Mainly for rigid fridge drivers.
Basically we take fresh fresh food meals etc.
On rigids.
Not something I do much.
My question is.
Drivers who do it and me as and when I do it normally start shift turn fridge on reverse onto a non chilled loading bay.
Then we load our self. Taking stuff out of walk in fridge yards/ meters away. away. Usually takes about 45 mins to an hour to load.
Yesterday senior manager walked past heard fridge running .
And basically said procedure is you turn fridge on let it get to right temperature.
Then turn fridge off before loading truck which can take upto an hour then turn back on.
As leaving it running while loading puts strain on the motor cooling it down with door open.
1st I’ve ever heard been told this.
Is this right ? Or is there actually a correct procedure for loadiing
Fridge on with doors open causes the unit to ice up the evaporator coils and eventually it won’t defrost itself if it’s iced up badly enough and causes problems with the fridge working properly.
Kinda makes sense now when think about it I guess.
Just kinda surprised me when was told off untill you leave and wasn’t given an explanation as to why
We have to turn our fridges off when on a bay for that reason and also for fire reasons as if a fridge fire starts it risks setting the warehouse on fire as well. After one depot had several vehicles go up in flames we now also have to have all running fridge trailers parked at least 3 meters away from the building as well. The only exception is if frozen where the fridge will be kept running until it’s tipped even on a bay.
Occardo used to insist you turned the fridge off and open the doors when going on bay. They would then take 2 hours to take a temp reading then make you go back to the waiting area till it was back down to temp.
I did 15 years on frozen and was told to keep the fridge running many times during loading and unloading. I asked why but nobody offered an explanation other than “we’ve always done it like that”. A fridge set to -22 or whatever running with the back doors open does nothing but create ice on the floor and an extremely hazardous platform to load/.unload from.
Yeah, last fridge firm I worked for (one of the big ones) we only switched the fridge on when taking it off the bay. Never mind the fact its been sat there for 6 hours all afternoon while they’re loading it very slowly
Daventry used to have leave the fridge running at all times when tipping, Iceland just switch it off.
It does indeed cause problems but frozen food has to be kept at minus 18 or under at all times or has to be thrown away. Not that a lot of places even bother checking the temps of the products I imagine. Health and safety and all that with food products.
Ok I should say should be thrown away then I’m well aware that things happen that shouldn’t as by law if it’s less then minus 18 or been defrosted it should be refused and thrown away.
I’m well aware that things happen that shouldn’t as by law if it’s less then minus 18 or been defrosted it should be refused and thrown away.