Hire or Buy a Freezer Container in the UK

A freezer container holds frozen goods at -18 °C or below on your own site — frozen food stock, ice cream, game in season — without building a permanent cold store. In the UK you can hire one from around £12 a day ex VAT on longer terms, or buy: used units are observed at £4,500 to £7,500 ex VAT, new one-trip machines at £18,995 to £22,500 ex VAT. The equipment itself holds few surprises, because a freezer container is a standard refrigerated container with its set point placed colder. What changes at -18 °C is mostly the electricity bill. This page covers hire, purchase, running costs, and where blast freezing fits in.

One machine, set colder

Searches for freezer container hire, chiller hire and reefer hire largely point at the same equipment. A standard refrigerated container operates across -25 °C to +25 °C, so a single unit covers chilled duty at +2 °C and frozen duty at -18 °C — or lower still, down to -25 °C, for products that need it. There is no separate class of machine for holding frozen goods: you specify the set point, and the same Carrier, Thermo King, Daikin or Star Cool refrigeration unit does the work.

That has a useful consequence for hirers and buyers alike: freezer containers are priced on the standard reefer market, not at a specialist premium. The genuine difference between chilled and frozen duty is running cost, covered below.

What a freezer container costs in the UK

All figures are indicative, observed on the UK market in 2026, and quoted ex VAT — VAT at 20% applies on top. Delivery, collection and electricity are normally charged separately.

On hire, the day rate falls as the term lengthens, so short lets cost more per day than long ones. On purchase, most listings for a freezer container for sale are standard reefers described by their duty: used stock is graded A to C on age and condition, and our page on used refrigerated containers explains the grades and what a PTI (Pre-Trip Inspection) report proves. Whichever route you take, ask for a PTI under three months old — and ask for a cold run at your actual set temperature, since -18 °C is exactly what the test should demonstrate.

The threshold worth pricing between the two routes is around 18 to 24 months of continuous use. Beyond that, buying often beats an open-ended hire bill; below it, hire keeps the capital in your business and the machine off your books.

The 90-day minimum, stated honestly

Many UK suppliers set a minimum hire period of around 90 days, for a plain commercial reason: delivering and collecting a container costs the depot much the same whether it stays a fortnight or a year. If your need is a season of frozen stock, that minimum is no obstacle. If it is three weeks — a festival, a freezer breakdown, a one-off glut of game — standard refrigerated container hire terms can look impossible.

They are not universal. Some suppliers do offer short-term hire, usually at a higher day rate, so it pays to state upfront how long you actually need the unit and to ask the right suppliers.

Running costs: frozen duty draws more

Holding -18 °C costs more electricity than holding +2 °C on the same size of unit — the machine works against a larger temperature difference every hour of the day. As a UK rule of thumb, budget 70 to 170 kWh a day depending on size and set point:

You supply the power. Standard reefers run on three-phase 380/400 V through a five-pin 32 A CEE plug, though some small formats run on single-phase 230 V — confirm what your site can deliver before the unit arrives. Our running costs guide works through the electricity question in full.

What freezer containers are used for

Frozen food stock is the obvious case: caterers, butchers, wholesalers and producers holding product at -18 °C through a busy season or a refurbishment. Ice cream and frozen desserts often call for colder settings, which is where the -25 °C end of the range earns its keep. Game in season is a classic short-duration need — though hygiene rules for handling game vary by country and locality, so check what your local authority requires before storing carcasses commercially.

Blast freezers and super-freezers: the specialist niche

Holding frozen product and freezing it are different jobs. A standard reefer is built to maintain goods that arrive already frozen; loading it with warm product asks more of the machine than it is designed for. Blast freezing — pulling product temperature down rapidly, typically at around -40 °C — is the territory of specialist blast freezer containers, a niche market of their own. Beyond that again, super-freezer units capable of -60 °C to -70 °C exist, but they are rare and command higher prices. If your requirement is genuinely to freeze rather than to store, say so when you enquire: it changes which machines are relevant.

Sizes at a glance

• 10 ft — roughly 15 m³ and 4 to 5 pallets; a mobile walk-in freezer, in effect.
• 20 ft — roughly 28 m³ and 10 to 11 pallets; the most widely traded format.
• 40 ft high cube — roughly 67 m³ and 23 pallets, with 2.55 m of internal height.

A freezer container’s interior is smaller than a dry container’s of the same length: insulation takes thickness from the walls, ceiling and floor.

Compare freezer container offers

EuroReefer is an editorial comparison site: we hold no stock and sell nothing ourselves. Describe your requirement — size, set temperature, hire or purchase, postcode — through our quote form and we pass it to specialist suppliers, who contact you directly if they can meet your need. Whether you are hiring for a season or buying outright, comparing more than one offer costs nothing and usually pays for the time.