Shipping Container Sizes and Types in Ontario

By Christian LeBlanc, second-generation operator, and Paul LeBlanc, owner, Van Blanc Ent. Inc.

Most months we hold 6 to 12 45HCs across our four Brantford yards, so a stocked unit can be on your site in 1 to 3 business days. The 45 earns its place when a 40 is just short: long cargo, a studio or ADU layout that needs the extra 1.5 metres, a workshop with a vehicle bay, or overflow storage where one larger box replaces two 20s. If you are still weighing lengths against the standard 40ft High Cube, comparing the dimensions of every length we carry settles it in a minute. This page covers the spec, the use cases, the grades on the yard, and what you pay landed.

The 45HC is the largest container variant that still carries a full ocean-going ISO certification with a CSC plate. Anything bigger (the 53ft domestic intermodal box) is a North American road-rail product without ocean-shipping certification. So if the buyer needs international-cargo provenance and the absolute maximum interior volume in a single piece, the 45HC is the answer. Used 45HC units are graded on the same ladder as the used shipping containers we have for sale.

45 Ft High Cube Dimensions and ISO L5G1 Specs

Every figure below is the ISO L5G1 set, and the one that matters most is the 44 feet 6 inches of floor, because width, height and the door opening are identical to the 40HC; what the ISO stamp on the door actually certifies is the other half of why buyers pick this box over a 53.

Code reading: the L identifies the 45-foot length, the 5 identifies the 9-foot-6-inch height (High Cube), G identifies general-purpose dry cargo, and the 1 identifies the closed-side door configuration. The same code is stamped on every 45HC we sell, alongside a CSC plate on the cargo doors confirming the structural integrity for ocean transport.

The Five Extra Feet, in Practical Terms

A 40HC holds 76.1 cubic metres (2,689 cu ft). A 45HC holds 86.0 cubic metres (3,040 cu ft). That is a 13 percent volume increase for a 12.5 percent length increase. The extra length sits at the door end of the box, so the cargo door opening is identical to a 40HC. Inside, the floor is five feet longer than a 40HC at the same width and height.

For palletised cargo, the 45HC fits 24 to 26 standard 40-by-48-inch pallets in a single layer (versus 20 in a 40HC), or 27 to 28 Euro pallets (versus 23 to 24 in a 40HC). Double-stack with stackable cargo and the count doubles. The pallet density per dollar is roughly comparable to a 40HC because the 45HC carries a price premium of about 10 to 15 percent.

For non-palletised use cases the five feet matters in three specific ways. Long-item cargo (steel tube, lumber, kayaks, classic-car frames, boats up to 44 feet) fits in a 45HC where a 40HC just barely does not. Residential conversion buyers who want a longer single-container layout get an extra 40 square feet of floor area without going to a two-container weld. Workshop builders who run lathes, long workbenches, or roll-out vehicle bays get usable extra reach without buying a second box.

One-Trip and Used 45HC Grades for Sale

The grade ladder is the same one we use on every box, and on a 45 it matters more than usual, because how long each grade lasts decides whether the premium for the extra five feet is spread over ten years or twenty-five.

Quotes are per unit at our Brantford yard. Delivery across Ontario is quoted by destination distance and access (45HC delivery is harder than 40HC because the longer trailer needs more swing room on the drop). Multi-bin orders get a per-box delivery discount starting at three units. Modifications priced separately.

The 45HC is source-to-order more often than 40HC. We typically hold 6 to 12 in standing inventory across our four Brantford yards. If your specific size and grade combination is not on the yard the week you call, lead time runs 2 to 4 weeks to bring one in from container terminals in Toronto, Montreal, or Halifax. We will tell you honestly whether your unit is in stock or source-to-order during the quote conversation.

Six Use Cases Where the 45HC Earns the Premium

1. Long-cargo storage and transport

Boats up to 44 feet, classic-car frames over 18 feet, structural lumber in standard 16-foot lengths (with end-spacing), large agricultural implements, and recreational vehicles such as travel trailers fit cleanly in a 45HC where a 40HC requires either disassembly or a bigger product. For one-time shipping use, a 45HC is sometimes the difference between a single-unit shipment and a flat-rack arrangement that costs significantly more.

2. Single-container ADU or studio dwelling

A 45HC One-Trip converted into a one-bedroom ADU yields about 320 square feet of finished interior floor space (versus 280 in a 40HC). That extra 40 square feet often determines whether the layout fits a separate sleeping room or has to settle for a studio. Larger households can compare one-, two- and four-container home plans before settling on a length. For Ontario residential conversions where municipal accessory-dwelling rules require a minimum bedroom footprint, the 45HC is sometimes the only single-container option that meets the minimum.

3. Workshop with rolling-vehicle bay or extended workbench

Mechanic shops fitting a full-size pickup with the rear bumper inside the closed cargo doors, woodworking shops running a 10-foot table saw outfeed plus a planer plus a router table in series, and welding shops with a 20-foot steel-rack length all benefit from the extra five feet. Below the 45ft mark these use cases require a 40HC plus a tool shed, or two 40s welded together. The 45 is the cleanest single-container solution.

4. 3PL extra-capacity overflow

Mid-sized 3PLs in the GTA who run pallet operations and want to maximize unit-density per box choose 45HC for the 13 percent volume bonus over 40HC at only 10 to 15 percent price premium. Cost per cubic foot of storage favours the 45 if the use case can fill the volume. Multi-bin orders of 4 to 8 45HCs are routine for larger 3PL operations.

5. Specialty equipment or material staging

Large equipment with non-standard dimensions, oversize crated machinery, and specialty material that needs to ship as a single unit benefit from the 45’s extra interior length. Heavy industrial buyers along the QEW and 401 industrial corridors order 45HCs specifically for this reason.

6. International cargo with maximum-CSC-rated volume

The 45HC is the largest box that still carries full ISO 1496-1 ocean-shipping certification. The 53ft is North American domestic only (no ocean cert), and flat-racks lose the weather-sealed envelope. For shippers who need both maximum single-piece volume AND ocean-shipping compliance, the 45HC is the only correct answer.

45HC or 40HC: Choosing the Length

Honest sizing conversation: about four out of five buyers asking about 45HC actually fit a 40HC. The 40 wins in these specific situations.

• Pallet count under 22. If your operation maxes out at 20 pallets, the 40HC matches at lower cost.
• Cargo fits inside a 40HC with room to spare. No volume benefit, just premium paid.
• Tight residential lot or industrial yard where the 5-foot longer trailer swing does not fit. The 40HC tilt-deck delivery has a 90-foot approach requirement; the 45HC needs about 100. Some sites do not have the extra 10 feet.
• Budget-conscious build where the unit price difference matters. The premium for a 45HC is real money for first-time buyers, and the grade ladder moves the number more than the five feet do.
• Future resale. Used 40HC market is deep and liquid. Used 45HC market is thinner, with fewer buyers per unit, so resale takes longer.

45 Ft High Cube Price, Delivered in Ontario

Quotes hold 14 days. Lead time depends on standing inventory at our Brantford yard at the time of order; call or email and we tell you in-stock or source-to-order before the quote.

How the Facebook Container Scam Targets 45HC Buyers

The 45HC is a less-common Facebook scam target than the 20ft or 40HC because the price point is higher and the scammers need to invent more elaborate listings. But it does happen. Listings appear for a 45HC One-Trip or CW at a fraction of any yard’s price, with the same Toronto / Vaughan / Hamilton seller claim and the same deposit ask of about a thousand dollars. The container does not exist.

Defence: come walk our Brantford yard before you pay anything. We have between 6 and 12 45HCs in stock at any given time and a backlog of source-to-order units we can show on paperwork from the container terminal. You can read the CSC plate, verify the L5G1 ISO code, check the interior dimensions, and walk the cargo doors. No supplier in Ontario offering half-market pricing will let you inspect before payment, because there is no inspection to do. Our policy is no deposit on phantom inventory.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

Placement requirements vary by municipality. A quick call to your local planning office before delivery is the easiest way to confirm what works for your property.

45 Foot High Cubes From Our Brantford Yards

Related 45 Ft and High Cube Guides

• Compare the 40-foot High Cube
• 40ft standard dry shipping container specifications
• 53ft shipping container specifications (domestic intermodal)
• Container homes in Ontario, design and cost guide
• Buying a container in Canada, step by step
• Modifying a 45HC for your site
• What a 45-foot container costs in 2026
• Spotting a too-cheap container scam

By Paul LeBlanc, owner, and Christian LeBlanc, second-generation operator, Van Blanc Ent. Inc.

If the 20ft container is the most-sold size across our Brantford yards, the 40ft is the most-revenue-per-unit size. About three out of every ten units that leave our gates are 40-footers, and the buyers calling for them are usually doing something substantial. Multi-tenant GC compounds along the Davis Drive corridor in Newmarket. Multi-bin contractor yards along Forbes Road. Mid-sized retail backstock for chain locations. Agricultural growers staging a season’s equipment in a single locked structure. Light-industrial buyers running a parts cage that needs to hold 1,000-plus SKUs.

The 40ft is twice the internal volume of a 20ft (2,395 cubic feet vs 1,172) at roughly 1.4 times the price. That is why one forty against a pair of twenties usually resolves in the forty’s favour on cost per cubic foot. That is the cleanest math in container buying: you pay less per cubic foot of stored space when you go larger. The trade-off is access. A 40ft tilt-deck delivery needs a longer straight-line approach than a 20ft, and some residential and rear-yard commercial sites simply cannot accommodate the swing. We do a Google Earth pre-check before scheduling so the constraint is identified before the truck leaves Brantford, not after the driver gets stuck on a tight bend.

This page covers the real specifications and weights, the four grades we stock, what moves a 40ft quote, the use cases buyers actually pick 40ft for, and how delivery works. Van Blanc is a family-owned independent supplier, in business since 1995. You walk our 200-plus container inventory before any payment, and we let you read the CSC plate on the physical box you are buying.

40 Foot Container Size and ISO 42G1 Specs

How big is a 40ft container? It covers a 320 square foot footprint, and the table below gives every outside, inside and door measurement in feet and metres. Our sizes guide shows how the 40ft compares with the other standard sizes. The inside dimensions follow CN Intermodal’s 40-foot container sheet, and the door opening follows Hapag-Lloyd’s ISO figure of 2,340 by 2,292 mm. Hapag-Lloyd’s inside figures run within a few centimetres of CN’s, and our 40ft dimensions reference covers the measurements in more depth.

Every 40ft we sell carries an ISO 6346 marking and a CSC (Convention for Safe Containers) plate on the cargo doors. Both confirm the container was built to the international standard for ocean transport and remain on the unit for its lifetime. Buyers verify both against the box they are buying when they walk one of Van Blanc’s four Brantford yards. The convention behind that plate, CSC 1972, was drafted by the International Maritime Organization and adopted in 1972.

How Much Does a 40ft Container Weigh?

A standard 40ft container weighs 3,780 kg (8,333 lb) empty on the heaviest 40ft general purpose series in Hapag-Lloyd’s published container specification. Van Blanc prints that heavier tare here. Lighter series in the same document come in at 3,700 kg. The CSC plate on the door states the tare of the exact box you buy. Read it before you book a crane or work out how that weight rides on the truck’s axles.

Tare is the empty box: what the tilt-deck carries to your site and what the pad holds before anything goes in. Payload is the most cargo the container is rated to carry. Maximum gross is the two together, and it is the ceiling stamped on the plate. Other 40ft series in Hapag-Lloyd’s fleet are plated at 32,500 kg (71,650 lb) gross, so their payload runs higher. The High Cube column comes from Van Blanc’s own 40ft High Cube spec page.

Our weight guide covers what the truck and the pad have to carry once the box is loaded, size by size. Two more figures in the same Hapag-Lloyd document matter if you are loading machinery or steel. Each lashing point on the rails and corner posts is rated at 1,000 kg (2,205 lb). A concentrated load on a 40ft floor should stay under 3 tonnes per running metre. The floor sits 170 mm (6.7 in) above the ground, so a pallet jack needs a ramp or a dock plate.

Standard 40ft vs 40ft High Cube

A 40ft High Cube has the same floor as a standard 40ft and one more foot of height, inside and out. The ISO 6346 size-type code on the door tells you which box you are standing in front of. A 42G1 is a 40 ft general purpose container 8 ft 6 in tall, and a 45G1 is the 9 ft 6 in high cube.

The extra foot is what pallet stackers, tall shelving and conversion builders pay for. If insulation is on the plan, read our comparison of usable height once the walls are insulated before you choose.

40 Foot Container Pallet Count and Volume

A standard 40ft holds 20 standard North American pallets (48 by 40 inches) in a single layer. CN Intermodal publishes that count for both 48 by 40 and 48 by 42 units, in two rows of ten. For Euro pallets at 1200 by 800 mm, the 40ft holds 23 to 24 in the same single-layer configuration. The reason the 40ft fits proportionally more Euro pallets than the 20ft is the floor length math works out cleaner at the longer dimension.

In residential terms, a 40ft holds the contents of a typical three-bedroom house with room left over. It also takes a complete two-car garage: both cars plus the seasonal storage, motorcycles, tools, lawn equipment and kids’ sports gear. For construction buyers, a 40ft fits a complete framing-stage and mechanical-stage tool and materials inventory for a four-to-six house subdivision build with shared compound access. For commercial buyers, a 40ft holds 1,000 to 2,500 SKUs of small-to-medium item retail backstock, depending on shelf arrangement.

40ft Container Grades We Stock

Same four grades as our 20ft inventory, with one difference for 40ft buyers: the CW grade premium over WWT is smaller because the 40ft used market is deeper. CW pricing reflects that supply. Below is the grade ladder.

Container prices at our Brantford yards are quoted bare. Delivery across Ontario is quoted by destination distance and access, alongside the container itself. Multi-bin orders get a per-box discount on delivery starting at three units, deeper discounts at five and ten units. Modifications priced separately and added during the quote.

Used 40ft Shipping Containers for Sale

The used 40ft market is the deepest in the trade, because the 40ft is the box the shipping lines run most and retire in the largest numbers. That is why a used 40ft shipping container for sale carries a smaller premium between grades than a 20ft does. The cargo worthy units that reach the used 40ft rows in Brantford are eight to fifteen years old with a valid plate, working doors and a sound marine plywood floor. The wind and watertight units are older and carry more rust on the panels. They are still dry and lockable, which is all a farm or a contractor yard asks of them. Rust through a corner post, a door sill or a floor cross-member is a different box and sells as-is with the defect written down. How an eight-year box compares with a fifteen-year one is the question most used-40 buyers are really asking. The answer is on the plate and the floor, not the paint.

A 40 ft sea can for sale is the same ISO 42G1 box; the county’s name for it changes nothing about the grade or the tilt-deck. Buyers who want the box cut for a workshop, an ADU or anything street-facing usually step up to a one-trip 40ft from the new rows. Straight walls and an unmarked floor are worth more once the welding starts. Everyone else buys used, and the years each grade gives you on a gravel pad is the honest way to price the difference. Walk the row or ask for the container number on a video call: a used 40ft is chosen, not assigned.

40ft Container Use Cases: Six Common Jobs

1. Multi-tenant GC compound storage

Compound storage often arrives beside a converted site office on the same delivery. Mid-rise and subdivision GC compounds use 40ft Cargo Worthy units as primary jobsite storage. They line Davis Drive in Newmarket, Carson Road in Midhurst, the Pickering north builds and the Milton 401-corridor developments. Two to four 40-footers per compound, side-by-side with a forklift aisle between them. Each box dedicated to a stage of the build (framing, mechanical, finish, security cabinet). Welded lockbox installed before delivery. Buyback available at end of build.

2. Industrial multi-bin contractor yards

Forbes Road in Springwater, Mulock Drive in Newmarket, the 401 employment corridors in Mississauga, the QEW industrial belt in Stoney Creek and Burlington. Multi-bin 40ft layouts hold electrical-contractor parts cages, HVAC distributor seasonal stock, fleet-vehicle accessories, and equipment-rental yards’ returnable inventory. CW grade, multi-bin discount, paint-matched to lot visual standard.

3. Retail backstock for chain locations

Multi-location retail (auto-parts chains, home-improvement, small-format grocery, building-supply outlets) uses 40ft High Cube containers as overflow backstock at the back parking lot, holding seasonal inventory the in-store backroom cannot accommodate. One-Trip grade preferred because the box is visible from the customer parking area. Painted in brand colours. Operational year-round, replaced every 5 to 7 years as the corporate visual standard evolves.

4. Agricultural equipment and harvest staging

Working farms across Norfolk, Haldimand, Brant, Wellington, Simcoe, and Durham counties use 40ft CW units for tractor implement storage, seed-staging, chemical-handling, harvest-handling overflow, and hay-equipment storage between cuts. Multi-bin orders common, two or three units in a row along the equipment yard. Tilt-deck delivery onto packed gravel or hardwood mats during the wet shoulder seasons.

5. Container home and ADU base structure

40ft One-Trip is the most-purchased size for residential container-home and ADU (accessory dwelling unit) builds in Ontario. Two 40HCs set side by side give a 640-square-foot footprint, and stacking a second pair doubles the floor area. A single 40HC at grade builds a 320-square-foot studio ADU. Container-home builds are growing in Ontario as a residential alternative to traditional construction. Van Blanc cuts the door and window openings and frames the insulation in our Brantford yards before the box ships. The builder’s licensed trades finish the plumbing and final electrical on site.

6. Workshop, garage, or commercial conversion

40ft conversions into auto-repair shops, welding shops, commercial-grade workshops, and small manufacturing facilities. About 303 square feet of interior floor space, large enough for a two-vehicle service bay or a complete cabinet-making shop. ESA-certified electrical, insulation, HVAC mini-split, finished interior. Larger commercial conversions use 40HC for the extra ceiling clearance for hoists and overhead equipment.

40ft Shipping Container for Sale in Ontario

A 40ft shipping container for sale in Ontario comes from three places: a stocked supplier yard, a national depot, or a classified listing. Van Blanc keeps 40ft units on the ground at our Brantford yards in New (one-trip) and Cargo Worthy grades. You walk the rows and pick the exact box, and it lands anywhere in Ontario in 1 to 3 days with payment on delivery.

That stocked-yard difference is the practical one. A listing shows a photo of somebody else’s container; the yard shows you the doors swinging on yours. Buyers comparing the market usually check the current stock list first, then drive in or call 519-754-6844 and describe the job.

New 40 Foot Containers, One-Trip Grade

A new 40 foot container is a one-trip box: built at the factory, loaded once for the crossing to North America, then sold. Van Blanc sells it as the top grade in the 40ft rows. Expect factory paint, a dry hardwood floor with no forklift scars, door gaskets that have never been replaced and a CSC plate dated at manufacture. A single crossing can leave a scuff or a small handling mark, and we point those out in the yard before you buy. New 40s carry the longest service life and the best resale value of any grade, which is why conversion builders and street-facing retail pick them. The new shipping containers we stock in every size include standard 40s and 40ft high cubes. On delivery day, open both doors, check the gaskets, walk the floor and match the container number to your invoice before the driver leaves.

40ft Container Price: What Moves the Quote

Used 40ft prices sit on our 40ft price table as a range set by quality, a new 40ft at standard height is quoted by phone, and the inputs behind a delivered 40ft shift through the year. Our cost-by-size guide shows how the quote scales from one container size to the next. For a 40ft, these inputs do most of the moving:

• Grade: one-trip at the top, then cargo worthy, then wind and watertight, with as-is units priced against the defects written on the sheet.
• Distance and access: the kilometres from Brantford, and whether a tilt-deck can reach the spot or the drop needs a crane.
• Steel and supply: new-build steel costs and the number of used 40s the shipping lines retire both move the grade ladder.

Quotes hold 14 days. Multi-bin discounts deepen at five and ten units. Modifications (paint, lockbox, vents, windows, doors, electrical, insulation) are priced separately and added to the quote with scope written down before payment.

40ft Delivery Space and Access

Every 40ft we sell leaves on one of our tilt-deck trucks from one of our four Brantford yards. The 40ft tilt-deck has different access requirements than the 20ft and they are worth knowing before you schedule a drop.

Delivery day runs the way every tilt-deck drop does, with more room needed. The truck carrying a 40ft needs a longer straight run than a 20ft because the deck is longer. Along the whole approach it needs a path about 12 feet wide and 14 feet of clear air overhead. Set the pad level, or the box will rock when the chains let go. For most jobsite, industrial, and rural-residential properties, these constraints are easy to meet. Urban residential lots, suburban back yards and some older Yonge Street-style commercial rear yards get a site check first. There the answer is a crane placement or a 20ft from the same rows.

For permanent placement of a 40ft, concrete piers below frost line at the four corner castings are the right call. Preparing the pad properly is what keeps the floor dry for decades. The piers carry the load directly and keep the container floor clear of soil contact. The box stays level for the next 25 years, even on clay-loam ground that heaves in February. For temporary jobsite placement, packed gravel direct-on-grade is fine for build cycles under 18 months.

If the tilt-deck cannot reach the final spot, we recommend a placement adjustment or a different size. Honest dispatch call the morning of, no surprise at the lot.

The 1,000 Dollar Facebook Container Scam Aimed at 40ft Buyers

First-time 40ft buyers get hit by Facebook Marketplace and craigslist container scams at a steady rate. The GC superintendent running a first compound and the farmer pricing a multi-bin order are the usual targets. The pattern is identical every time. A listing offers a 40ft One-Trip or a 40ft CW at less than half of what any yard charges. The seller claims to be in Toronto, Vaughan, or Hamilton, says delivery is included, and asks for an e-transfer deposit of about a thousand dollars to hold the unit. The container does not exist. The seller account disappears within 48 hours of the deposit clearing.

The simplest defence is to come walk one of Van Blanc’s four Brantford yards before you pay anything. We have 200-plus containers in stock at any time, including a steady inventory of 40ft One-Trip and CW units. You can read the CSC plate, check the cargo doors, inspect the interior, and pick the physical box you are buying. No supplier in Ontario whose price is half of market is going to let you inspect before payment, because there is no inspection to do. The container is not there. Our policy is no deposit on phantom inventory.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

Placement requirements vary by municipality. A quick call to your local planning office before delivery is the easiest way to confirm what works for your property.

See Your 40ft in Brantford First

Related Reading

• Every container currently for sale from our Brantford yards
• New (one-trip) shipping containers for sale
• 20ft dry shipping container specifications
• The 40-foot High Cube spec sheet
• 45ft high cube shipping container specifications
• The Canadian container-buying process
• Multi-unit container fleet purchase Canada
• Customizing a 40-foot container
• How 40-foot container pricing works
• The Facebook Marketplace container trap

By Christian LeBlanc, second-generation operator, and Paul LeBlanc, owner, Van Blanc Ent. Inc.

The 40ft High Cube is the workhorse of the global container fleet. Roughly 60 percent of new containers built worldwide since 2018 have been 40HCs rather than standard 40s, because the one-foot-taller interior unlocks pallet-stacking applications, residential conversion possibilities, and equipment-mounting clearances that the standard 8 foot 6 inch external box cannot support. Nearly all of those conversion builds begin with a One-Trip shell fresh off its first and only ocean voyage, since the steel underneath decides how the finished project weathers. In our Brantford yard, the 40HC is the size we sell to almost every container-home builder, every pallet-rack 3PL, every commercial workshop with overhead hoist or lift requirements, and a growing share of residential ADU and granny-suite buyers.

The 40HC and the standard 40ft share the same external footprint. Same length (40 feet), same width (8 feet), same pallet count single-layer, same delivery access requirements. The only physical difference is one foot of additional height, raising the external from 8 feet 6 inches to 9 feet 6 inches, and the internal from 7 feet 10 inches to 8 feet 10 inches. That one foot transforms what the container can do. A 5-foot-2-inch person walks under an 8-foot-10 ceiling without thinking about it. The same person ducks slightly under a 7-foot-10 ceiling. For any conversion where humans spend extended time inside (offices, homes, workshops), the HC is the right call.

This page covers the real specifications, the four grades we stock in a high cube, what moves a 40HC quote, the use cases that make the HC the better buy than a standard 40, and how delivery works from our Brantford yard. We are family-owned, in business since 1995, and we let you walk our 200-plus container inventory before any payment changes hands.

40HC Container Specifications, ISO 45G1 Standard

The table is the ISO figure set; on the ground the two numbers that decide most 40HC purchases are the 8 feet 10 inches of interior height and the 58,335-pound payload, and the full size run from 10 feet to 53 feet puts both beside every other box we stock.

The size-type code 45G1 is the global identifier for a 40-foot high-cube dry container. The number 4 designates 40-foot length, the 5 designates the 9-foot-6-inch height (the high cube), and G1 designates general-purpose dry construction with closed sides. Every 40HC we sell carries this code stamped on the side panel and a CSC plate on the cargo doors confirming ocean-transport certification.

The Extra Foot, and Why It Matters

The single most important fact about a 40HC compared to a standard 40 is that one foot of vertical space changes what the container can be used for. Below are the specific applications where the HC is the right buy and the standard 40 is not.

Pallet stacking. A standard 40 holds 20 pallets in a single layer. A 40HC holds the same 20 pallets in a single layer AND can stack a second layer on top of stackable cargo, doubling the effective pallet capacity to 40. For any 3PL, overflow warehouse, or distribution operation that runs pallet racking inside the box, the HC is the only viable choice.

Residential conversion. Container home and ADU builds use the 40HC as the base structural shell because the 8-foot-10 interior ceiling reads as a normal home ceiling height after insulation, drywall, and finished flooring eat about 6 to 10 inches of height. A standard 40 ends up with a 7-foot-or-shorter interior ceiling after the same finishing, which feels oppressive. Two stacked 40HCs form a 1,500-square-foot two-storey unit with 8-foot finished ceilings throughout.

Workshop with overhead equipment. Mechanic shops with engine hoists, welding shops with overhead trolleys, woodworking shops with dust-collection ducting, and cabinet-making shops with stacked storage racks all need the HC’s extra clearance. A 2-ton chain hoist mounted to a top rail in a 40HC has 5 to 6 feet of working height below it. The same hoist in a standard 40 has 4 feet, which is below what most lift operations need.

Climate-control conversion. Container offices, classrooms, and crew quarters that install ductwork, drop ceilings, and recessed lighting need the HC because the finished interior ceiling needs to be 8 feet or higher for occupancy comfort and code-friendly construction.

40HC Container Grades We Stock

Grade names on a 40HC mean what they mean on any other box, and the one-trip against cargo worthy decision is the one most 40HC buyers are actually making, since WWT and As-Is rarely justify paying for the extra foot.

The 40HC carries a real premium over the equivalent grade in standard 40ft. The premium tracks the cost of building a 9-foot-6-inch container versus the standard 8-foot-6-inch frame at the original manufacturing point. For applications where the extra height is the reason you are buying, the premium pays itself back in usability.

Six Most Common 40HC Container Use Cases

1. Residential container home base structure

The 40HC is the most-used size for residential container-home construction in Canada. A single 40HC at grade builds a 320-square-foot studio ADU. Two stacked 40HCs form a 1,500-square-foot two-storey home. Three or four 40HCs welded side-by-side form a 1,200-to-1,800-square-foot ranch-style residence. Container-home builders we work with across Ontario specify 40HC One-Trip almost exclusively because the finished aesthetic justifies the premium. Our container home layouts by number of boxes show how a builder picks and matches the specific units.

2. 3PL pallet-rack overflow storage

3PLs along the 401 industrial corridor (Mississauga, Brampton west, Milton, Pickering east, Whitby) use 40HC Cargo Worthy units for pallet-rack overflow when the permanent warehouse is full. Two-stack pallet racking inside a 40HC handles 40 standard pallets per box. Multi-bin orders are common, four to ten 40HCs per 3PL site.

3. Commercial workshop and small-manufacturing conversion

Automotive repair shops, welding shops, woodworking shops, and small fabricators convert 40HC One-Trip or CW units into permanent workshop facilities. ESA-certified electrical, insulation, HVAC mini-split, finished interior, and exterior paint. About 305 square feet of interior floor space with an 8-foot-10 unfinished ceiling. The extra ceiling clearance makes overhead-equipment installation practical, and when the bay needs to be longer, a 45ft High Cube adds five feet of floor at the same height. Automotive buyers put the same 45G1 shell to work in transit as well; two sedans loaded nose-to-tail for overseas shipment fit a 40HC with room left over for spares and accessories.

4. Office, classroom, or crew-quarters conversion

Construction site offices, modular classrooms, mining-camp crew quarters, and remote-work studios convert 40HC units into livable interior space. Drop ceilings, recessed lighting, HVAC ductwork, and code-friendly construction all fit within the HC envelope. ESA-certified electrical, insulation to R-25, finished drywall interior.

5. Large retail kiosk or pop-up storefront

40HC units with a full-front roll-up door cut form a 320-square-foot retail pop-up space, large enough for a coffee shop, food kiosk, or seasonal retail outlet. One-Trip grade and painted in brand colours, the HC provides a customer-visible commercial space with proper ceiling height for retail merchandising.

6. Container art gallery, studio, or maker space

Artists, photographers, ceramicists, and maker-space operators convert 40HC One-Trip units into backyard or commercial studios. The extra height accommodates skylights, north-facing window cutouts for painter light, and large-format printing or photography equipment. Customer-installed cedar-cladding on the exterior is common for residential placement.

Real 2026 Pricing for a 40HC Container Landed in Ontario

Quotes hold 14 days. Multi-bin discounts deepen at five and ten units. The HC premium over the standard 40 shows as its own line on the quote, so you can see what the extra foot costs. If the number needs spreading out, financing a container through your own lender is the route, and we supply the paperwork they ask for.

Delivery and Placement of a 40HC

The 40HC ships on the same tilt-deck truck as a standard 40ft. The driver needs about a 90-foot straight-line approach to the drop spot, a foot of clearance on each side, and about a 35-foot turning radius to maneuver into position. The container will be approximately 13 feet tall on the trailer during transport (trailer deck height plus 9-foot-6 container), so overhead clearance under bridges, low-hanging branches, and overhead utility wires becomes a consideration on rural Ontario delivery routes. Our drivers know the Ontario corridor and route around the known low-clearance bridges.

For permanent placement of a 40HC, concrete piers below the frost line at the four corner castings is the right call, particularly for container-home, two-stack residential, and commercial workshop installations where the structure will be in place for 25 years or more. For temporary or jobsite placement, packed gravel direct-on-grade is fine for build cycles under 18 months.

We send a Google Earth pre-check for any 40HC delivery where overhead clearance or approach access is unclear. If the access requires a roadside drop and crane-lift to the final position, we coordinate with a local crane operator and add the crane fee separately to the quote.

The 1,000 Dollar Facebook Container Scam Aimed at 40HC Buyers

40HC One-Trip is the most-targeted product in the Ontario container-scam ecosystem because the price point leaves room for the scammer to offer half-market pricing and still trap meaningful deposit money. The pattern is identical every time. A listing offers a 40HC One-Trip or CW at roughly half of what any yard charges. The seller claims to be in Toronto, Vaughan, or Hamilton, says delivery is included, and asks for an e-transfer deposit of about a thousand dollars to hold the unit. The container does not exist. The seller account disappears within 48 hours of the deposit clearing.

The simplest defence is to come walk our Brantford yard before you pay anything. We have 200-plus containers in stock at any time, including a steady inventory of 40HC One-Trip and CW units. You can read the CSC plate, check the cargo doors, inspect the interior, verify the 9-foot-6 external height, and pick the physical box you are buying. No supplier in Ontario whose price is half of market is going to let you inspect before payment because there is no inspection to do. The container is not there. Our policy is no deposit on phantom inventory.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

Placement requirements vary by municipality. A quick call to your local planning office before delivery is the easiest way to confirm what works for your property.

Reach Van Blanc in Brantford

Related Reading

• 20ft dry shipping container specifications
• 40ft standard dry shipping container specifications
• 45ft High Cube shipping container specifications
• Container homes in Ontario, design and cost guide
• How to buy a shipping container in Canada
• Customizing your shipping container
• how grade and size move a high-cube number
• The Facebook shipping container scam pattern

By Paul LeBlanc, owner, and Christian LeBlanc, second-generation operator, Van Blanc Ent. Inc.

A 40ft reefer container is a refrigerated shipping container built on the high cube shell. It has insulated walls, an aluminium T-bar floor that carries cold air under the load, and a refrigeration unit set into the front wall. The 40HC reefer carries roughly two and a half times the cargo volume of a 20ft reefer. For operations where the use case actually fills 67 cubic metres, the 40HC is the economical choice on a per-cubic-foot basis. For operations that need less than 30 cubic metres of refrigerated space, the smaller 20ft reefer holds that load, and we price both sizes during the quote. First-time reefer owners usually have a second question about winter operation, and our notes on how the defrost cycle holds set-point through a cold snap answer most of it.

Buyers calling about 40HC reefers in our service area fall into five main categories. Regional cold-storage operations serve multi-county distribution, and federally licensed cannabis cultivators expanding flowering or post-harvest cure capacity need climate rooms. Larger Holland Marsh growers stage full-truckload harvest overflow, and food banks operate regional distribution hubs. The fifth group is mid-sized food-service (multi-location restaurants, catering operations serving large-venue work). Each application has slightly different temperature, humidity, and access-control requirements, and the 40HC reefer’s larger envelope provides the working volume to handle them with proper airflow and stacking room.

40ft Reefer Container for Sale in Ontario

Van Blanc sells the 40ft High Cube reefer container outright, one container number at a time, from stock spread across our four Brantford yards. Before you pay anything, we run the unit for you. Drive in and stand beside it while the display pulls the box down, or watch the same test on a video call from your office. Read the hours off the controller, then look at the door gaskets and the T-bar floor with your own eyes. Payment is on delivery, never a deposit.

A stocked 40HC reefer reaches most Ontario addresses in 1 to 3 days. Ottawa, Kingston and the rest of Eastern Ontario take the same 1 to 3 days, and far-north sites are quoted route by route. Forty feet of tilt-deck needs a straight approach at least 12 ft wide and at least 14 ft of overhead room, with more height for a high cube. Run through the site-clearance checklist for delivery day first. When the pad sits beyond the tilt-deck’s reach, a HIAB crane placement is the other way to land it.

Wire the power before the truck books. A 40ft reefer container runs on 380/460 V three-phase power through a 32 A plug, never a 240 V single-phase household circuit. Carrier’s T-372 PrimeLINE manual gives the same nominal 380/460 volt, 3-phase, 50/60 Hz supply for the base unit. Most farmhouses and many rural shops in Ontario only have single-phase service, which is where a rotary phase converter and the 32-amp reefer plug come into the plan. Ask us for the voltage, phase and amperage on the plate of the unit you pick, so your electrician can set the right receptacle in advance.

40ft Reefer Dimensions, ISO 45R1

The table is the unit as the factories build it. The working numbers a buyer plans around are the 38 feet of cargo length and the 8 feet 4 inches of clear height. That is why the cold-chain set-points a 40HC will hold and the pallet count below matter more than the external envelope.

The code reading: 4 for 40-foot length, and 5 for 9-foot-6-inch height (high cube), the same shell the 40HC dry box uses. R1 marks a thermal container that is mechanically refrigerated and heated, which is how Shipping Container Info describes the 45R1 code. The heating side lets the unit hold a set-point above the outside temperature, which counts in an Ontario January. Every 45R1 we sell carries a CSC plate confirming ocean-shipping certification.

The internal height of a 40 ft high cube container depends on the build. CN Intermodal’s 40-foot sheet gives a dry high cube 106 in (2.692 m) inside, which is the 8 ft 10 in listed for the dry 40HC we sell. The reefer version gives up about 14 cm of that to its insulated roof and T-bar floor. So the 40HC reefer measures 2.548 m inside, which rounds to 2.55 m or 8 ft 4 in. Outside, the high cube stands 9 ft 6 in (2.895 m), a foot taller than a standard-height 40ft.

How Much Does a 40ft Reefer Weigh?

A 40ft reefer weighs 4,575 kg (10,086 lb) empty on the Van Blanc listing, more than any dry box among the 40-footers we sell. Loaded to its 34,000 kg maximum gross weight, it carries 29,425 kg (64,871 lb) of cargo. Hapag-Lloyd’s container specification lists seven 40′ high cube reefer series, and the Van Blanc figures fall inside its range on every weight and volume line.

The load line matters on a reefer. Hapag-Lloyd paints a red line inside each unit at the maximum stowage height, so cold air can travel over the top of the cargo. Stacking above it starves the back of the box. Blue Water Shipping, a freight forwarder, rates the 40ft reefer high cube at up to 23 EUR pallets, depending on pallet height and the airflow the load needs. For the same weights on dry boxes, compare tare and payload across every container size. Our dry 40HC tops out at 30,480 kg gross, so the reefer’s 34,000 kg rating gives it the higher ceiling of the two.

40ft Reefer vs a Dry 40ft High Cube

A 40ft reefer and a dry 40ft high cube share the same outside shell: 40 ft long, 8 ft wide and 9 ft 6 in tall. Inside, they are different boxes. The reefer’s insulated walls, T-bar floor and refrigeration unit take room that a dry box keeps for cargo. CN Intermodal’s 40-foot sheet gives the dry figures below, and our full set of dry 40ft measurements has the rest. The reefer column is our listing, which sits inside Hapag-Lloyd’s range for its own 40′ reefer high cube fleet.

On CN’s figures, a dry high cube holds about 12% more than a standard 40, and our high cube versus standard cube comparison walks through where that space goes. A reefer high cube gives that extra space back: its 67.0 m³ sits about 12% under the dry high cube’s 76.1 m³ and lands close to a standard-height dry 40. What the buyer gets for the space is a box that holds a set-point anywhere from -30°C to +30°C. For pallet planning, CN rates both dry 40s at 20 standard 48 by 40 in pallets on the floor. A reefer load is planned around airflow instead. Keep the T-bar channels open and stay under the red load line described in our notes on loading a container so air can move.

Van Blanc carries reefers and dry boxes in standard and high cube height, so the choice comes down to the cargo. Chilled and frozen product needs the reefer. Tall dry stock, racking and machinery go in a dry 40ft high cube from our yards. An insulated box without a refrigeration unit covers products that only need protection from frost and summer heat.

40ft Reefer vs a 20ft Reefer

The 40HC reefer is the same envelope concept as the 20ft reefer we stock alongside it: an insulated steel box with an integrated refrigeration unit at the front. It is scaled up to roughly 2.5 times the cargo volume.

Three practical differences are worth knowing:

1. Volume per dollar favours the 40HC. A 40HC reefer carries roughly two and a half times the cargo volume of a 20ft reefer. The landed quote is nowhere near two and a half times higher, so volume per dollar strongly favours the bigger unit. If your application can fill the volume, each cubic metre of refrigerated space costs less in the 40HC.

2. Multi-zone cooling becomes practical. The 40HC’s longer cargo zone allows partition walls to create two or three independently controlled temperature zones inside one container. A cannabis cultivator can run a two-zone configuration in a 40HC reefer (cure room at 15-18°C + dry-storage room at 4°C). Holding two set-points off one unit is where the defrost cycle starts to matter. The 20ft reefer is too short for practical multi-zone partitioning.

3. Same power supply, harder cycling. Size does not change the plug. Carrier’s PrimeLINE manual and Hapag-Lloyd’s specification put a standard marine reefer of either length on nominal 380/460 volt, 3-phase power through a 32 A plug. The unit’s data plate is the final word on any box. Its compressor runs at a higher duty cycle to hold temperature across the larger cargo volume. Annual electricity cost runs roughly 1.4 to 1.7 times what a 20ft reefer consumes under equivalent ambient and set-point conditions. It stays short of double because the larger thermal mass moderates short-cycle losses. On a commercial site, a three-phase supply is the usual answer.

40ft Reefer Grades From New to As-Is

On a reefer the grade describes the box and the hours describe the machine, and the second number moves the price more than the first. A refrigeration technician’s pre-purchase check is the hour that tells you which unit you are really buying. A new (one-trip) 40HC reefer leads on both counts, with one loaded voyage behind it, factory gaskets and a unit under 5,000 hours.

The quote lands the unit at your site: reefer plus delivery priced by distance and access, stated together up front. Multi-bin orders get a per-box discount on delivery starting at three units. Electrical installation is paid separately to a licensed Ontario electrician and quoted against the service on site, and the ESA inspection that follows the hookup is part of that scope.

Cold-Chain Uses Across Ontario

1. Federally licensed cannabis cultivation expansion

Health Canada licensed cannabis facilities scaling beyond their initial vegetative or flowering room footprint can use 40HC reefers as additional grow rooms (single or multi-zone). They can also run post-harvest cure rooms (15-18°C, 60-65% RH for 30-60 days) and finished-product cold storage in them. The 40HC’s longer envelope allows independent zone partitioning for cure-then-dry-then-trim workflow within one container. A phased expansion can add modular 40HC reefers to an existing facility footprint, planned with the same humidity discipline a fruiting room needs.

2. Regional food distribution hubs

Multi-location restaurant groups, catering distribution operations, and small-scale specialty distributors (gourmet, ethnic, organic) use 40HC reefers as regional cold-chain hubs serving 8 to 15 outlets within a 200-kilometre radius. Tying a reefer into a restaurant’s walk-in workflow is the piece for the outlet end of that chain. The 40HC’s 67 m³ volume holds roughly 24 to 28 standard reach-in’s worth of inventory at multi-temperature zones.

3. Holland Marsh full-truckload harvest staging

Larger Holland Marsh vegetable operations (carrots, onions, celery at scale) running full-truckload outbound shipments need cold-buffer capacity sized to a 53-foot truck-trailer load. A 40HC reefer holds approximately one truckload of palletised produce at 4°C, providing 24-72 hours of holding time between field harvest and outbound truck departure. Multi-bin orders of 2 to 5 40HC reefers are common at the larger Holland Marsh operations, and the Bradford delivery route runs those in October.

4. Brewery distribution and aged-beer warehousing

Mid-sized Ontario craft breweries (10,000+ hL annual production) and barrel-aging beer programs use 40HC reefers for fermented-beer warehousing at 0-4°C, sour-program barrel storage at 15-18°C, and chilled distribution loading docks. The 40HC’s larger envelope accommodates full pallet racks of 750ml bottles or 30-litre kegs at proper conditioning temperature. The glycol-cooled brewery build is the next step for the ones that outgrow it.

5. Food bank regional distribution

Food banks and regional food-rescue organizations use 40HC reefers as mobile cold-chain capacity expansion during peak donation cycles (post-harvest, holidays, disaster-response). The 40HC’s longer envelope holds roughly 20-25 pallets of mixed refrigerated and frozen donations at multi-zone temperature, loaded on the standard two-across pallet pattern.

6. Pharmaceutical and specialty cold-chain

Smaller pharmaceutical distributors, specialty veterinary supply operations, and biotech cold-chain serving the GTA innovation corridor use 40HC reefers as temporary expansion capacity during facility construction. Others run them as permanent cold-room replacements that move with operations. Temperature stability documentation and access control are critical. We provide unit specifications and refrigeration-service history matching standard pharmaceutical-grade quality assurance requirements, and the reefer field guide explains what each line of that history means.

Running Two or Three Temperature Zones

The 40HC reefer’s 38-foot interior cargo length supports two or three independently controlled temperature zones with a partition wall. Hapag-Lloyd lists a multi-temperature setting (MTS) option for its own 45R1 fleet, which shows the unit family is built with split loads in mind. Common configurations we deliver:

Two-zone cure-and-dry for cannabis: Front zone (closest to refrigeration unit) at 15-18°C / 60-65% RH for post-harvest cure (30-60 days). Rear zone at 4-8°C for finished-product cold storage. Partition wall is insulated and includes a small air-balance port to maintain zone integrity while the single refrigeration unit serves both zones via duct work. The insulated container page covers the panel and foam options that wall is built from.

Two-zone refrigeration-plus-freezer for food distribution: Front zone at 4°C for refrigerated produce and dairy. Rear zone at -18°C for frozen items. Some Daikin units support dual-temperature setpoints natively; others require a separate add-on freezer module retrofitted into the rear zone.

Three-zone specialty for high-margin operations: Front zone at 18°C (room temperature controlled), middle zone at 4°C, rear zone at -18°C. Used for operations needing transitional thermal control across multiple product categories. Requires custom HVAC retrofit; not a standard delivery configuration.

Partition walls are quoted per build; insulation thickness, door inclusion, and air-balance ducting set the scope. Van Blanc delivers the 40HC reefer without a partition, and the wall itself is a job for a refrigeration contractor. The doors, vents and lockbox on the shell are ours to fit before it leaves.

40ft Reefer Pricing Factors

A 40ft reefer quote from Van Blanc is one landed figure for the unit and its delivery, with the condition report attached. These five inputs set it:

1. The grade of the box, from new (one-trip) through cargo worthy and wind and water tight down to as-is.
2. The machine itself: which unit is fitted, its controller generation and the hours on its meter.
3. How cold you plan to run it, since a freezer set-point works the compressor harder than chilled storage.
4. Kilometres from our Brantford yards to your postal code, because delivery is charged by distance.
5. How many units travel together, with the per-box delivery discount starting at three.

Quotes hold 14 days. The bare reefer is what we sell; electrical installation is paid to a licensed Ontario electrician separately. Multi-zone partition builds are a separate scope of work paid to a refrigeration contractor. Delivery runs on the standard Ontario window once the unit is chosen.

The 1,000 Dollar Facebook Scam, 40HC Reefer Edition

40HC reefer Facebook Marketplace scams are less common than the 20ft variety because the price point is too high to plausibly half-discount, but they do happen on the lower end. Listings claim cargo worthy or one-trip 40HC reefers at a fraction of any yard’s price, with the same Toronto/Vaughan/Hamilton seller claim and a deposit ask of about a thousand dollars. The reefer does not exist.

Defence: walk the rows at one of our Brantford yards. Van Blanc keeps 40HC reefers in stock and can fire up the refrigeration unit for you while you read the temperature display. You also see the interior lining, gasket condition, T-bar floor structure, and refrigeration hours-of-use. No supplier in Ontario whose price is one-tenth of market is going to start the refrigeration unit for you to inspect, because there is no unit to start. Our policy is no deposit on phantom inventory.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

Placement requirements vary by municipality. A quick call to your local planning office before delivery is the easiest way to confirm what works for your property.

Watch the Unit Run Before You Pay

Related Reading

• The 20ft reefer, ISO 22R1 sizes and grades
• Step up to a 40-foot High Cube dry
• Reefer buyer’s guide: power, hours and grades
• How farm co-ops order containers in bulk
• When a 40HC reefer outlasts a rented trailer
• Reefer and cold-storage modifications
• Every 40ft container measurement in one place
• How fake reefer listings work

By Christian LeBlanc, second-generation operator, and Paul LeBlanc, owner, Van Blanc Ent. Inc.

A 20ft refrigerated shipping container, or reefer container, is a shipping container with insulated walls and a refrigeration unit built into one end. It holds a set temperature for as long as it has power. The 20ft reefer is the smallest refrigerated container in the global fleet and the specialty unit Van Blanc gets asked about most across our four Brantford yards. Operations that outgrow it step up to the 40ft High Cube reefer. Anyone still mapping cold-chain basics can start with our field guide to refrigerated containers before picking a size.

Buyers who call about a 20ft reefer tend to fall into six groups. A florist needs post-harvest cool-down for cut flowers, and a craft brewery wants a cellar for its fermentation tanks. A mushroom grower needs a temperature-stable substrate room. A Holland Marsh vegetable farm needs somewhere to stage harvest overflow. Restaurant and food-service groups want seasonal cold storage, and Health Canada licensed cannabis facilities want climate-controlled cultivation or cure rooms.

Every one of those buyers needs a set temperature held inside a sealed box, day in and day out, and wants that box on site within a week. The 20ft reefer does the job. Power is where first-time buyers get caught. Carrier’s PrimeLINE manual rates its base unit at nominal 380/460 volt, 3-phase, 50/60 hertz power, and Hapag-Lloyd fits its reefers with a 32 A plug. Most Ontario homes and many farms run on single-phase service, so the site needs three-phase power or a converter first. The three-phase supply question for a reefer is its own short read. Off-grid or temporary sites run a diesel genset. Van Blanc goes through the power question on every reefer quote, because getting it wrong is the costliest mistake a first-time reefer buyer makes.

20ft Reefer Containers for Sale in Ontario

Van Blanc sells 20ft reefer containers outright from stock at our four Brantford yards, and each unit is quoted by its own container number. The refrigeration unit is half of what you are buying, so we start it for you in the yard or on a video call before you commit. You watch the display pull the box down to set-point, read the hours on the controller, and look over the door gaskets. Payment is on delivery, never a deposit.

Delivery runs 1 to 3 days across most of Ontario and 3 to 5 days to Eastern Ontario, including Ottawa and Kingston. Far-north addresses are quoted per route. The truck needs a clear path at least 12 ft wide and at least 14 ft of overhead room along the approach. The room a delivery truck needs on your lot covers the rest of the site check. Where a tilt-deck cannot reach the pad, a crane truck can set the reefer instead.

Greenhouse operators around Leamington and the Essex greenhouse cluster tend to order ahead of winter, so the reefer is powered up before the first snow. Have the electrical ready before the truck arrives, whatever the address. A reefer that lands on a pad with no matching receptacle sits idle until the electrician finishes. The Van Blanc quote names the plug, so your electrician can wire for it in advance.

20ft Reefer Container Specs, ISO 22R1

The figures below are the 20ft refrigerated container’s own. They run smaller than the dry box of the same length, because the thermal envelope takes its share of the inside. For most buyers, what each set-point actually asks of the unit matters more than the last centimetre of cargo length.

The R in 22R1 designates “refrigerated” with the refrigeration unit integral to the container. The inside runs smaller than a standard 22G1 dry container for three reasons. The insulation occupies about 10 cm of wall thickness on all sides. The refrigeration unit takes about 90 cm of length at the front end, and the T-bar aluminium floor adds a few centimetres of depth above the steel. Net cargo volume is approximately 27.7 m³ against 33.2 m³ for the dry equivalent, a 16 percent reduction for the thermal envelope.

What is the capacity of a 20ft reefer container?

A 20ft reefer gives you roughly 28 cubic metres of space held at the set-point you choose and a payload in the 27.5 tonne range, depending on the build. Hapag-Lloyd’s specification for its 20′ refrigerated container (ISO 22R1) lists a slightly larger inside than the figures Van Blanc prints, so the two sit side by side below. Where they differ, our table above uses the lower volume and the lower payload.

The tare is the number that matters on delivery day. A 20ft reefer weighs about 3,000 kg empty. That weight comes down on four corner castings, so the pad has to be level and firm under each corner. Buyers sizing up the bigger box can compare the 40ft High Cube reefer’s tare and payload before choosing. The same Hapag-Lloyd sheet rates its reefers to hold temperature in ambient heat up to 50°C, with set-points available as low as -40°C on that fleet. A 20ft reefer bought for an Ontario site works inside the -30°C to +30°C range our table gives.

Reefer Units: Carrier, Thermo King, Daikin

Three brand families dominate the global reefer market, and each one handles defrost and set-points its own way. Van Blanc carries units from all three in the Brantford yards at different times. The choice usually comes down to what is in standing inventory the week you order, but the brand differences are worth knowing.

For most Ontario buyers (florists, breweries, mushroom growers, restaurants), the brand on the unit matters less than the unit’s hours-of-use history and the local parts availability. We disclose unit make, model, and approximate hours during the quote. If your application demands proven reliability (cannabis, pharma, food-service compliance), we recommend a refrigeration technician’s inspection before you buy. The inspection is an hour of a technician’s time against a machine that will run for years.

20ft Reefer Grades, Used and New

Grade on a reefer means two things at once, the box and the machine, and the machine is the one that decides the price. A cargo worthy reefer with a low-hours unit can be a stronger buy than a one-trip box that has run hard. A new (one-trip) reefer adds clean paint, factory-tight gaskets and a unit under 5,000 hours, and on any grade the hours on the quote cover the rest.

Every Van Blanc reefer quote is landed: the unit from our Brantford yards plus delivery priced by distance and access, stated together as one number. Multi-bin orders get a per-box discount on delivery starting at three units. Ask the electrician to wire to the plug and voltage on the unit’s nameplate. That electrical work is a separate cost paid to a licensed Ontario electrician, and how ESA inspection works on a container circuit is worth reading before that quote arrives.

20ft Reefer Use Cases in Ontario

1. Florist post-harvest cold chain

Cut flowers need 2-4°C within hours of harvest to extend vase life. Wholesale florists serving the GTA, the Toronto Flower Auction supply chain, and Niagara region greenhouse operations use 20ft reefers for on-site cool-down. The box holds stems between cutting and shipment. One-Trip grade is typical because cleanliness for product contact matters, and the Niagara greenhouse belt is where most of those units go. Electricity is the running cost, and it moves with cycle time and ambient temperature far more than with the brand on the unit.

2. Craft brewery fermentation cellar

Lager fermentation requires 8-12°C for two to four weeks. Conditioning runs 0-4°C for another month or longer. A 20ft reefer holds 4-6 stainless fermenters or 8-10 cornelius kegs in conditioning. Cargo Worthy grade is the default because the reefer sits inside the brewery building, exterior aesthetic does not matter. Multiple Ontario craft breweries from Cambridge to Welland run 20ft reefers as fermentation cellars, and the ones that outgrow the box move to a glycol-cooled brewery container next.

3. Mushroom growing substrate room

Most commercial mushroom species (button, oyster, shiitake, lion’s mane) require 12-18°C with high humidity (85-95% RH) for fruiting. A 20ft reefer with a humidifier add-on holds the temperature and humidity stable while a separate dehumidifier handles excess moisture during the spawn-run phase. Norfolk County and Wellington County host several Ontario mushroom operations using reefer fleets; the fruiting-room build in a container covers the humidity side that the reefer alone does not.

4. Holland Marsh harvest staging

The Holland Marsh produces carrots, onions, celery, leeks, and Asian greens at scale. During peak harvest (August through October), permanent cold-storage capacity at the farm fills before the produce can move to the Ontario Food Terminal. A 20ft reefer at the field edge holds harvested product at 4°C for 24 to 72 hours, which buys the grower time to move it. The Bradford and Marsh growers are the reason our trucks know Highway 400 in October. Multi-bin orders of 3 to 6 reefers per large Holland Marsh operation are routine.

5. Restaurant and food-service overflow

Multi-location restaurant groups, catering companies serving large-event venues, and seasonal food-service operations (festival catering, wedding catering, golf course kitchens) use 20ft reefers as portable overflow walk-in cooler capacity. The reefer arrives in 1 to 3 days, plugs in, and provides immediate refrigeration without the construction cost of a permanent walk-in.

6. Health Canada licensed cannabis cultivation and post-harvest

Federally licensed cannabis cultivators use 20ft reefers for vegetative-stage propagation rooms (18-20°C, lower humidity) and flowering rooms (with custom HVAC retrofit). They also run post-harvest cure rooms in them (15-18°C, 60-65% RH for 30 to 60 days). The Health Canada licensing process requires specific documentation of temperature stability and access control; our reefer specifications match what the standard licence application asks for. We work with several Ontario cannabis operators on facility-expansion reefer purchases, usually alongside a grow room built in a dry container for the vegetative stage.

Power Supply: Three Ways to Run It

Every 20ft reefer needs continuous electrical power to run, and an Ontario site can supply it in three ways.

1. Plug in to site power (most common). The reefer’s own power cable ends in a 32 A plug. Hapag-Lloyd lists it with 4 poles according to CEE, on a fixed cable of up to 18 m (49 ft). A site with three-phase service gets a matching receptacle from a licensed electrician, and our three-phase guide covers that IEC 60309 plug pin by pin. A single-phase farm or home adds a rotary phase converter sized 15 to 20 hp. Carrier also offers an optional autotransformer that lets a PrimeLINE run on nominal 190/230 volt, 3-phase power. If the existing service is already at capacity, the local utility may require a panel upgrade first.

2. Diesel genset (off-grid or temporary). A 15-20 kW diesel generator powers the reefer continuously. Fuel consumption runs roughly 1.5 to 2.5 litres of diesel per hour depending on ambient temperature and cycle frequency. Best for remote sites (off-grid cottages, mining camps, remote agricultural operations) or short-term temporary use. Operating cost is significantly higher than grid electricity (roughly 3 to 5 times the equivalent kWh cost).

3. Solar plus battery (specialty). A 6-10 kW solar array plus 30-40 kWh battery bank can run a 20ft reefer continuously if the duty cycle is favourable (above-zero operation, mild ambient temperature, daylight-heavy season). Capital cost is the highest of the three by a wide margin and operating cost is near zero; the off-grid solar container build sets out the array and battery math. Best for permanent off-grid cottage food storage or specialty operations where grid power is not available.

20ft Reefer Container Cost Drivers

Van Blanc quotes every 20ft reefer as one landed number: the unit plus delivery from our Brantford yards, with delivery charged per kilometre from our terminal. These six things move that number:

• The box grade: new (one-trip), cargo worthy, wind and water tight, or as-is.
• The refrigeration unit itself, meaning its make, model, controller generation and the hours on the meter.
• The duty you need, since frozen storage asks more of the unit than chilled storage does.
• Distance, because delivery is charged per kilometre and the postal code sets it.
• Order size, with the per-box delivery discount starting at three units.
• Site work, as the electrical circuit is paid to your licensed Ontario electrician, not to us.

Quotes hold 14 days. The bare reefer is what Van Blanc sells. Electrical installation is paid to a licensed Ontario electrician separately, and two quotes from electricians who have wired reefers before is a sensible start. Once the unit is running, the defrost cycle and set-point controls are the first thing to learn.

The 1,000 Dollar Facebook Reefer Scam

The 20ft reefer is occasionally targeted by Facebook Marketplace scams, though less often than the 20ft or 40ft dry containers. Its price point is higher, so the scam ask stands out. Listings claim a one-trip or cargo worthy 20ft reefer at a fraction of any yard’s price, with delivery included from a Toronto, Vaughan, or Mississauga seller. The deposit ask is about a thousand dollars, and the account goes the way of the disappearing Marketplace seller 48 hours after the e-transfer clears. The reefer does not exist.

Defence: come walk one of our Brantford yards. Van Blanc holds reefers in stock and can start the refrigeration unit while you watch, the temperature display reading, the gasket condition, and the hours-of-use logged on the unit. A seller asking half of market will not start the refrigeration unit for you, because there is no unit to start. Our policy is no deposit on phantom inventory.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

Placement requirements vary by municipality. A quick call to your local planning office before delivery is the easiest way to confirm what works for your property.

Book a Yard Visit in Brantford

Related Reading

• 40ft High Cube refrigerated container specifications
• 20ft standard dry container specifications
• How reefer containers work, from power to cargo
• Insulated containers without a refrigeration unit
• Buying reefers and dry boxes as a farm co-op
• Doors, vents and insulation added to a container
• Spotting a fake reefer listing on Marketplace