Reefer pre-cool and pull-down estimate
Time to pre-cool an empty trailer, and how long the reefer would need to pull warm product down to setpoint.
Get this tool with its role plan
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Comes with the HVAC technician plan: every tool for the role, from $10.20 a month at the launch price.
- Your own numbers, worked out as often as you like
- The full load sheet you can print or save to My work
- 5 cited sources, linked, with the checks to make
- Every other tool for the same role, in the same plan
- A plain-words read of your result (a fuller AI read with the Bifrost AI add-on)
Included in these role plans
Example result · fictional numbers
What you get: load sheet
Worked out by this tool from its default inputs. Its role plan lets you run your own numbers, print the sheet and save it.
Pre-cool 51 min, but don't load product at 40°F: it is 6.0°F over setpoint
- Pre-cool time (empty)
- 51 minutes
- Heat to remove from product
- 216,000 BTU
- Product pull-down time
- 7.2 h if the unit could do it
- Decision
- Reject or re-cool in the warehouse; reefers maintain temperature, they are not built to pull product down
Pre-cool plan
- Trailer air now
- 85°F, setpoint 34°F
- Pre-cool time, empty and doors shut
- 51 min at 1.0°F a minute
- When to start
- Start by 1 h 09 min from now (pre-cool takes 51 min)
- Fuel for the pre-cool
- 0.68 gal, $2.55 at $3.75 a gallon
- Before the doors open
- Unit display at setpoint, pre-cool record or download saved, setpoint matches the shipper's written instruction
Also on the sheet
- Product check at the dock · 6 lines, starting with “Product temperature against setpoint”
- Pull-down time by loading temperature (same load and unit) · 5 lines, starting with “Loaded 1°F over setpoint (35°F)”
- Records for this load · 4 lines, starting with “Operating temperature in writing from the shipper, with the pre-cool”
The plain-words read of this example
The empty trailer needs about 51 min to pre-cool from 85°F to 34°F; with 2 h 00 min to the appointment, start within 1 h 09 min. The carrier must pre-cool to the shipper's written temperature before the trailer is offered. The product holds 216,000 BTU above setpoint, 7.2 h of the unit's full capacity, and the warmest load it could pull down in a 12.0 h trip is 44°F. Do not load warm: product is 6.0°F over setpoint; re-cool in the warehouse first; temperature abuse during loading adds to what happens in transit. Keep the shipper's temperature instruction for 12 months beyond the carrier agreement.
5 cited sources
- 21 CFR 1.908, What requirements apply to transportation operations? (Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute (Code of Federal Regulations))
- 21 CFR 1.912, What records are required? (Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute (Code of Federal Regulations))
- FSMA Final Rule on Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food (US Food and Drug Administration)
- Protecting Perishable Foods During Transport by Truck and Rail (HS1328) (University of Florida IFAS Extension, with USDA AMS)
- Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update (weekly on-highway prices) (US Energy Information Administration)
Plus 6 step-by-step checks, a print layout and a link that reopens it with your numbers.