A cold room can look finished long before it is ready. What happens inside the pipework in the last day of a project decides whether the system runs reliably for years or starts losing refrigerant and failing within months. That is commissioning, and we never rush it.
Planning a new room? Draw it with Yutab, our free online cold room designer, and send the design straight to our engineers. Design your room with Yutab →
1. Pressure test with nitrogen
Before any refrigerant goes in, the pipework and every joint are pressurised with dry nitrogen and held. A drop in pressure means a leak, and leaks are found and fixed now, not after the refrigerant has escaped.
Why it matters to you: a leak-tight system keeps its refrigerant, its performance and your F-Gas compliance.
2. Deep vacuum
Air and moisture are the enemies of a refrigeration system. Moisture mixes with oil and refrigerant to form acids and ice that block valves and damage compressors. We evacuate the system with a vacuum pump to a deep vacuum, measured with an electronic micron gauge, and check that the vacuum holds before we continue.
Why it matters to you: a dry, clean system protects the compressor, the most expensive part of your plant.
3. Refrigerant charge
The system is charged with the correct refrigerant, and the charge is weighed and recorded. Too little or too much both reduce efficiency and shorten equipment life.
Why it matters to you: correct cooling performance and an accurate F-Gas record from day one.
4. Start-up and performance checks
We start the plant and check it under real conditions: pressures, temperatures, superheat, fan operation and electrical readings. The room is pulled down to temperature and we watch it hold.
5. Controls, defrost and alarms
The controller is set for your products. Defrost is set for how the room will be used, door heaters and lights are checked, and high and low temperature alarms are tested, including the person-trapped alarm and inside release where fitted.
6. Handover
You receive the system details, the settings, the F-Gas record and a walk-through of the controls. Your staff are shown how to read the display, what the alarms mean and what to do if something goes wrong.
After handover: support
Commissioning is the start of the relationship, not the end. We look after the rooms we build with planned maintenance and repairs. See our cold room maintenance contracts and cold room servicing guide.
Who does the work
Commissioning is work on refrigerant circuits, carried out by our engineers as a REFCOM F-Gas certified company. Read our F-Gas regulations guide.
Planning a cold room or freezer room? Request a site survey or quotation or call free on 0800 772 0333.
Design your cold room online with Yutab
Yutab is the UK Coldroom online cold room designer. It is free to use and takes no payment. Draw your room, save it, download the PDF design sheet and send it to our engineers for a site survey and quotation.
See commissioning and controls work from our jobs, our cold room design and installation service and the site survey that starts every new room.
Frequently asked questions
How long does commissioning take?
It depends on the size of the system. The pressure test and vacuum are never shortened to save time.
What paperwork do I get?
System details, controller settings and the F-Gas record for the refrigerant charge.