Close the door! It's cold inside

It says its Frost-Free vestibule works by preventing humidity from the inner air in the chamber from fixing on the cool parts and stopping ice forming. It says common conditions in a chill room are ice crystals suspended in the air, "fog-ice" on walls, products and evaporators and ice on the floor while the space outside the chill room is usually wet. These are all the effect of air infiltration from the exterior and the difference in density of the air between the cold store which could be at -20ºC, and the outside which may be at +20ºC-.

It calculates that handling this flow of air may make up 40 per cent of the total refrigeration load of a cold-storage operation, increasing the compressor running time and requiring more defrost cycles.

Kinarca says that setting up a refrigerated anteroom does not change things that much, but its Frost-Free Airlock-Vestibule "eliminates" all the problems, ensuring that access to the cold store remains free of frost and ice and that the floor will be dry.

Because of lower power demand, it says the vestibule normally pays for itself in two or three years. And there is no need for installing a refrigerated anteroom, it adds.