Cold storage rooms are indispensable pieces of equipment for a wide variety of businesses, from pharmaceutical manufacturers to vegetable farmers. However, a poorly maintained cold storage room can do more harm than good, and a cold storage room that causes your products to over-freeze could be costing you thousands of dollars.
If your cold storage room is over-freezing your products, the problem may be caused by a number of underlying issues. Here are three of the most common causes of product over-freezing in cold storage rooms and how they can be rectified by a professional refrigeration repair service:
Faulty Thermostats
If you notice some of the products in your cold storage room are getting too cold and starting to freeze, the first thing to do is check the room's thermostat. Use a thermometer to compare the thermostat setting to the actual ambient temperatures in the room. If the room is colder than the thermostat setting, the thermostat may be faulty. Faulty thermostats can generally be replaced quickly and easily by a refrigeration repair service.
Alternatively, the thermostat may show an incorrect reading because it was poorly positioned when the cold storage room was installed. If the thermostat is located in a relatively warm section of the room far away from any cooling vents, it may be chilling the room excessively. Adjusting the thermostat to a higher setting may fix the problem, but having the thermostat relocated is safer if your products are very sensitive to temperature changes.
Dirty Evaporator Coils
Cold storage rooms rely on evaporator coils, which are located near the room's blower fans. These coils are filled with chilled refrigerant liquid, which cool the air passing through the fans and into the room. If these coils are poorly maintained, they may become encrusted with dirt and debris, which can cause them to freeze. As a consequence, freezing air is blown into the room, causing products near the air vents to over-freeze.
If you know where the evaporator coils in your cold storage room are located, you can clean them yourself using specialised coil cleaning solutions. Make sure to deactivate the blower fans before attempting this. If you don't know how to access the evaporator coils or are worried about accidentally damaging the delicate coils, call in a refrigeration repair service to clean them for you.
Damaged Evaporator Coils
If you have a larger cold storage room that uses several evaporator coils, one or more of the coils may be damaged. Refrigerant liquids become colder at higher pressures and warmer at lower temperatures. If liquids are not flowing through a damaged coil, the liquids flowing through the other coils can become overpressurised, causing them to freeze and subsequently causing product over-freezing.
If you suspect evaporator coil damage, check the cold storage room's refrigerant pressure gauge. Damaged evaporator coils should always be replaced by a professional refrigeration service company. Until the problem is fixed, you should try to avoid stacking products close to any air vents.
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