Walk-In Cold Rooms and Freezers, What's the Difference?

installed modular cold room
29-Sep-2015

What’s the difference between a walk-in cold room, and a walk-in freezer?

One’s colder than the other.

It sounds simple enough, but the differences are little more complex in reality, and we get asked this question quite a lot by our customers. So let’s elaborate:

Walk-in cold rooms

Walk-in cold rooms will generally operate in one of two temperature zones:

Temperature zone 1 operates at a temperature between 2C and 12C, and in the industry a cold room that operates at this temperature is often referred to as a “chiller”. This zone is used to store consumables that will be used within a few days.

Temperature zone 2 operates at a temperature between -2C and +5C. This temperature zone is used to store consumables that will be used within a few days to a few weeks and it is preferred where a large stock of fast perishing items need to be kept just below freezing.

There are walk-in cold rooms that operate in only one zone, or both. Ours do both.

Walk-in freezers

Walk-in freezers look identical to walk-in cold rooms from the outside but as you would expect, walk-in freezers can operate at far lower temperatures than walk-in cold rooms.

Walk-in freezers usually have a temperature range of -18C to -22C. -18C is the minimum level at which something is classed as ‘deep freeze’. Walk-in freezers are used to store consumables for months, or even years, at a time and just like cold rooms, walk-in freezers are designed to provide extremely even temperature control, to boost stock longevity.

Which is best for me?

Do you need to freeze things, or keep things cool? If the former, get a walk-in freezer and if the latter, go for a walk-in cold room. If you need to freeze and cool things, unfortunately there isn’t a single solution for both, so you’ll need one unit for each task.

Walk-in cold rooms and walk-in freezers from Icecool Trailers

Your business can benefit from competitive pricing and huge flexibility with our walk-in cold room and walk-in freezer hire solutions. We have an excellent range of units for hire right now, and each of them can be built up on site. This means that they can be installed within even the most challenging of environments.

The sizes we currently have available for both freezer and cold rooms are 1.8M (5 cubic metres) and 3.0M (8.5 cubic metres).

You pay for what you get

When you hire a freezer or cold room from us, our fully trained personnel will deliver and install the unit for you, and dismantle and take it away when you no longer need it. We supply all of the necessary leads, and all you need is a working mains power supply. If you do not have one of these, then let us know and we’ll hook up a portable generator instead.

Find out more about hiring a freezer or cold room from us by calling 01635 250 950 today.