Ice forming on door frames and on the floor below can jam doors, prevent them from sealing properly, and cause delays in moving product. Employees, who could be more efficiently employed doing other work. Desiccant dehumidifiers help solve these problems by addressing the moisture at its source, Speltz said, and delivering dry air directly toward the evaporator coils inside the freezer or at the freezer entrances. Fork trucks, pallet movers, and foot traffic are slowed by fog and wet or icy floors, which also create safety hazards. High humidity also reduces refrigeration efficiency.
Ice builds until a defrost cycle is initiated to melt it so the ice can drain away as water.
This process is, of course, expected and compensated for by the capacity of the other evaporators serving the area. However, when moisture loads are higher than expected, an inability to maintain the proper dock temperature can result as coils attempt to keep up with the load. This may prohibit using the dock as a staging area for fear of sacrificing product quality. Again, the solution is to capture the moisture before it can affect the space. It does take a significant load off the coils.