Cold room is a large-scale refrigerator or freezer for commercial usage of food processing businesses. Cold rooms can hold a large amount of food and perishable non-food items, some types of businesses that usually need a freezer room or chiller room are hotels, restaurants, hospitals, as well as commercial kitchens.
Cold rooms are big investments for most businesses, especially for small businesses. When you setup a cold room, it’s expected to be used for 10 to 20 years, so you better get it right from the beginning. Unlike when you have a broken refrigerator that you simply call the manufacturer to get it replaced or get a simple fix, when there’s something wrong with the cold room panels for example, you cannot just replace it, and the repairmen job usually takes time so you might have to stop doing business until the problem is solved.
Here are 7 questions that you could ask to cold room manufacturers that can help you determine which one will provide the appropriate cold room for your business:
1. Does the manufacturer produce cold rooms on a large scale?
Like any other things, when they are produced on a large scale the price will go down, so you’ll get a cheaper price with a large-scale manufacturer. Also, a large-scale manufacturer usually has good stock levels, and that means you won’t have to wait for too long to get your business up and running until the cold room is ready.
2. Does the manufacturer have a complete range of cold rooms?
Different businesses have different needs, because the types and the amount of foods being stored are vary, so they also have different needs for the proper size and temperature ranges.
3. Does the manufacturer use modular designs?
Cold rooms with modular designs are usually cheaper and they can be easily customized based on your needs or the capacity of available space you have.
4. Does the manufacturer comply with the safety standards?
Safety is a vital aspect of any cold room, you need to be sure there is no chance anyone could be trapped within the cold room, which is extremely dangerous. Furthermore, it also must comply with the food safety regulations.
5. Does the manufacturer think about the ease of use in the cold room design?
A cold room should be easy to use, it should have a good shelving design so it would be easy for you to carry the stock in and out, also easy for you to do a stock rotation. Furthermore, checkout also the monitoring systems and control panels. A good cold room shouldn’t be too hard to operate.
6. Does the manufacturer provide installation and site survey?
A good manufacturer will assist you in choosing the right product, they will send a technician for an onsite examination in order to determine the type and size of the cold room needed.
7. Does the manufacturer provide warranty?
This is also something you shouldn’t forget. Cold room is not cheap, even the cheapest one will cost you a lot of money, so having an assurance that the product will work properly, or at least the manufacturer will be responsible if there’s something wrong with the product is important.
