Different Types of Cold Rooms

When considering the cold room requirements for your business, you may be faced with a number of questions – what type of cold room do I need? What temperature should my cold room be? Where can I buy a cold room? MTCSS are here to help you understand the types of cold room available and how they could be used in your business.

There are range of cold rooms available, and sometimes too many options can make understanding what you need more difficult. So let us try and simplify it for you…

Types of cold rooms

The main element of the cold room that dictates the type is the temperature – this is the key element that makes the cold room what it is. Cold rooms use refrigeration systems to maintain the temperatures required by your business or industry. These temperatures can be bespoke your requirements, but there are two key distinctions when it comes to cold rooms:

Walk-In Chillers

Walk-in chillers are commonly referred to as ‘cold rooms’ or ‘chiller cold rooms’ – we’ll call them walk-in chillers throughout this article. Walk-in chillers maintain positive temperatures between +1°C and +8°C and they can maintain specific temperatures in this range.

For example, MTCSS could supply and install a walk-in chiller which maintains a temperature of 5°C with +/-1°C changes – so the temperature should only fluctuate between +4°C and +6°C. These parameters vary, but can be adapted dependent on your industry requirements.

Walk-in chillers are used to store products that must be stored, prepared, or processed within positive chilled temperatures. This commonly includes: food and drink storage, such as supermarkets, restaurants, and take-aways; farming and agriculture, where produce must be packed and processed; pharmaceutical industries, and more.

Walk-In Freezers

Walk-in freezers are often also referred to as freezer cold rooms, or freezer rooms. Walk-in freezers maintain negative temperatures of between -5°C and -40°C – compared to walk-in chillers there are a wider range of temperatures dependent on the application and individual business requirements.

Similarly, to walk-in chillers, walk-in freezers can maintain temperatures with a fluctuation of 2 to 1°C. If you required a walk-in freezer at -20°C, it would generally fluctuate between -22°C and -18°C – but these parameters can be made stricter if required.

Walk-in freezers are used to store frozen products, or to freeze chilled or ambient products. Understanding the purpose of a walk-in freezer is key to its design – so knowing the temperature your products enter is important.

Bespoke Cold Rooms vs. Modular Cold Rooms

You also may be considering whether a bespoke cold room or a modular cold room may be best for your application. Both bespoke cold rooms and modular cold rooms are available as walk-in chillers or walk-in freezers. But which is best for your business?

Modular Cold Rooms
Modular cold rooms come in a specific range of sizes, as opposed to an exact requested size, and are designed in square or rectangular rooms. They are built from cam-lock panels, meaning they are easier to install, but are only suitable for small to medium capacity cold rooms. They are also only suited to internal installations.

Bespoke Cold Rooms

Bespoke cold rooms have more flexibility when it comes to their design – they can be built to suit specific sizes, in bespoke shapes to suit your building or space available. They can be built externally and can be designed for small to large capacity cold rooms.

Essentially, bespoke cold rooms are designed to your exact requirements, whereas modular cold rooms are selected to be nearest your requirements.

Temperature-Controlled Rooms

The term ‘temperature-controlled room’ encompasses cold rooms but can also include ambient temperature-controlled rooms. Ambient temperature-controlled rooms can maintain temperatures of between +10°C to +30°C.

Ambient temperature-controlled rooms are often used in pharmaceutical environments, or areas where the processes / production rely on specific parameters.

MTCSS can design, supply and build all types of cold rooms – walk-in chillers and walk-in freezers to ambient temperature-controlled rooms – to suit the requirements of your business and industry. We aim to provide a cold room solution that enhances your processes and day-to-day running of your business; offers energy efficiency that will stand the test of time; and adheres to all the regulations of your industry.

Get in touch with the team at MTCSS to discuss what cold room would best suit your requirements, or for a free quote! Call us on 01886 833381, email us sales@mtcss.flywheelsites.com, or fill in an enquiry form here!