Safety Is Always a Concern of Temporary Refrigeration
Before one of our walk-in cold rooms or freezer trailers leaves our facilities for delivery to a customer, it undergoes a thorough mechanical and safety inspection. The mechanical inspection ensures the unit is working as intended while the safety inspection is designed to identify any potential issues that could result in fires or other accidents. Both inspections are critical to maintaining the temporary refrigeration equipment our customers rely on.
How important is the safety aspect? Important enough that the London Fire Brigade (LFB) is in the midst of an aggressive campaign to encourage refrigeration manufacturers to adopt new measures that would directly address fire concerns. The LFB is focusing mainly on manufacturers of residential equipment, but the points they make are just as applicable to manufacturers of commercial equipment.
The LFB says that within their jurisdiction, there have been 71 serious injuries and 7 deaths resulting from refrigeration fires since 2010. Many of the noted problems are directly related to highly flammable insulation used to increase energy efficiency. Should that insulation or its plastic packing catch fire, it can causes two additional problems. First, it can lead to the rapid expansion of the fire due to its highly flammable nature. Second, both the insulation and the plastic put out toxic gases as they burn.
Manufacturers of refrigeration equipment are years behind in making safety improvements, according to the LFB. They are now calling on the industry to make sure that non-combustible or fire retardant materials are developed to replace what is now standard. They believe that doing so will reduce the risks associated with refrigeration fires.
Commercial Refrigeration Concerns
As previously mentioned, the LFB action deals mainly with residential refrigeration units as opposed to the temporary refrigeration solutions companies such as ours offer. Commercial freezer trailers and walk-in rooms are typically made with as little plastic as possible to increase equipment life. Furthermore, insulation tends to be completely encased within metal walls, thus reducing the risk of fire. Nonetheless, commercial units need to be maintained in top condition to prevent accidental compressor fires or serious damage from external fires.
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We maintain all of our equipment to the highest standards in the industry. We do so in order to ensure your safety as well as providing reliable equipment you do not have to worry about during your rental term. At any time your refrigerated trailer or walk-in freezer should have issues, a simple phone call to our office dispatches a repair technician right away.
Icecool Trailers urges customers utilising any form of temporary refrigeration to call the rental company immediately at the first sign of equipment malfunction. The sooner a repair technician can be on site, the greater the chances of mitigating safety risks and further equipment damage.
For reliable and affordable temporary refrigeration in the Greater London area, we hope you will consider Icecool Trailers. We also service most of the rest of England and South Wales, including Berkshire, Surrey, and Oxfordshire. We can often offer a two-hour emergency service within our immediate service area.
Sources:
1. ACR News – http://www.acr-news.com/london-fire-brigade-urges-fridge-freezer-manufacturers-to-make-products-safer
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