How To Find The Right Size Of Commercial Freezer
Before any food makes it to a customer’s plate, it’s carefully prepared at the heart of every food and drink establishment: the kitchen. The best ones in the business are well-stocked with state-of-the-art commercial appliances for both storage and cooking.
Commercial freezers support high-volume inventory management, allowing restaurants to store large quantities of essential ingredients and foods in climate-controlled environments. Whether you’ve long been serving neighbourhood staples or you’re about to debut your signature dish, you need commercial freezers you can trust for reliable storage.
If you’re on a budget, a certified refurbished unit is a smart investment. To select the best one, start with your restaurant’s size. How many customers do you serve? This will help you calculate how large an inventory you need for your various ingredients.
Size Matters
Used commercial freezers come in various types and sizes, each designed to support multiple storage requirements. You need space to store enough food and beverages to ensure that you can meet the demands of the daily rush. Consider the types of food you need to store, and ensure there’s enough shelf space for keeping meats, produce, and other vital ingredients separate to prevent cross-contamination.
Remember, bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better. Besides storage volume, consider your restaurant kitchen’s real estate. It’s a valued but often limited commodity, so you need to make smart use of the space. Consider your fridge and freezer’s placement to ensure it’s accessible and does not interfere with the flow or clutter of an already packed kitchen. With these in mind, would you benefit from a reach-in unit or an upright model? And if you expand in the future or move to a new location, is your used commercial freezer easily portable for transport and setup?
Commercial Freezers by Type and Size
There’s no shortage of commercial freezers in the market, ranging from traditional, solid-door models to stainless steel and contemporary glass door units that provide maximum visibility, energy-efficient function.
Used glass door freezers typically come in three sizes:
The smallest used commercial freezer — a single-door unit — is perfect for small kitchens that offer limited menu items and operate in an even more limited space, such as a corner cafe. It’s also the ideal companion for a much larger unit running low on shelf space.
As its name suggests, used commercial freezers of this variety have two doors and offer increased storage and better access to items stored inside. Because of this, double-door freezers are perfect for medium-sized commercial kitchens that serve more dishes to a large dining area and takeout orders.
Standing upright, the two-door model takes up much less space than horizontal freezers and offers unimpeded access to staff simultaneously searching for different items on either side of the freezer.
The three-door freezer is designed for the largest commercial kitchens and allows simultaneous access for fast retrieval during the dinner service rush. Used triple-door commercial freezers offer very generous shelf space for long-term storage of different kinds of items, so you can declutter the kitchen and centralize storage to a single location.
How to Find the Right-Sized Commercial Freezer
A used commercial freezer is a smart investment in the initial launch and future growth of your restaurant. You want a long-lasting, energy-efficient freezer. Selecting the right size and configuration ensures enough shelf space to support your restaurant’s inventory requirements and allows easy access during busier periods.
1. Know your freezer specifications
Used commercial freezers come in a range of size, power, shelf space, and climate control specifications. Check the industry codes to see which models are Energy Star-certified for energy-efficiency and guarantee safe operation according to the latest electrical standards.
2. Know what and how much you need to store
Bulk buying is the most cost-effective inventory management strategy. Stocking up on multiple quantities of fast-moving essential ingredients often qualifies you for supplier discounts. But, are you using up enough stocks before their sell-by date?
Check customer demand to select the right size of a used commercial freezer. Go too small, and you’ll run out of items with long lead times, pushing you to upgrade to a bigger size right away. Go too big, and you’ll pay more in utility bills that you need to, or over-stock and end up wasting produce.
Depending on the volume of orders you regularly serve, it may be smarter to purchase a smaller used commercial freezer and re-stock it as needed, rather than a large unit where uncooked frozen items can quickly go past their sell-by date.
Alternatively, if you regularly use large items or high quantities and don’t have enough space for multiple freezers, you may benefit from an all-in-one triple-door unit. Just ensure that their freezing requirements are the same, and there is no risk of cross-contamination.
3. Consider the kitchen layout
How do ingredients move from storage to prep and cooking? The limited real estate of many commercial kitchens is a challenge, but a smooth workflow is all in the smart organization.
When buying a used commercial freezer, consider its placement. Can staff quickly access it for retrieval and storage? How close do the ingredients need to be to the cooking area without posing electrical hazards? The last thing you want is to stick the freezer in the farthest end of the kitchen because it’s the only place it will fit, or have it protrude out to narrow aisles and slow down staff during the service rush.
To learn more about how to find the right size of used commercial freezers for your kitchen and business size, call Ancaster Food Equipment at +1 (855) 888-9644, or contact us here.
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