As a restaurant operator, your refrigerator is your best friend. It’s responsible for storing your perishable inventory at optimal temperatures—ensuring their quality and safety for consumption.
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With it playing such a critical role in your restaurant operations, here’s a question for you: Have you ever thought about the technological machinations behind what makes your commercial refrigeration systems do what they do best?
To better appreciate your lowboys, walk-ins, and cold rails, we’ve put together this quick and helpful guide giving you a behind-the-scenes look into your refrigeration units—and how to enhance their overall performance.
Firstly, how does a refrigerator work?
How can a refrigerator be so cold inside, yet so hot from behind? Your refrigerator contains what‘s known as refrigerant—a fluid that can quickly evaporate from liquid state to gas and vice versa.
Your refrigerator pressurizes, condenses, and evaporates this refrigerant in a closed circuit. This removes heat and, in turn, reduces the temperature inside the fridge.
This is a constant process occurring within your refrigerator.
Unfortunately, and ironically, this process contributes to global warming—accounting for 10% of global CO2 emissions.
Yet, it would not be possible without these vital components:
Important refrigerator components and what they do
The compressor acts as the central component of your refrigerator. Gas at low pressure and temperature enters the compressor, where it then undergoes high-pressure compression—raising the gas’ temperature.
This hot gas is then transferred to the condenser coils, where its heat subsides and is then turned back into a liquid. The addition of cooling ventilation fins located on the back of the refrigerator unit also aids in the condensation process.
The liquid refrigerant then channels through the expansion valve and capillary tube where it’s then sprayed into the low-pressure environment of the evaporator.
The evaporator is the component that makes the cold magic happen. As the cold liquid absorbs the warmth from the air inside the refrigerator, it turns back into a low-temperature gas. As a result, it cools the area around it—producing the appropriate environment for cold food storage.
The thermostat plays an essential job within your refrigerator—and that’s monitoring and controlling the whole cooling process.
When the thermostat sensor detects that temperatures have reached the ideal cold threshold, it turns off the compressor. Then once it senses temperatures reaching above the ideal cold threshold, it switches the compressor back on to resume the cooling process.
This cycle repeats throughout your refrigerator’s life—maintaining a stable temperature as much as possible.
What happens when commercial refrigerator components break down?
The refrigeration process is a delicate cycle that relies on the above components working in perfect synchronicity. Therefore, serious problems can arise if even just one of these components breaks down or fails to work at its full capacity.
Two of the most common symptoms of component failure are energy wastage and spoiled inventory.
Energy wastage causes a major discrepancy in your business’ utility bills—with much higher rates than they should be.
Spoiled inventory, on the other hand, can cost your restaurant thousands of dollars each year.
Specifically, an average restaurant would waste about 10% of their bought inventory per year. In the US restaurant industry alone, such spoilages would account for $162 billion worth of inventory wasted annually.
Thankfully, there are several warning signs you can look out for to determine imminent component failure and fridge breakdown.
These red flags include:
- Irregular sounds
- Excessive build-up of ice
- Overheating exterior
- A decrease in food quality, such as mold
- Leaks
- Excessive wear and tear
If you’re seeing at least one of these signs, what can you do in response?
How to avoid/prevent refrigerators from breaking down
It’s vital to keep a close eye on the temperature readings of your commercial freezers and fridge.
Our recommendation? An accurate and reliable form of temperature monitoring—whether through an aftermarket sensor or one contained internally within the system.
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One of the very first and not-immediately-apparent signs of imminent refrigeration system failure is your fridge’s inability to maintain the ideal cold threshold temperature.
By the time it becomes apparent, it may already be too late for your perishables. As they may already have been exposed to the food safety danger zone for an extended period of time.
Temperature monitoring can help you detect this early—giving you time to seek proper preventive maintenance for your fridge. Not only would this save your inventory, but it can also reduce overall repair costs.
Storage temperatures exceeding 40° degrees Fahrenheit can spoil perishable items such as greens and meats in less than 2 hours. At warmer temperatures, bacteria can thrive and multiply every 20 minutes.
This means you should take even the earliest signs of imminent component failure seriously to prevent avoidable losses.
How smart temperature sensors help your commercial refrigeration system perform better
Temperature monitoring has always been part of the food service industry. Traditionally, it’s done through manual thermometer temperature checks.
Unfortunately, the risks involved in manual temperature checks are quite common. Usually, they would include human error, inaccurate readings, or unaccounted equipment failure during off-hours.
To reduce loss and improve profits, restaurateurs and fast-casual franchises have turned to a new solution—smart temperature sensors.
Smart temperature sensors automatically record the temperature of your refrigeration equipment—reducing the risks that come with traditional temperature management. GlacierGrid, for example, is a smart temperature sensor built specifically to cater to restaurants.
Developed to perform inside coolers, freezers, and other harsh environments, GlacierGrid's smart temperature sensors are accurate, reliable, and user-friendly.
GlacierGrid saves valuable employee time spent on daily temperature checks—freeing them up for other operations. It also reduces, if not completely prevents, equipment downtime by catching issues before they happen.
Need to cut costs without cutting corners?
Secure your inventory with smart temperature sensors.
Refrigeration is an important aspect of both domestic and commercial food management. The creation of the first modern fridge in the late 1800's was an ushering of a great era in the food preservation and foodservice world. This has further been advanced by new technology which has seen a current production of more than 1 billion refrigerators around the world.
The one main reasons why refrigerators are used in businesses and at home is to keep food cold. Fridges are important because food stays fresh for longer, thus helping cut down wastage in foodservice settings. They also help increase profits in businesses by maintaining the quality of food for a longer time and allowing chefs the time and opportunity to create their best foods.
More production of food which is, in normal circumstances, highly perishable has increased the need to have storage mechanisms that prevent wastage and unwanted loss. However, as much as refrigeration is an important part of our lives, one question remains, how does a refrigerator work and how does it maintain such cold temperatures for a long time?
The Refrigeration Cycle Components
A standard refrigerator will have mechanical elements that make it easy for it to achieve and maintain cold temperatures. They are the components that will maintain the refrigeration cycle. These components are highly specialised in order to provide the desired effects.
They include a compressor, condenser, expansion valve/metering or throttling device and an evaporator. Additionally, the fridge has to use a refrigerant, a substance that is used to provide the cooling effect. The refrigerant has to pass through all these components and in each, it is altered to achieve the required temperatures.
Here are the refrigeration components that complete the cycle.
Compressor
Its work is to control the flow of the refrigerant by acting as a motor and a pump. This allows it to pressurise the refrigerant and reduce its volume.
There are five types of compressors used in both commercial and domestic refrigerators. They include reciprocating, rotary, screw, centrifugal and scroll. Of the five, the reciprocating compressor is the most commonly used in home and commercial kitchen refrigerators.
Condenser
The condenser works by condensing the refrigerant. The refrigerant entering the condenser is hot and pressurised. The condenser then cools the refrigerant by converting it into a liquid state.
There are three types of condensers.
Air-cooled. you will find this in small refrigerators such as the ones used at home. They are ideal when the refrigerant quantity is small. The air-cooled condenser is also called coil condenser because it comes with aluminium or copper coils at the back of the fridge. The coils increase the surface area for cooling the refrigerant.
Air-cooled condensers are further divided into two. The natural convection condenser which uses the natural flow of air to cool the refrigerant and the forced convection condenser which uses a fan to draw in cold air.
Water-cooled condensers. These are used in large plants where there is more refrigerant. They use water to provide the cooling effect on the refrigerant. Water-cooled refrigerants are further subdivided into three.
- Tube-in-tube or double pipe type
- Shell and coil type
- Shell and tube type
Water-cooled systems typically work better when operating in higher ambient temperatures.
Evaporative Condensers. These are used in ice plants and are a combination of water-cooled and air-cooled condensers. As such, they come with benefits from both types of condensers.
Expansion Valve
The expansion valve helps reduce the pressure and temperature of the refrigerant. The sudden drop in pressure and temperature produces a cooling effect.
The expansion valve also regulates the amount of refrigerant used in meeting the load requirements. The load, in this case, are the products that need cooling in the refrigerator.
There are various types of expansion valves. They include:
- Capillary Tube
- Constant Pressure or Automatic Throttling Valve
- Thermostatic Expansion Valve
- Float Valve
Evaporator
The evaporator absorbs heat inside the refrigerator. It acts as a medium of exchange for heat from the stored products (load) to the refrigerant. In most cases, the evaporator is the coldest part of the fridge or the freezer.
Here, the refrigerant is cold and moves at a slower pace in order to absorb as much heat as possible from the load. As it absorbs the heat, it gets hotter and turns into a gas. By vaporising the refrigerant more heat is absorbed from the load. The refrigerant, now hot and in gaseous form, is then pushed back into the compressor.
All types of commercial refrigeration will have these components, from commercial bottle coolers and multidecks to commercial chest freezers and cold rooms.
The Refrigeration Cycle
The refrigeration cycle starts and ends with the compressor. The refrigerant flows into the Compressor where it is compressed and pressurised. At this point, the refrigerant is a hot gas. The refrigerant is then pushed to the Condenser which turns the vapour into liquid and absorbs some of the heat. The refrigerant then proceeds to the Expansion Valve where it expands, losing pressure and heat.
The refrigerant coming out of the expansion valve is cold and slow due to the loss of pressure. It enters the Evaporator in a liquid state where the exchange of heat takes place thus cooling the load inside the refrigerator. As the gas cools down the load, it absorbs the heat which turns it into a gas. The gas is then pushed back into the Compressor where it can start the cycle again.
During the refrigeration cycle, a build-up of ice around the evaporator may occur. Both commercial fridges and freezers will combat this build-up with some form of defrost system. Read more about different types of defrosting function here.
Understanding the Refrigeration Cycle
The refrigeration cycle basically involves the movement of refrigerant from one place to the next and in different forms with the ultimate goal of pulling down temperatures whether in a cabinet, counter or even cold room format. The one main importance of learning how your commercial fridge works is so that you understand how to clean and maintain equipment effectively. For example, understanding that your fridge uses an air-cooled condenser will help you find the ideal position for your unit in order to make its work easier and lower the energy consumption. By understanding the basics, only then can one fully benefit from their commercial refrigeration.
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