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Benefits of Quality Coolroom and Freezer Construction

Many gold-standard adjectives come to mind when high-quality coolroom and freezer construction techniques are employed. Efficient is the first one, then there’s capable and user-friendly, two more descriptive attributes that determine quality. However, we’ve no time to talk about grammatical ambiguities, not when there are practical benefits to describe. Starting with reliable commodity storage, what are the true benefits customers think of when they gain a top-notch coolroom?

Reliable Storage 

True to our word, we open with the quality-assurance factor that absolutely safeguards biological perishables. Foodstuff is delicate. It’s not really built to last. In nature, it would rot and eventually return to the earth, where it would then be recycled. Coolroom and freezer technology protects food and medically stored items from spoilage. In logically following this argument to its conclusion, a quality construction maxim ensures absolute climate control, which means stored food is kept fresh, beverages are chilled, flowers blossom, and medical samples are held in stasis. Above all, reliability and energy efficiency are kings in the refrigerated enclosure industry, whether the application is commercial or industrial.

The Benefits of Quality Coolroom and Freezer Builds 

Practically speaking, food safety is assured by a branded refrigeration unit and a properly insulated enclosure. A dependable pump and top-notch manufacturing build deliver mechanical surety. Electronic thermostats, again branded and validated by the installation team, assures linear temperature control. Importantly, if that thermostat is set at a specified subzero temperature point, then it won’t ever drift, either due to the refrigeration unit or a leaky insulation setup. The primary benefit here, then, is an assurance factor that covers the entire system. There’s no tug-o-war between the build and the cooling unit. Sadly, a substandard construction strategy tends to gravitate towards one of these installation forms. In other words, the refrigeration system may be up to snuff, but the insulation won’t maintain the chilled environment. Conversely, the insulation is perfectly sealed but not occupied by a branded refrigeration device. A quality coolroom and freezer construction methodology covers both ends of the system, so both the mechanics and the insulated enclosure work in concert to create a perfect marriage, one that always works efficiently as an optimised unit.

Excellent workmanship dominates this discipline. Airflow considerations are assessed, as are the user-friendly options that stand out to the most casual catering employees. Temperature control is certain, so food and biological matter safety are always absolutely maintained. This class of product excellence is also built for low maintenance operability, although a maintenance plan and a reassuringly comprehensive warranty are always available as a secondary layer of product protection.

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Factors to Consider When Customising your Coolrooms and Freezers

When you implement a coolroom customisation program, there are factors that need to be considered. You’ve established storage capacity, but have you thought about the architecture of the walk-in unit? That new shelving layout you dreamed up looks fantastic, but is it going to obstruct airflow? It’s not that customised coolrooms and freezers aren’t practical projects, but the tailored enclosures do require a trained eye to prevent cooling debilitation.

Dimensional Considerations 

Walk-in coolrooms vary dramatically in size. The refrigeration unit in there has been designed to handle large volumes of air, but how is that volume formed? One thing’s for certain, if the customised chamber incorporates numerous twists and turns, the freezer or coolroom’s performance will take a hit. When the opportunity arises to influence the sealed storage room’s dimensions, keep things simple so that the airflow isn’t hindered.

Structurally Made-to-Order 

Your business premises rely on this cooling equipment. It’s a major investment, one that can be customised, but only with care. The door of the coolroom subscribes to this approach. There are spring-loaded doors and sliding entryways. Glass windows are desirable, but a featureless doorway is better at stopping energy leakage. Textured insulating panels on the interior walls are next. Classed as an essential walk-in feature, the very walls that keep the air chilled, the panelling can be customised. Of course, the flashy new walls must retain their energy insulating properties. It’s the same with the floor. A material that enhances grip or provides utilitarian access to the room’s chilled contents is a commendable custom-built feature. Unfortunately, a utilitarian concrete floor warms up during the summer months, so consider an insulated floor, a decking slab that’s rated as an R25 thermal barrier.

Prioritising Walk-In Features 

Essentially, your every made-to-order requirement is assessed by the installation technician, but your system specifications must also satisfy all current occupational health and safety guidelines. Arguably, efforts could be made to realise a particular client vision, but it would likely be an energy inefficient monster, a construct that consumes great amounts of energy so that an impractical layout could be safely cooled. This counterintuitive approach may work, but it would be a costly folly.

Engineering rules come first. They’re processed alongside item storage guidelines. Next, comes your customisation requirements, a layout that suits your premises and your particular vision. This diligent installation methodology strives to fulfil your customisation imperative by tailoring every stage of the construction work, as per your unique terms. Subsequently, conditionally built coolrooms and freezers look and perform as you demand, plus they satisfy all operational requirements as determined by any relevant national safety guidelines.

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Keeping Cut Flowers Fresh with the Right Coolroom Temperature

When florists talk about flower freshening tips, a coolroom is always included in their top ten. In that florist shop, plants are being cut and arranged, then they’re stored until a delivery is due. A climate controlled environment, located somewhere on the premises, is required, but what temperature is this coolroom set at? What environment will keep the flowers looking fresh like they were just picked from a country field?

Arresting the Blossoming Period

Timing is everything in the floral industry. The expert hands of the floral designer work with uncanny speed to arrange a mass of rhododendron and roses, sunflowers and irises, and many other slow blossoming plants. There’s a window of opportunity in play, a period where the flowers will open and then wilt. A floral coolroom is temperature-adjusted with this biological imperative in mind. Typically, we’re talking about a thin temperature range, perhaps a slender temperature wedge that stretches between 6°C and 8°C of thermal spread.

Healthy Cold Storage Enclosures

A step inside a floral-centric coolroom proves this grown biological commodity is very much alive. There’s condensation in the air, the cooler unit’s fan is recirculating that wet air, and the flowers are standing tall. The temperature is just low enough to inhibit plant decay, but it’s still high enough to promote healthy plant respiration. But why use a temperature spread at all? Why not adjust the thermostat and lock it at 6°C instead of spending time and effort on that thermal wedge? Well, different flowers have adapted to different climates. They’ve been picked from fields that grow under a hotter sun. Even humidity level and sunlight quality vary in these diverse global circumstances, so an accurate coolroom thermostat is mandated, but so is that capacity to accommodate different environmental settings.

Designing Floral Coolrooms

Glass-panelled models are common in this industry, all the better to allow a walk-in customer a view of the stored arrangements. High turnovers are likely for some products, such as roses, but other blossoming plants will face an annual drop-off. Several partitioned chambers inside the glass-walled chamber account for this logistics issue. Located in the primary alcove, the coolroom unit maintains a temperature range that indulges fussy roses. The back alcoves and metal-lined shelves hold filler greenery and less popular flowers, so their airflow requirements are managed after the showboating flowers have been attended to with water and chill air.

A low-temperature spread is required to inhibit flower blossoming. The climate should be slightly moist and cool. Maintained at around the 7°C mark, flower shock is avoided, freshness is assured, and that “blossom window” won’t take place until the arrangement is in the home, office, or wedding reception.

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Differences Between the Ideal Temperatures of Freezer Rooms and Coolrooms

The 0°C (32°F) notch on a refrigeration unit’s thermometer marks the numerical difference between freezer rooms and coolrooms. However, ideal temperatures don’t adhere to such absolutes. In lieu of a categorical crossover point, the scientifically measured temperature at which water turns to ice, we refer to standard cooling envelopes. In cold rooms (Also known as coolrooms or cool rooms), that thermal envelope keeps food unfrozen but safe.

The Ideal Food Safe Temperature Range

The thermostat in the cool storage room adjusts between 1°C and 10°C. Some of these walk-in units advertise a 0°C lower limit, but this feature is rarely used because it’s crossing over into a territory that’s reserved for freezers. Instead, the higher limit is typically locked in at 5°C while that important lower limit sits firmly at 1°C. Set any lower, well, the carbonated beverages and fresh fruits would turn to a fruit-flavoured icy slush. Arguably, a rise of temperature represents a greater hazard, with the foodstuff spoiling and rotting as the sealed chamber warms.

Temperature Boundaries: Walk-In Freezers 

The safe holding temperatures used by walk-in coolrooms are important if food freshness is to be maintained. Walk-in freezers take this concept and drive it down lower, to the point water turns to ice. Even then, the negative thermal envelope drops further. We’re referring to an arctic domain that straddles the 0°C to -23°C temperature spread. Granted, the zero celsius storage point does turn the water inside the food to ice, but certain biological processes may not b

 

e arrested by that icy membrane. In other words, the colder the frozen food becomes, the longer it will retain its fresh taste. Down at that lower boundary, bacteria stops growing, enzymes are frozen, and nutrients are locked inside soft tissues.

A refrigeration unit that’s designed to freeze water is built with a more powerful set of coils and operational parts. Similarly, the sealed enclosure will address some issues that are uniquely connected to subzero issues, including the incorporated defrost cycle. The insulation panels will be thicker, the water drainage system more capable, and the intake ducting will be sized to draw in larger volumes of air. Of course, those two ideal operating conditions also take aim at different stored commodities.

Raw cuts of meat and frozen foods are stored for long periods in 0°C to -23°C walk-in freezers. Above freezing point, beer, soda, and fresh produce are held between 1°C and 5°C, so they’re cool and fresh and ready for safe consumption. Additionally, freshly prepped meats and meals are stored in some coolrooms, but only if they’re being used that night.

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5 Signs That Your Freezer Room Is Starting to Fail

If you’re operating a walk-in freezer, you can’t afford a catastrophic breakdown, not when this environment is responsible for storing spoilable food, pharmaceutical products, or some other temperature-sensitive product. In the real world, we employ preventative maintenance strategies and advanced troubleshooting procedures. Better yet, we recognise certain important breakdown telltales. Here are 5 telltales that indicate your freezer room is on the verge of failure.

Icy Build-up 

A thick layer of frost is developing on the walls. It’s jacketing the stored commodities in ice. Instead of sending an unlucky employee inside to scrape the frosty surfaces, troubleshoot the issue. Moist air is likely leaking through a damaged gasket or wall panel, and it’s freezing. Call out the experts to find and seal that leak.

Water Puddles Form 

Again, the wall panels may be damaged. Perhaps the door seal is broken or the cooling unit is underperforming. Before investigating deeper, check the thermostat, just in case someone has knocked the temperature controls. If a simple fix isn’t on the cards, the walk-in freezer room needs an energy audit, which is a special procedure that’s designed to see how much energy is being lost. Remember, standing water breeds mould.

Food Spoilage 

Capable catering managers make note of food expiry dates. If the food is losing its fresh taste before that date has arrived, an optimally controlled environment isn’t being maintained. Leaks are a possibility, as is a malfunctioning refrigeration unit. Foodstuffs and pharmaceutical products are susceptible to different temperature fluctuations.

Odd Sensory Impressions 

A noisy fan indicates the cooling unit is about to fail. Strange smells suggest a coolant leak, and a mercury thermometer inside the cooler proves something is amiss because it’s measuring a higher temperature than the readout blinking on the digital thermostat. These are mechanical and electrical problems. They’re detectable when someone pays attention.

Elevated Utility Bills 

The likely culprit in this scenario is the freezer room. More than likely, it’s reached the end of its lifespan, in which case a replacement product needs to be considered. If it’s not a decrepit remnant, the problem needs to be investigated further. A quick door test is advised. This is a common energy leakage site. Otherwise, the dramatic energy hike is either being caused by a malfunctioning thermostat or a fault inside the freezer.

These are 5 of the most common signs that your freezer room is starting to fail, but it’s by no means a complete list. You should pay attention to audiovisual clues, to the sounds and smells inside the sealed cooling chamber. Beyond that, actively search out icy build-ups, water, mould, and temperature fluctuations. Go no further, though, not until you’ve consulted an expert refrigeration engineer.

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Factors to Consider When Doing a Freezer Upgrade and Customisation

Freezer upgrades are tricky projects. The customer base in a hotel or restaurant may have increased tenfold, but a matching increase in freezer floorspace is unlikely. Hopefully, there is extra space to incorporate into the design. Alternatively, a second or third chamber can be added to the original unit. A full remodel of the original unit will also increase energy efficiency. Upgraded or customised, there’s work to be done. Where do we even begin?

Optimise the Primary Storage Area 

A potential requirement for additional cooling space can’t be sidestepped for long, but it can take its place in the design chain while the upgrade process focuses on the master cooling unit. The freezer, from the looks of things, needs to be renovated. There are strange stains, the insulating wall panels are damaged, and the refrigeration unit is obviously ailing. In general terms, everything must be assessed to see if it can be saved. In all likelihood, the old foam and fibre insulation need to be replaced with the latest composite panels. Made from polyurethane foam and other advanced materials, this one move instantly increases the R-value of the walls and reinforces the walk-in freezers’ cooling envelope.

Freezer Upgrades and Customization 

A modular chamber suits this approach very well. In that easy-assembly unit, walls can be shifted and expanded. New cooling units adopt universal connections, so a fast changeover installation methodology is assured. Then, once the walls and active cooling mechanism are upgraded, it’s time to review the whole system outlook. Are wider doors required? An energy audit is advisable, but is an insulated floor going to fix unresolved energy losses? On the customisation front, we’re still thinking about chamber optimisation. A tailored layout, one that accommodates the desired commodities load, will use shelves and hooks, closets and stainless steel tables, all the customised furnishings and fixtures that capably support a specified cold storage blueprint. Ideally, the sealed freezer will be fully occupied but still have enough space to allow the arctic airflow access throughout the room. Further customised assets in the freezer will obviously focus on content preservation and operator safety. A luminous door handle, for instance, helps a staff member if the interior lighting fails.

Primarily, a high-quality freezer uses a space optimising strategy to maximise available cooling power. When that approach is no longer effective, it’s time to consider a full system upgrade. Replace every part that can be replaced. Considering the fact that most modern walk-in freezers are modular, practically every component in the unit is replaceable and/or expandable. Shelf and storage customisation techniques then optimise what has been upgraded, at which point you get the opportunity to consider a site expansion or an additional storage unit.