Restaurant Air Curtains

Restaurants use air curtains at the front of house to:

  • Increase customer comfort / maintain ambience
  • Decrease employee complaints
  • Keep fumes and cigarette smoke out
  • Save energy

In the back of the house, air doors (fly fans) help restaurants meet health code by providing chemical-free insect control. But the locations for air curtains don’t stop there.

Where Restaurants Use Air Curtains:

  1. Service Entries – Health departments recommend the chemical-free insect control provided by an EPH Listed per NSF 37 certified Berner Air Curtain to maintain a healthier kitchen environment.
  2. Walk-in Coolers – Kitchen managers know that using an air curtain over a walk-in cooler saves energy and therefore money for their restaurant. It decreases compressor run times and the threat, and associated costs, of food spoilage.
  3. Customer Entrance / Patio Door – Maintain a comfortable, welcoming space for customers seated close to the door, waiting for a table, or sitting at the bar. Berner has several architectural air curtains to choose from to support the interior design.
  4. Indoor / Outdoor Bar – Leave a bar open while keeping the restaurant cool. Air Curtains help to keep hot air and flying insects out while those at the counter are served.
Map graphic of where restaurants use Berner air curtains.
  • Berner Sanitation Cert Low Profile 7 over walk-in cooler.
    Walk-In Cooler
  • Berner Architectural Low Profile 8 air curtain over restaurant main customer entrance.
    Main Entrance
  • Berner Sanitation Cert Low Profile 7 over outdoor bar opening.
    Indoor / Outdoor Bar

Berner is a UL Listed panel shop, authorized to build UL Listed Motor Control Panels. We also have AMCA certified air curtains allowed by ASHRAE 90.1-2019 as an alternative to vestibules. By using an air curtain to meet energy codes rather than a vestibule with new construction or major renovations, a restaurant can increase the usable space near the entrance.

Air curtains have also started being used in conjunction with the growing trend of “open-air dining”. This consists of a large section of a restaurant’s wall made into an openable garage door or a series of french doors that open to the outside. By installing air curtains over these openings, restaurants can offer the ambiance of open-air dining while keeping out external temperatures and flying insects.

Find out more about air curtain related building codes and certifications.