Choosing Your Migali Medical Refrigerator or Freezer

Migali's scientific branch manufactures a wide range of medical refrigerators, each dedicated to fulfilling a specific need in the medical community. Pharmacy, vaccine, and clinic refrigerators all have different features that enable them to excel in their respective disciplines, but sorting through these machines can be tricky, especially for operators looking for a machine that can double up in function. We'll explore the realm of Migali medical refrigerators here to aid you in finding the perfect piece to meet your establishment's needs.

Migali Clinical, Pharmacy, Blood Bank, & Vaccine Refrigeration

KaTom carries Migali medical refrigerators and freezers for four major purposes:

• Clinical refrigerators
• Pharmacy refrigerators and freezers
• Blood bank refrigerators and freezers
• Vaccine storage refrigerators and freezers

Most of Migali's refrigerators use R290 hydrocarbon refrigerant, which is all-natural, non-toxic, and results in as much as 40 percent energy savings over the competitors. Migali classifies many of these machines in more than one category, indicating they would work well for pharmaceutical, vaccine, and clinical settings. The primary differences between machines are the size, door design, access type, shelving style, and whether they function as a freezer or refrigerator. We'll discuss these differences below to help you make an informed decision.

Holding Temperature

The first major choice that'll determine which machine is best for you is the temperature at which your products will need to be held. Refrigerators hold products around 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and the Migali Evolution Series® refrigerators hold at 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit, within one degree in either direction. A refrigerator can't be adjusted colder to become a freezer, so if you need temperatures lower than 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit, you'll need to get a freezer instead.

Evolution Series freezers hold at -13 degrees Fahrenheit and aren't adjustable. On the other hand, the Genesis® series is adjustable between -4 and 14 degrees Fahrenheit. This makes the Genesis models much more valuable to a clinic needing a variety of temperatures depending on what they're holding at a given time, while the Evolution series provides the lowest holding temperature overall.

Shelving Style

The main difference between a blood bank unit and a vaccine unit is shelving. A Migali medical refrigerator for blood banks replaces the normal shelving with stainless steel blood plasma drawers. These drawers protect the blood bags from light and keep them well organized, as opposed to stacking them all together on a plain shelf. However, this can make it less convenient to store vaccines or other refrigerated medical supplies, as you can't see the exact item you're looking for and must open the drawer before retrieving it. The longer your refrigerator or freezer stays open, the more heat you lose, which translates into unnecessarily large utility bills. Additionally, the longer your machine stays open, the warmer the stored products will get, which could pose a danger depending on what you're storing. Therefore, choosing a blood bank unit should mostly be done by those who need the specific shelving style for organizational purposes.

Size

Migali medical refrigerators and freezers come in three main sizes – single section, double section, and undercounter. Two factors determine which of these are best for your business: How much space do you have and how much refrigerated storage do you need? A small business that only stores a few cases of vaccines and injections at a time could make do with a small undercounter vaccine refrigerator, but a larger establishment will of course need to look at a more spacious unit. Each of our products lists the total storage space in cubic feet on the product specification page, as well as the external dimensions necessary to install the machine in your operation. Some machines require more space than just their external dimensions, as refrigerators and freezers both need space to vent hot air and take in new air. Double check the product specifications page for the unit you're considering to see how much venting space may be necessary.

Door

Migali medical refrigerators come with stainless steel opaque doors or see-through glass doors. Stainless steel doors provide slightly better insulation than the glass doors, but glass doors typically need to be opened for less total time because the user can identify the item they need before opening them. If the products you're storing need to be protected from light, then you'll want to opt for the opaque stainless steel doors, but if you notice workers standing in front of an open door looking for something, glass doors can save energy by letting them look before they open. Unless you have specific products that need to be protected from ambient light, the choice between glass or stainless steel doors is more one of preference than anything else. Both styles usually come with locking mechanisms on the doors, which is important for medical refrigerators to deter theft and ensure none of your supplies have been tampered with while your office was closed.

Pass-thru

Migali makes both pass-thru and solid-backed refrigerators and freezers to add one last layer of customization for your business. Pass-thru options have a door on the front and the back, enabling workers to access the contents from either side. This is not the same as a cleanroom pass-thru, which prevents contamination between the sides. Regular pass-thru refrigerators aren't intended to keep the two sides from contaminating each other – more specialized equipment is required to do that. Pass-thru options are helpful if you have a particular refrigerator or freezer that needs to be accessed frequently and by multiple people, or if you have, for example, a preparatory side and a distribution side. This can save you from wasting time walking around from one side of a counter to the other, or even between rooms. If you won't use this feature, though, the reach-in designs are more efficient as there are fewer places for heat to creep into the machine.

IntelVU®: Temperature Monitoring System

Select Migali Evolution models have an optional monitoring system called IntelVU that can help operators keep track of their unit's temperatures. IntelVU constantly monitors the temperature inside your cold storage unit at all times and keeps a detailed temperature trend chart for reference. Users interact with this technology through an integrated LED touchscreen, which can even give you precise temperature controls. IntelVU comes with 2¹⁄₂ years of data storage, password protection, web access, and an array of alarms to alert the users if anything goes wrong with temperature maintenance. IntelVU ensures you know everything that goes on with your cold storage and can verify that your stored items have been kept at appropriate temperatures.

Migali Medical Refrigeration Checklist

When choosing the right Migali medical refrigerator or freezer for your facility, consider these seven questions to quickly narrow down your options.

1. Do you need refrigerator or freezer temperatures?
2. Do you need flat shelves or enclosed drawers?
3. How much cold storage do you need?
4. How much space do you have?
5. Would a clear or opaque door be better?
6. Could a pass-thru design benefit your operation?
7. Could IntelVU technology improve your storage safety?