Besides performing their duties capably, another way refrigeration and ice machines can show how good they are is to be easy to install and service. As winners of the 2011 Dealer Design Award in the Refrigeration and Ice Machines category, the products described here have all displayed this characteristic.

Aside from the fact that an entire separate section of McCormick Place was turned into a tasting room for the International Wine, Spirits, and Beer Event, the main floor at the National Restaurant Association expo had a number of exhibitors showing ways to deal with an apparent growing interest in wine.

When a refrigeration system fails, many times the cause can easily be diagnosed. However there are occasions when the cause cannot easily be determined - either the true cause is unclear or the technician is unsure of a problem. How do you work through these jobs? One method used by some techs is to “read and record.”

Top topics these days for people involved in the food retail sector are energy, sustainability, and compliance and how to discuss those with decision makers within that sector. Data plays a significant role in selling an energy project. Once the project is sold and installed, we need to deliver proof of savings.

The continuing expansion of a retailer into products needing refrigerators and freezers, and growing desires by supermarkets to demonstrate environmental correctness are among the latest trends in retail refrigeration.

A sign at one of the booths at the National Restaurant Association Show stated: “Being on the Food Page is Good. Being on the Front Page is Bad.” That concern was certainly the focus of the refrigeration-related exhibitors where drink and food safety were reflected in the quality of ice and the effectiveness of freezers and coolers.

After 85 years, it takes more than cosmetics to keep a publication fresh; the right attitude needs to permeate the organization. “This publication, The NEWS, was started by my great-grandfather in 1926,” said BNP Media co-CEO Taggart Henderson.

Congratulations to Bernard Nagengast, an engineering consultant and industry historian who found the oldest NEWS issue among our readers. His oldest issue was dated Nov. 30, 1926. The very first issue of the magazine was published in September of that same year.

In 1926, F.M. Cockrell started Business News Publishing Co., now BNP Media, in Detroit. The first issue of the Electric Refrigeration News, now The Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration NEWS, had a publication date of Sept. 11, 1926. It was created to help recognize the importance of the expanding electric refrigeration market.

It is one thing to install efficiently running refrigeration equipment. But it also has to be energy efficient – according to a wide range of standards. That’s why Emerson recently issued a white paper called Status of Energy Regulations for Commercial Refrigeration Equipment.