Cold room types
A walk-in cold room is an insulated room with its own refrigeration unit, large enough for a person to walk into. Four types cover almost every commercial need.
Walk-in chillers
A walk-in chiller, also called a walk-in fridge or cold room, holds fresh produce at 0 to +4 °C. It suits butchers, restaurants, cafes, supermarkets, florists and anyone storing meat, dairy, fruit and vegetables. Rooms range from a single-door unit of 1.5 by 1.5 metres to a stockroom with shelving on three walls. See cold room installation for sizes, specifications and prices.
Walk-in freezers
A walk-in freezer, or freezer room, holds frozen stock at -18 to -22 °C. It is built with thicker panels, an insulated floor, a heated door frame so the door never freezes shut, and a pressure relief valve. Freezer rooms are often built next to a chiller so the two share a wall and a condensing unit position. See freezer rooms.
Blast freezers
A blast freezer or blast chiller brings cooked or fresh food down to temperature quickly, to -40 °C in a freezer or +3 °C in a chiller, so it is safe to store. Bakeries, caterers and food producers use them to meet food safety rules on cooling times. Blast freezers are covered on the freezer rooms page.
Industrial cold rooms and cold stores
Industrial cold rooms are high-bay rooms with sliding doors, pallet racking and forklift access for warehouses, distribution centres, wholesalers and food production. They run at chilled or frozen temperatures and are sized by pallet count rather than floor area. See commercial cold storage and industrial cold rooms for warehouses.
Which cold room does your business need?
Start with what you store and at what temperature, then the volume, then the space. A restaurant kitchen usually needs a chiller and a smaller freezer side by side. A butcher needs a meat room at 0 to +2 °C with a hanging rail. A convenience store needs a stockroom chiller behind the display fridges. A wholesaler needs a cold store measured in pallets. The industries pages set out the typical specification for each sector, and the site survey settles the rest.
What every Alaska Cold cold room includes
- Insulated panels: polyurethane or PIR panels, 80 mm for chillers and 100 to 150 mm for freezers, with a food-safe white finish.
- Doors: hinged, sliding or double swing doors with safety release, heated frames on freezers and a window where you want one.
- Floor: an insulated floor on freezer rooms, or a non-slip overlay on chillers where the existing floor is sound.
- Refrigeration: a condensing unit sized for the room and the climate it sits in, with an evaporator inside and a digital controller on the wall.
- Commissioning: temperature pull-down, a leak check and a handover with your team before we sign the job off.
Where we install cold rooms
We are based on Great Portland Street in central London and install across Greater London, Essex, Kent and Surrey, with larger projects anywhere in the UK. Our engineers also repair and maintain cold rooms we did not install.
