SRC Refrigeration | Walk in Coolers and Freezers: February 2011

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Selection, Installation, and Maintenance of a Walk in Cooler

Select your new walk in cooler based on research, not emotion. Hold suppliers to the same high standards that your customers hold you! Insist on full and detailed walk in cooler specification sheets. Demand this information in writing and then compare features and presentations. You are making a long term investment in your business—don’t let your decision be swayed by emotion or high pressured sales techniques. Rely instead on facts and common sense when deciding where to purchase a walk in cooler!

Installation is critical to the proper performance and longevity of any walk in cooler or freezer and all its equipment. Relying on references from people you trust is the best place to start. Local restaurants are also a good source of information when searching for reputable service companies. This way, you can ensure your walk in cooler is installed properly.

Maintenance is the key to low repair bills and long equipment life for all walk in coolers; start a regular cleaning schedule! The condensing unit is the heart of your walk in cooler. It is an assembly which contains the compressor, condensing coil, and condensing fan motor. It may be located on top of your walk in cooler, in a remote location, or even underneath, depending on your equipment. After locating the condensing unit in your walk in cooler, the actual cleaning process is fairly simple.

Once a month, shut the power off to the walk in cooler condensing unit. You can now safely vacuum all of the dust and debris which may have accumulated. Reversing the air flow of a shop-vac or using compressed air to blow dust away tends to be more effective than vacuuming the walk in cooler alone.

There is an evaporator fan assembly inside your walk in cooler that circulates the air and removes the heat. It also collects water and drains it away. This assembly should be cleaned and sanitized once a year. This will again require the power of the walk in cooler to be disconnected. Also, removing the drain pan allows further access to all components (they are easier to clean this way).

Regularly clean the inside and outside surfaces of your walk in cooler using detergent and water solutions. The interior of the cabinet can be sanitized with a mild solution of bleach and water during the monthly cleaning of the walk in cooler. Make sure that you also clean and inspect the walk in cooler door seals yearly. They should be pliable and make a tight seal against the cabinet. If they should tear or become brittle with age, you should consider having them replaced.

The entire process can be considered a ‘do-it-yourself’ project, but it is never a bad idea to have a professional service company complete this procedure--they will also be able to perform a preventative maintenance check-up.

Once your walk in cooler has been properly set-up and put in service, further temperature adjustments should be unnecessary. Having to make adjustments to the temperature controls could be a signal that something is amiss, and may require a technician’s inspection. Do not to make adjustments to the walk in cooler’s controls to compensate for high use during holidays. Such adjustments can lead to freeze-ups when the equipment has had time to stabilize.

Lastly, sudden changes in the normal operating noises of your walk in cooler should be investigated and corrected promptly. Ignoring these signals could lead to more extensive damage to the various components of your walk in cooler (and consequently higher repair expenses). If any problems come up, do not hesitate to contact our service department at 1-800-521-0398 – we will be happy to assist you.

If appropriately cared for, SRC walk in cooler/freezer cabinets will easily outlast the buildings which house them.

Tips for Keeping Your Walk in Cooler Glass Display Doors Moisture Free

The door frames of your SRC walk in display cooler are heated and will stay moisture free (except in extremely harsh conditions). However, the walk in cooler door frame heaters will have no effect on the glass surface of the doors. Glass heat is not needed in a properly conditioned environment.

A refrigerated walk in cooler display will not only remove the heat from the air in the cabinet, but it will also attempt to pull heat from the walls of the display and walk in cooler display doors. The effects on our walk in cooler wall panels are very minimal—we use high-grade solid insulating materials in the construction. Even though our glass doors are the highest grade on the market, they cannot achieve the same degree of insulation as our walk in cooler walls.

Because of this refrigeration effect, the surface temperature of the walk in cooler glass doors is below the temperature inside your store. The colder you operate your display, the colder your doors will be. When the Dew Point of the indoor air rises to or above the surface temperature of your doors, moisture will begin to condense on the glass surface.

What does Dew Point refer to? At any given temperature, air can hold a certain quantity of water in the form of vapor. Warm air can hold much more water vapor then cold air. The amount of moisture in the air is expressed as a percentage, referred to as the Relative Humidity. Completely dry air would have 0%RH; totally saturated air (that cannot hold any more vapor) would have 100%RH.

As an example, if you had a room at 77 degrees with 56%RH, and simply lowered the temperature down to the Dew Point of 60 degrees without removing any moisture, the air would be totally saturated and dew would form on everything in the room. In the same example, leave the room temperature alone but set down a cold glass of ice water (itself well below the Dew Point of 60 degrees). The glass will eventually begin to sweat. The same thing will happen to a walk in cooler glass display door if the surface temperature drops to 60 degrees. So, what can be done to insure your walk in cooler glass doors stay as moisture free as possible?

a) Raising the temperature in the walk in cooler display case will also raise the surface temperature of the doors—possibly above the dew point.

b) If the air conditioning is on a nighttime setback, you may just need to clean off the walk in cooler doors first thing in the morning. As the air conditioning begins to operate, the problem may go away.

c) A colder setting on the air conditioning may help to pull more moisture from the air near your walk in cooler (pictures). This may lower the Dew Point below the door temperature.

d) Is the air conditioning thermostat actually sensing the air where the walk in cooler doors (pictures) are located? If the thermostat is in a separate space or room, it may not be controlling the correct area.

e) Is there proper air supply and return distribution to appropriately condition the surroundings of your walk in cooler? Is the air conditioning system sized correctly for your building?

f) Are you are leaving any outside doors open (perhaps to take advantage of cooler weather outdoors)?

g) If all other avenues have been exhausted, and the problem is more than you can accept, the final option would be to replace your present walk in cooler doors with new heated glass doors to compensate for the ambient conditions. This is an expensive alternative, since there would be no credit given for your present doors.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

SRC Beverage Cooler

Coolers, Coolers Everywhere!

When buying a walk in cooler, there are dozens of companies which insist they offer the “lowest price” or the “best features”—but in the world of coolers, what variable is really the most important?

When I think of the right choice, I look beyond the superficial, and my decision always ends with the best value for my money. The importance of value far surpasses that of paying the least amount of money—as they say, “you get what you pay for.” SRC Refrigeration strikes the perfect balance between features and overall cost. Our walk in coolers and freezers come standard with the highest quality manufacturing you’ll find.

We include f eatures like:

1) Full 4” thick, high density insulated panels that are fully EISA compliant, and are matched to the temperature, environment, and application specific to each job.

2) Premium Panel Construction (PPC) and fabrication that achieves superior strength by laminating metal directly to the foam: eliminating the need for obsolete 1 ½” x 3 ½” wood framing.

3) Extra heavy duty walk indoor packages that utilize commercial grade hardware by Kason, diamond plate not only on the outside of the door, but also on the inside, and magnetic gaskets that keep the door sealed, and your energy usage to a minimum.

4) Balanced refrigeration systems for superior and optimum performance. We use quality Copeland compressors with a 5 year warranty, and larger 12” fan blades for faster pull down and proper run times. With an SRC cooler, excessive moisture and dried out products are a thing of the past.

5) Quality glass doors that are fully EISA compliant, and built to last for many years to come.

6) And a “No Hassle” warranty program that supports and protects the customer. We will be happy to handle any repairs during your warranty period.

All of these reasons and more make an SRC Refrigeration the company to choose if you need a walk in cooler or freezer. If you don’t believe us, ask the 60% plus customer base that has returned to SRC time and time again for “The SRC Old Fashioned Experience.”

Why would you go anywhere else? When you need a superior walk in cooler or freezer, and you want a fast response and a quality product loaded with standard features that others charge for, you’ll see why SRC is a leader in the industry. Above all else, we are a customer driven company, and we will always be focused on providing you the best value for your money.

There’s simply no reason to shop around… Coolers, coolers everywhere, which one should I buy? Why, an SRC Refrigeration cooler of course! Let us show you how a walk-in cooler / freezer SHOULD be built!