When your walk-in freezer breaks down, every minute counts. Whether you’re managing a restaurant, grocery store, or pharmaceutical facility, a freezer failure can mean thousands of dollars in lost inventory. Fortunately, dry ice offers a fast, effective emergency cooling solution to protect your perishable goods and keep operations running.
In this post, we’ll explore how to use dry ice for emergency refrigeration, why it’s the go-to choice for emergency cooling, and how to calculate how much you’ll need.
✅ Why Dry Ice Is the Best Emergency Cooling Option
Dry ice, the solid form of carbon dioxide (CO₂), clocks in at -109.3°F (-78.5°C), making it far colder than regular ice. Almost as important as its ultra-low temperature, dry ice doesn’t melt into a liquid, it sublimates directly into gas so there is no water to clean up after. This makes dry ice an ideal temporary cooling agent when your commercial freezer breaks or you’re dealing with a cold storage emergency.
Key benefits of using dry ice:
- Ultra-low temperature for maximum cooling
- Unlike ice from water which melts, dry ice leaves nothing behind
- Long-lasting cooling power (especially in insulated spaces)
Need a reliable dry ice source and you are too far away from Top Dry Ice Manufacturing? Look for dry ice companies that offer same-day dry ice delivery, bulk dry ice for commercial use, or emergency refrigeration solutions.
What To Do When Your Freezer Fails
- Seal the freezer: Keep the door closed to trap the cold air.
- Notify staff to minimize door openings. Plan your production day accordingly
- Call your repair tech.
- Contact a local dry ice supplier like Top Dry Ice Manufacturing for fast delivery.
- Document everything for insurance claims, if necessary.
🧊 How to Use Dry Ice in a Broken Walk-In Freezer
If your walk-in freezer goes down, follow these steps to protect your inventory with dry ice:
- Place dry ice high: Spread dry ice across shelves to ensure the cold will be evenly distributed in the box. Remember that the cold air and the supercooled CO₂ slowly sublimating from the dry ice blocks will flow downwards to the lowest points in the box, so always place dry ice above the product to be cooled.
- Be strategic: To help preserve the frozen temperature of your inventory, group all of the frozen goods together as low to the ground as possible. This will minimize exposed surface area where heat transfer occurs. If you can, block off the area around the product with insulated barriers or blankets, so the dry ice is cooling less volume.
- Monitor temperatures: Add more dry ice as needed.
- Alert all Staff dry ice is in use: As dry ice sublimates, it releases CO₂ gas. While the ultra cold CO₂ is preserving your inventory, it is also crowding out the oxygen in your freezer. If Staff need to enter the freezer, use the buddy system and do not linger in the walk-in box while it is being cooled by dry ice.
📦 How Much Dry Ice Do You Need?
A general rule of thumb:
- A walk-in freezer 12’ x 12’ will use 150 – 250 lbs of dry ice every 24 hours.
- A walk-in refrigerator 12’ x 12’ will use 50 – 100 lbs of dry ice every 24 hours
These amounts can vary depending on how full your freezer is, the quality of its insulation and external factors such as how often the door is opened, and the ambient temperature outside the walk-in. For large commercial freezers, consult a dry ice professional directly for a precise estimate and delivery.
When determining how much dry ice will be required, have the following information available:
- How long has the freezer been off?
- When are repairs to begin, how long will it be before the freezer is operational, and will the mechanic have to work inside the freezer to fix the problem?
- What is the current temperature and at what temperature is the freezer normally maintained?
- If the problem is mechanical (not caused by a power outage), what parts of the cooling system are down? For instance, a compressor can be broken but the evaporator fans may still work.
- What are the exact dimensions of the freezer
- Pictures: provide pictures of the interior of the freezer showing shelving, pallets, carts, location of fans etc… These pictures will help inform the best plan to keep the inventory cold.
- Inventory list. How many pounds of product are in the freezer and what are the products stored?
Be Prepared Before the Emergency
Businesses that rely on temperature-sensitive inventory should have an emergency cold storage plan in place. Partnering with a local dry ice supplier like Top Dry Ice Manufacturing ahead of time ensures you’ll get priority service from a supplier that already knows your frozen storage equipment when a crisis hits.
Final Thoughts
A walk-in freezer failure doesn’t have to be a disaster. With the rapid response capabilities of dry ice, you can preserve your inventory, reduce losses, and maintain business continuity. Be prepared, have a trusted dry ice provider, and a power outage or equipment failure doesn’t have to be an emergency.
