The quality of your commercial freezer makes a world of difference. Whether you’re serving up ice cream, sorbet or other frozen treats, your establishment needs a commercial ice cream chest you can rely on to keep products fresh and ready to serve. If the freezer is the wrong type for the job, it could impact product quality and, therefore, sales.
What are the different types of commercial freezers? While not a complete list, models commonly used for frozen treats include glass-top chest, undercounter, island and upright freezers. If you’re in the market for a new commercial freezer, it pays to know which type is going to best fit your needs.
Comparing the Various Types of Freezers
As vital pieces of equipment for practically every business in the food industry, it’s necessary to understand the different features and benefits of commercial freezers.
Glass-top chest freezer
While many establishments utilize a traditional horizontal chest freezer for back-of-house operations, vendors offering frozen treats frequently opt for a glass-top chest freezer to serve customers at the front. Just as the name suggests, this type of commercial ice cream chest features sliding glass doors on top to display items and make accessing them easy. Because of their quick-serve nature, glass-top freezers are well suited for gas stations and concession applications as well as full-service restaurants to store their frozen dessert products.
Upright freezer
Another popular type of retail display freezers is the upright. Like the glass-top, this model displays the wares inside to make it easy to locate the item without opening the doors, but at roughly half the floor space. Restaurants might utilize them in the kitchen area for easily accessible cold storage or they could be out on the sales floor for customer use. Available in several styles, upright freezers work great for grocery stores as a marketing tool and offer a convenient shopping experience for frozen items.
Island freezer
Also great for grocery stores are island freezers. Although similar to glass-top chests, these open-top access models may be designed to make item retrieval easier by lowering the height. As a result, this variety of chest freezer is often associated with the sale of ice cream and commonly employed in the frozen food section of many types of establishments. Island freezers are ideal for storing large volumes of frozen food and easy to relocate.
Undercounter freezer
Performing much like an upright reach-in unit, undercounter freezers could be the perfect space-saving solution for a busy or cramped commercial kitchen. Featuring a lowered height, the top of the freezer can be used for prep work, additional storage or streamlining various kitchen operations. Undercounter freezers can keep daily essentials and popular products close at-hand to boost efficiency and provide a range of similar benefits, making them a practical choice for all sorts of food service businesses.
Maintaining Ice Cream Freezer Temperature
When shopping around for the best freezer for your business, keep temperature control in mind. As the key to maintaining the ideal environment for fresh food and a long shelf life, the wrong temperature setting could go against health codes, result in spoilage and have a big impact on sales. For frozen treats specifically, the ice cream freezer temperature should be set at 0°F (-18°C) or colder.
Trust the Experts at Iron Mountain Refrigeration
As a leading commercial freezer supplier, we here at Iron Mountain Refrigeration have the perfect solutions to your equipment requirements. We proudly offer safe, reliable equipment and superior customer support to best suit the needs of your business.
Browse our wide range of commercial ice cream chest freezers and so much more today!