Every freezer store must have some way of making sure that the ground temperature under the cold store floor does not approach 0⁰Celsius. While some South African cold stores achieve this by pumping heated water/glycol mix through plastic pipes in the subfloor, the common method is still to have an electrical heater mat. This normally consists of three separate heater wires which are laid down in a sand bed under the polystyrene floor insulation. The circuits come on if the under floor temperature gets to plus 4⁰C and stops the sub floor temperature from dropping further.
If ice forms under a freezer it pushes up the wearing slab and could negatively affect the operation of the mobiles. It is also very hard to reverse the process once there is ice under the floor.
As there have been several incidents recently of “frost heave” in South African freezer stores, we would advise all cold store managers to make sure they know where their heater mat control panel is located and to make sure that it is functioning correctly.
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