A walk-in that holds temperature under load.
Plenty of walk-ins hold temperature empty at 6am and drift warm by lunch. Nobody counted the door traffic, the incoming product, the people, the lights, and August all at once. We do. We calculate the real load, fit the room to how you actually work, install the whole system, and come back to service it. We ran a food plant for 20 years. We know what a warm room costs.
What changes below freezing
| Walk-in cooler | Walk-in freezer | |
|---|---|---|
| Operating temp | 35–40°F (+2 to +4°C) | 0°F (-18°C), to -25°C hard-frozen |
| Typical product | Produce, dairy, fresh, chocolate, butter | Frozen meat, seafood, prepared foods, ice cream |
| Panel | 100mm high-density PIR | 150mm high-density PIR |
The parts have to work together
- 01Panels sized to temperatureThickness has to match the temperature delta around the room. We use 42 kg/m³ PIR/PU foam, B-grade fire rating, FM-approved. Go too thin and the compressor pays for it every single day. Panel thickness guide →
- 02Refrigeration sized to loadWe count heat through the envelope, door infiltration, incoming product, lights, people, and motors, then match Bitzer or Copeland condensing units to that number. Oversized short-cycles. Undersized runs all day and still loses ground. How we size it →
- 03Doors matched to trafficA forklift lane needs a sliding door. Foot traffic usually wants a hinged one. Freezer openings get heater wire so frost doesn't build at the frame. We size it to the traffic, then hang it 100% sealed. Door types →
- 04Floors built for trafficA freezer floor carries racks, pallet jacks, and forklifts without opening a path for water or frost. XPS insulation at 250 kPa, SBS waterproofing, and a two-layer vapor barrier, done right the first time.
The numbers behind the room
Panel thickness follows the temperature delta: the temperature inside against the worst ambient outside. That decides how much heat the refrigeration has to pull out, every hour, for the life of the room. Here's the performance we calculate against.
| Panel thickness | Heat transfer (W/m²·K) | Temp difference | Suitable range | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 75 mm | 0.267 / 0.30 | 40°C | -5 to 25°C | Light cooler |
| 100 mm | 0.20 / 0.23 | 50°C | -15 to 25°C | Cooler |
| 150 mm | 0.133 / 0.15 | 70°C | -25 to 25°C | Freezer |
| 180 mm | 0.11 / 0.125 | 80°C | -35 to 25°C | Low-temp freezer |
| 200 mm | 0.10 / 0.113 | 90°C | -50 to 25°C | Hard-frozen / blast-adjacent |
A hot, unconditioned warehouse, a door that never stops cycling, or heavy product pull-down all change the load. The table is a starting point. The room calculation is what sizes the equipment.
The materials change with the room: stainless 304 where you wash down, galvanized or color-plate steel where you don't. Panels and components are engineered for a 20-year service life, backed by FoodProTec's install-and-service warranty, and we service the whole system ourselves.
The room has to keep running.
Most failures don't announce themselves. A flattened gasket, a weak heater wire, a voltage fault, or a dirty condenser shows up first as longer run time, frost, and temperature drift.
We install everything we sell and service it for life. Remote monitoring surfaces electrical faults early. We keep the parts that actually wear on the shelf, so the same crew that built the room can fix it without waiting weeks on a shipment.
Rooms for working food operations
Restaurants & foodservice, grocery & specialty retail, seafood & meat processors, commissary & prepared-food kitchens, cold docks & 3PL space.
We install across NJ, NY, PA, New England, and the Mid-Atlantic with our own crews. Equipment supply is available beyond that footprint. Turning warehouse space into cold storage? Estimate the conversion.
Questions we answer every week
What is the difference between a walk-in cooler and freezer?
Temperature changes the whole build. A cooler holds 35–40°F on 100mm PIR panels and can usually sit on the existing slab. A freezer holds 0°F, or down to -25°C for hard-frozen product, on 150mm panels. It also needs an insulated floor to protect the slab, heater wire at the door, and evaporator defrost. Colder means a bigger condensing unit and more power. And the existing slab still gets checked before we say it can stay.
What thickness insulated panels do I need for a walk-in?
Start with the temperature inside and the worst ambient around the box. The working rule: 100mm for a cooler, 150mm for a 0°F freezer, 180–200mm for low-temp or blast-adjacent rooms. A hot, unconditioned warehouse can push you one step thicker. Under-spec the panel and the compressor works harder for the next 20 years. We calculate the delta before we pick the panel. Full thickness table →
Can I build a walk-in inside an existing warehouse?
Yes. That's a box-in-a-box conversion. Insulated panels go up inside the existing walls, with an insulated floor build if it's a freezer. Before we price it we check ceiling clearance for the panels and evaporator, slab condition, drainage, forklift access, and where the condenser's going to reject heat. The existing shell saves time and construction, but only if those conditions work. Estimate the conversion →
How do you size refrigeration for a walk-in?
Four loads, added up: heat through the panel envelope, warm air coming in through the doors, incoming product that has to pull down, and heat from lights, fans, equipment, and people. Then a run-time factor, and we match the condensing unit and evaporator to it. Oversizing doesn't make the room safer; it short-cycles the compressor and wears it out. Undersizing means the room loses temperature on the day you need it most. More on right-sizing →
Get the first number before you call.
Run the estimator for a planning estimate, no email required. If the project's ready to talk about, send the square footage, target temperature, product load, and door traffic, and we'll tell you what's realistic.
Or call (201) 256-1231 · We respond within 1 business day.