walk in freezer

[merrickvilleguy]

With our next years expansion we're growing beyond what I can safely deliver direct from the butcher or store in our chest freezer ...

wondering what you guys know about vendors and what not ... my googlefu brings up many but, either they don't deliver to Canada or don't have many details available.

We're looking for 8x8 x7, a kit we can build in the basement would be ideal, but if it needs to be outdoors we can live with that too

 

[Egon]

Just curious on how many you feed from the freezer and how long the storage time will be?

 

[merrickvilleguy]

Next years production is 300 chickens and 25 feeder lambs, so my 12cuft freezer won't be enough. It's not for us personally, even I don't eat that much ha.

But seriously, we were doing the math on it last night and we need between 75-100cuft for the chickens and another 250-275 for the lamb. We'd be storing at most 2 months from production.

A 8x8x7 freezer will get us 448cu ft total which means we will pack it full when you take into account the shelves and extras in the freezer.

 

[Egon]

Thanks for the information. Clarifies a lot of things.

The size you are looking for probably goes into the "Commercial range". These may have construction design items that make them expensive??

Is there any commercial freezing rental space available in your area?

Possibility of using multiple smaller units and taking them off line when not needed?

Bankrupt sales for commercial items?

 

[Larry Caldwell]

It's going to take a lot of years to pay back a walk-in. By the time you get installed, it's going to run you over ten grand.

Have you thought about slaughtering in smaller batches, just enough to keep a month ahead of your market? I guess if you are selling free range meat, that would be difficult. There's not much free range in most parts of Canada in the winter.

One good way of finding a source of walk-ins is to find out who takes care of the walk-ins at your local supermarket. You are going to want local installation and service. If you are lucky, maybe you can buy a used unit from a market or butcher that has gone out of business.

When I was a kid, I worked for a cabinet maker who did walk-ins. He just sandwiched a foot of styrofoam between sheets of plywood and had a mechanical contractor install the compressor and coils.

You are going to need extra capacity and a big fan, unless you have a separate quick freeze unit. Back in the '70s I had an upright freezer, pre energy conservation era, that would take half a hog from room temperature to stiff in about four hours. I figured the center of the cuts were frozen in a day. I can't calc the compressor you would need to take a dozen lambs to frozen in a reasonable time, but you would have to spread them out on racks for air circulation, and apply some serious horsepower. You probably want the compressor outside the house, if not the whole unit.

Good luck.

 

[DaveOmak]

Foster walk in freezers in NY might be a place to start. I found them on eBay.

 

[MarkV]

May also want to look at some government auction sites if they have them up your way. Somethings sell ridiculously low if you can handle the pick-up. Many big cities have used restaurant supply businesses.

MarkV

 

[tommu56]

these guys use to be local Bally Walk-In Coolers and Walk-In Freezers - build a standard or custom walk in cooler or walk in freezer to meet your needs.

We had a n environmental chamber made with their box and some one elses climate control about 12 x 10 x 8 2 people could assemble the box except for the floor it was heavier but managable by 4 people.

They are modular so you can add sections later the only other suggestion i have is to put a rubber roof over it with some tapered insulation to to get rain to run off.

Check with a restaurant supply they probably have a distributor that has them.

tom

 

[merrickvilleguy]

I was thinking today of a walk in cooler we made back in the day using 12k btu airconditioners and 2x6 wall/styro type thing ... id imagine similar for this, but get a proper compressor for the added heat capacity.

I priced out individual freezers today at $800/25cuft, thats 2400 to do my chickens in the fall and 3200 for lambs ... at that rate it would be better to find space to rent for the short term between butchering and delivery ... I'm sure theres something nearby that could do it, because lugging 6x 200lb 6' long freezers into the basement doesn't sound that fun ... and building an outbuilding to store them is even more cost

 

[Duffster]

Have you considered a used truck body or semi trailer?