5 Must-Have Features in a Cold Storage Sliding Door

28 Apr.,2025

 

Sliding Doors for Efficient Cold Rooms - Eurocold Ltd

Sliding doors have become an essential element in modern cold room design. They offer a unique mix of practicality and efficiency, particularly for businesses that rely on maintaining specific temperature conditions. If you're considering options for your cold room, understanding the benefits of sliding doors can help you make an informed choice.

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The Appeal of Sliding Doors

Sliding doors have a streamlined design that saves space while providing easy access. Unlike traditional hinged doors that require space to open, sliding doors simply glide to the side. This can be especially useful in cold rooms, where space is often limited.

In addition to saving space, sliding doors also create a more efficient environment. Their ability to create an airtight seal helps maintain optimal temperatures, which is crucial for products that require refrigeration. This helps to reduce energy costs and keeps your goods in perfect condition.

Enhanced Energy Efficiency with Sliding Doors

Energy efficiency is a top concern for facilities that store perishable goods. According to the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, around 30% of the energy used in commercial buildings is spent on heating and cooling. By using a sliding door, you can help lower this percentage.

Sliding doors are designed to minimise the amount of air exchange when opened. This means that less warm air enters a cold room, helping to maintain the desired temperature more effectively. The result? Lower energy bills and a reduced carbon footprint.

Some studies indicate that facilities with properly fitted sliding doors can see energy use reductions of up to 50%. This is critical for businesses in the food and pharmaceutical sectors, where temperature control is non-negotiable.

Improved Accessibility and Workflow

In a busy environment like a cold room, workers must have quick access to products without hindrance. Sliding doors facilitate this need beautifully. They provide a wide opening without the need for additional clearance.

For instance, when products are frequently loaded or unloaded, the convenience of a sliding door allows for smoother operations. Staff can move in and out quickly, minimising the amount of time doors are open, which in turn helps maintain internal temperatures.

Furthermore, the design of sliding doors can be tailored to fit the specific requirements of your cold room. Whether large or small, these doors can be customised in terms of size and materials, ensuring that they meet your unique needs while providing excellent functionality.

Safety and Security Features

Safety in cold rooms is paramount. Sliding doors can include automatic mechanisms that can sense when someone is approaching and open accordingly. This reduces the risk of accidents.

When considering security, our sliding doors are made with robust materials that deter tampering. We can add locks, useful for sensitive items requiring extra protection. This multi-layered approach to safety makes sliding doors an optimal choice for cold environments where both product and personnel safety are concerns.

Maintenance and Longevity

Last but not least, the ease of maintenance that comes with sliding doors is a key benefit. Traditional doors often require regular inspections and repairs due to wear and tear from continuous opening and closing. In contrast, sliding doors have fewer moving parts, leading to lower maintenance costs over time.

Routine cleaning involves just checking the track and ensuring that it remains free of debris, making your operations more efficient.

Investing in high-quality sliding doors can provide longevity, often lasting decades with proper care. When considering a cold room sliding door, always look for reputable suppliers that offer warranties, as this can further ensure you are making a sound investment.

Understanding the numerous benefits of sliding doors in cold rooms can be a game changer for your business. From energy efficiency to improved workflow and safety, these doors provide practical solutions tailored to any cold storage needs. If you're ready to enhance your cold room, consider adding a sliding door for that perfect combination of functionality and efficiency.

Refrigeration door guide: everything you need to know - Kavidoors

At Kavidoors, we bring you the ultimate guide to refrigerated doors. In it, you will find a compilation of everything you need to know about them: models, CE marking, responsibilities in case of an accident, and other important aspects to consider when designing your refrigerated warehouse correctly with the appropriate choice of doors.

What models of refrigerated doors are available in the market and what are their advantages?

Depending on each client’s needs and the requirements of the room where the door will be located, you should opt for a particular model for each occasion. It is crucial to know which door is suitable to ensure with total certainty that the cold chain is not broken and to have strict control over the temperature. A failure in the cold chain can lead to diseases such as listeriosis and other issues.

Cold storage sliding door

Refrigerated sliding doors can be adapted to a preservation refrigeration chamber (+0°C), freezing chamber (-20°C), and freezing tunnels (-40°C). If you need to cover a large space or areas with overhead passages, this model is ideal for you.

It offers resistance to corrosion and chemicals, preventing the growth of fungi and bacteria inside the refrigerated warehouse. Suitable for laboratories, restaurants, food industry, among other sectors.

Equipped with Kavidoors’ patented anti-fall and anti-rollover safety system that prevents the door from collapsing if impacted.

The fire-resistant option withstands flames for one hour on both sides and two hours on one side. It is known for its high level of sealing due to the Quad-Core insulating foam, which provides 20% more protection than others, and the intumescent seal that completely seals the room by expanding its thickness up to 20 times in case of a fire.

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Vertical lift cold storage door

The refrigerated guillotine door is specially designed to be installed in chambers where lateral space is insufficient but there is sufficient overhead clearance. Suitable for refrigerated warehouses with temperatures ranging from 0 to -40°C. It features an anti-fall-panic safety system with double guidance.

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Swing cold storage door

The refrigerated pivot door is used in refrigerated chambers with temperatures between 0 and -40°C. Ideal for locations requiring meticulous temperature control despite heavy traffic of people and/or goods. It comes pre-installed, making installation simple and quick.

Kavidoors’ model, both commercial and industrial, stands out from the competition in several aspects, with special emphasis on the following:

  • The door can be opened by turning the handle, pulling, or pushing. Additionally, the handle’s materials prevent corrosion and pigment chipping.
  • The seal can be replaced without changing the door leaf; instead of rubber, it features a double co-extruded lip with arrow-type snap-in fixation, allowing for easy replacement and ensuring door tightness.
  • The hinge allows the door to open up to a maximum angle of 180° and stay at 120°, facilitating the operator’s work by preventing the door from closing during loading and unloading, thus avoiding constant impact on the door leaf by goods.

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High speed door for cold storage

The fast cold storage door, also known as a single-curtain fast cold storage door, can withstand temperatures as low as -25°C. Thanks to the double heating system in the guides, motor, and curtain, it minimizes condensation and ice formation in freezing rooms. It is suitable for chambers with temperatures between 0 and -20°C. The lintel adapts to the curtain, preventing air passage and temperature loss. It features a self-repairing function that allows the curtain to return to its original state after being dislodged by an impact.
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High speed door double canva

The High speed door double canva with heating helps eliminate ice not only in the freezing rooms but also on the door itself. This is achieved through a closed-circuit air recirculation system, where warm air introduced through a tube at the bottom of the door circulates, ensuring low humidity levels during air exchange between the antechamber, preventing condensation and ice formation. The door is equipped with various safety systems to minimize accident risks and features a self-repairing function.

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Controlled atmosphere door

The sliding door for controlled atmosphere is specially designed for the preservation and ripening of fruits and vegetables in storage with very low oxygen levels (ULO). Among its advantages, its high sealing capacity stands out, allowing rigorous gas control without leaks. It includes Kavidoors’ patented anti-fall-anti-rollover safety system to prevent door collapse upon impact.

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Cold store curtain doors

The cold storage air curtain is an effective way to maintain suitable temperatures inside the warehouse by creating an invisible barrier that prevents cold air from escaping and warm air from entering, maintaining optimal climatic conditions while allowing the passage of personnel and machinery.
Its advantages include improved hygiene by reducing external dust entry and increased worker safety by effectively eliminating fog, snow, and ice that may form inside the chamber.

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Is the same door suitable for a conservation chamber as for a freezing chamber?

At Kavidoors, most of our models are available for both conservation rooms and freezing warehouses. However, the same door cannot be used for both rooms due to variations in door leaf thickness. In the case of conservation rooms, where the temperature needs to be positive (above 0°C), cold storage doors require a thickness ranging from 60 to 80 mm. On the other hand, a freezing chamber must be at a maximum of -20°C, requiring doors with increased thickness of 80, 100, or 120 mm, with the latter two being the most common.

The exterior temperature is of vital importance

Some individuals, when designing a cold storage room, only consider the temperature inside it. However, having a well-conditioned warehouse is futile if the exterior is not climate-controlled or external temperatures are not taken into account during the design process. Sometimes, there is a significant thermal gap between the -20°C inside and the 40°C ambient temperature outside. To ensure the effectiveness of the installed cold storage door, we must consider the temperature gradient to select the appropriate panel thickness.

In the table below, you can verify the recommended thickness for your door leaf based on both interior and exterior temperatures. The tabs highlighted in yellow indicate acceptable losses, while those in blue represent optimal losses. Achieving 100% insulation is not possible, but we should aim to reach the levels indicated in blue to minimize any potential losses to almost negligible levels.

Choosing the right coating will extend the door’s lifespan

When selecting which cold storage door to install in our warehouse, it is important to know where it will be located and how it will be cleaned, as the door’s coating will vary depending on the environment it will endure or if chemical products will be used.

If the chamber is situated near the sea, the door’s coating must withstand high levels of salt and humidity to prevent rust or delamination. It is also crucial to consider the cleanliness of the room where the door will be installed. For instance, in a slaughterhouse where chemicals are used to remove blood, the door must be prepared accordingly. For both scenarios, the best coating is PET if the door is installed indoors or HDX 55 for outdoor use, as done at Kavidoors.

Below is a table showing the performance of materials used in the exterior coating of cold storage doors based on different environments.

Opening system: Manual or automatic?

The choice between installing a manual or automatic cold storage sliding door depends on the pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the warehouse, the door’s size, and the desired operability.

If the chamber has low traffic and the door is small, opting for a manual door is suitable. However, if there is high traffic, we recommend an automatic door for two reasons. Firstly, to extend its lifespan; constant manual opening and closing can wear out the levers over time. Secondly, it’s a matter of efficiency. With an automated door, the operator approaching the warehouse simply needs to activate the door via a remote control or be detected by a sensor, enter, and start working without interruptions. In contrast, with a manual door, they would need to get off the forklift, open the door, get back on the vehicle, enter, get off again to close it, and then resume work. Rushing can sometimes lead to forgetting to close the door, resulting in significant losses if left open.

Another important aspect is the door’s size. The larger the door, the heavier its leaf, making automation recommended to ease tasks for operators.

CE Marking

The CE Marking is a document that certifies a product’s compliance with minimum safety requirements set by European directives and standards. It is mandatory for both new doors and those already installed, which must be adapted to meet the established criteria. The CE Marking is a crucial requirement for marketing the product at both national and European levels. The manufacturer is responsible for ensuring the door bears the CE Marking, while the owner must ensure that the purchased product indeed complies with it. Since , motorized doors must have it in accordance with machinery regulations, and since , manual doors as well.

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Responsibility in case of workplace accidents