The Exciting World of Hinges and Latches for Walk-ins

There are many different styles of hinges and latches.

Both the hinges and latches have a number on the back.  In addition, they may say “flush” or have the offset size, e.g. 1 1/8, 1 ½, etc.  It is important to have that number on the back to ensure you get the proper replacement. Additionally, having the serial number of your walk-in (often located in the door jamb on the hinge side) can be a huge help if you’re ordering the replacement part from the walk-in manufacturer.

Let’s talk hinges!

Walk in cooler or freezer hinges are either flush or offset.  The easiest way to determine which style you have is to place your hand on the outside wall of the walk-in and slide it towards the door.  If the door stops your hand from moving across the door then you have an offset door.  If your hand slides across the door it is flush.

Determine the offset measure by measuring from the wall surface to the door surface.  The offset measure combined with the number on the back will ensure you receive the correct hinge.

Also, some walk-in hinges are reversible.  If you receive a hinge and it is the reverse of what you need, you can reverse the new hinge.

Read the rest of this entry »

10 Tips for Restaurants on Saving Money, Energy & the Earth

Are you investing your energy resources wisely? The following tips provide ideas for maintaining an energy efficient operation.

Track energy consumption

Tracking your monthly electricity, water, sewer, trash and natural gas consumption is a first step toward managing your impact and monitoring the effectiveness of efficiency improvements. If you’re an independent operator or local chain, get audits from local utilities and municipalities. Many organizations provide free energy, water and waste audits in addition to advice, technical and sometimes financial assistance for upgrades and program development. Take advantage of these free professional services.

Allow for air circulation around refrigerators and freezers

Refrigerators remove heat from inside the box and eject that heat through the coils on the top or bottom of the unit. When you are cleaning around these units, do not push your reach-ins into tight spaces where the heat will build up, forcing the unit to work harder and use more energy.

Defrost food regularly

Develop a frozen food pull schedule to avoid the practice of defrosting food under running hot water. If a two-gallon-per-minute faucet is used forthis purpose one hour every day for a year, the cost may exceed $800. Read the rest of this entry »

LEED Green Building Certification

Green Building Certification – LEED

Green design in buildings has increased rapidly in the last few years due to the increase in energy costs. To help centralize the green building criteria, the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) developed core principles for residential and commercial buildings that are designed to lower operating costs, reduce waste, reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions, and conserve energy.  The USGBC developed LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), a rating system that serves as a third-party certification program. The numeric -point driven program evaluates a building’s total environmental performance. The number of points earned for a project determines the LEED certification level of the building. Buildings, not individual products, attain LEED certification based on the number of credits earned

U.S. Cooler offers several products to assist our customers in meeting the requirements for LEED certification. Read the rest of this entry »

New! Brew Cave Takes Beer Storage to New Level

U.S. Cooler unveils its new “Brew Cave” high efficiency cooler package to small commercial and residential customers. With the new unit’s lower price, higher efficiency, and several color choices, the new commercial grade walk-in will be of great interest to small bar/club and residential users. Unlike the usual beer cave found in Convenience Stores, U.S. Cooler has made the new “Brew Cave” to fit in a small space and still offer tons of storage for beer, soda or any cold beverage at a very competitive price. This convenient high efficiency package includes everything necessary for a walk-in beverage cooler; refrigeration, shelving and draft beer dispensing system.

The Brew Cave is now available in one standard model size, 6’10” x 4’10” x 7’6”. The small size lends itself to the ability of fitting in most basements, garages, bars or clubs. The Brew Cave can store over 30 cases of beer and 6 or more kegs, all while keeping them cold and ready to enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »

Mortuary Body Coolers Available

U.S. Cooler provides mortuary coolers built to meet the demands of Funeral Directors, Coroners, Medical Labs and many other temperature controlled environments. These systems come equipped with a heavy duty stationary rack system for ease of loading and unloading. Our high quality, energy efficient mortuary refrigerators are made to meet sanitation requirements and are NSF and UL approved. Our standard sized unit is 8’ x 3’ x 6’ with a floor and is a 3 body model. U.S. Cooler can also build any custom size mortuary cooler to meet your specifications.

Visit our website for more information on our mortuary coolers.

SCHOTT-Gemtron Announces CrossFire LED Lighting at T-8 Pricing

Tim Dye, Director of Sales and Marketing of SCHOTT Gemtron announced today that Tundra™, Sierra™, and Polar™ door models will be offered with CrossFire™ LED lighting at standard T-8 pricing. Dye stated, “SCHOTT Gemtron continues to lead the industry by being the first glass door manufacturer to provide LED technology at this price level.” Dye continued by stating, “LED lighting has been a solution for our customers for the last 5 years, and now we are making it even more affordable.”

CrossFire™ LED lighting has proven to be the solution for the harsh cold environments of the commercial refrigeration industry. This lighting is the perfect application for Super Markets, Convenience Stores, Buying Clubs, Drug Stores, and any other retailer that utilizes glass display doors in their merchandising endeavors.

Dye also stated, “With this major price reduction all retailers can utilize this technology and feel confident that they are maximizing their sales efforts.” Read the rest of this entry »

Preventative Maintenance for Refrigeration Systems

Suggested Refrigeration Systems Preventative Maintenance

Refrigeration systems are critical in the foodservice industry. It is very important to provide maintenance on your cooling systems to help prevent them from clogging or breaking down, which could lead to spoiled food, rotten food, etc. The following guidelines are provided from Heatcraft’s Operation & Instruction Manual.   By following these preventive maintenance steps, it does not guarantee your unit will not break down. However, by taking care and maintaining your refrigeration systems your unit is less likely to have problems.

Preventive Maintenance

Unit Coolers

At every six month interval, or sooner if local conditions cause clogging or fouling of air passages through the finned surface, the following items should be checked.

Read the rest of this entry »

NRA 2010 Introducing the Brew Cave

Visit us at NRA – Booth 1834

U.S. Cooler will be exhibiting at the NRA Show in Chicago, May 22-25.

Since last NRA (National Restaurant Association), U.S. Cooler has been busy working with lean and efficiency engineers designing new walk-ins that reduce waste, inventory, time, and costs. All of these factors together equal savings for dealers and consumers. Providing customers with quality, affordable walk-ins in a convenient amount of time has always been U.S. Cooler’s highest priority.

U.S. Cooler, through their discount dealer program, passes savings on to consumers via the internet. Quick delivery, quality product, and competitive prices have drawn customers from across the nation to buy walk-in coolers and freezers from U.S. Cooler’s internet dealers online. Check out www.fastcooler.com, the internet’s best resource for discount walk-in cooler and freezer dealers.

This year at NRA, U.S. Cooler is displaying the new lean Brew Cave.

The U.S. Cooler Brew Cave offers an abundance of cold storage space for beer, soda or any cold beverage. It can store over 30 cases of beer and 4 or more kegs, all while keeping them cold and ready to drink. The Brew Cave is perfect for restaurants, bars, clubs, hotels, country clubs etc. Everything needed for your Brew Cave is included in one convenient package; refrigeration, shelving and draft beer dispensing system. The Brew Cave can be any standard size and has many add-on features. With shelving that is designed to provide the most cold storage space possible in the footprint of the walk-in, the Brew Cave is sure to provide you with the most efficient storage space available.

Stop by U.S. Cooler’s booth 1834 to learn more about our discount internet program and how U.S. Cooler can save you money.

New Website walkincoolerparts.com

Has your walk-in cooler or freezer seen a lot of use and abuse over the years? Door parts on walk-ins are particularly susceptible due to heavy traffic and may become worn or break. In the past we have exclusively provided walk-in parts for our units by calling our parts line 866-261-2797 (8-5PM CST). U.S. Cooler is proud to announce the launch of our new parts website walkincoolerparts.com. The site will allow you to create an account and save items in your cart to be purchased at a later date. It also offers the convenience of 24/7 ordering, free shipping, secure checkout and no minimum purchase amounts.

Currently, our online catalog only offers parts that are standard on U.S. Cooler walk-ins. These include hinges, closers, cam locks, light fixtures, screeding, handles and more. In the coming months, we will begin adding additional items to our catalog encompassing parts that require specific sizing or aren’t found on U.S. Cooler manufactured units.

Walk-in Cooler Parts accepts Visa, Discover, and Mastercard. Appropriate sales taxes will be charged for shipments to Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, and Texas.

False Information about Extruded Polystyrene

Recently, there has been a document circulating in the industry that has a lot of misinformation concerning the use of extruded polystyrene insulation and its compliance with the Energy Independence Security Act of 2007.

We normally ignore incorrect information that is generated with the sole purpose of discrediting a competitor but the severity of this document begs to be clarified.

The document can be found by clicking the pdf icon.

First, there are presently two types of foam insulations being used in the manufacture of walk-in coolers and freezers in the United States.  These insulations are Extruded Polystyrene and Foamed –in –Place Polyurethane insulation.  Many companies in North America have the ability to use both types of these insulations.  Both insulations have benefits that can be used to provide a quality walk-in cooler or freezer. Companies that use both types of insulation can apply each of these insulations in parts of a walk-in that they perform best and therefore bring the best designed quality walk-in cooler or freezer to the marketplace.  Some companies do not have the capability and therefore turn to attacking the insulations they do not have the ability to use with misleading information to compensate for this deficiency.   This situation seems to be one of them.  There are six points that need to be addressed. Read the rest of this entry »