Choosing a Hoshizaki upright
The 17 uprights here are stainless kitchen cabinets: seven fridges, eight freezers and two dual temperature units with a fridge and a freezer in one body. Capacities run from 569 L in the single door HF-78MA-A freezer to 1,365 L in the HF-147 and HR-147 two door models. Hoshizaki splits them into 13 commercial uprights and four professional ones.
Fridges
The HR fridges hold 1 °C to 4 °C, comfortably under the 5 °C limit for chilled food, in 628 L, 1,119 L and 1,365 L sizes. Two have glass doors, the HR-77 and HR-127, which suit a kitchen where staff need to see stock without opening up, or a pass where finished desserts wait. The rest have solid doors.
Freezers
The HF freezers built around R290 hold -18 °C to -22 °C. The HF-78MA-A and HF-128MA-A adjust from -23 °C to -7 °C, and the HFE-70B-ALD-GN reaches -25 °C, which suits ice cream and long-term frozen stock. The wider range on those three also lets you run them warmer for softer products.
Split doors, gastronorm and dual temp
Eight models have split doors: each full height door is replaced by two half doors, so opening the top section to grab one tray lets less cold air out of the bottom. On a busy line that is opened every few minutes, this keeps temperatures steadier. Five models are gastronorm, sized to take standard GN pans and trays straight from the prep bench, which saves decanting. The HRF-77 (285 L fridge over 257 L freezer, 700 mm wide) and HRF-127 (463 L each, 1,200 mm wide) put both temperatures in one footprint, handy for a small cafe kitchen with room for only one cabinet.
What to measure and check
- Footprint. Where Hoshizaki publishes sizes, single door uprights are 700 mm wide, two door models 1,200 mm, and the 1,365 L HF-147 freezers 1,400 mm. Depths run from 800 mm to 881 mm and heights from 2,015 mm to 2,024 mm. The fridge specs are thinner, so Sam confirms those sizes before ordering.
- Getting it in. A cabinet up to 881 mm deep is deeper than many internal door openings. Measure every doorway, corridor and turn on the way in, not just the final spot.
- Kitchen heat. All 10 models with published operating conditions are rated for rooms up to 43 °C, which matters beside a Perth cookline in February. The seven HR fridge listings do not state it, so ask Sam.
- Refrigerant and power. Seven of those 10 use R290, a natural refrigerant; the HF-78MA-A, HF-128MA-A and HFE-70B-ALD-GN use R404A. Where the plug is stated it is 10 A on single phase power.
- Airflow. Leave space above and behind the cabinet so the condenser can breathe. A freezer squeezed under a low shelf works harder and wears out sooner.
Delivery, installation and service
Sam brings the cabinet in, sets it on its castors or legs, levels it so the doors close and seal on their own, and runs it until it reaches temperature before he leaves. If an old upright needs to go, ask Sam. Outside the metro area, Hoshizaki uprights can be sent by courier anywhere in WA.
After install, the jobs that keep an upright healthy are a clean condenser, door gaskets that seal, and a drain that clears on defrost. Sam services and repairs Hoshizaki fridges and freezers, from warm cabinets to iced evaporators, at $75 + GST call-out and $180 + GST an hour plus parts, with the fix priced first. See commercial fridge repairs, scheduled maintenance or the whole Hoshizaki range. If you also run a Hoshizaki ice maker, Sam covers it too: see Hoshizaki ice machine repairs.
