Hold In The Cold: Choosing The Right PVC Strip Curtains For Your Walk-In Freezer
Posted on: 4 May 2017
Whether you're a restaurant owner, a grocery retailer or a simple homeowner looking for the ultimate in cold storage convenience, a walk-in freezer can be a tremendously effective way to keep large amounts of food and other perishables in safe storage. However, the large doors that permit such easy access to a walk-in freezer can also allow cool air to escape quickly, potentially undermining the consistent cooling power of your freezer.
To combat this, most walk-in freezer owners will install PVC strip curtains inside the entrance to their walk-in freezer. These flexible strips of insulating plastic provide a solid layer of protection against heat exchange without posing a significant obstacle to freezer entry, and can dramatically improve the cooling efficiency of your freezer. However, these curtains must be carefully chosen to maximise their effectiveness, so make sure to keep the following factors in mind when purchasing PVC strip curtains for your freezer:
Dimensions
Naturally, the most important part of purchasing PVC strip curtains is making sure they will actually fit within the entranceway to your freezer. The best way to accurately size your curtains is by having them cut to size by a specialist strip curtain retailer. You should also ensure that the strip curtains are of a suitable length—curtains that are too short will allow heat exchange close to ground level, while overly long curtains will trail on the ground and form a nasty trip hazard.
Insulatory properties
Not every PVC strip curtain is created equal, and some are more capable of insulating your freezer and preventing excessive heat exchange than others. Usually, this is a matter of strip thickness, and thicker curtains will generally improve cold air insulation significantly—however, thicker curtains can also be more difficult to use quickly, so you should try to balance your chosen curtain thickness between insulation and convenience
Strip overlap
Cold air insulation within your freezer can also be dramatically increased by choosing strip curtains that overlap. The more the individual strips of your curtains overlap, the more effective they will be at preventing heat exchange, but unfortunately the same disadvantages that apply to excessive strip thickness also apply to excessive strip overlapping. Closely overlapping strips can be very difficult to navigate speedily, so consider choosing a minimal overlap if you need fast, regular access to your freezer (for example, if you run a commercial kitchen).
Strip transparency
It may seem like a purely aesthetic concern, but the transparency of your curtains can affect easy freezer usage. Opaque or mildly translucent curtains are not recommended for smaller freezers that possess no internal lighting, and can lead to collisions if two people should meet from opposite sides of the sight-blocking curtain. Fully transparent curtains eliminate these problems, but tend to be slightly more expensive.
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