide.
Commercial HVAC in Pasadena buildings
Pasadena's commercial corridors mix old and new buildings. Old Pasadena and the blocks along Colorado Boulevard include brick and concrete buildings from the early 1900s through the 1920s, many with rooftop units added decades later on curbs cut into older roofs. Lake Avenue has more mid-century and newer office and retail buildings. Restaurants occupy many former storefronts, where the original building was never designed for a commercial kitchen's exhaust and replacement air.
Hot inland summers in the high 90s push rooftop units hard, and dark roofs around them get far hotter than the air temperature. Santa Ana winds and smoke events clog filters and coils quickly on rooftops. Pasadena businesses get electricity from Pasadena Water and Power, while many nearby cities use SCE, so ask about current utility programs for efficient commercial equipment. We handle the permit where the city requires one for equipment changes.
Related work
Often booked with commercial hvac repair
Commercial HVAC Maintenance
Scheduled visits, filter programs and belt checks for rooftop units and split systems in restaurants, offices and retail spaces.
Learn more24/7 Emergency HVAC Repair
Night, weekend and holiday repairs for a dead AC in a heat wave or a furnace that quits on a cold night, any hour.
Learn moreRefrigerant Leak Repair
We trace refrigerant leaks with electronic detectors, bubble tests and nitrogen pressure, then repair and recharge by weight.
Learn moreWhere we do commercial hvac repair
Our technicians handle this work all over Pasadena and the surrounding San Gabriel Valley. A few of the places we cover:
Questions
Commercial HVAC Repair questions from Pasadena homeowners
Usually, yes. Most rooftop and make-up air repairs happen on the roof, away from guests. When we need to shut down a unit serving the dining room or kitchen, we plan it for before prep or after close. We talk with the manager first, explain how long the system will be off, and finish the work as quickly as the repair allows.
Kitchen hoods remove a lot of air. If the make-up air unit is off, broken or undersized, the building pulls replacement air through doors and gaps, often hot outdoor air, and the AC cannot keep up. We check that make-up air runs with the hood, that its burner, belts and filters work, and that rooftop units are not fighting a building under negative pressure.
Yes. We work with property managers and individual tenants. In multi-tenant buildings, one rooftop unit may serve several suites, so we confirm who approves the repair and who receives the invoice before work starts. We keep unit-by-unit records with model numbers, belt sizes and filter sizes, and we can send written summaries to the owner or manager.
Rooftop package units, split systems, ductless and multi-head units, make-up air units for kitchens, exhaust fans tied to HVAC controls, and commercial thermostats and economizers. Most of our commercial work is in small and mid-size buildings like restaurants, offices, clinics, retail shops and churches. If your building has a large chiller plant, we tell you honestly that it needs a different kind of contractor.
We answer (626) 879-0711 around the clock and dispatch our own technicians. Arrival times depend on how many calls are open, but we prioritize businesses with no cooling during hot weather, food service operations and medical offices. Telling us your business type and busiest hours helps us schedule the visit when it disrupts you least.
Need heat or cooling back today?
Call our Pasadena line any hour. A person answers, asks a few questions about the system, and gives you an arrival window.
(626) 879-0711Answering 24 hours, 7 days