How to Choose the Right Size Cold Room for Your Irish Business (2026 Guide)

If you've started stacking extra crates in the corner of the kitchen or you're turning fridges away at delivery because there's simply nowhere left to put stock, you've probably worked out you need more than another upright fridge. The question most Irish catering and retail businesses get stuck on isn't whether they need a cold room, it's what size to actually buy.

Get it wrong and you're either paying to run and cool more space than you need, or you've bought something that's full within six months and you're back here again. This guide walks through it step by step: how much storage you actually need, chill or freeze, insulation, footprint, door access and installation, finishing with real cost ranges ex VAT so you know roughly what you're working with before you start pricing units.

Getting the Size Wrong Costs You Either Way

Two mistakes come up again and again. The first is buying too small, usually because someone sized the room off current stock levels rather than where the business will be in a year or two. A busy summer, a new supplier deal that means buying in bulk, or simply growth, and suddenly the room that looked plenty big in the showroom is packed solid by 11am on a Tuesday. The second, less talked about, is buying too big. A bigger footprint costs more upfront, takes up floor space you might need for something else, and a larger room that's running half empty still costs roughly the same to keep cold as one that's properly stocked. The right size sits in between, comfortably covering your busiest realistic week with a bit of headroom, not your quietest one and not some best case future scenario.

Do You Actually Need a Cold Room, or Would a Fridge Do?

Worth asking before you go any further. A cold room earns its keep once you're storing more stock than a couple of upright fridges can hold, when deliveries come in bulk (pallets rather than boxes), or when you need walk-in access rather than opening and closing a door dozens of times a service. If you're a smaller café or takeaway, a stainless steel upright fridge or two might genuinely be the better, cheaper option. We've gone through this comparison properly in Cold Room vs Commercial Fridges: Which Storage Solution Does Your Irish Kitchen Need? if you want to weigh it up first. Assuming a cold room has already won that argument for you, here's how to size one properly.

Step 1: Work Out How Much Cold Storage You Actually Need

Start with what you're actually storing, not what sounds impressive. Walk your current stock levels on your busiest delivery day, count how many crates, trays or pallets are sitting around waiting for space, and add a bit of headroom for growth or a busier season. A rough rule that works for most kitchens: think in terms of shelving runs rather than square metres, since a cold room's usable capacity is almost always less than its floor area once shelving, headroom and door swing are accounted for.

Butchers, caterers and wholesalers handling pallets need to think in cubic metres and pallet footprints from the start. A café or small retail unit is usually better served thinking in terms of "how many trays and crates am I short right now," then sizing up from there.

A useful sanity check: list out what's currently overflowing into fridges that were never meant to hold it, count how many times a week deliveries get turned away or squeezed in awkwardly, and note how much of your current storage is actually dead space, boxes stacked on boxes because nothing's organised. That gap between what you have and what you need is your real starting point, not a guess at square metres.

Step 2: Decide Between a Coldroom and a Freezer Room (or Both)

This sounds obvious until you're actually choosing a unit. A standard coldroom runs at a chill temperature, typically +2°C to +8°C, suited to fresh produce, dairy, prepped food and drinks. A freezer room runs at -18°C to -22°C for frozen stock. Combisteel's modular Pro Line rooms come in the same shell for both, with the difference being the refrigeration unit, and freezer-spec builds also carry extra features like a pressure valve and door heating to stop the door icing shut after a defrost cycle.

If you need both, some businesses split a larger room with an internal partition rather than buying two separate units, though for most SME kitchens it's simpler and more reliable to run a coldroom and a smaller dedicated freezer, or a coldroom alongside your existing chest or upright freezers.

Step 3: Check the Insulation Thickness

Insulation thickness affects both running cost and how well the room holds temperature in a warm kitchen or a hot summer. The smaller plug in units tend to run 80mm insulation, rated to a maximum ambient of around 32°C, which suits a storeroom, back of bar or retail back of house. The larger modular Pro Line rooms step up to 120mm insulation panels, which is the right spec for anything freezer duty or for a room that's going to sit in a warmer plant room or an area without much climate control. If your install spot gets genuinely hot in summer or sits near ovens and extraction, don't skimp here, it's cheaper to spec it right than to run a struggling compressor for years.

Step 4: Measure Your Space and Pick a Footprint

Once you know roughly how much capacity you need, match it against real footprints rather than guessing. A few reference points from our own range, all ex VAT:

• Tight on space? The CombiSteel Mini Cold Room fits a 1m x 1m footprint and gives you 1.59m³ (1300L) of proper walk-in chilled storage with three shelves included, ideal for a small café, bar back of house or retail unit that just needs more than another fridge.
• Stepping up, the Combisteel Cold and Freezer Room 3000 x 3000 x 2400mm gives 16.4m³ in a 3m x 3m footprint, available as either a coldroom or freezer room off the same shell.
• Need a longer, narrower room to fit an awkward space? The 2400 x 4200 x 2400mm room gives 18.4m³ in a footprint that suits butchers, caterers and wholesalers who need length more than width.
• For serious volume, the 3000 x 5400 x 2400mm room gives 30.7m³, the biggest standard footprint in the range.

All of the Pro Line rooms are modular panel builds, so if none of the standard footprints fit your space exactly, it's worth getting in touch, since panel sizes can often be configured differently. Shelving is worth planning alongside the room itself rather than as an afterthought, both the mini cold room and the larger Pro Line rooms are available with shelving included or added, and it makes a real difference to how much usable capacity you actually get out of the floor area you've bought.

Step 5: Think About Door Width and Access

An easy one to overlook until moving day. The Pro Line rooms carry an 850mm door width as standard, wide enough for a loaded pallet truck or trolley, and the door is reversible so it can be hinged to suit either side of your layout. The mini cold room has a narrower 630mm service door, which is fine for crates and trays by hand but worth checking against anything you'd want to wheel in. If you're regularly moving stock on a pallet truck, size the door width in from the start rather than working around it after installation.

Step 6: Installation, DIY Plug and Play vs Delivered on Request

Smaller modular rooms like the mini cold room are genuinely straightforward, a plug in positive unit with no separate compressor installation needed, delivered in 4 to 10 working days with a 1 year parts and labour warranty. The larger Pro Line rooms are a different job. Given the size and weight of the panels, these ship on transport arranged on request rather than standard courier, and you'll want a level, supported floor before the panels go up, a floor support frame is worth budgeting for on anything at the larger end. They carry the same 1 year parts and labour warranty as the smaller units.

What Does a Cold Room Cost in Ireland?

Rough ranges only, always confirm the exact model and config on the coldrooms and freezer rooms collection before budgeting properly. Compact plug in units start at around €4,300 ex VAT. Full modular rooms scale with footprint and configuration, roughly €11,000 to €13,500 ex VAT for a mid sized room and up towards €17,000 to €22,000 ex VAT at the largest end with shelving fitted. Coldroom and freezer versions of the same shell are sometimes priced close to identical and sometimes a few thousand apart, since the freezer spec carries extra components, so it's worth checking both configurations rather than assuming. Add a little on top for accessories like door strip curtains if you're running a busy service door, they cut cold air loss noticeably on a room that's opened and closed all day.

FAQ

What temperature should a commercial cold room run at?

A standard chill coldroom typically runs +2°C to +8°C for fresh produce, dairy and prepped food. A freezer room runs -18°C to -22°C for frozen stock. Always check the exact range on the specific unit, since it can vary slightly by model.

Is a cold room the same thing as a walk-in fridge?

Yes, in practice they're the same product, cold room, walk-in fridge and walk-in cooler are just different names used across the trade for a modular chilled storage room you can walk into, as opposed to an upright fridge you open a door on.

Can I install a cold room myself?

Smaller plug in units like the mini cold room are designed for straightforward DIY installation with no specialist compressor work needed. Larger modular Pro Line rooms are more involved, given the panel weight and the need for a level supported floor, so plan for proper installation rather than a DIY job on anything at the bigger end.

Do I need a coldroom, a freezer room, or both?

Depends entirely on what you're storing. If you handle both fresh and frozen stock in real volume, running a coldroom alongside a smaller dedicated freezer or your existing freezer room is usually more practical than trying to switch one room between the two.

Working out the right size is most of the job done. If you want a second opinion on which footprint or configuration fits your space, drop us a message, we're happy to talk it through before you commit to anything. Browse the full range of coldrooms and freezer rooms here.