Cold storage spray foam insulation in Hinton runs into a failure that has nothing to do with the room holding its temperature and everything to do with what leaves it: the defrost water has to get out, and the route it takes is frequently through space that is below freezing for half the year.
The drain line is the part that fails
A refrigerated room sheds water every time it defrosts, and that water leaves through a small line running out of the room, across a ceiling or under a floor, to somewhere it can discharge. If any part of that run passes through an unheated area, and at this elevation an unheated area means below zero for months, the line closes up. Then the water backs into the room, freezes on the floor and around the door, and the complaint arrives as the room icing up. Nothing was wrong with the room.
Insulating the room can make it worse
This is the part worth saying plainly. Improving the envelope of the room makes the surroundings colder relative to it, not warmer, because less heat is escaping into them. Where a drain runs through that surrounding space, a job that improves the room can be the thing that finally freezes the line. On a Hinton building the drain route is established at the same time as the room is specified, and heated or protected where it needs to be.
What the surrounding space is doing all winter
A cold room built inside an unheated warehouse or a back store is surrounded by air that sits near outside temperature for months, which is not what the plant was sized against and not what most specifications assume. The room may run easily in that condition, and everything around it, the drain, the door seals and any control line, is in a harder environment than the room is. Assessing the space around a Hinton room is as much of the job as assessing the room.
The door frame has a heater in it, and here it earns its keep
A refrigerated door is fitted with a low-powered heater around its frame, there to stop the seal freezing to the jamb and tearing when somebody pulls it. In a warm building it barely works. In a Hinton store surrounded by space that sits near outside temperature for months it runs almost continuously, and when it fails, which it does quietly, the first sign is a seal pulled off the door. It is worth knowing that circuit exists, worth checking it, and worth remembering that improving the room makes the space around that frame colder rather than warmer.
Cold Storage Spray Foam Insulation Hinton: The Covering Requirement
Closed cell foam is used in this application because it resists moisture movement as well as heat, which matters where two sides of a surface sit at different temperatures continuously. In an occupied Hinton building it is covered by a thermal barrier, and where the room holds food or product the covering usually has to be cleanable as well, so the two get specified together. More on thermal barrier vs ignition barrier.
Cold Storage Spray Foam Insulation Hinton: Common Questions
Why does the room ice up at the door? Look at the defrost drain. If any of its run is below zero it has closed and backed up.
Could insulating the room cause that? It can. A better room leaks less heat into the space around it, and that space holds the drain.
What is around the room? Frequently an unheated store sitting near outside temperature. That gets assessed too.
Size the assembly with the R-value calculator, then get a free Hinton quote. More on Cold Storage Spray Foam Insulation Alberta.