Twelve questions to ask before you buy a medical fridge
The brochure shows litres and colours. These questions show what the fridge will be like on a bad Thursday.
Most fridge regrets share a pattern. Someone compared capacity and price, someone else assumed the rest would sort itself out, and six months later the unit is humming in a corridor with nobody sure who owns it. These twelve questions are our attempt to prevent that corridor.
1 What exactly will be stored, and at what range?
Write the product list and each label's range. A fridge for vaccines and one for general reagents are not the same purchase.
2 Is anything freeze-sensitive?
If yes, ask about freeze protection. Kenya's programme favours protection that works without any human action.1
3 How much room do you really need?
Fill to the label, not to the brim. Airflow around stock is part of performance. Add growth for the next two years.
4 How reliable is your power?
Our power picker gives you a starting point between mains, ice-lined and solar.2
5 How long can it hold temperature in an outage?
Ask for holdover time in hours, in your ambient conditions, not a marketing adjective.
6 What is the room like?
Heat, dust, humidity and wall clearance all change how hard a fridge works. A fridge in a sun-baked store room is a different animal.
7 Does it come with monitoring, or must you add it?
You want an alarm, a min/max display and a buffered probe.3
8 Is the display readable without opening the door?
Small thing, big habit. Staff who can read it quickly are staff who record it.
9 Who services it, and how fast do spares arrive?
Ask for names, locations and response times. This single question separates good suppliers from the rest.
10 What training is included?
A twenty-minute handover on defrosting, cleaning, loading and alarms prevents months of avoidable trouble.
11 What documents come with it?
Manual, warranty terms, specifications and, for loggers, calibration certificates.2
12 What happens at year five?
Ask about spare-part availability, expected service life and running costs, not only the purchase price.
Quick score
Tick every question your current supplier has already answered in writing.
0 of 6 answeredIf the score is low, that is useful information, not a failure. Send us your shortlist and we will fill the gaps.
Talk to us about your site, your stock and your budget.
Ask Medix WhatsAppSources
- SEforALL and CHAI. Chilling Prospects 2022: Expanding the vaccine cold chain in Kenya through innovative cooling solutions. www.seforall.org ↗
- Gavi. Product information: vaccines and cold chain equipment (updated 12 February 2026). www.gavi.org ↗
- US CDC. Temperature monitoring equipment (Vaccine Storage and Handling). cdc.gov ↗
