One of the many things to keep in mind before you buy a commercial refrigerator for your restaurant kitchen, cafeteria, or store, is the direction in which the refrigerator door opens. While some commercial units have sliding doors, others are hinged on either the left or the right side of the unit, causing the door to swing open during use. Most commercial refrigerators have left- and right-opening models, so you'll want to decide what style is best for your applications before you commit to buy it. Here are some specific things to evaluate as you work to decide which type of unit to buy:

Proximity To Walls

Before you even think about which direction your commercial refrigerator door should open, you'll need to decide where you want to position it. Doing so will be instrumental in helping you to choose the right type of door. One major consideration is the unit's proximity to the walls to either side of it. For example, if you plan to have the refrigerator's right side pushed up against a wall, you'll likely want the door to swing open to the left. If the door were to open to the right, the handle might hit the wall and impede the door from opening fully.

Flow Of People

Regardless of the type of business that you run, you'll likely have people walking around your new commercial refrigerator throughout the day. Give some thought to this flow of traffic and consider what type of door would be best. For example, if you plan to place the unit at an intersection in your kitchen or store, you won't want the door to open so that it blocks people who will be walking past the fridge. This is especially true if the walkway is narrow and the open door would completely prevent them from passing.

Contact With Other Objects

You should also consider how a left- or right- opening door on your commercial refrigeration unit could make contact with other objects in the area. For example, if you have another object with a door across a narrow hallway from the unit that you're going to buy, you don't want their doors to make contact with one another when they're both open. In many cases, you'll be able to completely avoid such an issue by simply choosing a unit that has a door that swings open in the opposite direction.