Plan a Walk-In Cooler or Freezer in 3D: 8 Decisions

Our free 3D walk-in configurator lets you plan a walk-in cooler or freezer in seven steps, from size and type through panels, doors, refrigeration, racks and lights. Send the design and a spec sheet downloads right away, then a rep from World Food Equipment (WFE), an Ontario walk-in installer, calls within one business day. Pricing comes from that call, not the tool.

Key takeaways

• Eight decisions: size and location, type, panels, floor, doors, refrigeration, racking, then lights.
• Order matters: each decision limits the next. The type sets the panel and floor choices, and pallet racking needs about 10 ft of floor across the room.
• WFE does the engineering: you pick the size, the type and the doors. WFE sizes the refrigeration and lays out the evaporators, lights and racks.
• The rules set a floor: Canada sets minimum insulation for walk-in panels and doors made since 2017, at R-25 for coolers and R-32 for freezers.
• What you get: a spec sheet with a 3D view of your walk-in and every choice you made, plus a call from a WFE rep within one business day.

What can you do in the free 3D walk-in design tool?

The configurator runs in the browser on a computer, tablet or phone, with no download and no account. Seven steps run across the top in the order a walk-in gets specified. Three of them (Exterior, Floor and Interior) are optional, because the defaults suit most builds.

• Views: switch between a 3D view and a top-down plan view, with finished walls (Real) or see-through walls (CAD).
• Units: feet and °F, or metres and °C, with one switch.
• Mistakes: undo and redo cover the last 60 changes.
• Save: Save Draft gives you a link that reopens the exact design on any device, with a QR code on a computer and the share sheet on a phone. The browser also remembers your last design for 60 days.

#	Decision	Configurator step	What you choose	Deep guide
1	Size and location	Setup	Width, depth, height; indoor or outdoor	Restaurant sizing guide
2	Type	Setup	Cooler, Freezer, Cooler + Freezer, Blast Chiller, Blast Freezer or IMP Structure	Cooler vs freezer
3	Panels	Walls, Exterior	Panel thickness by type; wainscot	Panel R-values
4	Floor	Floor	IMP, Reinforced IMP, Ventilated or Glycol; floor finish	Freezer floors
5	Doors	Doors	Swing, Skid, Sliding, Roll-Up or Glass Display; size, wall and add-ons	Door types and sizes
6	Refrigeration	Refrigeration	Self-Contained, Indoor Unit or Outdoor Unit	Self-contained vs remote
7	Racking and shelving	Interior	None, Shelving or Pallet Racking	Industrial freezers
8	Lights and temperature	Interior, Setup	Automatic LED layout; the temperature set by the type	Temperature guide

1. Size and location: start with the room

Measure the space the walk-in goes into before you pick anything else. On the Setup step, the width and depth sliders run from 6 to 100 ft and the height from 7 to 24 ft. Every design starts as a rectangle; if a column or a corner is in the way, tell your rep on the call.

• No single standard size: walk-ins are built from insulated panels, so the box follows your room and your storage, not a catalogue. Final panel sizes are confirmed at quote.
• Indoor or outdoor: the Setup step asks where the walk-in goes, and an outdoor box gets a roof edge, drip caps over the doors and a concrete pad in the 3D view. Sun, snow and freeze-thaw are covered in our outdoor vs indoor walk-in guide.
• Starting numbers: for a restaurant, our restaurant walk-in buyer’s guide turns seat count into a footprint. Use it to set the first numbers, then adjust in the tool.
• Height: a taller box holds more shelving and decides how many pallet levels fit, so set it before you plan the interior.

2. Type: cooler, freezer, combo or blast room

Choose the type on the Setup step: Cooler, Freezer, Cooler + Freezer, Blast Chiller, Blast Freezer or IMP Structure. That one choice sets the temperature, the panel choices and the floor choices. Cooler + Freezer splits one box into two rooms with a partition wall and a door between them.

• Cooler: Health Canada’s food storage guidance sets the fridge at 4°C (40°F) or lower, and the tool’s cooler runs at 4°C.
• Freezer: the same guidance sets the freezer at minus 18°C (0°F) or lower, which is the tool’s freezer temperature.
• Cooler + Freezer: each side gets its own doors and its own refrigeration, and the 3D view labels both zones. Set the partition’s direction and position on the Interior step.
• Blast Chiller or Blast Freezer: a walk-in room that chills or freezes food down fast. The tool shows no temperature for these, and your rep confirms it at quote.
• IMP Structure: insulated panels with no refrigeration, for processing rooms, production rooms and tiny homes. The Refrigeration step drops out.
• Not sure which: our walk-in cooler vs walk-in freezer comparison sets out what each one stores and costs to run.

3. Panels: thickness and wainscot

Panels decide how well the box holds its cold. The Walls step offers the thicknesses that suit your type, 3 to 8 inches for a cooler and 4 to 8 inches for a freezer, and shows the rated U-value and R-value for each. In Canada, walk-in panels and doors made on or after June 5, 2017 must meet minimum insulation values set by Natural Resources Canada.

• Cooler panels: R-25 (RSI 4.40) at minimum.
• Freezer panels: R-32 (RSI 5.64) for walls and ceilings, and R-28 (RSI 4.93) for freezer floor panels.
• Rated values in the tool: R-27 for 3 inch, R-36 for 4 inch, R-45 for 5 inch, R-54 for 6 inch and R-72 for 8 inch.
• IMP Structure: 2 to 8 inch panels, because the room holds no cold.
• Exterior: the optional Exterior step finishes the walls in White Panels and adds a 36 or 48 inch wainscot in stainless, checker plate or galvanized steel.

Our walk-in panel and R-value guide explains what the numbers mean and when a thicker panel pays off.

4. Floor: what goes under the walk-in

The Floor step offers the floors that suit your type. A cooler, blast chiller or IMP structure gets IMP or Reinforced IMP, and a freezer, blast freezer or combo also gets Ventilated and Glycol. Every design has a floor, and your WFE rep confirms the final floor build at quote.

• IMP: an insulated panel floor, finished in galvanized steel or checker plate.
• Reinforced IMP: an IMP floor with 1/2 inch plywood and welded heavy checker plate on top, for forklifts and heavy machinery.
• Ventilated or Glycol: air or warm glycol lines run under a freezer floor so the ground below does not freeze and heave. The National Research Council’s Canadian Building Digest 61 explains the mechanism, and for a room kept below freezing all year it names heat under the floor as the most satisfactory fix.
• Ramps: a ramp is set per door, under More door options on the Doors step.

The floor section of our commercial walk-in freezer buyer’s guide covers insulated floors in more depth.

5. Doors: type, size and add-ons

The Doors step offers five choices: Swing, Skid, Sliding, Roll-Up and Glass Display. Skid is a big swing door that starts at 6 by 8 ft for skids and pallet jacks, and any swing door over 5 ft wide is drawn with two leaves. You can put doors on any wall, set the width, height, hinge and position, and make a sliding door automatic.

• More door options: viewport window, kickplate, jamb guard, ramp, bollards and strip curtain sit under one row, and the closed row lists what you added. A WFE rep confirms each one at quote.
• Roll-up: a high-speed fabric door that rolls up above the opening, for busy loading openings.
• Glass display: a run of 24 or 30 inch glass doors, as many as the wall takes. The tool adds a walk-in door so people can still get inside.
• Freight doors: Canada’s rules treat a walk-in door of at least 4 ft wide and 8 ft high as a freight door, so measure your widest cart or pallet load before you size one.
• Warm air: the US federal walk-in rule requires strip doors, spring-hinged doors or another way to limit infiltration when doors are open, which is what the strip curtain option is for.

Our walk-in door types and sizes guide compares each type, and the walk-in cooler and freezer doors page shows what we install.

6. Refrigeration: where the condensing unit goes

The Refrigeration step asks one question: where the condensing unit goes. Self-Contained is one packaged unit on the walk-in, Indoor Unit puts the condensing unit on top of the walk-in inside your building, and Outdoor Unit puts it outside your building with lines run to the walk-in. WFE sizes the system and places the evaporators for your room, so there is nothing else to set.

• Evaporators: the 3D view places them for you, with more units and fans in bigger and taller rooms. In a combo, each side gets its own.
• Engineering stays with WFE: your rep sizes the equipment from your room, your site and what you store.
• Regulated too: Canada regulates walk-in refrigeration as well. Cooler condensing systems made from January 1, 2020 must comply, and freezer systems and unit coolers from July 10, 2020.

Our walk-in cooler refrigeration guide covers the three setups and which one fits your building.

7. Racking and shelving

Racks go on the Interior step as one choice: None, Shelving or Pallet Racking. WFE lays them out from your room size and doors, with shelving along the inside walls and pallet racking in rows with a pallet jack aisle in front of each one. Pallet racking needs about 10 ft of floor across the room, and the tool tells you when a room is too small.

• Shelving: chrome wire shelving, 24 inches deep, along the inside walls. Doorways and glass doors stay clear.
• Pallet racking: steel racking, 42 inches deep, in orange, red or blue. Pick 4, 5 or 6 ft between levels, and the tool shows how many levels your height takes.
• Ontario racking review: in an Ontario factory, installing a new rack generally needs a pre-start health and safety review unless an exemption applies.

Racked rooms change the floor (a large freezer on grade usually needs heat under the slab), the height and the doors. Our industrial walk-in freezer guide covers those builds, and larger rooms go through our custom cold storage process.

8. Lights and temperature

The Interior step lays out sealed 4 ft vapor-tight LED strip lights for you: about one per 100 sq ft of floor, one in front of each evaporator and the rest in rows over the open floor and aisles. Turn Size the Lighting for Me off to set the count yourself. The temperature follows the type: 4°C for a cooler, minus 18°C for a freezer, and both for a combo.

• Light efficiency: the US federal walk-in rule requires lights of at least 40 lumens per watt, or a control that turns them off within 15 minutes of the room being empty.
• Set point: if your product needs a different temperature, say so when the rep calls. The spec sheet lists the temperature so it is on record.

Our walk-in cooler and freezer temperature guide covers Ontario’s food-premises rule and how to check a box is holding.

What did people design in week one?

The configurator went live on October 14, 2026. In its first five days, three of the designs sent to us showed how wide the range is:

• Indoor cooler: 16 × 20 ft and 15.5 ft tall, with one sliding door and four LED fixtures.
• Outdoor cooler: 16 × 40 ft and 14 ft tall, with a swing door, a powered vertical lift door and two bollards.
• Outdoor freezer: 12 × 12 ft and 8 ft tall, with one swing door.

Two of the three were outdoor builds, so set indoor or outdoor before anything else.

What happens after you send your walk-in design?

When the design is done, ask for the PDF and fill in the short form. Your name, email and phone are required; city is optional. Your spec sheet downloads as soon as the form goes through, and a WFE rep calls within one business day to confirm site conditions, finalize the design and give you pricing.

• The spec sheet: a 3D view (plus the plan view, if you opened it) and a table of every choice: dimensions, type, placement, temperature, doors, refrigeration, panels, floor, lighting and racks.
• Not a quote: the sheet is a design draft. Final specifications and pricing depend on the site, the electrical and install access.
• Your design travels with it: the rep sees the same design you built, so the call starts from your plan.
• Prefer to talk first: call (289) 813-5293.

Ready to try it? Start a walk-in design in the configurator. It takes a few minutes, and nothing is sent until you ask for the PDF.

We have supplied and installed 10,000+ walk-ins across Ontario. The photo below shows a finished box with a swing door, cam-lift hinges and a threshold ramp, built inside a larger cold room.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get pricing for my walk-in design?

Send the design from the configurator. A WFE rep calls within one business day to confirm site conditions, finalize the design and give you pricing. The tool itself does not price the walk-in.

Can I send my walk-in design to a partner before it goes to WFE?

Yes. Save Draft gives you a link that opens the exact design on any device, so a partner, a landlord or a kitchen designer can see what you planned. Saving a draft sends nothing to WFE; your design reaches us only when you fill in the form.

Which panel thickness should I pick in the configurator?

The tool notes that 4 inch panels suit most coolers and freezers, and thicker panels hold the cold better. The Walls step shows the rated R-value for each thickness, from R-27 for 3 inch to R-72 for 8 inch, with R-36 for 4 inch. Your WFE rep confirms the final panel spec at quote.

Can I design a blast chiller or blast freezer?

Yes. Pick Blast Chiller or Blast Freezer on the Setup step and design the room like any walk-in. Your WFE rep confirms the temperature and the blast unit at quote.

Does the configurator work on a phone?

Yes. On a phone the 3D view sits at the top of the screen with the options below, and you can lower the options to see the whole walk-in. Save, the PDF and the next step stay in a bar at the bottom.

What do I need to send my design?

Your name, email and phone number, so your rep can call you back. City is optional. The spec sheet PDF downloads as soon as the form goes through.

Can the configurator plan an outdoor walk-in?

Yes. Choose Outdoor Walk-In on the Setup step, and the 3D view adds a roof edge, drip caps over the doors and a concrete pad. A WFE rep confirms the site conditions on the call.