Commercial Back Bar Cooler with Top Canopy

Product Overview

A commercial back bar cooler with canopy is a small, hard-working cabinet: chilled stock within arm's reach of whoever is pouring, with a lit sign panel across the top. ESCOLO builds this family for that exact position — a lighted top bar fridge for pub service, behind the bar, beside the service station, or at the end of a café counter where a tall merchandiser would block the walkway and a back-room fridge would slow service down. Cabinets run from 20 L to 98 L, so a single-station café and a two-person pub bar can be fitted from the same range. Cooling is direct, set through a digital controller on the cabinet, with LED lighting inside so labels stay readable when the house lights are low. The shelf adjusts to take tall bottles one week and cans the next. Most models hold 0 to +10 °C for beer, wine, soft drinks and cocktail ingredients; the 50 L freezing version runs -18 to -25 °C for frozen glassware or frozen serve. Because the door opens dozens of times a shift, the cabinet is set up to recover quickly rather than to sit at one temperature in a closed room, and the painted steel shell with a PVC liner is chosen to survive spilled mixers, sticky rings and a wipe-down at close.

Key Features

• Lit canopy across the top — the illuminated panel is the cabinet's most visible feature, and it is sized to carry branding rather than a generic label.
• Direct cooling with digital control — set the cabinet temperature from the controller and read it at a glance between services, with no dial to guess at.
• Adjustable shelf — one shelf that repositions, so tall bottles, cans and mixer bottles can share the cabinet as the menu changes.
• Built for steady traffic — this is the sort of lighted top bar fridge for pub, café and bottle-shop counters keep at the point of pour, not a storage box out the back.
• LED interior light — throws light onto labels and bottle necks, which matters in a room that runs dim for most of the evening.
• Compact, floor-saving footprint — the smallest cabinet tucks into a gap under the bar where nothing else fits.
• Painted steel outside, PVC inside — a shell that takes knocks and a liner that wipes clean without seams to trap spillage.
• Chilled or freezing from the same family — 0 to +10 °C for serve-ready drinks, or -18 to -25 °C where frozen glassware and frozen product are part of the offer.

Model Range & Capacities

Canopy & Branding

The canopy is what separates this cabinet from a plain under-bar fridge. It spans the top of the unit, above the door line, and it is lit — so in a room where the lights are down, the panel glows at eye level and pulls attention to the pouring station instead of disappearing into the back bar. Send a logo or wordmark and it is printed onto that panel; the sign sits high, clear of the door and the working surface, so it stays clean while the cabinet below takes the daily knocks of service. The sample units in the gallery carry the ESCOLO wordmark lit on the canopy, and your own artwork replaces it. For a pub pushing a house beer, a café with a roaster brand, or a bottle shop supporting a supplier promotion, that turns a lighted top bar fridge for pub service into a piece of signage that earns its space twice. Artwork is agreed at order stage, so the panel layout and the cabinet it sits on are settled together rather than bolted on afterwards.

Chilled or Freezing Configuration

1. Start with what leaves the bar. Beer, wine, soft drinks and cocktail ingredients served chilled point to a 0 to +10 °C cabinet; frozen glassware, frozen dessert or frozen product point to the -18 to -25 °C freezing version.
2. Size the cabinet against your pour rate. A 20–21 L unit covers a single small station; 50–55 L suits a bar with two people working the well; 80–98 L is for bars that also keep bottle stock in the same cabinet as serve-ready drinks.
3. Measure the bay before anything else. Check width, height and how far the door swings into the walkway against the dimensions listed for your chosen model, because a tight fit can rule out a cabinet you otherwise liked.
4. Check the gas on the model you have chosen. The refrigerant is listed per cabinet — most of the range runs R600a, the 50 L freezing cabinet runs R290 — and it needs to be acceptable in your market.
5. Confirm the electrical spec for the destination, voltage and plug type together, because export markets differ.
6. Decide the canopy artwork in the same conversation. Panel layout, cabinet size and electrical spec are all fixed at build stage, and changing the sign afterwards means a second production run.

Materials, Cleaning & Daily Care

• Painted steel shell — the outside is finished in painted steel, which shrugs off knocks from kegs, crates and bar stools and wipes down at close.
• PVC liner inside — a smooth liner with no upholstery and no bare joints, so spilled syrup and beer foam come off with warm water and a cloth rather than soaking in.
• Shelf out, liner clean — lift the adjustable shelf out weekly, wash and dry it, then wipe the liner underneath, which is where rings form unnoticed.
• Load chilled stock where you can — a cabinet this size works hardest pulling warm deliveries down to temperature, so loading already-chilled bottles keeps recovery quick through service.
• Leave the air some room — do not pack bottles tight against the back wall or hard under the shelf above, or the cold air stops moving and the top of the cabinet drifts.
• Keep the vented side clear — the side grille needs open air; do not push the cabinet flush into a closed cupboard or stack crates against it.
• Stand it upright after delivery — as with any refrigeration cabinet, let it stand upright for a few hours once it has been moved before switching on.
• Built for a working bar — painted steel outside and a PVC liner inside come from a back bar cooler manufacturer that supplies bar and café fit-outs, so the surfaces that take the wear are the surfaces that clean up fastest.

Ordering & Delivery

1. Confirm the model, capacity and temperature band first — chilled 0 to +10 °C or freezing -18 to -25 °C — and check the unit size against the bay you have measured.
2. Confirm the electrical spec for your market: voltage, plug type and the refrigerant shown against the model you have chosen.
3. Send the canopy artwork. A logo file and any brand colour reference let the sign panel be set up with the cabinet rather than after it.
4. Agree quantity, packing and shipping arrangements with your sales contact, and ask for the current spec sheet if you need one for a fit-out pack or tender.
5. Ask about sample availability and inspection if you want to see the cabinet before committing to a run — availability is arranged case by case.
6. Confirm the current lead time and terms in writing. As a back bar cooler manufacturer we build against the confirmed order, so artwork and electrical spec need to be final at that point.
7. Confirm after-sales support and warranty for your order, including who handles service in your market and which spares are worth holding.

Scale & Supply Capability

ESCOLO has manufactured commercial refrigeration equipment in Foshan, Guangdong since 2010, and the team now numbers more than 800 people. Fifteen-plus years in the trade, a network of 3,000+ qualified partner factories and an annual output of 200,000+ units let us run container-scale programmes and repeat orders for supermarket, convenience and foodservice buyers. OEM and ODM work is standard: size, colour, function and your own branding are set to the specification you send. Factory audit, pre-shipment inspection, consolidated shipping and after-sales support are handled in-house.

FAQ