Are Your Cool Room Problems Being Caused by a Faulty Door?
Posted on: 14 April 2017
An efficient, reliable cool room is a must-have or a variety of businesses and commercial industries, so any problems with the proper functioning of your cool room should be an immediate cause for concern. However, many problems that can afflict cool rooms, such as excessive humidity or lack of proper temperature control, can have a number of potential causes. As such, it's important to make sure every component of your cool room is functioning properly, including one component that is almost always overlooked -- the door.
No cool room can function properly without the airtight seal provided by a cool room door, and a damaged or worn door can cause a number of problems. While calling in professional cool room repair experts to handle these problems is always the ideal solution, here are some of the most common problems that occur in cool rooms with faulty doors:
Insufficient cooling
A cool room that doesn't cool properly is just a very expensive room, and doors that have lost their airtight seals are a common cause of insufficient cooling power. While the door itself is naturally very thick and robust, the rubber or plastic gasket it uses to create airtight conditions is more fragile and can perish after extended periods of use. Checking your door gasket for signs of cracking or fungal decay should always be your first step when confronted with an unpleasant warm cool room, and damaged gaskets should be immediately replaced.
Mould growth
The airtight seal of your cool room door doesn't just regulate temperature -- it also regulates the internal humidity of the cool room, an essential function for keeping mould at bay. A damaged gasket can allow excessive amounts of airborne water vapour to leak into your cool rooms from outside (a particular problem for cool rooms adjacent to hot, humid environments, such as commercial kitchens), creating a cool, moist interior that can be a haven for mould and fungal growth.
However, perished door seals are far from the only problem that can cause mould growth in a cool rooms -- damaged vapour barriers, faulty condensers and underpowered dehumidifying equipment are also common causes of mould -- so checking the location of our mould can help you narrow down potential causes. Faulty doors will often cause mould to accumulate around the walls close to the cool room door, so the door should be your primary suspect if mould collects primarily or exclusively in this area.
Stuck doors
All of these potential concerns are irrelevant if you can't get into your cool room in the first place, and a faulty cool room door can freeze in place if left shut for extended periods, making it difficult or impossible to open. This is generally caused by failure of the door's internal heater, which provides low levels of heat that prevent the door from freezing shut without affecting the temperature of the rest of the room. If your door is routinely freezing shut, have the door's heating elements inspected, repaired and (if necessary) replaced as soon as possible.
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