Hey Everyone!

It's my first time writing a post on a forum on Cake Central. I hope you guys could help me with my huge dilemma.

I am planning on opening a small coffee shop and I've been meaning to choose a display case for my products but can't. As you know salespeople just want to sell you their product and can't really give you a true objective and technical reason as to why buy one case over the other (at least in my country: Lebanon).

I've going back and forth on the idea of buying a refrigerated one over designing a non-refigerated one since the weather in my country shifts: from 38 degrees celsius in summer with high humidity level of 70 and 60% to 10-15 degrees celsius with high 70% and low 50-45% humidity level depending if it is going to rain or not. So we get all temperatures and humidity % throughout the year.

I do layered cakes with swiss meringue buttercream, bundt cakes, cupcakes, muffins, brownies, pies and cookies. The only way I could maybe have a non-refigerated case is if I keep the A/C on throughout summer and buy a de-humidifier and use both of them 24/7 - hence, a high electricity bill but have goods at almost room temperature (which is ideal for me).

Or buy a refrigerated case with a temperature range of +2/+10 degrees celsius and a 70% humidity inside. 

My only problem is: How do I know if i'm buying a good case or not: 

- Is this case going to dry my products out within 3 days (that's how long i'm planning to keep the goods out for sale)? Or is it going to make them feel "wet" instead? Or would the high humidity level inside keep my products fresh for a longer period of time?

- Is buying a chocolate specific display case with a temperature range of 14-16 degrees celsius and a 40-45% humidity level better or is the 40-45% humidity going to dry them out faster?

As you can see, the concept of the humidity inside the case is rather confusing to me and I don't really like serving hard and dry cakes and buttercream- in addition to not wanting to do a every costly rash decision and not benefiting from it.

Here is a link to the display case I am thinking of purchasing (in this link you can see both cases' specs - pastry and chocolate): http://www.sagicollection.com/ww/en/collection/refrigerated-counter-luxor-double-built-in

Would love to hear your experience or knowledge on this issue.

Thanks in advance!

Myriam

i bought new equipment locally and i bought & sold used equipment  on ebay -- i think your best best is to ask a local bakery -- or maybe not ask but check them out -- or ask a bakery far away that you would not be in direct competition with --

a brand new unit and most used ones one would hope should be able to be calibrated for the types of pastry you want to place in there -- three days is a long time for some baked goods -- no one can really predict the impact your weather will have on the products you make placed within the particular equipment you get --

some things you may keep inside plastic containers so they don't dry out -- here in the states cupcakes are made daily -- idk -- i wouldn't keep most cookies in the fridge -- smbc iced cakes yes i woud fridge -- yes tough decision -- do the best you can with it -- 

you could put out dummies and keep the fresh stuff packaged up in regular commercial fridges -- but the humidity thing should be adjustable -- like a florist case would humidify and moisten everything so you don't want that kind -- sometimes heaters can be placed into fridges to control moisture but you want it right to begin with -- the heater thing is a retrofit --

fridges for food are broken/bad if they leak moisture

best to you