10 Things to Consider When Buying Air-Cooled Flower Display Chiller

A qualified floral chiller is specially designed with the delicate features of flowers and plants in mind. The right refrigerator is vital to the success of your floral business.

You can find more information on our web, so please take a look.

When you just start your own floral business and planned to equip your retail stores or the floral departments with a piece of equipment to help you store your cut flowers, a floral chiller is a must.

A floral chiller is quite different from a beverage chiller. Although they might look similar from the outside, floral and beverage coolers are different in terms of how they control temperature and humidity. A floral chiller has a general set temperature that is higher than a beverage chiller -- that's what is needed for flowers.

Flowers need high humidity and gentle airflow to remain fresh and beautiful. The average commercial chiller actually creates low humidity because most food items remain the freshest in this type of environment. In addition, rapid air movement helps maintain low humidity in most commercial chillers and this fast airflow can easily hasten the dehydration of your flowers and cause inventory loss.

Thus, if you’re new to the flower sales business, you need to take care of every equipment investment you make. If you’ve been in business for years, you know how important it is to purchase the specific type of equipment you need to run your business as profitably as possible.

Followed are things you need to consider when you want to purchase your own floral chiller.

1. Size and Capacity

The first thing to consider is size – and not just in terms of available space, but also in terms of how much product you expect to keep in the chiller. Flowers inside a refrigerator need room to “breathe,” meaning you don’t want to cram them in there like you would meat inside a freezer. Make sure you purchase a large enough chiller to give the flowers some space.

Conversely, there’s no need to have a huge chiller when you only need one that’s half the size. If you have no idea about the size, don't hesitate to ask SMAD for help whose professionals can guide you to the most appropriate and economical floral chiller for your specific needs.

No matter what type of chiller you choose, be sure to store your flowers in an appropriate model able to preserve and bring beauty to your arrangements.

Doors

When it comes to the doors, many florists opt for sliding door fresh flower chiller. This allows customers to easily grab their arrangement and bring it to the check stand, and also provides a great visual display for customers to peruse. If you decide to purchase a sliding door chiller, try to choose one that is self-contained and ready to plug in. Adjustable shelving is also important, as you will undoubtedly house various stem lengths inside. Finally, look for an environmentally friendly chiller, like those sold by Powers Equipment Company. If you’re in the business of greenery, it only makes sense to keep the earth green as well.

Some fresh flower chillers contain swinging doors. These can be especially helpful as the doors will not get in the way of the arrangements – a customer can easily grab a bouquet without accidentally damaging any others via the weight of the door. Some swinging door models also contain heated door jams and tracks to keep both customers and flowers comfortable.

A final option for a fresh flower chiller is an open-air model. This is the most popular with florists, as it allows customers to touch and smell the bouquets before purchase. This is the most inviting way to display shop flowers, and these chillers are available in a variety of sizes.

Special Features

As you shop for the floral supplies to help make your business venture a success, it can pay to look for special features that can improve the merchandising or holding of your products. Floral chillers have several of these features for you to keep in mind as you compare available models. If going green and saving energy is important to you, there are floral chillers available that use low-emissivity glass. There are also ENERGY STAR floral chillers available.

In order to help you best merchandise your products, most floral chillers have interior lighting. LED lights are offered by some companies, resulting in a brighter appearance while also being more energy-efficient. Some models have glass sides on all four sides to allow for 360-degree merchandising. Others offer a mirrored rear wall on the interior of the cabinet. Locking doors are also available to help you protect your product. Some models offer lighted sign panels, so you can use pre-made or custom signage to market your flowers.

At fresh flower chiller, SMAD offers a wide range of different options. Reach out today to find out more about our available walk-in floral chillers.

For more information, please visit Ice Forest.

Flowers have a short shelf life from the time they are picked to arriving at retail locations or florists. They require a high-quality cold storage environment to preserve the quality and appearance of flowers. Fresh flowers must be kept at strict temperature and humidity requirements throughout the entire process. Finding the right floral cooler is the first step in preserving the beauty and lifespan of flowers resulting in more sales and less waste.

This blog is a buying guide on how to find the right floral cooler for florists and retail store owners.

The storage temperature of flowers is extremely important to the shelf life of the flower. The ideal temperature range of fresh cut flowers is (33-35) and flowers in this temperature range tend to last longer and have twice the vase life of flowers stored above 35. Additionally, temperature fluctuations can greatly impact the freshness and quality of flowers. Which is why it is extremely important to have temperature consistency within a floral cooler.

Individual stems die the moment they are cut as the temperature around the flower increases, the rate at which the flower decomposes increases as it releases moisture. As this occurs, the flower dehydrates resulting in wilting, sagging, color degradation and petals that won’t open.

To delay the decomposition process of cut flowers, florists and retailers utilize refrigeration to store flowers at specific temperatures.

While noted above that the standard temperature for floral storage ranges between 33 and 35 degrees, the optimal storage temperature for cut flowers depends on the type and condition of the flower.

Retailers and florists must maintain proper temperatures and humidity levels. To do so, floral or flower coolers are necessary to control those environmental conditions.

Maintaining the health of your cut flowers is not all about keeping them cool.

To maximize the life of cut flowers, the humidity in which they are stored is key. Choosing the right floral cooler for your cut flowers should allow the flowers to be stored for weeks, as long as the flower was in good condition when it arrived.

To summarize, flowers require coolers specific to the storage of flowers that provide low temperatures, high humidity, and gentle circulating air. Without a floral cooler to control these environmental conditions, these things cannot be achieved resulting in premature deterioration of flowers and lost profits.

There are many different types and options available for retailers (such as wholesalers and grocery stores) and florists. Floral coolers can be customized to meet the exact needs of each type of customers specifications and purpose. For florists, large floral coolers are needed to store bulk inventory of different flowers.

These large floral coolers are typically not customer facing and located in a back-room area. These coolers are best known as walk-in floral coolers, flower coolers or florist coolers.

Floral coolers in retail stores, where customers buy directly from the store floor, glass doors and other features can be added for merchandising and display. These coolers are often referred to as self-serve floral coolers, self-serve flower coolers, or open air floral coolers and can be customized based on size, storage requirements, finishes, doors, windows, and other components.

Floral coolers are available in a variety of sizes and are customizable to adapt to your space. When asking yourself “what size floral cooler do I need?” there are two considerations that must be carefully thought through.

1. In what capacity do you plan to bulk order and store your flowers?
2. What type of events or customers do you intend to serve?

Some florists may not offer premade bouquets in their store and may only need a walk-in floral cooler for the bulk storage of flowers. Depending on the size of the florist, some may use multiple walk-ins as flowers need room to breath within the unit and require different temperatures and humidity based on the flower type.

Wedding and event florists often need larger floral coolers solely to store a single event.

For small local florists, or small retailers, who offer pre made arrangements for customers, a smaller walk-in or self-serve unit may be sufficient.

The company is the world’s best Air-Cooled Flower Display Chiller supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.