2025 B2B Refrigeration Equipment: Tightening Energy Regulations and After-Sales Service Gaps – What to Do?

Beginning in 2025, energy standards will tighten significantly in many US states. For restaurants, chain retailers, and processing plants using refrigeration equipment, it means more than technological upgrades-it represents a threefold challenge of increased operating costs, compliance risks, and improved customer experience.

Meanwhile, another long-standing problem in the industry is becoming increasingly apparent: slow after-sales response. Excessive equipment downtime has forced some companies to bear additional manpower losses, customer complaints, and even lost orders.

This article will analyze the new pain points facing the industry in 2025 from two perspectives and explore the practical strategies that companies can adopt.

More Stringent Energy Requirements Are Shifting Industrial Barriers

The most recent energy-efficiency rulemaking for commercial refrigeration equipment requires the equipment to operate with increased efficiency and requires more than energy savings; it demands stable performance throughout the entire year.

This implies triple pressure for B2B users: first, older equipment may not meet the new energy efficiency standards; this will hugely increase the subsequent operating costs.

With regard to procurement processes, companies are increasingly needing to check actual energy consumption performance rather than depending on mere product specifications.

Finally, long-term operating costs are starting to outweigh one-time purchase costs, which results in customers replacing equipment more often.

In other words, energy consumption is no longer an “added value,” but rather a survival criterion for the continued use of the equipment.

Poor after-sales service is leading to customer churn.

Industry research by Smartool found that many local B2B users in the US report that “48-72 hour wait times for repairs are the norm.” For restaurants, convenience stores, and beverage shops, this means affected daily sales, wasted inventory, inability to serve customers at peak hours, complaints building up, refunds, negative reviews, or even closure of business while staff is waiting for repairs. A manager of a bubble tea shop in California stated bluntly, “Our refrigeration equipment was out of service for two days, resulting in a loss of over $1200. Worse still, we lost a regular customer.” The problems listed above are not isolated incidents but a general plight that seems to be happening to more and more businesses.

How can businesses, by 2025, find more stable solutions?

Businesses can mitigate their risk based on the industry data of 2024-2025 by:

① Equipment with new energy efficiency requirements should be prioritized.

The key is not just whether the equipment is “energy-efficient” but rather whether it provides stable and accurate energy consumption reports, obtains authoritative certifications, and maintains long-term stability-not just if the factory test results look good. High-efficiency equipment can save electricity, reduce overload and temperature fluctuation, and avoid frequent maintenance.

② Confirm after-sales service at the time of procurement rather than when the equipment has stopped working.

Price comparison or quotation inquiries should be directly asked by the B2B company on at least the following three issues: Is there a local service center? What is the average response time? (Response times for 24/48/72-hour periods vary significantly). Can spare parts supply be stable in the long term?

If a supplier cannot answer these questions, that means risk already exists.

③ Select those suppliers able to provide “clear after-sales process es + cost transparency.” In international purchasing, transparency is more important than price. Rather, many companies lose money not from “slightly higher procurement costs but due to ongoing losses because of downtime.

The bottom line: 2025 will be a threshold year for the entire industry.

With increasingly demanding energy regulations and growing after-sales pressure, challenges and opportunities coexist for the B2B refrigeration equipment industry. In fact, truly strong companies are turning equipment from a “cost” into a “controllable asset.” That is, selecting more efficient, dependable equipment suppliers with thorough after-sales support; it also means planning upgrades in advance instead of scrambling to address the problems when they arise. Smartool will continue to pay close attention to global compliance trends and provide international clients with more transparent and efficient equipment solutions.