How to Choose a Commercial Reach-In Refrigerator or Freezer: Doors, Compressor Location, Capacity and Power

A commercial reach-in refrigerator — or a reach-in freezer, which is the same cabinet with a colder compressor — is the one piece of refrigeration every kitchen has, and the one most people buy on width alone. Width matters, but four other decisions — door style, compressor location, refrigerator or freezer, and what the unit asks of your electrical panel — decide whether it works on your line for the next ten years. This guide goes through each one using the actual numbers from the Polarman PLM series.

1. Start with capacity, then check the door swing

Reach-ins are sold in one-, two- and three-section widths. Cubic feet is the honest measure of what fits inside; width is what decides whether it fits in the room. Both are below, together with the two dimensions people forget to check.

Every model in the table is 82 5/16" tall on 5 1/2" legs. That clears a standard 84" doorway on delivery only if the unit is upright and the legs are off, so check the route from the dock before it ships, not after. Depth is the second trap: the slim PLM-19 series is 25 9/16" deep and slides into a 26" alcove; every other model needs 32 11/16" plus door swing in front.

2. Solid door or glass door

Solid doors hold temperature better, cost less and hide the mess. Glass doors let staff find product without opening the door, which in a busy line matters more than the insulation you give up. The numbers on the same cabinet:

Same compressor, same amp draw, same shelves. The glass door adds weight (a double-pane door is heavier than a foamed steel one) and it makes the box work harder in a hot kitchen, because every opening lets in more warm air than a solid door that is opened half as often would. Put glass doors where people look — the pass, a grab-and-go back-of-house cooler, a bakery — and solid doors where the box lives next to the fryer.

3. Bottom-mount or top-mount compressor

The whole Polarman reach-in line is bottom-mounted, and that is a deliberate choice for kitchen use rather than storage rooms:

• Cooler air at the floor. Kitchen air is hottest at the ceiling. A compressor drawing air at knee height runs cooler and cycles less than one sitting under a hood's exhaust plume.
• Usable top shelf. With the condensing unit below, the top storage shelf sits at chest height instead of above your head — and every shelf is rated for 88 lb.
• Serviceable in place. The compressor pulls out from the front at the bottom. Nobody has to climb on a ladder next to the cook line.

The trade-off is that the bottom shelf sits higher, so the very lowest storage is lost. Top-mount units keep that space and are the better choice in dusty, flour-heavy rooms where a bottom grille would clog faster. If your kitchen runs hot, bottom-mount; if it runs floury, top-mount.

4. Reach-in refrigerator or reach-in freezer?

Same cabinet, different compressor. The refrigerator models hold 33°F to 41°F; the reach-in freezers hold −10°F to 10°F. Both use R290 refrigerant and the same 82 5/16" body, so a refrigerator and a freezer of the same width line up side by side with no step between them. To compare other formats as well, see the full range of commercial refrigerators and commercial freezers.

What you pay for on the freezer side is electricity. A 23 cu ft reach-in freezer draws 8 A where the same-size refrigerator draws 3 A — roughly two and a half times the load, every hour it runs. That changes the circuit plan, not just the price tag, and it is the single most common thing missed when a kitchen swaps a cooler for a freezer in the same spot. Our temperature guide covers where to set each one and what the health inspector checks.

If you need both but only have one footprint, the collection also carries dual-temperature combo units — one door refrigerated, one frozen — at the cost of smaller capacity on each side. Worth it only when the wall genuinely will not take two cabinets; see our commercial refrigeration guide for why two separate boxes usually win.

5. What it needs from your panel

Almost every reach-in plugs into a standard 115V, 5-15P outlet, but "plugs in" does not mean "shares a circuit". The running amps below are continuous loads; give each box its own 15 A or 20 A circuit and do not put a reach-in on the same circuit as a mixer or a microwave.

6. Reach-in, undercounter or walk-in?

A reach-in is the right answer when you need 19 to 72 cu ft of cold storage in a footprint you can walk past. Below about 20 cu ft, an undercounter unit at the station saves the walk; above 72 cu ft, or when you are storing cases rather than pans, a walk-in costs less per cubic foot. The comparison is worked through in Reach-In vs. Undercounter vs. Walk-In.

Checklist before you order

• Width and depth measured, plus door swing in front and the delivery path from the dock
• Solid doors on the hot line, glass doors where staff need to see product
• Bottom-mount for hot kitchens, top-mount for flour-heavy rooms
• Refrigerator (33–41°F) or reach-in freezer (−10–10°F) — freezers draw roughly 2–3× the amps
• A dedicated 115V circuit per unit; 230V single phase for the 81" freezer