Choosing the right professional refrigerated cabinet is essential for any hospitality business, ensuring the best and most efficient service to the customer.
Why do we call them refrigerated cabinets? We call them that because they are like vertical refrigerated cabinets with one or more doors, or half doors. They can also have different types of doors: solid or glass, made with different variations of stainless steel (prepainted white steel, spray painted steel or stainless steel). The ABS range is named as such because the inner lining of the equipment and the back of the door are made of ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene).
The stainless steel range is undoubtedly the most recommended for its hygiene, ease of cleaning and durability.
What types of cabinets are there? There are positive temperature or negative cabinets, depending on their function, preserving or freezing. They also have different types of refrigeration depending on the cooling system they use, such as static refrigeration, ventilated or roll bond.
Rightway Asia has a wide range of specific products for any type of business, with a wide range of positive temperature and negative cabinets.
Types of professional cabinets: positive or negative
Positive cabinets store and preserve the food at positive, and negative cabinets store it at freezing temperatures depending on the requirements of the product.
And how to choose a piece of equipment? We will choose one or another type of cabinet depending on the food we need to keep in the restaurant, bar, bakery or cafeteria. It is recommended to keep vegetables, meats and fruit at refrigeration temperatures of between -2 ºC and +8 ºC. This is the temperature range that inhibits the growth of pathogenic microorganisms.
On the other hand, the standard freezing temperature is -18 ºC. It is at this negative temperature that the bacteriological activity that decomposes food stops. Most equipment is set to work between -22 ºC and -18 ºC, like the QN 6 model. A clean and elegant design with a regular shape for the panel and door and a digital controller with separate main switch. The QN 6 model is a perfect combination of technological improvements and manufacturing experience, with automatic door alarm with automatic closing, automatic opening and high temperature alarm to avoid energy waste. It also features R290 gas and 80-mm insulation foam on each side to ensure optimum energy savings.
Which type of ventilation should you choose: static, ventilated or roll bond?
There are three main types of refrigeration for professional refrigerated cabinets: static, ventilated or roll bond. It is important to know these types of refrigeration to ensure the best use of the equipment according to the food we need to preserve.
Static and ventilated cooling are the most common, and each one has its own specific features that need to be known in order to make the best choice depending on the equipment’s intended use.
Before taking a decision, there are various aspects to take into account:
- Type of product to be stored
- Capacity of the equipment
- Thermal load required
- Technology and equipment specifications
Static cooling
Refrigeration takes place based on the gradual thermal exchange that is created in the internal walls of the equipment and the products packed inside it. It is most commonly used in horizontal ice cream displays.
The most important advantage of static cabinets is the higher humidity inside the equipment. It is interesting if the cabinets are used for pastry and ice cream, because it prevents the products from drying out too quickly.
Ventilated cooling
Ventilated cooling is more powerful because it is carried out on a more uniform basis throughout the entire interior of the equipment. This is achieved by a micro-fan blowing air close to the condenser coils, causing cooling and air circulation inside the cabinet. The ventilated refrigeration system is the most recommended for uses, such as preserving meat or packaged food.
In the case of professional refrigerated cabinets with roll bond refrigeration, the cold is produced by a plate with refrigerant gas placed on the rear wall of the compartment. This technique lies at the midpoint between static cooling and ventilated cooling.
Consumption and energy class
Why is it so important to take this into account? Because refrigerated cabinets are in operation 24 hours a day, every day of the week.
This is why it is vital to choose energy-efficient equipment to reduce electricity bills and help the environment.
From 2021 onwards, display refrigeration professional and domestic equipment will use new labelling to show their energy efficiency. However, professional storage refrigeration will keep using the energy labels established since 1/July 2016.
To update the classification and simplify labelling, the European Commission approved the new system in 2019, a system launched in March 2021, with energy labels ranging from ‘A’ to ‘G’, in case of refrigeration appliances with direct sales functions and domestic equipment. However, professional storage fridges will still range from A+++ to G.
Products marked with the letter ‘G’ are the least energy efficient, while products with the letter ‘A’ are the most energy efficient. You can read more about the new energy labelling in this guide “4 key aspects about the new European Energy Label Regulation”.
Rightway Asia’s CR 7 positive temperature (-2 °C ~ +8 °C) model achieves one of the best energy classes available in the market, with an A energy label thanks to its inverter compressor, R600a gas and 85-mm insulation foam on each side to ensure optimum energy-saving performance.
As we have just mentioned, in terms of consumption, it will also be key to choose equipment with an inverter compressor type and using friendly refrigerants, such as R600a or R290. We will talk about this in more detail in the next post.
