Ice Build Up 2

[wackiejackie88]

Hello again people,

Same freezer more problems.

Here is my problem, i have a 3 compartment trualsen reach in freezer in my bakery. If the freezer is empty she runs great.....load merchandise in it and the coil turns to an ice berg in less than a day.

There is no air infiltration from outside the box. The heaters are working correctly. Time clock is working corectly. I've fixed all the mistakes that the bad techs have made over the years. They left a mess out of the wiring, clipped out the fan delay and termination switches, had the wrong time clock on, and much more.

My question is how do i load this freezer and leave it with peace of mind that my merchandise wont go to the garbage. I do leave about 6+ inches at the top and bottom for air circulation in each compartment. So where does this ice come from?

-Jack

[Brian_UK]

What is the merchandise that you are loading and what are the load in temperatures and final temperature required?

[BLACKnGOLD4LIFE]

with it working ok empty but not when stocked id first question the way u load product .

[Magoo]

Ice build up comes from moisture ingress, either from product or door openings. Being a bakery the temps will be high and high humidity
Consider a door switch that stops system. Electronic controllers have door opening functions.

[acnerd]

Could it be something as simple as hot bread or similar being put into the freezer? There would be a load of moisture in that sort of product.

[Lodiev]

Hello again people,

Same freezer more problems.

Here is my problem, i have a 3 compartment trualsen reach in freezer in my bakery. If the freezer is empty she runs great.....load merchandise in it and the coil turns to an ice berg in less than a day.

-Jack
Well the first thing to establish is if the superheat is correctly set on the expansion valve? +- 6'c
The second thing is to make sure that the airflow over the coil's surface area is to manufacturers specification,(Fans rotation is right and blade pitch in right way) and that a coil for freezer conditions is used.( fin spacing is right) Also make sure that the evaporator coil is installed in such a way that airflow in the room is satisfactory to reach all product surface areas. Are there a strip curtain installed in the door to minimize hot air from outside to enter the room?( a limit switch on the door that stops the evap. fans is also a good idea for this)

[wackiejackie88]

Thanks for the help everyone. I was actually just speaking to an engineer at another freezer company because i wanted to replace this unit. We got to talking about what i was storing in the freezer. He told me i really should be using a blast chiller to cool everything down than putting it in the traulsen. He said the same issue may happan in a new freezer.

We make pastries in large batches 20-30 full size sheet pans in a batch and load them in the freezer. The products are room temp. Could this be my whole issue?

I was thinking about cooling the items down in my walk in refrigerator for a few hours than putting them in the freezer. What do you all think?

@Brian the products are room temp the freezer is about 0 degrees.

My tech mentioned changing the cycles to 8 @ 15-20minutes. The tech at traulsen mentioned that maybe the freezer is running for too long....should i raise the temp up to 5 or 10 degrees??

[Gary]

My tech mentioned changing the cycles to 8 @ 15-20minutes.

What are your current settings?

[wackiejackie88]

Hey Gary,

Currently 4 @ 40 min.

[Gary]

There is obviously a heavy moisture load from the products.

I would go to 6 or even 8 defrosts, but leave the duration at 40 minutes.

Pre-cooling the products in your walk-in cooler for a few hours would make a big difference, too.

[Gary]

Same freezer more problems.

Here is my problem, i have a 3 compartment trualsen reach in freezer in my bakery. If the freezer is empty she runs great.....load merchandise in it and the coil turns to an ice berg in less than a day.


I assume you then thaw it out by putting it through defrost cycles. How long does it take to thaw?

[BLACKnGOLD4LIFE]

i would look into a blast chiller if budget permits. idk how u would ever be able to properly bring that product to its frozen state when loading them at room temp & having 6~8 defrost cycles ... not to mention the amount of product loaded in a clip. u could load them in the walk in to remove a decent amount of heat ....... im not familiar with pastry storage but how critical is the amount of time between production & target storage temp ?

[wackiejackie88]

Thanks for all the help. Sorry i havent been able to reply sooner....I've been struck by food poisening. And no it wasnt cause by anything in my freezer =)

@ Gary, i usually have to unload the freezer and shut it down to melt away that ice. Also, traulsen usually sets them to 6 @ 20 min. Than they told me try 4@40. I will try your way too.

I usually bag the trays that go into the freezer but guess the warmth is still a problem.

What do you think about raising the freezer temp up to like 10 or 15?? One of the traulsen techs mentioned that maybe the freezer runs too long without shutting off.

We keep the walk in refrigerator pretty cold at about 34 degrees. I'm very anxious to try putting the goods in their first.

@BlacknGold i would love to get the blast chiller unfortunately there is really no room for it in my shop.

[Dumphrey]

Jackie,
I do not have much experience with reach-ins like yours, but I have seen very similar problems with lab freezers.
My guess is that using your walk-in to pre-cool the product will go a long way to solving your problem. Also, loading the reach in as quickly as possible, or in "waves" will also help (load one shelf, let the unit run a while to settle out, load the next shelf, and repeat). The other issue you may still face is the ambient humidity. A draft curtain between the reach-in and the bakery should be considered a requirement.

[wackiejackie88]

Hey Dumphrey,

Thanks for the help. Something you said was actually something i was thinking. See sometime ago we used to make these products with one extra person in the shop. So at the time we would take them of the machine, they would get finished off and put in the freezer. So figure there was about 20-25 minutes between each tray going in the freezer. So now we're preparing a whole batch of say 25 trays finishing them off and then loading them at once. So its a great amount of heat and im thinking that's why its icing up in a day.

What is a draft curtain?? Is that like a downwards flow of air that doesnt let air in or out of the freezer?