NAFEM 2011: It's Your Choice

U.S. Cooler views NAFEM as the most important show in our industry, allowing us to introduce new products and display existing products. This year at NAFEM some of our new concepts will be showcased as well as our new product launch.
NAFEM will be our first opportunity to introduce the new foamed-in-place product line. We are now leaving it up to you to decide which insulation you prefer in your walk-ins. U.S. Cooler now offers both extruded polystyrene and foamed-in-place polyurethane. Our polyurethane walk-ins offer the same high-quality features and services you have been receiving from U.S. Cooler for over 25 years.
U.S. Cooler has an exciting display again this year. Come visit us at NAFEM booth #843 in Orlando, FL, February 10-12, 2011.

Do Walk-in Cooler & Freezer Walls Wear Out?

Hi there,

Do walk-in cooler walls wear out over time?

I build restaurants and we are renovating a restaurant we built 17 years ago.  A supplier is recommending we replace the walk-in box, because they “break down”. I find that hard to believe. Could you please give me your opinion?

Thanks,

- Len Chaston

Len,

On the surface, your walk-in box probably has a few scratches, dents and slightly worn metal but overall it appears serviceable and is likely structurally sound. However, the insulation inside the panel can take a much more severe beating over the years than the exterior. The insulation has to deal with huge temperature differentials between the inside and outside of your box. Depending on the material used to insulate your box it could have absorbed a good deal of moisture, which degrades the thermal resistance of your insulation. Your old walk-in was also not built to meet modern efficiency and safety requirements and it could even contain a large amount of wood (which is a poor and water permeable insulator). If you have a walk-in freezer, one indication of trouble is ice buildup on the inside of the box. This is a sign that water vapor has been able to infiltrate the insulation.

At 17 years old, the cost of running the walk-in for several years as well as the added load and wear on your refrigeration unit will far overshadow the cost of purchasing a new walk-in unit. If you do decide to opt for a new walk-in, I want you to take a look at the inside of the panels when your old unit is disassembled. A panel that is now leaking all over the floor was no longer doing the job it was intended to.

Ice buildup in a walk-in panel

If you have a question you’d like answered please visit the Ask an Expert section of our blog. Note: Not all responses will be published.

Two Years of Cooler Connection

Cooler Connection started publishing articles two years ago in January 2009. We have always aimed to be a trusted voice in the walk-in refrigeration industry, with articles that are useful to walk-in owners in the convenience store, grocery and foodservice industries. Many of these articles can save you time, money or educate you on a subject. We have compiled a list of several of our most useful articles you may have missed over the past couple of years.

Articles you may have missed:

Maintaining Your Walk-in Cooler or Freezer

Tips to keep your walk-in clean and operating efficiently.
Operating Cost for Walk-in Coolers and Freezers

Get a rough estimate of the cost per month to run your walk-in cooler or walk-in freezer.

Cooler Insulation- Extruded Polystyrene Vs. Polyurethane

Comparing the effectiveness of the two most common insulations used in walk-ins.

Preventative Maintenance for Refrigeration Systems

How to keep your refrigeration running trouble-free for years.

Retrofitting LED Lights Can Pay Off In Your C-store

Learn about the advantages of replacing your existing fluorescent lighting with LED lighting.

Own a restaurant? Tips to save time, energy, and money.

Twelve tips to make your restaurant more efficient.

Walk-in Cooler & Freezer Shopping Tips

What to be aware of when shopping for walk-in coolers and freezers.

Walk-in Installation Tips

Guidelines to follow for a problem-free setup of your walk-in.

What the Food Safety Bill Means for Restaurants

A growing number of food-borne illness outbreaks in recent years have scared consumers about everything from salad greens to peanut butter to eggs and spurred lawmakers into action — eventually. The Senate finally took the issue off the back burner this week, voting to approve a version of a bill passed by the House last year that’s designed to head off outbreaks rather than merely deal with them after the fact.

Food safety is uppermost in the minds of restaurant operators, whose reputations can suffer lasting damage when salmonella and E. coli outbreaks are tied to tainted ingredients they’ve served. The bill would finally give the FDA the power to order food product recalls when contamination is suspected, and would increase the agency’s authority to conduct multiple inspections of processing facilities where conditions might be ripe for food contamination. Read the rest of this entry »

Time is Ticking on New Equipment Tax Breaks

If you are looking at upgrading your walk-in cooler or freezer or thinking of acquiring a new one, now is the time to act. The potential tax savings may help persuade your purchase decision. Usually you have to depreciate the cost of these items out over several years.  Now, a qualifying taxpayer can choose to treat the cost as an expense and deduct it in the year the property is placed in use.

Under The Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, qualifying businesses can now expense up to $500,000 of section 179 properties for tax years 2010 and 2011. Without the Small Business Act, the expensing limit for section 179 properties would have been $250,000 for 2010 and $25,000 for 2011. The definition of qualified section 179 properties includes qualified restaurant property for tax years beginning in 2010 and extending to 2011.

Now is the time to take advantage of these tax breaks on new equipment, including walk-in coolers and freezers. By taking advantage of this tax break, you can save thousands of dollars in taxes.

Consult your tax advisor for details and how to take advantage of tax benefits when purchasing new equipment.

http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=177054,00.html

http://www.restaurant.org/nra_news_blog/2010/10/act-soon-to-claim-tax-breaks.cfm

Building a Green Sustainable Restaurant

Green Made Easy

“Sustainability” may sound like a destination too far, but you get there the same way you get anywhere—one step at a time.

By: Mike Sherer

If you’re like many, when you think of “green” or “sustainable,” you probably think of much-publicized certification programs with strict definitions you either meet or don’t. But as concepts, green and sustainable are not like on-off switches. They’re more like dimmers. They’re gradated, and you achieve them to varying degrees in incremental steps. The important thing is to start moving and gain momentum as you go.

Most of you are already taking the early steps. You’ve changed some incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescents, and you recycle glass, metal and paper. You’ve installed low-flow pre-rinse valves. But what’s all this about “reducing your carbon footprint” and “becoming sustainable”? Can you do more?

What’s Green, What’s Sustainable?
Absolutely. Being green—by which we means being environmentally friendly—is getting easier. Greener products are more plentiful and less expensive, and greener practices are more widely understood these days. And becoming sustainable—which means you can sustain your activities long-term without going broke or using up the planet—is likewise more widely understood than ever before.

“Sustainability, from a big umbrella perspective, means running an operation that doesn’t negatively impact future generations’ ability to operate a restaurant,” says Don Fisher, president and CEO of Fisher-Nickel Inc., which runs Pacific Gas & Electric Co.’s Food Service Technology Center in San Ramon, Calif. “From a practical standpoint, sustainability means staying in business when the price of oil hits $100 a barrel.”

Getting Started
As with every other aspect of your business, becoming sustainable will never happen without committing to it. And you won’t know where you’re going unless you find out where you are.

“Audit where you are,” Fisher says. “And get top-down commitment. Assess your state of sustainability unit by unit, and commit long-term to solutions that will get you to your goals one step at a time.” Read the rest of this entry »

Cutting Down On Cooler Costs

Whether your chain is gearing up for LEED certification or just hoping to save on the electric bill, instituting an energy management solution can pinpoint energy waste.

Energy reduction remains an ongoing quest for convenience store operators as they look for ways to cut costs in an effort to improve their bottom lines.

Building stores to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards and seeking LEED certification is something more chains are pursuing, including Kum & Go, Kwik Trip and Quick Chek, which just opened its first LEED-certified store last month in Bayonne, N.J.

LEED is an internationally operated program encompassing the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings established by the U.S. Green Building Council and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI). It provides third-party verification that a building was designed and built by implementing strategies aimed at improving performance in areas such as: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts. Read the rest of this entry »

New! Colored Metal for Walk-ins

In addition to our standard metal finishes, U.S. Cooler now offers over 20 different smooth metal colors for the interior and exterior of your next walk-in. The new metal colors are available for any of our standard sized walk-ins. When designing your next walk-in project, you can now design your walk-in to blend in or become the focal point of your business.

Click on picture to view other color options.

Feds Urged To Include Green Construction Code In New Government Buildings

Citing the gap between existing construction codes and green rating systems has been filled, the International Code Council (ICC) encouraged the U.S. government to reference the International Green Construction Code (IGCC) in an effort to apply sustainable design principals to the design and construction of new federal buildings.

“Prior to this year, voluntary ‘rating’ type programs were among the only options for guiding the design of green buildings,” said Code Council CEO Rick Weiland testifying at a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) public hearing. “Such programs, including LEED, were not designed to act as regulatory language. The gap between existing codes and rating systems has now been filled…. [and] are now available to address federal goals as well as meet the needs of state and local jurisdictions.”

The Code Council also offered specific comments to improve the usefulness and measurability of the proposed rule, Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Design Standards for New Federal Buildings. The IGCC, Weiland said, is a tool available to federal agencies for efficiently and rapidly achieving measurable levels of compliance with FEMP goals.

Industry support signals a consensus of key industry leaders around the necessity of a code to guide green construction, Weiland said. In addition the Code Council, IGCC sponsors are the American Institute of Architects (AIA), ASTM International, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and the Illuminating Engineering Society. The IGCC has the support of more than two thousand organizations and individuals. Read the rest of this entry »

NACS 2010 C-Store Tradeshow

Think Custom. Think Cooler.

U.S. Cooler manufactures standard and custom designed walk-in coolers and freezers.
We understand the importance of producing high-quality, durable, and efficient products. All of our walk-ins are produced using the highest quality products and the most efficient insulation available. U.S. Cooler’s unique progressive manufacturing process allows us to design and build custom walk-in coolers and freezers in the most efficient automated fashion.  This automation provides our customers with custom designed, quality built, walk-ins with no extra cost increase or production times.  U.S. Cooler has the technology and capability to manufacture walk-ins to fit any size or configuration you require. When you need quality and customization, think U.S. Cooler. Come visit our booth, # 8225, at NACS in Atlanta from October 6-8, 2010.