Cold Room Maintenance & Cleaning After Lockdown
With the UK having spent months in lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, cold rooms across the country have been left empty for long stretches. Now, as normal trading resumes for many businesses and the warmer weather sets in, there’s an urgent need for cold rooms to be cleaned and refurbished to ensure they deliver efficient, hygienic, and effective service.
Businesses that depend on cold, sterile environments to keep their products fresh and safe for human consumption must always ensure that their cold rooms are well-maintained. However, the consequences of extended lockdowns mean this is more important than ever.
So, what steps should you take to bring your cold rooms back into full service to ensure they are working optimally?
Effective Cold Room Cleaning Tips
For the storage of food and pharmaceuticals, hygienic cold storage is essential. To prepare and clean your cold rooms post-lockdown, you should follow these robust cleaning tips:
- Remove accumulations of dust and other debris using a vacuum cleaner on the floor and warm damp cloths on shelves and other surfaces to ensure no contamination can occur. Mild detergents or specialist cleaning products designed for cold rooms can be used safely in modular cold stores.
- Any remaining perishable products should be disposed of immediately to prevent the growth of mould or bacteria.
- Clean the seals around your cold room door to eliminate the accumulation of dirt, dust, or mould, and to ensure a snug fit when the door is closed – improving your energy efficiency levels as well as ensuring your cold room temperature is maintained.
- After cleaning, dry all surfaces in your cold room, including the floor, to eliminate any residual water that could freeze once the cold room is chilled (causing frost heave, which poses a health and safety risk to your staff and products).
Essential Cold Room Maintenance Checks
With some cold rooms having been out of use for weeks or months, it’s possible that mechanical faults may have developed during that time. Before the cold room is returned to use, a systematic series of maintenance checks will help to uncover any problems so that timely action can be taken.
Some of these cold room maintenance checks include:
- Check your cold room door seals/gaskets for splits, cracks, or signs of wear and tear.
- Check for gauges or damage to the insulated cold room panels.
For refrigeration system maintenance checks, we recommend an annual service by a local refrigeration service team that will check the following:
- Check the compressors for oil leaks.
- Check the refrigerant levels to ensure there is adequate volume.
- Thoroughly clean the evaporator and fins to ensure adequate temperature maintenance.
- Assess the control valves and reverse blowing to ensure these are working correctly.
- Conduct a full system test to ensure there is no malfunction of the cold room.
Failure to carry out these maintenance checks may mean your cold room is restarted with underlying problems that could lead to the spoilage of products.
Cold Room Maintenance by MTCSS
MTCSS understand the importance of an efficient cold room for keeping your stock in the optimum conditions and helping you to conform with essential health and safety regulations.
We offer an unrivalled cold room maintenance and refurbishment service that can get your cold rooms up and running after lockdown, giving you the time to focus on more profitable aspects of your business.
Don’t know what needs refurbishing in your cold rooms? Fear not, as MTCSS also offer a cold room condition report – so you can understand the elements in your cold rooms that could benefit from replacing or refurbishing. Learn more about cold room condition reports here.
To find out more information about our cold room maintenance services, or if you have any queries about cleaning your own cold room, please get in touch with the MTCSS team today!
You can email us at sales@mtcss.flywheelsites.com, ring us on 01886 833381 or by filling out an enquiry form below.
