There’s a huge range of different refrigeration systems, and it can get slightly overwhelming when it finally comes to choose what fridge would work in your settings. And that’s why we’re going to go through cold rooms and freezers so you’re able to make an informed choice on what would work the best in your commercial kitchen.
Commercial Kitchen Refrigeration
So lets start off with cold rooms. A cold room is essentially that, a room that is kept cool or chilled. Depending on the size of your establishment, cool rooms can be the size of a small cupboard or it can be a full size room that is used not only for storage but for prep as well. On the outside of the room tends to be a small settings panel which allows you to adjust the temperature and internal settings.
The main type of cold room is a walk in. These are as the name suggests, a chilled room than you can physically walk into. This type of room tends to be used for storage only and it has the floor space for one or two people to be able to move around and maneuver in. Some walk ins are big enough to be able to fit a trolley or storage cart into as well. Walk ins tend to have shelves on each wall which allows you to stack produce all the way up.
If you’re looking for something a little more advanced than a walk in, there are combi and industrial cold rooms.
Combi cold rooms have internal divisions or sectioning which allows you to have different temperatures and settings in each different sections whilst still only being in one unit. This type of unit is perfect if you need to store different types of produce, however you don’t have enough room to have multiple colds rooms both permanently set at different temperatures.
An industrial cold room tends to be an incredibly large room that is designed in a way to keep a huge amount of stock and produce chilled all at the same time. These rooms are large enough to allow forklift trucks and palettes in, whilst have enough room to move around and store these palettes in there. These types of cold rooms are very rare as most restaurants don’t have the room or the need to have this sized cold room on site. These types of cold rooms tend to be seen in warehouses, food production factories and the like.
On the opposite end of the cold room spectrum is the modular cold room. This isn’t a room in the brick and mortar sense. They tend to be panel based ‘rooms’ that can be built on site and taken down and moved when needed. They can fit practically any space and if you do need to make them bigger, you can attach multiple modular rooms together until you have the space you need.
Cold rooms are used to keep things chilled, if you need to keep anything frozen or below 0 degrees, then you will need commercial freezer equipment. Many commercial freezers tend to be at a temperature of -16 degrees but can drop all the way down to -50 degrees depending on what you need to store.
If you’re a standard restaurant then this type of freezer might not be what you’re looking for. But if you’re looking to store food or produce in the front of house to allow customers to see them and choose from then, then you need a display freezer. You tend to see these styles of freezers behind a bar, or in a bakery or cafe. They’re very economical as they have a low carbon footprint and are very cost effective when it comes to running them.
Blast chillers and freezers are units that rapidly chill foods to a low temperature in order to prevent any ice crystals forming on the food itself when it’s frozen. This type of freezer is essential for storing pre packaged foods such as ready meals and desserts. Similar to most freezers, these units come in a range of different sizes and different energy efficiency ratings.
If you’re looking for just a standard style freezer, you have two different options, cabinets and counters.
Cabinets come in different sized units, you can purchase full height cabinets and under counter, half sized cabinets. They come with shelves that can be individually arranged in the interior, which allows you to store whatever products you need too in there.
Counter freezers are multi function and they can be used as refrigerated prep stations. Again, similar to all the freezers above, you get a choice of sizes so you’re able to find something that fits perfectly into your commercial kitchen.
Commercial Refrigeration Equipment
Of course, all kitchens are different. A bakery will have different refrigeration and freezer needs than a pizzeria, just like a cafe will have different needs than a steakhouse. So it’s important to find the right refrigeration system for your business.
If you’re looking for a company that provides both advice and high quality commercial kitchen refrigeration units, then look no further than NWCE Foodservice Equipment. They are a catering engineering company who have teams who deal with every aspect of the commercial kitchen. That includes refrigeration, ventilation, fabrication and much more.