Cold Storage & Cold Room Equipment

Everything that goes inside and outside an insulated room held between +4 °C and −25 °C — panels, condensing packs, unit coolers, controls and spares — from 327 verified manufacturers.

  • 766products across this application
  • 327verified manufacturers
  • 6equipment groups

WhatWhat a cold store has to hold

A cold store is an insulated envelope — normally PU or PIR sandwich panel — held at a fixed temperature by a condensing unit outside and unit coolers inside. Chilled rooms sit at 0 to +4 °C, frozen rooms at −18 to −25 °C, and blast or hardening rooms go to −35 °C or below. The room is defined by its heat load, not by its floor area: two rooms of identical size serving fresh produce and frozen fish need completely different equipment.

WhoWho is buying cold room equipment

Third-party cold-chain and 3PL operators, food processors, meat and fishery plants, dairy, pharmaceutical and vaccine distributors, agricultural cooperatives, and the refrigeration contractors who build turnkey rooms for them. A large share of enquiries is replacement rather than new build — an installer with a failed pack and a room full of product.

WhereSite conditions that change the specification

Port cities and inland distribution hubs worldwide, with the fastest growth in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Two site conditions dominate specification in those markets: 380 V / 50 Hz three-phase supply (1,427 products listed), and design ambient temperatures of 38–45 °C. A condensing unit rated at 32 °C ambient loses a significant part of its capacity at 43 °C, so nominal capacity figures have to be re-read against the local design condition before anything is ordered.

WhenNew build versus emergency replacement

Two distinct moments. New-build projects specify at design stage and buy the whole kit together, on a schedule measured in months. Replacement buying is the opposite: condensing packs typically run 8–12 years, and when one fails the room starts losing temperature within hours, so lead time and stock availability outrank price entirely.

WhyWhat sizing errors actually cost

Cold storage is the one HVACR application where a failure destroys inventory worth many times the equipment. Beyond outright failure, two sizing errors quietly cost money for years. Too little evaporator surface forces a large temperature difference across the coil, which holds the setpoint but strips moisture out of the product — visible as weight loss on unwrapped meat and produce. Too much condensing capacity makes the compressor short-cycle, which shortens its life and wastes energy on every start.

HowWorking from the heat load

Work in this order. First calculate the heat load: product mass and entry temperature, required pull-down time, door openings per hour, panel U-value, lighting and workers. Then choose the refrigerant, because it constrains which packs are available to you. Only then match the unit cooler — and where dehydration matters, deliberately choose a larger coil surface running a smaller temperature difference rather than the cheapest coil that meets the duty.

Equipment this application needs

Cold Room Storage Room envelope Cold Room Storage74 Insulated sandwich panel, doors, floor and hardware — the U-value here sets the heat load everything else is sized against. Condensing Units Condensing pack Condensing Units234 Compressor, condenser and receiver as one assembly. Match to the calculated load at the local design ambient, not at nominal conditions. Evaporators Unit coolers Evaporators74 The in-room coil. Surface area and fin spacing decide humidity retention and how often the room has to defrost. Freezing Equipment Blast freezing Freezing Equipment66 Where product has to be pulled through the freezing zone quickly, a storage room cannot do the job — separate blast capacity is required. Thawing Equipment Controlled thawing Thawing Equipment42 For processors running frozen stock back up to working temperature without surface damage or drip loss. Refrigeration & Heat Exchange Parts Valves, controls & spares Refrigeration & Heat Exchange Parts120 Expansion valves, solenoids, pressure controls and defrost timers — the parts that actually fail in service.

What to check before you order

R404A Refrigerant 318
Still the most widely stocked and serviceable option, but high GWP and under phase-down pressure in regulated markets.
R290 Refrigerant 117
Propane. Very efficient and low GWP, restricted by charge limits, so it suits smaller self-contained packs.
CO2 / R744 38
Transcritical CO₂ for new large installations where trained service support exists.
Ammonia / R717 28
Industrial-scale plant, highest efficiency, requires a machine room and qualified operators.
380V 1,427
Three-phase supply for anything above light-commercial duty.
Stainless Steel 1,488
Required for food-contact zones and washdown areas.

Products for this application

Questions buyers ask

How do I size a condensing unit for a cold room?
From the calculated heat load, never from room volume alone. The load is the sum of transmission through the panels, the product pull-down duty over the required time, infiltration from door openings, and internal gains from fans, lights and workers. Then de-rate the unit to your local design ambient — capacity published at 32 °C is not what you get at 43 °C.
Which refrigerant should a new cold room use?
It depends on size and on the regulations you are subject to. R404A remains the easiest to buy and service worldwide but carries a very high GWP and is being phased down. R290 (propane) is excellent for small hermetic packs but limited by charge restrictions. CO₂ transcritical suits larger new installations where service skills are available, and ammonia is the industrial-scale answer.
Can one condensing unit serve two rooms at different temperatures?
It can only be done with separate circuits and evaporator pressure regulators, and it compromises both rooms — the compressor has to run at the lower suction pressure the whole time. For two genuinely different temperature regimes, separate units are normally both cheaper to run and simpler to service.
Why is my cold room drying out the product?
Almost always too small an evaporator running too large a temperature difference across the coil. The room holds its setpoint, so nothing looks wrong, but the coil is condensing moisture out of the air continuously and that moisture comes from the product. The fix is more coil surface at a smaller temperature difference.

Related applications

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Tell us about your cold storage & cold room equipment project

Send the duty and site conditions and we will come back with matched equipment, price and lead time from the manufacturers listed here — usually within one working day.