Turbo Coil Featured in Pasadena Star News

A cool invention – Pasadena Star News

Posted on April 17, 2011 by Turbo Coil

PASADENA – Hector Delgadillo and Jose Carbajal took all of six months to revolutionize the restaurant refrigeration industry.

“The coil industry is dominated by two major companies,” Delgadillo said from the Turbo Coil headquarters in Pasadena. “They don’t like what we are doing. And we’ve come up against a lot of resistance, but we just keep on going.”

The company just got a contract with the Denny’s restaurant chain. Delgadillo projects the food service giant can save up to 70 percent on maintenance costs using his product.

“We are also in talks with Olive Garden and Red Lobster, who have expressed interest in using our coil,” he said.

Unlike the competition, which uses aluminum material in manufacturing, Turbo Coil manufactures a stainless steel cooling coil used in restaurant-grade refrigerators. Turbo Coil also features a replaceable core and an easy, break-away fan assembly.

Competitor coils need to be replaced every four to five years, Delgadillo said, but Turbo Coils can last up to 15 years with minor repairs.

“They have an vested interest in making a product that needs to be replaced every four years,” Carbajal said. “We created a product that can actually be easily repaired and doesn’t have to be completely replaced.”

Turbo Coil was developed by Delgadillo and Carbajal, who combined have more than 40 years experience as refrigeration technicians.

After working with commercial kitchen appliances for years – under-grill units, reach-in coolers, back bar units – they saw a need for a more efficient, compact coil that can “do it all” while remaining user friendly.

“We are not engineers, we are just mechanics,” Delgadillo said. “And we don’t have degrees, but we have experience. We’ve had to crawl into these big refrigerator units to refill them.”

They duo began to develop a new and improved coil last August, Delgadillo said. “I told Jose it was time for us to do something that could be more efficient and would help create jobs.”

Turbo Coil only uses American made material in each unit, and many of the pieces are made locally. The units are assembled in Pasadena.

The company hired four workers in February, when it launched and plans on hiring at least 15 this year to keep up with orders.

“Denny’s told us to expect about 300 orders a month, which tells you just how often these old units need replacing,” Carbajal said.

The Turbo Coil unit is also more eco-friendly. All coils use Freon or some type of refrigerant that is harmful to the environment. As coils wear, they leak Freon, which contributes to the depletion of the ozone layer and the heating that causes climate change.

Turbo Coils have a five year guarantee that they will not leak. After five years, the container that holds the Freon can be replaced at a minimal cost. In other coils, the whole unit would have to be replaced.

Delgadillo said the Turbo Coil is also more efficient because it’s the only coil with a digital thermostat.

“The competitors still use analog, which is often four or five degrees off,” he said. “The digital thermostat is more accurate and leads to less waste. So our coil is basically a green product.”