Static cooling vs. Fan assisted cooling vs. Ventilated cooling – what is the difference?

When it comes to choosing the right cooler or freezer for your business, you ought to look at the cooling system before you fall in love with a design. At TEFCOLD, we offer products with three different cooling systems, and they are all great for different purposes. We will guide you through the pros and cons on this page.

Static cooling, direct cooling, fan assisted cooling, ventilated cooling, dynamic cooling, fan forced cooling – there are a lot of names to describe the different cooling systems, but they can generally be divided into three main categories.
 

Static cooling

Static cooling, also known as direct cooling, is the most basic cooling system and is often used in domestic refrigerators and freezers. To cool the unit down, evaporator coils are placed inside the back wall of the unit or in the shelves, depending on the design. When the evaporator draws heat, the air nearby the coils gets cold. As the name indicates, the air inside the cabinet is static (non-moving) – or almost so, as the cold air near the evaporator coils will slowly descend and the warmer air ascend. This can cause a temperature difference between the top shelves and the bottom shelves of the unit. The exception is freezers, where the evaporator coils are placed in the shelves, which means there is barely any temperature difference between top and bottom of the cabinet.
 

Static cooling is most often used in coolers and freezers for storage, where the door or lid is not frequently opened and closed. At TEFCOLD, we use static cooling in some of our horizontal chest coolers, horizontal chest freezers, and upright storage freezers.
 

Pros

• Low noise emissions
• Low energy consumption
   

Cons

• Not ideal for high usage environments
• Temperature difference between top and bottom of the cabinet may occur
• Long pull-down time (takes longer to cool content down)
• Manual defrosting needed

 

Fan assisted cooling

Fan assisted cooling is basically a static cooling system assisted by an internal fan to help circulate the cold air and distribute it more evenly within the cabinet.

Fan assisted cooling is mostly used in medium sized coolers. At TEFCOLD we often use it for 1-door display coolers, storage coolers, and wine coolers.

Pros

• More even temperature distribution
• Makes less noise than ventilated cooling
• Uses less energy than ventilated cooling

Cons

• Makes more noise than static cooling
• Long pull-down time (takes longer to cool content down, not as effective as ventilated cooling)
• Uses more energy than static cooling
   

Ventilated cooling

Ventilated cooling, also known as dynamic cooling or fan forced cooling, is a very effective cooling system. It basically works by having an evaporator placed at the top of the unit behind a powerful internal fan, which creates an optimal airflow.

Ventilated cooling is great for supermarkets or busy kitchens, where the doors of the coolers or freezers are frequently opened and closed. It is also ideal for larger coolers, since the larger volume requires an efficient cooling system. At TEFCOLD, we use ventilated cooling for many of our display coolers with 2-3 doors, back bars, island coolers, refrigerated glass cabinets, multidecks, and gastro products.
 

Pros

• Fast pull-down time (cools the content faster)
• Suitable for high usage environments such as bars, kitchens, and shops
• Even temperature distribution
• Automatic defrost
   

Cons

• Higher noise emissions
• Higher energy consumption
• Higher purchasing price
• Can dry out food items if they are not wrapped or covered by anything