Morgue cooler or outside storage? What funeral homes should compare

The costs of a cooler that you own

• Purchase price for the cooler and the racks or trays
• Installation, electrical work and any building permits
• Electricity, every day of the year
• Service contracts, repairs and alarm monitoring
• Floor space that you cannot use for anything else
• Staff time for temperature logs and cleaning

The costs of outside storage

Outside storage is priced by the day, by the week, or as reserved capacity under a contract. In California, funeral homes publish their own refrigeration charges on their general price lists. These charges range from about $25 to about $200 per day. A storage partner can let you match your price to your cost.

A simple way to compare

• Count the days last year when your cooler was full.
• Multiply those days by the number of decedents you could not hold.
• Multiply that number by a daily storage rate.
• Compare the total with the yearly cost of a new or larger cooler.

If you run out of space only a few weeks each year, outside storage usually costs less. If your cooler is full most days, you need more capacity of your own, and outside storage can cover you until it is ready.

What to ask a storage provider

• Do you keep an identification record and an assigned position for each decedent?
• Do you record temperatures, and can we see the records?
• Who can access the storage area, and is each access recorded?
• How do you release a decedent, and what release record do we get?
• Can we reserve capacity under a contract?