Cold rooms are pretty standard for many restaurants, supermarkets, and labs, but freezer rooms are even more specific. These rooms are essentially giant freezers, usually operating several degrees below 0 to keep your items fresh and preserved.
How Does a Freezer Room Work?
A freezer room works very much like a smaller freezer, but with much more power. It’s designed to keep things very cold, so it requires more electricity, as well. There are a number of components that make up the freezer, including the compressor, which compresses the gas that refrigerates the room.
The condenser takes hot gas and cools it into a liquid, which is then used to cool the freezer room. Evaporator coils boil and expand the liquid gas in order to cool the coils, which is how the heat is removed from the freezer room. Large fans work to push the air over the cold coils and this air is then used to cool the space.
The entire room must be designed and built to hold in the cold. This means everything from doors and walls and ceiling need to be made from insulated panels that will prevent the cold from escaping. It must all be effectively sealed to prevent cold air from getting out or warm air coming in. This is why the doors are designed to seal around the edges.
The Benefits of a Walk-in Freezer
There are quite a few reasons you may need a walk-in freezer. They’re very beneficial if you have large amounts of frozen items to store. Here are some of the main benefits:
Increased storage: If your regular freezer is full, it may be time to purchase a bigger one. With a freezer room, you have more than enough space to store everything for your business. It can be debilitating to lose business simply because you can’t keep everything in stock due to lack of freezer space.
Steady temperatures: Freezers that fluctuate in temperature can cause food to spoil faster, so it’s essential that you find one you can keep at an even temperature. Freezer rooms work best for this due to their size. Opening the door for a moment won’t cause the temperature to drop as much as it would in a standalone freezer. The end result is better quality food.
Better access: Freezers can be annoying to rummage through as you attempt to get the items you need. With a freezer room, you have shelves where everything can be properly organised and easily found. It’s all within reach, which means it will be more efficient than a regular freezer.
Easy stock rotation: Anyone who works with food knows how important it is to rotate your stock. You need to use up the oldest products first to ensure nothing expires. This is standard practice, but it is difficult to do when you can’t reach your older packages or if the food is all jumbled up and difficult to sort. If you can’t see the best by date, it’s difficult to determine which items should be used first. However, when you have a freezer room, you can organise the shelves to ensure it is always possible to reach the oldest packages first.
Lower temperatures: A walk-in freezer can hit very low temperatures, making it a deep freeze. When the temperature is so low, it prevents freezer burn and keeps products fresh longer. You’ll find that deep freezes are usually set to -18° C or lower.
If you’ve struggled to manage your business with a smaller freezer, you’ll appreciate how simple it is to use a freezer room. You can add shelves to make it very easy to find what you need. Everything can be carefully organised to keep the space efficient and tidy. When you organise it well, everyone can find what they need, regardless of whether they stocked the room or not.
Who Needs a Freezer Room?
This type of cold room can be built on site or it can be hired out by a company. Freezers are most often used to preserve food, but they can have other uses, as well.
Restaurants: There’s limited space in a restaurant kitchen and that space is usually reserved for what is currently in use. This means having a cold room separate from the refrigerators and freezers in the main kitchen will allow you to keep a larger amount of stock until it’s needed. Each day, the chef will have the food for the next shift moved from the walk-in freezer to the smaller, more conveniently located freezer.
Meatpackers: Meat that has been butchered and is still awaiting sale can be hung in large freezers to keep it safe while awaiting further partitioning and packaging. These cold rooms need to be quite large, to hold all the meat, particularly if beef is involved.
Fisheries: There’s no shortage of freezers when it comes to storing fish and seafood. These need to be kept frozen until they’re sold in many cases, or at least until they are processed. Fisheries will often require rather large freezers, depending on how many tonnes of fish they process each day.
Pharmacies or Labs: When it comes to medications, most just need to be kept cool, not frozen. However, there are some medications that do need to be frozen, including certain vaccines. A walk-in freezer works well for the manufacturers of these medications. Since these tend to require very specific temperatures, you may need to have compartments in the freezer, which are set to those temperatures.
Ice Makers: Where does ice come from? Most often, it is produced by specialised machines that create huge amounts of ice. However, that ice needs to be stored somewhere very cold and that is often a walk-in freezer.
Supermarkets: A supermarket tends to have quite a lot of frozen food to offer and what you see in the aisles is only a small amount. The rest of it is kept in a walk-in freezer, in most cases.
As you can see, there are a number of industries that use walk-in freezers. They may not be as common as regular cold rooms, but there are plenty of them available. The question is, do you need one?
Things to Consider When Ordering a Freezer Room
Before you get your freezer room, you should look at the size you need. How much space do you currently use and how much will you need in order to stock what you really need? You should also plan ahead and anticipate growth in the coming years, so you will need more space eventually. However, don’t go too big, since there’s no point in paying for the cooling of much more space than you really need.
You should also consider lighting within the room. This is important so you can see exactly what you are doing and where each item is. LED lights are the best option for cold rooms, as they provide heat free lighting and last for many years before they need to be replaced.
Some freezer rooms need separate spaces. If you have different products that must be kept at different temperatures, be sure to specify this when talking to the manufacturer. You can create separate rooms of varying sizes with a different temperature in each one.
It’s also a good idea to look at how much you’ll spend in electrical costs for each temperature and room size. You’ll find that the installer can help with determining the best size for your needs and budget. The cost to build the cold room will also be a factor in how large you go, but definitely consider the ongoing cost of keeping the space cold.
Ongoing maintenance is another consideration. Will the installing company handle this or will you need to hire someone else? Frequent maintenance is necessary, as you don’t want to lose all the food in the freezer room if something goes wrong. With that in mind, you should also have a backup power source.
Many companies opt for a generator to keep the cold room chilled in case of a power outage. If you don’t have a backup, you could lose thousands of pounds worth of food. Fortunately, having so much in the room will keep it cold for some time, particularly if the temperature is set quite low. It’s best to have a backup generator anyway.
At Mitchell’s, we offer cold room design and installation to fit your needs. If you’re looking for a freezer room, contact us today to learn more.