Reasons Why You Need Air Curtains in Your Restaurant

Keeping customers comfortable, saving energy, and keeping debris and pests outdoors are some challenges you may experience as a restaurant owner.

Installing an air curtain in your restaurant is the best move you can make in mitigating these concerns. Air curtains are placed over the door in order to create a powerful air seal to keep conditioned air in the building and dirt and debris out. A correctly installed and fully efficient air curtain can save your business a lot of money, by reducing the amount of heat lost through open doors.

Restaurateurs, food service managers, and bar owners use air curtains to increase customer satisfaction, reduce energy costs, minimize employee turnover and maintain high sanitation standards. Here are some of the benefits and reasons why your restaurant needs a commercial air curtain.

1. Increases Customer Comfort
   Keeping customers happy is imperative to all restaurant businesses; cold premises can put customers off and may affect the productivity of your staff. During winter, air curtains disrupt the natural convection effect of warm air spilling out of an open doorway and being replaced by incoming cold air. On both hot and cold days, air curtains keep customers seated close to the door, or happily waiting for a table, in a comfortable, smoke-free environment. Combining an air curtain with a friendly atmosphere and good interior design can attract customers and keep them inside for longer. An air curtain is an investment that will not only reduce your outgoing bills but increase your profits.
2. Reduces Energy Costs
   An open door is inviting to customers, but it also invites unwanted cold air. Traditional heating systems in restaurants can be very inefficient, especially in large premises with open doors. Air curtains create an invisible door that prevents the inflow of external air and restricts outflow of indoor air, protecting inside temperatures in the dining room, bar, or walk-in cooler. This results in less wear and tear of your heating or cooling system and saves you from incurring unnecessary heating bills. An air curtain can maximize the savings spent on heating by working in tandem with existing heating systems and reducing heat loss.
3. Promotes a Clean Environment
   Air curtains promote a healthy and hygienic environment in a restaurant by restricting flying insects and other pollutants such as pollen, dust, and fumes from traffic. This is because they’re designed to create an effective seal by re-circulating facility air in a smooth flow across an open doorway, making it harder for outside air to penetrate the air curtain.
4. Reduces Strain on Existing Heating or Cooling Systems
   With an efficient air curtain, the heat loss through restaurant doorways is drastically reduced. When the heat loss is reduced, the existing heating system can have a lot of unnecessary excess strain taken away. This could add up to less usage and increase the lifespan and functionality of your current heating system. This same effect applies to air conditioning in the summer months.
5. Reduces Employee Turnover, Complaints, and Absenteeism
   Comfortable employees are happy employees, and happy employees don’t leave. Air curtains keep service entry, kitchen and back-of-the-house areas clean and fume-free. An air curtain releases warm air from bottom to top keeping the temperatures of your restaurant in control. It eliminates the exchange of warm and cold air, hence, preventing draft. During the summer season, it promotes cool air in your business building, and keeps hot air out, maintaining a comfortable environment. It motivates employees and reduces absenteeism.
6. Promotes the Flow of Traffic into your Restaurant
   Almost any restaurant owner will know that open doors tell customers that their restaurant is open for business. An open door is an inviting gesture that substantially improves the inflow of customers. Installing air curtains will promote a faster inflow of traffic into your restaurant while keeping indoor temperatures in control.

If you’re tired of seeing money and energy flow out of your restaurant’s door, an air curtain could be a cost-effective answer to your needs. 

SOURCE: https://www.schwankgroup.com/6-reasons-why-you-need-air-curtains-in-your-restaurant/