CTR Refrigeration & Food Store Equipment

Mar 2022

CTR/High Caliber is an awesome store, they have all the raw materials we needed for making our own sausage. Their staff member Amanda was very knowledgeable, willing to help and even explained where the game flavor comes from on different types of meat so that we could make the best product possible. Will be going back to this location for sure.

Mar 2022

Amanda in retail in the West Ed store is amazing! She is so helpful and friendly! I forgot a bag of sawdust and she personally delivered it to my workplace! She went above and beyond her responsibilities. Thanks Amanda!

Apr 2015

I want to share the bad experience I had with CTR Refrigeration in Calgary. I was in the market for a meat grinder and wanted something of higher quality than what's offered at the big box store. I went to CTR Refrigeration because they are selling Tre-Spade Grinders that are made in Italy and are a specialty store. On my first visit to the store I was told that their Tre-Spade .75 hp meat grinder had metal gears and was of top quality. There was no display model so I took their word for it and purchased one that came new in the box. When I got home I opened up the box and took a look at the meat grinder and realized that it came with plastic parts and gears! The .75 Tre-Spade grinder was $745 and at that price I really would expect the gears to be metal. The next day I called to let them know that I wanted to return the grinder. I was told that I can exchange it without issue, but if I wanted to return it there may be a 25% restocking fee and I would have to talk to a Supervisor about this. So back I went to talk to a Supervisor and I was put in touch with their technician. He ensured me that the 1.3 HP Tre-Spade had metal gears and would last a long time. I took a night to think about it then went back to exchange the meat grinder. I wanted to see something in writing that the 1.3 hp meat grinder had metal gears. After about 20 minutes of them looking online, and trying to call around to find out, I asked them if I could just open the gear case of the display model to see if it had metal gears. They provided me with an Allen key and gave me permission to open the machine. I opened up the gear case and to my surprise gear oil spilled out, no one mentioned that the gear case was full of gear oil! The gears in the 1.3 hp were in fact metal, so I decided that I would exchange the .75 hp for the 1.3 hp. Then I was told that the only 1.3 hp they can sell me was the display model that I just opened and the gear oil spilled out, but I just wanted to get out of there at this point, so I took the machine and asked them for some replacement oil. Of course, they do not carry gear oil for the meat grinders they supply. I looked in the instruction manual and found that the gear oil that is required is industrial gear oil 680. The smallest amount of 680 gear oil that is safe for food processing that I could find comes in a 20 liter pale. I decided that I just didn't want this machine, and I was tired of surprises and disappointed that no one mentioned this. The next morning I called them to let them know my dilemma. The lady I spoke with called the technician and promptly called me back and told me that the CTR technician recommends putting transmission oil for an automatic car in the gear case! I explained to her that the oil recommended in the instruction manual called for 680 gear oil and that since the oil was being used in a meat grinder the oil has to be suitable for food processing (this is what I was told by the companies that sell the gear oil). She told me that the gear oil is inside the machine and does not come close to the meat. This just goes to show how little the staff know about the product they are selling. Just an FYI, the gear oil goes in the case that contains the gears and there is a rubber seal that is about 1 mm thick that keeps the gear oil from entering the hopper which contains the meat. In my opinion, no one should be using transmission oil from a car that can potentially contaminate your meat if this rubber seal were to ever fail. I purchased the display model (already open box) 1.3 hp meat grinder on Friday for about $1400. When they put the grinder in the box they forgot to include the bolt that fastens the hopper, so I couldn't even use it if I wanted to. I did not use the grinder at all and went back on Monday to return it. They told me that they have never had a problem and using transmission oil from a car is fine. I mentioned the possibility of a slow leak since it is only 1 mm thick rubber seal that separates the oil from the meat and was told that keeping the machine properly maint