Market / Florists
Floral refrigeration is not food refrigeration. A floral cooler holds 1-2°C and 85-95% relative humidity, the opposite of the dry, low-humidity envelope a standard food walk-in is built for. Run that humidity wrong and the stems dehydrate; let the cabinet drift below 0°C and you freeze the product. Most contractors quote a stripped-down food cooler and call it a floral unit. WFE specs floral refrigeration as its own product category, engineered around the high-humidity envelope flowers need.
Fig. 01 · What you actually buy
A floral fridge is a glass-front display cooler engineered around high humidity: anti-fog glazing, a humidification module, gentle air circulation, and a freeze-protection floor that keeps the cabinet clear of 0°C.
Six numbered callouts on the elevation. Here is how it goes together.
● DWG WFE-FL-01 · front elevation · schematic, not to scale
Fig. 02 · How we'd spec it
For a retail florist with an 800-2,000 sq ft storefront: a 6'×10' to 8'×12' glass-front display walk-in at 1°C and 90% RH.
Build sheet · retail + wholesale
Fig. 03 · What each part does
What each part of a floral fridge does for your stems and your storefront.
Most food walk-ins run 35-45% RH in heating season; cut flowers need 85-95% RH year-round, and standard refrigeration over-dries the air. We spec humidified supply air, oversized evaporator coils at higher saturated suction, and panel humidity control to hold the band tight.
Flowers freeze at 0°C, and a standard walk-in can dip below that during defrost or compressor recovery. We hold floral-cooler controls to a 1-2°C deadband above 0°C and time defrost so the cabinet never crosses into freeze.
Retail florists usually want a glass-front display walk-in so customers can see product without opening the door. The glazing has to be anti-fog rated, the door seals have to handle constant cycling, and the interior lighting needs to be cool-rendering so reds and pinks read true.
Most retail florist coolers are 6'×8' to 10'×12'; wholesale operations run larger. We design at both scales: tight retail units that fit existing storefronts without expensive renovation, and wholesale units that handle truck deliveries of pre-cut stems through to next-day fulfilment.
Fig. 04 · Why a food walk-in fails
Same mechanical family. Opposite humidity.
The full engineering reasoning is in the Deep Dive below, or read the walk-in cooler page for the base build spec.
Deep Dive
Expand any section for the full detail on why floral refrigeration differs from food, retail vs wholesale cold storage, mixed-use coolers, and air circulation.
Floral refrigeration (sometimes called flower refrigeration) diverges from food cold storage on humidity, temperature, and airflow: a 90% RH setpoint instead of food's incidental humidity, a tight 1-2°C band instead of a food walk-in's wider 2-4°C, and gentle circulation instead of the aggressive blast a produce cooler throws. The mechanical categories overlap, but the controls, evaporator sizing, and air handling all differ, so a contractor selling you a standard food walk-in as a flower cooler is selling a unit that dries out your stems and freezes your tulips.
Retail florists need small display coolers that fit a storefront budget and the showroom design; wholesale florists need volume cold storage for pallet-quantity deliveries and 24-72 hour turnover before next-day fulfilment. Retail builds typically ship in 3-5 weeks, wholesale builds in 6-10 weeks depending on scale and refrigeration complexity. We build for independent retail florists, wedding and event florist studios, grocery-attached floral departments, wholesale flower importers, farmers-market florists scaling to fixed retail, and funeral-supply florists.
Many independent florists also sell potted plants, gift items, or specialty produce that has different cold-storage requirements. We can design a cooler with separate zones, or a smaller secondary cooler, so the cut-flower environment stays optimal while the adjacent product gets the conditions it needs.
Cut flowers in direct evaporator airflow dry out faster than flowers in still air. We position the evaporator and shape the supply airflow so it circulates the cabinet for temperature stability without blowing directly across the product.
Fig. 05 · Florist FAQ
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