Which Commercial Air Curtain is Best for Your Space?

The global market size of air curtains and unit heaters is growing steadily at a projected CAGR of over 4% from 2018 to 2023 probably because air curtains find applications across a wide variety of industries. Whether you own a restaurant, a manufacturing facility, a warehouse, or an auto body shop, air curtains offer significant benefits for each.

Air curtains provide comparable performance to vestibules in most climates and are even more effective in colder zones. In fact, AMCA reports that an air curtain door reduces the total annual air infiltration by about 62-67% while a vestibule door reduces only 23-24% (when the annual average building pressure difference ranges between 0.8-1.8 PA for a single door).

What’s more? Air curtains at large industrial facilities can improve indoor microclimates, reduce the initial construction costs, and decrease energy consumption by 10–20% during operation.

In this article, we’ll take a look at the different types of facilities where commercial air curtains find unique applications.

1. Foodservice facilities

Hygiene and sanitation are of utmost importance in foodservice settings such as restaurants, food manufacturing, and food storage facilities. Flying insects, pests, contaminants, dust, and smoke need to be kept out. In addition, indoor temperatures need to be maintained at optimum levels to ensure the comfort of customers as well as the staff.

Mars offers an entire range of ETL Sanitation-certified air curtains that are specially designed for foodservice facilities. These low-profile air curtains minimize the loss of conditioned air and are perfect for installation in tight spaces. Certified to ANSI/NSF section 37, they are also super-efficient at keeping flying insects, pests, and pollutants out.

• The LoPro2 (LPN2) is a sleek, low-noise air curtain that’s ideal for keeping your restaurant’s drive-thru pest, particulate, and emission-free without impeding any workflow.
• The Front Door (N2) is versatile in its application, perfect for mounting heights up to 7 feet, and can help you maintain consistent indoor temperatures even with open doorways.
• The Back Door (NH2) is perfect for service entrances of restaurants and can keep the kitchen environment clean, comfortable, and hygienic. It’s suitable for mounting heights up to 7 feet.

2. Facilities with the highest sanitary standards

Facilities like precision manufacturing, auto body shops, and healthcare buildings need to be extremely clean, sanitized, and have zero contamination. Hospitals and healthcare facilities need a pathogen-free environment to protect patients against harmful bacteria, viruses, etc. and avoid infections.

Likewise, precision manufacturing facilities and auto body shops must keep flying insects and minute particulate matter out. Failing this, their finished goods may turn out to be substandard or even defective.

Facilities that need the highest standards of cleanliness should, therefore, use air curtains with True HEPA® filters. Both Mars HEPAC® and Mars UVC improve indoor air quality.

• The Mars Air Wash™ is especially useful for keeping debris and pollutants from entering the facility. This commercial air curtain, which can be installed at an entryway, uses a true HEPA® filter, a cold plasma generator with germicidal UVC bulbs, and MERV 7-8 rated pleated pre-filters to trap and kill airborne microbes and pathogens. It also helps to eliminate the obnoxious odors from volatile organic compounds.
• The Mars HEPAC® has a true HEPA® filter that captures 99.97% of microscopic particulates and pollutants — even as tiny as 0.3 microns. Its 2-inch pre-filters have a MERV 8 rating. An optional ULPA® filter is also available. This one’s called Ultra-Low Penetration Air (ULPA) and it captures 99.99% of particulates of up to 0.12-micron — the size of most viruses including the SARS-CoV-2. But they are mostly transmitted through water droplets which are much larger in size.

3. Big industrial facilities

Industrial facilities usually have large entryways or dock doors that need to be kept open for prolonged periods to allow the easy movement of staff and material. So they require powerful air curtains that can block the infiltration of unconditioned air or wind. In addition, warehouses and food processing facilities often need to maintain separate indoor environments at different temperatures.

These types of facilities should use strong, industrial air curtains that can span wider openings. Mars offers a whole range of commercial air curtains for such installations.

• The >High Velocity 2 (HV2) series of air curtains has a 1 horsepower motor that is strong enough to take on higher wind loads. They are low-maintenance, easy-to-install, and can support mounting heights of up to 14 feet. They come in four different variants: unheated, electric heated, hot water heated, steam heated and indirect gas fire heated
• The Extra Power 2 (EP2) series has an even more powerful motor of 3 horsepower and can support mounting heights of up to 16 feet.
• The WindGuard (BD) series is a belt drive unit that’s particularly suited for large industrial projects. It offers three heating options — hot water, steam, and indirect gas fired — and is suitable for mounting heights of 14 to 30 feet.
• The Wind Stopping 14 (WMI) and 16 (WMH) are heavy duty AMCA-certified industrial air curtains. The WMI series (suitable for mounting heights of up to 16 feet) includes 2-3 horsepower motors while the WMH series (suitable for mounting heights of up to 20 feet) includes 5 horsepower or bigger motors to repel strong gusts of wind.

4. Places with quick-drying needs

Restaurants often have a need for quick-drying their tableware. While commercial dishwashers with long drying tunnels can help, they’re typically quite expensive, energy-intensive, and tend to occupy a lot of space.

If you want to save yourself all that trouble, you should opt for our QuickDry^™ series of air curtains. These have a simple bolt-on design so you can easily attach them to your existing dishwasher for instant drying of your washed utensils.

This makes them extremely useful for restaurants that have limited space. Plus, they’re less costly than a regular blower-dryer section. They also reduce your dependency on drying racks and cut down the time taken to turn around used utensils.

5. Cold storage facilities or walk-in freezers

Walk-in coolers, freezers, and cold storage facilities have very unique needs. Consistent freezing temperatures need to be maintained inside, but the frequent opening of doors makes the cold air escape. These systems, therefore, need to work extra hard to regulate the temperature which results in greater energy consumption.

Cold storage facilities also struggle with icing and condensation issues arising from the temperature differential between the inside and outside environments. Plus, there’s often drippage especially prevalent in a humid climate. All this can cause serious accidents and are, therefore, a safety hazard.

Mars’ Cold Storage series of air doors are specially designed for such applications. These air curtains have 24v control and adjustable time delay to keep them running even after you close the door for added relief from the byproducts of cold storage.

By creating a powerful air barrier, they optimize the efficiency of cold storage units by maintaining consistent temperatures inside. They prevent temperature fluctuations, reduce stress on the equipment, and create energy savings. Plus, they prevent pooling of water and condensation which can threaten the safety of staff.

These air curtains also keep out dust and heat which might affect the quality of stored food. And as an added bonus, they operate on very low energy so you don’t have to incur hefty energy costs.

6. Places that need to maintain low noise levels

Luxury restaurants, spas, and libraries need to minimize loud sounds and create a serene, noise-free indoor environment. A noisy air curtain could be a major source of distraction and inconvenience for customers. As such, places like these can greatly benefit from Mars’ QuietPro™ (QP) or Phantom (PH) series of air curtains.

• The QuietPro^™ has an internal dampening design and uses anti-vibration technology to produce half the noise levels of conventional air doors. Its airfoil directional vane minimizes air performance loss at the nozzle and has an aesthetic elliptical design with an anodized aluminum finish.
• The Phantom is a great choice if you’re looking for an air curtain that needs to be concealed (keeping in line with a building’s aesthetics) without compromising on performance. You can submerge it completely into a drop ceiling which helps it deliver a quieter performance as the drywall surrounding the unit absorbs the noise.

Final words

Commercial air curtains have traditionally been used to maintain comfortable indoor climates and prevent the infiltration of outside air. In addition, restaurants, hospitals, and grocery stores use them for insect control and to keep out germs and pollutants. Retail spaces benefit from their protection so they can leave doors open. Schools lower their energy spend with air curtains. Transportation centers can mitigate the effects of car and truck emissions. Every industry has unique challenges that air curtains help or eliminate.

Mars offers a comprehensive range of air curtains that fulfill a variety of needs across industries. Besides helping regulate indoor temperatures and controlling pests, contaminants, and fumes, they can also help you with quick-drying, cold storage, and low-noise needs.

No matter the industry you belong to, rest assured we can help you find the right air curtain for your business needs. Need help choosing the right air curtain? Use our interactive product builder to determine the best solution for your business.