5 Tips for Defrosting Your Freezer Truck Properly

Joe Dickman | December 10th, 2021

It’s critical to keep your frozen items adequately cooled while in transit. However, if you let too much frost and ice crystals build up, they can damage food and cause your refrigeration systems to work harder to maintain consistent temperatures. Below, we’ve outlined five tips for defrosting your freezer truck properly.

Turn the Truck Off

To start the defrost process, you can deactivate all refrigerant systems inside the cabin. Once you’ve arrived at your destination, simply turn your truck off and open the trailer door. This method can take time, so it may not always be possible.

Apply Hot Water

First, remove all your cargo. Then, take hot water and scrub down the interior of your trailer. This method ensures that any leftover frost is melted and can’t harm the payload you subsequently place inside.

Activate the Defrost Cycle

You’ll often find components positioned along or incorporated into evaporator coils inside your truck’s defrost systems. When you turn on your truck’s defrost mode, the solenoid valve shuts off the refrigerant supply to the evaporator. Your heating components turn on as your evaporator fan blasts heated air over the evaporator coil, thawing any ice built during the cooling cycle.

Metal Shelving Protects From Frost Causing Moisture

Frost occurs when moisture comes into contact with coils and other surfaces inside the refrigerated truck. Wood shelving is exceptionally vulnerable to humidity, damaging its integrity over time and forming ice chips more quickly.

You should use metal shelves to replace these sorts of racks wherever possible, as they can also damage products if they shatter. When you’re ready to defrost the trailer, you’ll also have more control over the process.

Keep Your Ice Cream at the Right Temps

The texture of ice cream is highly susceptible to heat flashes and temperature changes. Ice crystals can form when ice cream is thawed, frozen, then thawed again, changing the consistency and even flavor of the ice cream. You should make sure these loads are wrapped in paper packaging and not piled on top of each other so that they can defrost gradually when they’re ready to move.

We hope these five tips for defrosting your freezer truck properly can help you protect your payloads. Emerald Transportation Solutions provides the best refrigerated vehicles for sale when your business is ready to add to your delivery fleet. Feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.

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What does under DOT mean?

Questions regarding DOT requirements come up often. 10,000 lbs GVW (gross vehicle weight) and over are commercial vehicles that fall under the Department of Transportation regulatory requirements.

What is the difference between GVW and payload?

GVW or Gross Vehicle Weight is the entire weight of the vehicle including the payload. The payload weight represents the amount of cargo you are hauling.

What is a self-powered unit and a vehicle-powered unit?

A self-powered unit has its own fuel source and will run independent of the truck. This is the heaviest and most expensive option. While vehicle-powered units run off the engine via a compressor mounted on the engine. These are less expensive and lighter in weight but you must run the truck or plug the electric standby into shore power.

What does K-factor mean and why is that important?

K-factor is a term that stands for the overall insulating value of the container (truck body). Quite simply the lower the K-factor the better the truck body will be able to maintain a given temperature and require less energy to do so.

How much lighter is a Poly Van vs a US spec body?

Poly Van bodies are very light. On average we estimate we are 75-150 lbs per foot lighter than a traditional sheet and post foamed in place body. These weight savings translates to less fuel burn and less CO2 emissions, along with added payload, the most important benefit.

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