Idea in a Nutshell

Does your business need a walk-in cold room? Do you know how to save money by picking the right cold room design? See below for our expert overview of chiller rooms and freezer rooms.

Cold rooms and chillers are essential to many industries, and particularly the restaurant and food industry. Cold storage units are enclosed rooms which can be installed in commercial premises. They act as refrigerated rooms within rooms, maintaining a steady cool temperature inside.

The advantages of cold storage are that ingredients can be kept conveniently close to the kitchens at a safe temperature until used. Quality chiller rooms and freezers strike a good balance between allowing easy access by staff at all times as well as keeping refrigeration as efficient as possible. Technology is the answer here, and good design: be prepared to pay for it!

When it comes to the pricing of Saudi cold room installation, you get what you pay for. The cheaper a cold room solution is, the more likely it is to offer high running costs in the future. If you pay for professional installation of a premium cold room, however, you will benefit from cost efficiencies for the unit’s entire working life. 

How do cold storage units work?

Cold rooms and chillers work like standalone refrigerators, but on a bigger scale. A storage area is insulated, then its temperature reduced by heat exchange; this means sucking air into the system, cooling it with refrigerant chemicals, and then using it to refrigerate the storage area. A thermostat sets the desired temperature.

Insulation is key to cold room storage. Unless the insulation is robust, heat will get into the system, the temperature will rise and perishable items will rot.

Do you need a walk-in freezer or a cold room?

It depends on what foods you need to store. 

Walk-in freezers are for long-term storage of perishables that are not damaged by freezing. Thus the temperature they provide can be as low as -40C and usually no higher than -18C. Raqtan’s standard freezer room temperature is -18C.

Cold rooms do not freeze items. They are the equivalent of the domestic fridge. Cold rooms are designed for the storage of perishables that need a temperature between -2C and -5C.

Why are coldrooms better than standalone refrigerators?

Cost

A standalone refrigerator can work out costing in the region of 10 Riyals per cubic litre of storage. Cold rooms cost roughly half that.

User convenience

Cold rooms are specifically designed to make it easy to get to the right stock. This is not the case with standalone upright refrigerators, however big they are. You can’t walk into them and look around as you can with a cold room.

What factors affect the price of cold storage installations?

The type of cold storage determines prices. Freezer units tend to be more expensive than chillers. That’s because they operate at lower temperatures which is more mechanically demanding. What’s more, freezers usually store meat, which is expensive. Restaurateurs generally invest in as expensive freezer as they can because it protects their most expensive ingredients.

More advanced models tend to be more expensive:

There are key technologies which massively improve the cost-efficiency of cold storage. Auto-close doors is a good example, which ensure that human error does not lead to the door to the cold room being left open. These items comprise added cost, but make sense because they keep running costs down over the long run.

What is an approximate figure for the cost of cold storage?

Most manufacturers of cold storage solutions do not advertise fixed prices. That’s because the industry is used to putting together custom prices for clients to suit individual requirements. Cold storage comes in many forms. Not only is there the division between chillers and freezers, there are different methods of installation. There are pre-made cold rooms which can be dropped in place, plugged in, and are ready to use (like Raqtan’s Monoblock system). And there are cold rooms which have to be installed in situ. 

At the lowest end of the spectrum, you would be hard pressed to find a pre-made 2m x 2m x 2m cold room for less than 10,000 Riyals online. But if you pay rock bottom like this to an internet supplier, the unit might present as many problems as it solves. Is the wiring and transformer work safe? Will electrical components need to be replaced? Where do I get spares from? Does it come with servicing included? 

At the higher end of the spectrum, 50,000 Riyals is a respectable price for a first-class cold room, complete with cost-saving technologies, expert installation (less than 2 days) and full servicing schedule.

What prices does Raqtan offer on cold storage?

Raqtan has been proud to provide its cold room brand, Brodan, to a host of leading restaurants and restaurant chains:

TypeDimensions
(metres)
Price (excl. 15% VAT)
Freezer room 2x2x2.5 SAR 50,253
Freezer room 2x3x2.5 SAR 55,284
Freezer room 3x3x2.5 SAR 76,159
   
Chiller 2x2x2.5 SAR 50,811 
 Chiller 2x3x2.5SAR 53,070
 Chiller 3x3x2.5SAR 56,477

In the table above, all quoted Raqtan models include the convenience and low noise of a remote type compressor.

All Raqtan freezers and chillers feature automatic closing doors as well as other cost-saving features.

This keeps the pressure balance inside the freezer, ensuring optimal running of the refrigeration.

An easy-cleaning feature that ensures that the doors are sculpted without having areas where dirt can accumulate.

To allow the entire interior of the cold room to be used for storage, the evaporator element can be placed above its ceiling.

Now in its third generation, this is Raqtan’s proprietary technology. Our panels feature overlapping joints which do not require finishing with silicon. This makes them more hygienic. What’s more, the Longwall design ensures higher thermal insulation as well as better structural strength in the unit.

A safe and simple control unit allows the user to customise the operation of the cold room. What’s more, it comes with an inbuilt temperature alarm to warn the owner in the event of unexpected fluctuations in temperature. Remote monitoring of temperature is also available.

This third generation technology owned by Raqtan offers a new level of convenience for staff using our cold rooms. Featuring custom auto-closers, our doors do not need to be handled when closing. They close themselves. The door handle only need be pulled, because the door does not need to latch or lock. This has two advantages. Human error, in leaving the door open and letting the food rot, is eliminated. This is great for your business. What’s great for staff is that they can carry items back and forward without having to stop each time to negotiate the door.

In the GCC, we are served by a mature cold room sector. Because of our climate, cold room storage is a technology that we have perfected. Prices reflect a mature sector in which cold rooms are guaranteed for safe operation, and generally offer far lower running costs than previously. 

The good news in the cold room market is that prices for cold room storage will always beat those for refrigerated standalone units.

Here at Raqtan, we have dedicated an entire factory to the development of cold room technology and implementation. We have installed over 450+ cold rooms across the GCC with less than 0.2% call for service within the warranty period.

Restaurant Food Truck Coffeeshop Pizzeria

Do you plan your own business?
Evaluate the cost now!​

Newsletter

Don’t Miss
The News

Share this article: