Walk in Cold Rooms Used for？

With the development of our life, we pay more attention to our health, on this ground, we have higher demands for what we will eat, drink and use for daily life, such as food, fruits, vegetables, milk, eggs, etc. For home use, the freshness and good taste are becoming more and more important, also the small refrigerator can’t meet people’s demand. For commercial use, we need a high standard storage temperature for the medicine to maximize its effectiveness, we want to receive beautiful flowers from all over the world with its most beautiful status.

For the customer who is planting the fruits, vegetables, and flowers, or doing the business for this field, they need to keep longer life and freshness of the products, which can fulfill the best market and best profit. That’s where we need the walk in cold rooms. Walk in cold room for food, walk in cold room for fruit and vegetable, walk in cold room for medicine, walk in cold room for flower, walk in cold room for seafood and walk in cold room for meat(short-time storage), any type you need, just contact us for a professional solution.

In a summary, the walk-in cold room is widely used in supermarkets, restaurants, hospitals, bars, and other places that need cold storage, sometimes it is also used for some events which have a short time using.

Of course, we also supply the walk in freezer/refrigerator or walk in fridge for lower temperature, and other types of cold room, such as mini cold room, cold rooms with big size, read more for details.

How to Choose a Good Design for Walk In Cold Rooms

Walk in Cold Rooms body design and selection of material

1.Structure of walk in cold rooms

Each walk in cold rooms use an independent cold room body, and the six sides for walk in cold rooms are designed with insulation structure separately, and separate the inside space from the outside space, this kind of type design will be easy for installation, also very convenient for relocating.

2. The design for walk in cold rooms body and external channel

Walk-in cold rooms door: There are sliding doors, hinge doors, electric doors, rolling doors, spring doors, etc according to the requirements of the site and the limitation of the channel. And the sliding door and hinged door are widely used. The advantage of the sliding door is no limit for the channel space. When the width of the passage is very small, the cold storage door can not be fully opened, but you need to move large equipment in, the sliding door can perfectly solve this problem. It can open at the most, but won’t waste any space for the passage.

Footstep for the walk-in cold rooms: Because the insulation layer is needed to walk-in cold rooms, so the bottom plate should be higher around 3cm-5cm than the floor because of the insulation layer. So there is a footstep between the walk-in cold rooms bottom plate and the floor, and this structure is very convenient for installation and relocation; Another way is to build the outside floor is the same height as the walk-in cold rooms bottom plate, some even use the same ground material to build on the insulation layer, which makes the walk-in cold rooms fixed on the ground, it can’t be moved and a little complicated for installation, but it’s convenient for transport the goods or tools to enter and exit the walk-in cold rooms.

3.The choice and design for walk in cold rooms panel

For the insulation material, most of the customers use environmentally friendly polyurethane foam material, some use polystyrene foam material, you can choose it as you like.

The selection of forming substrate plates: the commonly used foam-forming surface protection material mainly includes color steel plate, galvanized steel plates, and aluminum plates. For some situation that has quite high requirements or special application, it will use the stainless steel plates.

The selection of the thickness of the insulation layer:100mm thick insulation layer is widely used in the walk-in cold rooms that require a temperature higher than -22℃. For other cold room that requires lower temperature, the 150mm thick insulation layer is used for the temperature under -22℃ cold storage. If the cold storage temperature is lower than -30℃, it’s better to use the thickness for the insulation layer 200mm.

4. Anti-condensation design for walk in cold rooms door frame

Because there is the gap between the walk in cold rooms door and door frame, when the temperature difference for outside and inside of the cold storage reach 10℃, the moisture in the air will condense on the surface of the door frame, sometimes even flow to the ground. So it’s necessary to install the heating wire around the walk in cold rooms door frame, so as to no condensation situation happens even in humid weather.

Selection and design of refrigeration equipment for Walk in Cold Rooms

5. Calculation of heat load

In the walk in cold rooms, you should consider the heat sources that affect the storage temperature, the main heat sources are heat flow of the walk-in cold rooms body, goods heat flow, air exchange heat flow, evaporator and other heat flow, operator heat flow. Here I’ll explain them a little.

Heat flow of the walk-in cold rooms body: There is a temperature difference between the inside and outside of the walk-in cold rooms, the heat always transfers from high temperature to low temperature in the walk-in cold rooms. The main parameters that affect the heat flow are temperature difference, the surface area of the walk-in cold room’s body, and the heat transfer coefficient of the insulation material. The temperature difference and surface area of the walk-in cold room’s body are almost confirmed and stable, therefore choosing a good insulation material can reduce the heat flow of the walk-in cold room’s body.

Goods heat flow: Although the main function of the walk-in cold room is to store the material or semi-finished that have been cooled, it can’t avoid the high-temperature goods going in the walk-in cold rooms directly. In addition, the fruits and vegetables are still living when sending to the walk-in cold rooms, there is some heat generated by the respiration of the fruits and vegetables. So when you calculate the heat load, make sure to consider the heat flow for the goods, then you can design a good function walk-in cold rooms.

Air exchange heat flows: Fresh fruits and vegetables need to breathe and ventilate. There are major characteristics for using the walk-in cold rooms, it’s the frequently open and close cold room doors and balance windows. During the opening and closing, the gas exchange is unavoidable, then the hot air from outside enters the walk-in cold rooms and produces a certain amount of heat flow.

Evaporator and other heat flow:

Due to the forced convection of the fan motor of the evaporator, the storage temperature becomes even quickly, the heat and kinetic energy of the fan motor is completely converted into heat. So this evaporator fan motor heat should be calculated according to the operating time, normally 24 hours. At the same time, you should consider the heat produced by the electric defrosting and anti-condensation heating wire.

Operator heat flow:

This is a small factor for heat calculation because people do not work for a long time in the walk-in cold rooms, so you can ignore it for this condition.

6. Selection of the refrigeration compressor unit

For walk in cold rooms, we generally use a freon system. The walk in cold rooms is used frequently, so it has a high possibility for maintenance. Unless it’s particularly necessary, try to equip the independent condensing unit for walk in cold rooms, avoid the situation that several cold rooms share a refrigeration condensing unit.

And according to the info and requirements for each walk in cold rooms, you can choose different types of compressor, scroll,semi-hermetic type, and so on.

7. Selection of the evaporator/air cooler/blower

Selecting the air coolers with equivalent refrigerant capacity according to the calculated or estimated refrigeration cooling capacity, ensure it matches very well. The nominal refrigeration capacity and actual refrigeration capacity should be corrected and calculated according to the used evaporating temperature and the refrigerants you are using.

Walk in Cold Room Installation Case

How to Choose a Walk in Cold Room Location​

When the walk in cold room project is undergoing feasibility analysis, storage site selection and plan comparison should be carried out. Whether they walk in cold room location is selected reasonably or not is related to the construction speed of the project, infrastructure investment, and management and economic benefits after it is put into production. Therefore, the selection of the storage location should be based on nature, scale, construction investment, development plan, and other conditions of the cold storage, combined with the specific conditions of the proposed location, prudently proceed, and determine the best. In order to select the warehouse location correctly, the following basic conditions should generally be considered:

Economic basis

First of all, we must consider whether the local supply of raw materials, materials, energy, water, and other resources, as well as production collaboration (machine repair), freight, sales market, etc. have favorable conditions for building a database. The cold storage should be located in the production area, the concentrated supply area, or the main consumption area according to the nature of its use, and strive to load the reasonable flow of goods. In the overall layout, it should not be arranged in the upper reaches of the urban center and its drinking water source and should be selected as close to the town as possible.

Transportation

Convenient water and land transportation conditions must be considered, it is better to near the site to facilitate the transfer of goods in and out. For large and medium-sized cold storages, it is required that the site is near the ship’s docks or railways, and it is convenient to connect to nearby enterprises and strive to shorten the length of special railway lines. When selecting a site, it is necessary to learn about the possibility of constructing a dedicated line from the relevant department and obtain a certificate of conformity. Small and medium-sized cold storage is mainly transported by road, so the location should be as close to the road as possible to shorten the length of new roads outside the storage. Try to avoid building bridges, culverts, and tunnels.

Regional environment

There should be a good sanitary environment around the cold storage site, so when selecting the site, the grievance development plan of the local urban construction should be considered, and the sanitation of the surrounding environment of the storage site and possible future pollution trends should be understood. The storage site should be far away from factories and mining enterprises that produce harmful gases, smoke, radioactive substances, dust, odor, or seriously pollute groundwater. Try to choose the upwind zone of the industrial zone, and should be located upstream of the discharge outlet of the sewage treatment plant. Storage sites should not be located downstream of contaminated rivers or near infectious hospitals.

Geographical conditions

When selecting a site, the topography, geology, flood level, and groundwater level of the reservoir site should be carefully investigated or necessary survey analysis. The site selection should be based on the principles of saving land, occupying less farmland, not occupying good land, not demolishing or demolishing fewer private houses, and use wasteland and slope land as much as possible, and should not unilaterally emphasize the flatness of the storage site. Cold storage should not be built in the backfill layer, quicksand layer, collapse, and landslide zone, and should avoid faults and caves. The base endurance of the multi-layer cold storage should not be less than 0.15MPa per square meter, and the base endurance of the single-layer cold storage should not be less than 80kPa per square meter. The groundwater level must be below the freezing line.

Power supply conditions

The cold storage power supply belongs to the second type of load, which requires a reliable and stable voltage power supply. Efforts should be made to shorten the distance from the newly built high-voltage transmission line to the power connection point. If there is no power supply nearby, you should generally choose another storage location, regardless of self-installing power generation equipment. Therefore, when selecting a site, you should have a detailed understanding of the local power supply and line power supply, and you should contact the local electric power department to obtain a power supply certificate.

Water source conditions

If you choose a water-cooled condensing unit to walk in cold room, then you will use more water, so water source is one of the important conditions for determining the location of the walk in cold room. Therefore, there must be sufficient water sources near the walk in cold room site. The water source generally uses river water or deep well water. If the water source at the reservoir site is abundant, the cooling water can be used once, but in most cases, recycled water is used. Small walk in cold room uses tap water to recycle when there is no natural water source.

The Construction Process of Walk In Cold Rooms

Set the construction process of walk in cold room in China as an example, to introduce how we do it correctly. You can adjust them according to your country’s standards.

The outer protective structure of the walk in cold room adopts a large-span, light-weight steel door structure. Designed and manufactured according to national standards, and all prefabricated in the factory, all-metal components on site are connected by high-strength bolts and ordinary bolts. The roof is made of a self-waterproof profiled steel plate, and ventilation windows and roof ventilators are installed at the ridge.

Electrical Control Part

The electrical system of the walk in cold room is composed of cold storage lighting, door antifreeze heater, launch antifreeze heater, ceiling fan control, and temperature control system. The walk in cold room lighting is composed of a moisture-proof lamp, a lighting switch, and a 220/36 transformer: the transformer provides a safe and stable 36V power supply for the cold storage lighting, door antifreeze heater, and water antifreeze heater. (Note: If you require to walk in cold room lighting with indicator lights, the lighting will use a 220V lighting system.)

Door antifreeze heater, water antifreeze heater: The door antifreeze heater prevents the door from being frozen together with the freezer and cannot be opened at low temperatures.

The antifreeze heater prevents the defrost water from freezing in the sewer pipe so that the defrost water cannot be discharged.  Under normal circumstances, the low-temperature walk in cold room is prone to freezing, and heating wires should be used. The medium temperature walk in cold room is generally not required.

Ceiling evaporator control system: The evaporator is used for heat exchange. Generally, it is controlled by a temperature limit switch to ensure that the evaporator drops to a certain temperature and starts to run. At the same time, it is connected with the defrosting control to ensure that the evaporator stops running during the defrosting process. The defrost heater is used to remove the frost on the ceiling fan evaporator, thereby improving the efficiency of heat exchange. It is controlled by the defrost time controller. Its termination mode is the temperature termination mode controlled by the defrost limit temperature switch and the time termination mode controlled by the defrost time controller.

Construction Process and Specific Methods of Walk In Cold Rooms

The floor of the walk in cold room should be dry, flat, and hard. The surface is generally concrete, and sandy soil can also be used. The recesses are leveled with cement mortar. The cold storage should have a proper drainage location. If it is installed outdoors, users must set up rain sheds to ensure that the body of the assembled walk in cold room is protected from the sun and rain.

Walk in cold room door should be kept away from the wind and away from pollution sources. The floor elevation should be higher than the surrounding ground to prevent water from entering the reservoir on rainy days. When the mobile walk in cold room is installed indoors, the indoor clear height should be at least half a meter higher than the top surface of the walk in cold room roof. If the unit is placed on the roof of the walk in cold rooms, the clear height of the room should be 1.8m higher than the upper surface of the roof of the walk in cold rooms.

Complete the construction of civil works below the insulation layer of the floor in the walk in cold rooms and the construction of the machine room, pump room, etc.

Complete the assembly and construction of the steel structure project and put the equipment room, pump room, and other equipment in place.

Complete the construction of the walk in cold room body part.

1. The main structural forms of the joints between the heat insulation boards are: PVC joints, H-shaped aluminum joints, hook joints, inlaid joints, etc. The joints between the plates are made of low-temperature resistant, high-strength, mildew-resistant silicone sealant And polyurethane sealant filling and sealing.

2. Leak detection for all joints, records, and acceptance as one of the basis.

3. At the junction of the wall panel and the ground, take structural measures to insert the ground, so that the insulation material of the wall panel   is closely connected with the insulation material in the floor, and has a reliable sealing and moisture-proof treatment.

4. Regarding the joints of the heat insulation panels, if the on-site pouring and foaming method is adopted for sealing and joining, first ensure that the insulation materials of the two heat insulation panels can be closely attached, and the sealing tape shall be attached to the joint surface to eliminate gaps, ensure that the insulation material is bonded.

5. Adopt sealant strips or other fixing methods at the joints of the heat insulation panels. They should be anti-aging and corrosion-resistant. They must also be sealed to prevent damage due to inadequate sealing.

6. The sealing tape or other fixing methods at the joints have no deviation or dislocation, and the joints are tight and even.

7. For the measurement and installation of the heat insulation panel, the actual completed building structure size shall prevail.

8. The heat insulation panel of the processing room and the walk in cold room body is integral along its height direction, and there is no middle seam in the horizontal direction.

9. The tube wells and gaps between walk in cold room, walk in cold room and floors should be treated with heat insulation and water prevention.

10. Measures are taken to reduce the “cold bridge” effect in the structure of the lifting point of the ceiling of the walk in cold room body and the concrete structure/steel structure.

11. The holes of the hanging points are sealed by polyurethane foam infusion on site.

12. All holes of pipelines passing through the thermal insulation panel of the walk in cold room shall be moisture-proof and sealed and heat-insulated, and the surface shall be smoothed.

Complete the civil works below the floor (including the ground, thermal insulation layer, waterproof vapor barrier, etc.) in the walk in cold room and above the floor structure construction.

Complete the installation of walk in cold room doors, air curtains, and walk in cold room body anti-collision components.

1. The door of the low-temperature cold room is a manually sliding polyurethane walk in cold room door. There should be no “cold bridge” in the door frame and door structure.

2. Electric heating devices are embedded in all walk in cold room frames to prevent the sealing strips of the doors from being frozen, and safe voltage and electric heating protection devices are adopted.

3. Air curtains are installed on the doors to block the convection of hot and cold air, and two air curtains with a length of 900mm/1200mm/1500mm or other sizes are installed on each walk in cold room.

4. There is an opening and closing control button outside the walk in cold room, and a door opening switch and a safety call alarm device are installed inside the walk in cold room.

5. All walk in cold room doors are open and closed flexibly and lightly. The sealing contact surface of the door frame and the door itself must be smooth and flat, without warping, and there should be no scratches or scratches caused by skewing or uneven screw ends, to ensure that the sealing tape can be close to the periphery of the door frame.

Complete the installation of refrigeration equipment, electrical control system, defrosting water supply, and drainage system.

Complete the coating construction of the sealant inside and outside the walk in cold room.

Installation of special requirements for walk in cold room:

Some walk in cold room must be dealt with due to special requirements or on-site conditions: When the length or height of the walk in cold room panel is greater than 4.2 meters, the walk in cold room needs to take strengthening measures, using reinforced angle steel to strengthen the overall structure of the walk in cold room in the center of the walk in cold room body. When installing a non-bottom assembly type walk in cold room, bury the wall panels in cement and fix them with fixed angle irons. Some operating rooms only have the top plate. At this time, install angle irons on the surrounding walls and fix the walk in cold room plate on it, and sealed with silica gel or foam material.

Debug each professional system of the walk in cold room.

Carry out the overall project acceptance of the walk in cold room.

8 Tips For Walk in Cold Room

Initial use: When the walk in cold room is used for the first time or when it is shut down for a long time, it is strictly forbidden to stack goods in the walk in cold room, and the warehouse must be slowly reduced to the required temperature.

Walk in cold room panel maintenance: During use, attention should be paid to the collision and scratching of hard objects on the cold room panels, so as to avoid depression and corrosion of the cold room panel, which will seriously reduce the local insulation performance of the walk in cold room panel.

Sealing protection: The user should always check the sealing degree of the walk in cold room gap, and if there is any damage, it needs to be maintained in time.

Ground protection: The ground should be kept as clean as possible when using it. If there is a lot of ice and water, it must be cleaned up in time, and hard objects must not be used during cleaning to avoid damage to the ground and affect the service life of the walk in cold room.

Check the quality regularly or irregularly, and deal with it immediately if you find mold, rotten, or deteriorated.

The temperature and humidity in the walk in cold room should be kept uniform, and there should be no large fluctuations; when the food is put into the walk in cold room, try to complete it at once.

Minimize the number of entering and exiting the walk in cold room, and close the door in time. When opening the door, pay attention to whether the air curtain is opened or the curtain is put in place. Turn off the lights when leaving the walk in cold room.

It is strictly forbidden to store flammable, explosive, and volatile items in the walk in cold room, and no open flames.

FAQ

Where is the walk in cold rooms widely used?

The walk in cold rooms are widely used for supermarkets, restaurants, hospital and another place that has the requirements for cold storing the food, medicines, etc. But for walk in cold rooms, normally refer to the high and medium temperature, the temperature is above 0℃. If you want the walk in cold rooms for low temperature, contact us for walk in refrigerator design.

What kind of types of condensing units you can provide for walk in cold rooms?

There are many types of condensing units we can supply for walk in cold rooms, open type, and scroll,semi-hermetic compressor that you can choose for different temperatures. The temperature we can provide is higher for +15℃, lower for -30℃. Just tell us your requirements, we will supply the solution.

Can you just provide the doors, air curtain, condensing unit, or other spare parts for walk in cold rooms separately?

Yes, we are not only providing the complete walk in cold rooms that you can install and use directly but also providing all the necessary walk in cold room parts you need separately, just contact us with your specific requirements.

Can you help with the delivery to walk in cold room?

Yes, of course. Normally after you confirm the walk in cold room size and condensing unit and all the required parts, we will do the calculation for weight and volume to see how we load the container and do the delivery. When the goods are almost ready, we will book the container in advance and deal with all the clearance process on our site and make sure you the container arrives at your port smoothly. If you have a special demand for delivery, tell us in advance, we will provide a suitable solution.

Can you help with the installation of walk in cold room?

Yes, we have a drawing and installation instructions for walk in cold room , also have a video to show you how to install it. At the same time, our engineer will be always here for supporting you. If you need our team to install it for you on your site, please talk to us directly.

How much for getting a walk in cold room?

The prices are depending on the walk in cold room you choose. The size for walk in cold rooms, the panel thickness, the type for condensing unit, the brands for the refrigeration parts you choose for walk in cold room, etc. The price can differ a lot because of those factors, please contact us directly and we provide a suitable solution and accurate cost for you.

What is the delivery time for a walk in cold room?

The delivery time for walk in cold room is also dependent on the walk in cold rooms you choose. Normally we have stock for the panel, compressor, and refrigeration parts, so if it is the common type, the delivery time will be quick, around 20 days, if there is something special, it should be longer. The accurate delivery time, please kindly check with us with firmed order.

What should be considered when designing the walk in cold rooms?

The room size for walk in cold rooms, where you want to build the walk in cold rooms, what kind of products you will store in the walk in cold rooms, the storage amount(products length, width, height, how many tons, etc) for walk in cold rooms, the storage temperature, how long time will be stored, how long time will it reach the set temperature, etc. At the same time, you also need to provide us the temperature of the goods for in and out of the walk in cold rooms, the opening and closing times for the door. The more factors you provided, the better function the walk in cold rooms achieve. Please contact us directly and we will get known of it well and provide a suitable solution.