In this blog post, we will give you a quick guide for choosing a pressure relief valve for cold storage. Firstly,  we will shed light on two main consequences of the pressure difference in the cold room. Secondly, we will list the parameters that you should take into consideration when you try to understand which valve will best fit your cold-room. Finally, we will give you an example of which valve to choose when you build a cold-room.

A pressure relief valve is a must when you build a cold room, no matter the size of your cold storage. You must add a pressure relief valve to your cold chamber for several reasons, especially when it’s a freezer. What happens when we load goods into a cold-room? We close the cold-room door, and the refrigeration equipment cools and freezes the goods. We know this process creates a pressure difference, where the inner pressure becomes lower than the external one.

THE PRESSURE DIFFERENCE IN THE COLD ROOM HAS TWO MAJOR CONSEQUENCES

Let’s see the two main consequences of the pressure difference in the cold-room:

1. Doors become very hard to open.
2. Warm air can leak into the joints of the insulated panels, originating ice formation and eventually breaking the joints.

So,

WHICH VALVE WILL BEST FIT YOUR COLD-ROOM?

There are several parameters that we have to keep in consideration:

1. Inner dimension, length, height, and width of the cold-room;
2. The working temperature of the cold storage, if it’s a cooler or a freezer;
3. The thickness of the insulated metal panels;
4. Most important: how long does it take to get to the working temperature?

Let’s clear the last point: every cold-room project involves the idea of cooling or freezing some goods and maintaining a low temperature as long as needed. This process considers the temperature of the goods when they arrive in the cold-room: it’s not the same to freeze meat at -25C when we load it into a cold room at 20C or at -10C. In the first scenario, the cold-room will have to work harder to freeze it so that the pressure difference will be higher, and we might need a bigger valve to equilibrate the pressure.

Depending on how big your is cold-room, you can choose among a few models of valves. 

Let’s see two examples.

If we build a cold-room of 10 by 10 meters, a height of 3 meters, and a working temperature from 0 to -5C, depending on the time it takes to get to the operating temperature will need the G-zero valve model if the cold-room lowers the temperature to 4C per hour, but it will require the much bigger Evo Maxielebar if it reduces the temperature to 30C per hour.

ADVANTAGES OF USING A COMPENSATION VALVE FOR COLD ROOMS

The ideal solution is to maintain the proper balance between the internal and external pressure of your cold room.

1. Ease of opening the refrigerator door;
2. Stability of the cold room over time;
3. Reduced risk of damaging cold room panel joints;
4. Avoid condensation;
5. Our pressure relief valves have “Made in Italy” quality.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions about the pressure relief valves and you still doubt which valve will best fit your cold-room when you build a cold-room, please contact us. We encourage you to ask us for further info on your specific case. We will gladly assist you with any questions you may have. You can reach us by completing the form below; otherwise, write to sales@globepanels.com.