Cold Rooms & Refrigeration Units

Inspect panel faces for dents, rust creep, and damaged edges, and check cam-locks operate so the room will dismantle and reassemble cleanly. Look hard at the door: hinges, gaskets, and heater frames take the most wear. On the refrigeration side, ask the age and refrigerant of the unit, whether it held temperature reliably, and when it was last serviced. A photographed panel inventory prevents disputes at reassembly.

Duty depends on room volume, insulation thickness, target temperature, ambient conditions, door openings, and the warm product load entering each day. As a rough guide a small walk-in chiller needs around 1kW of duty, while freezer rooms need substantially more per cubic metre. Undersizing shows up as long compressor run times and drifting temperatures in summer, so have the duty checked against your actual usage pattern, not just room size.

Rarely, and usually not economically. Freezer rooms need thicker panels, an insulated and vapour-sealed floor, heated door frames, and a much larger refrigeration duty, so a chill room converted on the cheap will ice up, heave its floor, or never reach temperature. If you foresee needing frozen storage, buy a room built for it from the start. Listings state design temperature, and sellers can confirm panel thickness.

Chill rooms can often sit on a sound level slab with a floorless panel kit, but freezer rooms require insulated floors, and permanent installations benefit from vapour barriers and heave protection. Drainage matters for evaporator defrost water and washdown, though many smaller rooms use condensate evaporation trays instead. Check your intended site's floor condition and levels early, because floor problems are the most common cause of difficult reinstallations.

That is agreed between you and the seller as part of the deal. Some sellers dismantle, palletise, and load as standard, others sell the room as standing for the buyer to strip, and specialist contractors exist who do both ends. The direct contact model lets you settle scope, cost, and timing in one conversation, and reviewing the arrangement before purchase is strongly recommended for anything larger than a small walk-in.