DISPLAY FRIDGES EXPLAINED
Commercial Display Fridges are a great investment. Not only do they help to keep your chilled food and drinks at the perfect serving temperature, they also help you to merchandise your products effectively to maximise sales. Commonly seen in cafés, bars, takeaways and canteens, a front of house display fridge needs to be able to reliably hold large quantities of stock with minimal maintenance, whilst also providing easy access for customers or staff. This guide should help you decide the best type of display fridge for your requirements.
Shop Commercial Display Refrigeration NowTYPES OF DISPLAY FRIDGE
COMMERCIAL BEER FRIDGE
A Commercial Beer Fridge or back bar cooler is perfect for bars, pubs, clubs or leisure centres. The most common type of beer fridge is the undercounter back bar chiller which provides easy access to chilled bottled or canned beverages, although upright versions with a higher capacity are also available. Usual features in beer fridges are sliding or hinged doors and attractive lighting, which helps to draw the customer's eye to the contents - especially in dark clubs or bars. Critical buying considerations for beer fridges are capacity and access, although efficiency and appearance can also be important, especially if you have multiple fridges. Other types of beer fridges are high capacity Bottle Wells which can accommodate vast amounts of bottle beverages and Kegerators which help to bring draught beer and cider to the mobile catering environment. Popular beer fridge manufacturers are Polar Refrigeration and Lec.
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COMMERCIAL WINE CHILLER
Visually, a wine fridge or wine cooler is similar to a beer fridge. Inside however, the wine fridge is quite different. As various wines have different serving temperatures, wine fridges need to be able to reliably keep a constant temperature to bring out the best flavours of the wines you’re offering. Some wine chillers have multiple temperature zones, allowing you to keep red and white wines separated in the same appliance, potentially removing the need for a separate wine cellar. Another noticeable difference is that many of the best wine fridges tend to have wooden shelves. This is because wire racks can bend under the weight of heavy bottles and can scratch the label. Critical buying considerations for wine chillers are capacity and appearance. Polar Refrigeration offer some of the market’s most popular wine coolers.
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SERVE OVER COUNTER
A Serve Over Counter can often be one of the largest appliances in a food service business. Designed to effectively merchandise chilled food and drinks such as pastries, cheese, cooked meats or fish, a serve over counter offers a versatile assisted service solution. These large appliances are often one of the first things a customer might see, so a stylish appearance which fits into your front of house aesthetic is important. Size and temperature range is also vital, as the machine needs to fit seamlessly into your front of house whilst also storing food at the appropriate temperature. Many serve over counters also offer upper display shelves or undercounter storage to speed up re-stocking during a busy service. Serve over counters are also available as ambient units, ideal for foods that are served at room temperature.
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From small countertop displays to large, rotating cake chillers, a Refrigerated Merchandiser keeps your chilled products at the perfect serving temperature and tantalizingly merchandised. Refrigerated merchandisers are probably the broadest group of professional display fridges, as they can range from small, countertop sushi cases and tapas displays all the way up to the largest freestanding merchandisers for bulky desserts or beverages. Similar to a beer fridge, a refrigerated merchandiser is designed for front of house use to maximise impulse sales, however usually this category of display fridge is positioned for assisted service. As there are so many unique types of refrigerated merchandiser, application or function is the main buying factor. There’s plenty of brand names to choose from too, including Polar Refrigeration, Foster, True, Lincat and many, many more.
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MULTIDECK DISPLAYS
A multideck display fridge is a large, open-fronted merchandiser designed to allow customers to pick chilled products directly off the shelf. Commonly seen in convenience stores, sandwich shops and cafés, a multideck is a great way to encourage impulse sales, especially near queuing areas. Due to their large size and open design, important buying considerations of a multideck are its capacity, number of shelves and security. Whereas Serve Over counters are considered to be "assisted service", a multideck display fridge is self-service - perfect for reducing queues and maximising sales.
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DISPLAY FREEZER
On a hot summer’s day, nothing brings in customers like delicious ice cream or lollies. Likewise, offering a takeaway service of frozen desserts or simply merchandising boxed ready meals can help you turn a profit with a commercial display freezer. Available as display chest freezers, upright display freezers or ice cream counters, there’s plenty of choice when it comes to merchandising frozen foods. Display freezers are often considered to be self-service and are commonly used front of house in convenience stores, takeaways and leisure facilities. Some of the most popular display freezers are manufactured by Polar Refrigeration.
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Most display fridges are quite versatile. For simplicity, this table demonstrates which type of display fridge is suitable for each task.
| Back Bar Cooler | Wine Chiller | Serve Over Counter | Multideck Display | Refrigerated Merchandiser | Display Freezer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chilled Food | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| Chilled Drinks | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Wine | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Ambient Food & Drink | ✔ | |||||
| Frozen Food / Ice Cream | ✔ |