Few businesses can benefit from air doors as much as restaurants. Every restaurant is trying to create a particular atmosphere and ambiance for their guests. Sometimes, the vibe is that of a fancy, upscale restaurant. Sometimes, it’s of a fun, loud, celebratory bar-like place. Either way, some things can tarnish this carefully curated atmosphere, thereby affecting a customer’s experience. Here are five ways in which air doors can prevent that from happening:

1. Insect control: In the spring and summer, it’s all too easy for flies, gnats, fruit flies, mosquitos, and other winged insects to make their way into your restaurant. At best, these pests are annoying. No one wants an insect buzzing around their head while they are trying to eat. At worst, insects can ruin food and pose a health risk. Pests in the kitchen can contaminate dishes and compromise the quality of the food you serve. It’s also scientifically proven that fruit flies landing in wine change the flavor and effectively ruin the beverage. Air doors disorient flying pests and knock them out of the air, keeping them out of your establishment even if the door is wide open.
2. Sanitation: Flies aren’t the only things from outdoors that can compromise the sanitation of a restaurant. Fumes and dust from the street can also affect food quality and air quality. Odors wafting into your restaurant from outside can damage the vibe you’ve worked hard to curate, while dust or dirt in the food can ruin a guest’s entire experience and preclude them from returning in the future. Air doors act as a barrier to unwanted debris, thereby protecting your restaurant from fumes and dust alike.
3. Creature comfort: In the summer, your guests might be flocking to your restaurant in part so they can enjoy a meal in an air-conditioned space. In the winter, a cozy and well-heated dining establishment can offer a much-needed refuge from the cold. Still, other guests going in and out the front door can create warm or cold drafts through the restaurant, reducing creature comfort and detracting from the overall guest experience. Air doors prevent this kind of heat transfer, leading to a more comfortable and enjoyable experience for all your guests.
4. Energy savings: The other benefit to cutting down on heat transfer is that doing so will reduce your energy bills. Every time a hot or cold draft blows through your restaurant, it requires your HVAC system to work a little harder to retain a consistent temperature. With an air door, this problem is less pronounced—something you will notice in the form of lower heating or cooling bills.
5. Environmental control: By definition, a restaurant needs to be a controlled environment. In the dining room, you want to control the ambiance and as much of the guest experience as possible. In the kitchen, you want to maintain the cleanliness and overall safety of the food prep process. Environmental control on this scale is difficult to achieve—at least until you trim unpredictable outdoor variables from the equation. By blocking insects, dust, fumes, and warm or cold air, an air door is key to achieving true environmental control in a restaurant.

Are you interested in adding an air door or two to your restaurant? At Air Door Distributors, we can help you choose ideal solutions for front, back, and side entrances. Get in touch today to learn more.

Energy is a precious resource and an expensive one at that. There is a reason that so many businesses across every sector are looking for ways to adopt sustainability practices, and it doesn’t just have to do with optics. At least when it comes to energy usage, there is a clear financial benefit to becoming more sustainable. The question is, how can businesses use less energy without sacrificing things that are crucial to their day-to-day operations?

The Cost of Heating and Cooling

In the United States, consider that the average office building spends more than $30,000 a year on energy costs, which breaks down to electricity and natural gas. That figure is roughly a third of the operating expenses budget for most office buildings. Heating and cooling account for approximately 21 percent of electricity use in these buildings, and for about 86 percent of natural gas usage.

In restaurants, energy usage looks slightly different. In most cases, cooking accounts for the most substantial energy use. However, in the United States, heating and cooling can still account for between 11 and 23 percent of the average restaurant’s energy consumption, depending on climate zone.

In other words, heating and cooling add up for businesses, both regarding energy use and spending. One of the best ways for businesses to cut down on their energy consumption and start saving money is to look for ways to cut back on heating or cooling.

Reducing Energy Usage for Temperature Control

Of course, turning off the air conditioning isn’t an option. In the summertime, air conditioning might be part of the draw for a restaurant, and it might be the only thing keeping an office staff productive. Having the AC on to cool the building is worth more than what most businesses would save by turning it off.

Still, there are other things that businesses can do to reduce the amount of energy they are using on temperature control. The first areas where most business owners look are typically insulation (installing more or replacing an old design) or the HVAC system itself (replacing or servicing components). However, there might be an even easier way: air doors.

Installing air doors at the entrances and exits to an establishment—especially a restaurant or retail store, where people enter and leave often—can do wonders to reduce energy consumption and spending.

Think of it this way: when a door is left open during the summer, or when people are going in and out every few minutes, there are several opportunities for hot air enter your building. That warm air gradually warms the space, which in turn pushes your air conditioning system to work harder to maintain the temperature you’ve set on your thermostat. The extra strain on the system leads to higher energy usage and higher bills.

Air doors act as a barrier that prevents the usual heat transfer that happens at doorways. As such, they are an effective way of controlling interior temperature, reducing strain on the HVAC system, and cutting down on energy usage and spending.

At Air Door Distributors, we can help you find the right air door(s) for your business so that you can start reaping the energy and monetary savings these installations can provide. Give us a call today to start shopping!

Defined as simply and clearly as possible, air curtains are barriers. They are there to prevent certain elements from getting into or out of your building. They play this role in a different way than a door does, though. For many commercial buildings—from office buildings to retail stores to restaurants—doors can’t play the barrier role for one reason or another. Retail shops, for instance, often prefer to leave doors propped open in the summertime to invite passerby inside. Other businesses face issues where people are constantly going in and out. In these situations, and more, air curtains are necessary, thanks to the three advantages discussed below:

1. They save energy

One of the most significant problems with busy commercial operations where the door is always or often open is temperature transfer. During the peak of summer, businesses like to provide an interior temperature that is much cooler and more comfortable than it is outside. In the winter, the situation is the opposite: companies want to offer a warm and inviting spot for guests to escape from the cold. These businesses are okay with the costs that come with heating and cooling because they are necessary for creature comfort. However, a frequently open door can cause most of that heated or cooled air to escape outside. When this temperature exchange happens, the HVAC system must work even harder to maintain a comfortable interior temperature. The results are higher energy use and cost. An air curtain stops this transfer from happening, reducing the strain on your HVAC system and saving you money.

2. Creature comfort

Speaking of creature comfort, an air curtain can help protect that, too. There is something about walking into a heated business in the winter (or an air-conditioned interior during summer) that is highly inviting. An air curtain helps customers feel that blast of a heated or cold space sooner, drawing them inside. The air curtain also prevents cold or hot drafts of air from making their way indoors. Take a restaurant, where the people sitting near the door in the wintertime are always getting blasted with cold drafts. A heated air curtain could prevent that discomfort, thereby providing a superior guest experience.

3. Insect, dust and fume control

Flies, gnats, and other pests flying around your place of business can ruin the atmosphere and annoy guests. In restaurants or food service businesses, those pests can also contaminate food or ruin wine. Air curtains produce potent streams of air that are impossible for flies or other flying insects to evade. And if they are powerful enough to stop flying insects, you can bet that they also prevent dust and fumes. If your business operates on a busy, smoggy street, or if construction or street cleaning is going on outside, then an air curtain is essential to keeping those unwanted impurities out of your business. Interior air quality matters! Protect it with an air curtain.

Are you interesting in adding an air curtain to the front or back door of your business? Air Door Distributors can help you find the right air curtain for any commercial door. Call us today at 866-402-1642 to learn more.

Table real estate is essential to the financial success of a restaurant. The more tables turned in a night, the more money the business and employees see in return. But how can you be sure those seats and tables stay full? For starters, creating a warm, welcoming environment in these chilly late winter/early spring days and nights is essential. Customers desire a place where they feel comfortable and often negatively remember restaurants where they had to wear a coat all through dinner.

The options for creating a warm, inviting space range from solutions like space heaters to expensive vestibules. While those options are not always terrible, they do have their troubles. Rather than spending large sums of money on a vestibule or placing a dangerous space heater at the entrance of your restaurant, consider the use of a heated air curtain and all of the benefits it has to offer.

Low-Profile Heated Air Curtains

So, what exactly is a low-profile heated air curtain? While it may be a mouthful to say, it’s very simple to understand. An air curtain is simply a device mounted above the threshold of a door that releases an engineered stream of air in a downward motion. This air stream creates a barrier that separates two environments from each other, prevent the mingling of air contaminants, pollutants, pests and cold air with warm air. A heated air curtain is a type of air curtain that blows off a warm stream of air. Air curtains are available in many options and low-profile air curtains give restaurant owners and other businesses the ability to mount the device in a way that is unseen to the untrained eye. They are less noticeable and less intrusive and still provide the same great functions of a traditional air curtain.

Benefits of a Low-Profile Heated Air Curtain

• Create an Ideal Entrance. One of the great things about a heated air curtain is that it can bring your guests in from the freezing temperatures and into a warm, comfortable environment. There is nothing worse than freezing through an entire dinner. With a heated air curtain, your guests will find comfort the second they enter your restaurant.
• Turn More Tables. We all know that more tables, results in more money. When you are able to fit your guests in a comfortable environment, they will be more likely to return.
• Place Staff Closer to Entrance. With a heated air curtain blocking the cold air from entering your restaurant, restaurant owners are then able to place employees in closer proximity to the door without the guilt of them being exposed to a constant stream of cold, outside air. By placing staff closer to the door, this frees up more space to add additional tables to the valuable dining room real estate that would otherwise be taken up by a hostess stand.
• Effective Functionality. Heated air curtains come in a variety of models but can offer restaurants a unique edge with the low-profile models. These models are specifically created to be nearly unseen and extremely quiet, yet highly effective at the same time.
• Cost Effective. One of the biggest benefits to adding an air curtain is that they can often be a huge money-saver for restaurants. The unique ability that air curtains have to create an invisible barrier between two environments that allows restaurant owners to be in complete control of the temperatures inside the restaurant. When cold air mixes with warm air, it forces unwanted temperature changes, thus making your air conditioning and heating units work in overdrive. By keeping these environments separate and you in control, your energy usage will decrease and the end result will reflect in your energy bill.

Other Heating Solutions

Most restaurants look for a way to maintain a heated entrance. The alternative to a heated air curtain is typically a vestibule. Vestibules often range anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000; which is significantly higher than the cost of a heated air curtain. The typical low-profile air curtain can be purchased for around $1,500, which is a huge savings when compared to the next best alternative.

Are you looking for a way to warm up the entrance to your restaurant? A low-profile, heated air curtain can create that desired setting you’ve been searching for. The experts at Air Door Distributors are ready to assist you in determining the appropriate air curtain for your specific business and needs. Call today at 866-402-1642, click for a live chat or simply fill out our contact form and we will get you the air curtain to best fit your needs.

Food spoilage is a problem most businesses cannot afford to endure over and over. Whether you are faced with a health scare caused by food spoilage or the simple, yet costly loss that comes to pass when food goes bad, there are ways to help keep your food fresh longer.

The Problem

Food spoilage is often caused by a rise in temperature when food needs to remain cold. Anytime warm air is let into refrigerated areas, such as walk-in coolers, the temperature rises leading to a quicker rate of food spoilage. This is an extremely undesired occurrence for any restaurant or food service business.

The Effects

When food spoils rapidly, there are many negative effects on the business.

• When food is not properly cared for, or when food sees varying degrees of temperatures in a day, it can cause safety concerns for customers and dining patrons. Food contamination is often brought on when air contaminants are free to roam. By leaving your food open to the outside, warmer air, it is more like to contaminate and mold your food supply.
• Health Department. The health department has rules on refrigeration for many reasons. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, “Refrigeration slows bacterial growth. Bacteria exist everywhere in nature. They are in the soil, air, water, and the foods we eat. When they have nutrients (food), moisture, and favorable temperatures, they grow rapidly, increasing in numbers to the point where some types of bacteria can cause illness. Bacteria grow most rapidly in the range of temperatures between 40 and 140 °F, the “Danger Zone,” some doubling in number in as little as 20 minutes. A refrigerator set at 40 °F or below will protect most foods.”

The Solution

Keeping your food stored properly will help reduce the risk of food spoilage. But how can you be sure you are doing everything you need to be doing to address this issue and to enact preventative measures? Adding a low-profile air curtain will help significantly reduce the potential of losing your food supply to spoilage.

Here’s how it works: A low-profile air curtain can be placed above refrigerated areas that, let’s face it, often get left open longer and more frequently than they should. Air curtains create a strong, engineered stream of air that prevents outside air from entering and inside air from exiting, thus resulting in a more stable and consistent air temperature and putting you in absolute control over the temperatures you are seeking to maintain.

The Benefits of an Air Curtain

The benefits of adding an air curtain to your refrigerated areas are great. The use of an air curtain alone has the ability to save any business owner thousands of dollars but when it also has the ability to help prevent restaurant and food supply sources from losing food, it can be a game changer.

• Conserve Energy. One of the most common reasons any business seeks the use of an air curtain is to help conserve energy. The use of an air curtain in your refrigerated area can also serve that same function. When walk-in cooler doors are left open, the cold air tends to mix with the warm air creating a fight of sorts between the two environments and effecting the degrees of temperature in both environments. These constant changes in temperature will reflect on your monthly energy bill. By installing an air curtain in your walk in cooler or freezer, you are eliminating the ability of air transfer and maintaining a steady, constant temperature and allowing your compressors to run less frequently. Yes, air curtains are an added cost but their unique ability to lower other expenses is great. For a one-time cost, you reduce costly expenses of energy each month.
• Make Life Easier for Your Employees. Let’s face it, oftentimes we find ways to make our jobs easier. For example, in high volume kitchens, sometimes it is just quicker and easier to leave the refrigerator doors open. While that may not be the ideal solution, there is a way to allow that while still maintaining your desired temperatures and adhering to safety standards. Adding an air curtain to the threshold of your walk-in cooler or freezer section of your place of business can also make life easier by allow the doors to remain open without sacrificing your costly supply.

Air curtains offer many benefits to business of any kind but when food spoilage is a concern, it is a necessity. The benefits far outweigh other costly and less successful methods.

Are you ready to add an air curtain to your walk-in cooler and freezer sections to help lessen the rate of food spoilage in your place of business? The experts at Air Door Distributors are ready to assist you in determining the appropriate air curtain for your specific business and needs. Call today at 866-402-1642, click for a live chat or simply fill out our contact form and we will get you the air curtain to best fit your needs.

Air Curtains are Available in 3 Main Heating Types

Air curtains are a highly beneficial device to business and building facilities all around the country. From their ability to repel insects to the proficiency in maintaining a desired indoor temperature, the advantages cannot be beat. A heated air curtain can create a uniquely clean, inviting and warm atmosphere for businesses that will gain the attention of any guests who comes through the door. Heated air curtains normally come in three heating types including gas-fired air curtains, electric heated air curtains, and hydronic heated air curtains (hot water / steam heated).

What is a heated air curtain?

An air curtain is a device that is mounted above door thresholds that intakes indoor air and pushes it in a strong, downward direction towards the floor. When installed correctly, an air curtain can create a complete and invisible seal across the door that prevents unwanted substances or weather from entering all while helping to create a stable environment inside.

There is a great amount of options available when faced with the decision to choose an air curtain for your place of business and it can often be an overwhelming task. When you consider what is available, the options can be seemingly endless and knowing what options are available, the device’s functions and capabilities are important.

Types of Heated Air Curtains

There are three main types of heated air curtains to consider, including gas-fired, electric, or hydronic.

• Electric. Electric air curtains simply run on electricity like many other appliances you may already be using. While these air curtains do run on electricity, they can still work to help reduce your overall energy usage as they require less energy to run than a traditional heater will. They will also prevent cold air from finding its way in and help to maintain a stable interior temperature which will, in the end, lessen the work for your traditional heater.
• Hydronic (steam or hot water). The definition of hydronic is essentially a heating system in which heat is transported using circulating water. Hydronic air curtains use steam and hot water coils to emit heated air. These types of air curtains are extremely energy efficient as they can tap into an already existing source, however these are highly specialized. Hydronic air curtains are often found in New York and Chicago and in places like hospitals.
• Gas Fired. Gas fired air curtains gain their heating by means of natural gas or propane. These types of air curtains are commonly found in warehouses and other large facilities.

Know the Difference

Deciding to go with a heated air curtain verses an unheated air curtain is also a decision to consider. Standard air curtains are typically used in areas where the chill is necessary to maintain, consider the produce section at your local grocery store, for example. Heated air curtains are commonly found in places where an unwanted chill might occur. Air curtains are known to be 80% – 90% efficient.

Did you know?

Heated air curtains not the same thing as a space heater. A space heater works to heat a small area. A heated air curtain simply emits a strong, engineered force of warm air along a door threshold that works to prevent the entry of outside air, contaminants, dust, and flying insects.

How to decide which type of heated air curtain to install?

Deciding which type of heated air curtain to install in your business can be a tricky task but going in prepared will help make sure your purchase is the right one.

• What type of heating are you already using? It will often be recommended that you use the same type of heating element that your facility is already using. Knowing this ahead of time will help determine if this is the right choice for you. While it may be suggested that you venture down a different path, know your options before making a final decision.
• Consult with the experts. Call and ask questions. If you are unsure of the type of air curtain you should install, always seek wise counsel from an expert. Air Door Distributors is equipped with experts who can help you determine if you need a heated device, which type of heat is most beneficial to your facility, and which model is best suited for your needs.

Heated air curtains offer so many benefits to the businesses in which they are installed. When considering installing one, it is important to weigh your options and know exactly what is available and what is best suited for the space you are installing.

Are you considering adding a heated air door to a threshold of your business? The experts at Air Door Distributors are ready to assist you in determining the appropriate air curtain for your specific business and needs. Call today at 866-402-1642 or fill our contact form.

How a heated air door curtain can help you maintain a stable interior temperature

When running a business, the environment you set will determine the comfortability of employees and customers alike. Their comfort is often attributed to how hard they work for you and to whether or not they will return as a customer or guest.

In these cooler winter months, it seems that all brick and mortar businesses are fighting to maintain a stable interior temperature while being forced to fight the outside temperatures from invading the cozy, comfortable environment they seek to create.

With the addition of a heated air curtain, the ability to maintain a steady temperature inside of your establishment is not only achievable but it can also be done in a simple, hands-free way that leaves you free to tend to other business matters.

What is a heated air door curtain?

A heated air door, or often referred to as a heated air curtain, is not actually a door at all. It is a device that is placed above the threshold of a door that intakes air from an interior space and forces heated air in a strong, downward motion from the top of a door’s entry to the floor. This strong force of air is credited with the ability to stop the transfer of air that moves from outside to inside and visa-versa.

Did you know

An overhead heater is not the same thing as a heated air curtain. According to Wikipedia, “The main differences are:

• Air doors are designed to fully cover the width of a doorway, whereas over-door heaters may be too narrow.
• The fans in an air door are powerful enough to provide an air stream to project across the whole doorway opening. Over-door heaters may have less powerful fans.
• The discharge nozzle on an air door is optimized to provide a uniform air stream across the whole width of the doorway, which may not be the case with over-door heaters.”

Benefits of Maintaining Stable Interior Temperatures

Air curtains stop the transfer of cold air at the threshold of your door helping to keep the desired temperature inside steady. This can lead to a wealth of benefits not only to a business owner but to employees and customer as well.

• Lower energy usage and costs. Maintaining a steady temperature leads to lower energy usage and lower costs by lessening the work a traditional heater would otherwise have to perform.
• Take the chill out of the air. Adding a heated air curtain to all entry doors will help keep the chill from winter weather from creeping in upon your employees and guests by eliminating its means of entry.
• Happier environment. Nothing is more satisfying than escaping frigid temperatures and entering into a warm room. Customers will feel comfortable and more likely to stay longer than they would if they were being constantly met with an unwanted chill.
• Easy to maintain. With just a simple, occasional filter change, air curtains are relatively easy to maintain.

Who can benefit from heated air curtains?

Heated air curtains come in a variety of sizes and can be used to benefit a variety of business.

• Loading docks are busy places full of hard working employees, but hard work often slows down when temperatures drop. A heated air curtain will help keep employees warm and less likely to get sick.
• Building Lobbies. Building lobbies are a great place to add a heated air curtain for the winter months. As doors tend to open and close in a constant flow, building lobbies are often cold spaces. By adding a heated air curtain, the chilly air will be unable to enter, leaving the space warm and inviting.
• The addition of a heated air in a restaurant is such a beneficial addition! This small, unintrusive and often unnoticeable device has a unique ability to allow dining patrons the enjoyment of dining in a warm space while still being able to enjoy the outdoor areas that restaurants often seek to make aesthetically pleasing.
• Coffee Houses. Coffee houses are oftentimes smaller spaces, leaving them to take in quite a bit of colder temperatures each time their door opens. The addition of a heated air curtain will help create a warm, inviting environment for guests. When customers are comfortable, they are more likely to stay longer and return again.

Heated air curtains are a benefit to nearly any business that installs them. They can create and maintain a stable environment for your customers and employees all while adding to your savings.

If you are looking to maintain a stable interior temperature for your business during these cold winter months, the experts at Air Door Distributors are ready to assist you in determining the appropriate air curtain for your specific business and needs, whatever they may be. Call today at 866-402-1642 or fill our contact form.