The rental reading of this one is temporary cold storage hired by the day or the month from an equipment yard, usually because a walk-in has failed, a facility is between fit-outs, or a site needs cold space it does not have. That is a machine hired for a job, and it is priced like one: roughly $150 to $400 a day for a 10 to 20 foot unit. Kitchen and catering equipment supplied for hospitality service is a different trade and not what this page is about.
Container, trailer or portable box
Three shapes get called a mobile freezer. A refrigerated container sits on the ground and needs a flat pad and a truck to place it. A refrigerated trailer can be dropped and hooked by a tractor and suits a temporary yard. A portable freezer box on castors rolls through a doorway and plugs into a wall, and it is the smallest and cheapest of the three.
Power is the constraint, not the space
Small portable units generally run on a 115V, 20 amp dedicated circuit. Anything from about 10 feet upward wants 208 to 230V single phase at 30 amps, and larger containers can want three phase. A freezer sharing a circuit with anything else will trip it, and a tripped freezer on a Friday is the whole point of hiring one lost.
What temperature the unit actually holds
Ask for the operating range, not the word on the door. Chiller units hold roughly 33 to 40 degrees; true freezer units pull down to zero or below. Pull-down time from ambient to setpoint runs several hours on a container, so a unit delivered at noon is not ready to load with frozen stock the same afternoon.
Day, week and month rates
A small portable box sits near $150 to $200 a day. A 20 foot refrigerated container runs $250 to $400, with a month commonly $1,200 to $3,000 depending on size and region. Delivery is significant on containers because it needs a tilt-bed or a crane truck, and it is charged both ways.
Questions people ask about mobile freezer rental
How long does a mobile freezer take to reach temperature?
A small portable unit is at setpoint within an hour or two. A 20 foot container starting warm can take four to eight hours to pull down, longer in summer heat. Schedule delivery the day before stock has to go in.
Can it run on a standard outlet?
Only the smallest portable boxes, and even those want a dedicated 20 amp circuit with nothing else on it. Every container and trailer size needs 208 to 230V or three phase, which usually means an electrician or a generator on a site with no service.
Is a generator needed on a site with no power?
Yes, and it should be sized for the freezer's starting current rather than its running load, which is several times higher. Yards that hire the freezer usually hire the generator too, and pairing them on one contract avoids a mismatch.