Braised-food equipment technician - the common-fault front-line triage SOP: display case, braising vat, vacuum sealer - sort out what you may touch and what goes straight to a repair ticket

You are the equipment fault-triage SOP for a braised-food chain.
Scenario: before a store phones in a repair, it runs one self-check
pass under this SOP and assigns the fault to one of three levels,
then handles it per level. Format this SOP as a posted procedure for
the equipment room.

The three levels (grade first, then act):
- Level A - self-check recoverable: minute-scale operation restores
  function; normal use continues on the shift
- Level B - run degraded, await repair: function limited but trading
  continues; ticket filed same day, degraded mode until fixed
- Level C - stop use, ticket: unit out of service, ticket immediately
  plus the matching business contingency

Machine 1 - deli display case (not cooling / heavy frost / alarm
sounding):
Check order: power and plug → door fully closed (product squeezing it,
aged gasket) → setpoint accidentally changed → items blocking the air
outlet inside → rear filter fouling
- Recovery test: after the above, case temperature begins falling
  again within [30] minutes = recovered, Level A
- Still not cooling: Level C, and start the contingency - stock to
  back-room coolers, high-risk categories sold or marked down first,
  per the heat-day case procedure
- Heavy frost: run one defrost cycle, retest; refrosts quickly after
  defrost = Level B ticket

Machine 2 - braising vat (electric or gas jacketed kettle; slow to
heat or not heating):
Check order: tripped breaker → water level at the mark → temperature
probe displaced → gas valve and flame state (gas units)
- Slow but heating: Level B, ticket today, schedule use around peaks
- No heat and not a breaker: Level C ticket
- Gas smell: skip every check, immediate top-priority C - shut the
  valve, touch no electrical switches, ventilate, evacuate, call.
  No exceptions to this item

Machine 3 - vacuum sealer (weak seal / no vacuum):
Check order: sealing silicone strip worn or deformed → bag mouth
soiled with sauce → debris on the chamber sealing surface → tripped
fuse
- Recovered after cleaning the surface and replacing the strip
  (consumable): Level A
- Pump noise or vacuum never reaching depth: Level C - badly sealed
  product never enters circulation; switch to hand-sealing and use
  the stock the same day

The repair-ticket three-piece (a Level B or C call must include all
three; an incomplete call risks a wasted trip):
unit model / one-sentence fault description / which checks were run
and what they showed

Output format (the SOP body):
- One section per machine: symptom → numbered check steps (followable
  as written) → recovery test → level and action → linked contingency
  (if any)
- Bold, top of page one: the three level definitions and "smell gas -
  straight to C"
- Final page: the repair-ticket three-piece template

Constraints:
- The SOP's action ceiling is look, clean, reset, replace consumables
  - no disassembly, no live electrical measurement, no gas or
  refrigerant work of any kind; anything needing more is Level C by
  definition
- Every check step must be safe for one person alone; anything near
  moving parts states "power off first" explicitly
- No "contact a qualified professional" filler - the level system is
  the entire point of this SOP

Why it is written this way

The triage trees' first value isn't the repair savings - it's killing the round trips of non-faults. Door ajar, setpoint changed, fouled filter: together they account for a large share of store repair calls, each recoverable in minutes. The second value is standardizing what a repair call contains - model, symptom, checks-run arrives complete and the technician brings the right part; first-visit fix rates and wasted-trip rates live or die on those three sentences. It goes on the final page as a template because too many stores go hunting for the model number live, mid-call.

Level B exists as a deliberate business exit. Equipment isn't binary: a slow-heating vat is not a closure, it runs around the peaks while awaiting repair; a defrosted case holds for half a day. Without a middle level, a still-tradable store gets forced into one of two failures - run it anyway (dangerous) or close (expensive). Level C chains directly into the stock contingency for the same reason: a grade that doesn't produce an action isn't worth assigning.

The action ceiling - look, clean, reset, replace consumables - guards against the "fixed a washing machine once, can surely handle a cooler" overrun. A self-check SOP must inspire less confidence than its actual safety margin, or it becomes the new hazard. Gas smell sits at the top with no exceptions and no self-checks: that line needs no argument, only placement where nobody can miss it.

Variables