DIY Walk In Cooler Build

[Irrenarzt]

Thanks man. I wanted to document this as much as possible as I didn't find much on building your own walk in, other than the Deep Six closet build and what was shown on the storeitcold site. If you saw the original walk in at Heretic, then you would figure ANYONE can do it. Price out a new one and you'll have an aneurysm. These things are unbelieveably expensive. I was looking at 6K to 10K for a 12x6 new outdoor model. Screw that.

Since I scored a sweet deal on the panels, I thought why the hell not build it? I'm sure it'll still be cheaper than buying one but by how much I am unsure. I spent a LOT of money this weekend. I'm still within my budget though, but not by much. I'll add up all the costs when I am done, or I run out of money. The only thing I still need is the door and the inner wall layer (drywall most likely). But I have a line on a used door. A new door can run between 1000 and 1500 so I really need that used door to be in good shape.

We had to stop for the day as it was so freaking windy here today that we couldn't lay down the upper vapor barrier/spray in the foam without it blowing all over the place. Solid 25-35 mph winds all day today. Peak winds were measuring at 44 mph. Screw that.

 

[Carlscan26]

It's too late now but was that pressure treated wood given its on the ground like that? I though you would still have a gap between the wood and the earth...if that's not PT it will rot. Heck even PR rots eventually

 

[Orthobrewsky]

I keep thinking about how I might do one of these. I'd love to hear about how easily you maintain your temperature after it is done.

 

[Travestian]

Very well done! Looking forward to seeing results.

 

[Irrenarzt]

Pressure treated wood doesn't fare well in the southwest. It tweaks hard, even after getting it all set in place. Typically it gets shipped here wet, and twists like a motherf'er as it dries too rapidly in this climate. I've had really bad luck with pressure treated, and I no longer use it here. This is why I went with Douglas Fir and then weatherproofed it myself. It is not sitting directly on the ground either as it is on pads that are a half inch above grade. It is however buried in base course so that argument is not exactly perfect. At least is not buried in boggy mud. The only time it will see mud is never.

I had plenty of Wolmanized when I lived back east but that stuff no longer exists and even if it did, it would probably suck hind teet out here. Euros banned cadmium in 2008 those bastiges. Some things are best left alone, Wolmanized is one of those things.

Rotting is the least of our problems out here since it is so dry. Rotting requires humidity, which is non-existent here.

 

[Carlscan26]

Pressure treated wood doesn't fare well in the southwest. It tweaks hard, even after getting it all set in place. Typically it gets shipped here wet, and twists like a motherf'er as it dries too rapidly in this climate. I've had really bad luck with pressure treated. This is why I went with Douglas Fir and then weatherproofed it myself. It is not sitting directly on the ground either as it is on pads that are a half inch above grade.

I had plenty of Wolmanized when I lived back east but that stuff no longer exists and even if it did, it would probably suck left nut out here.

Rotting is the least of our problems out here since it is so dry. Rotting requires humidity, which is non-existent here.

That's interesting to hear - definitely different from anywhere else I've lived and built/seen built stuff. Rock on!

 

[Irrenarzt]

I have wood on my property that is over 30 years old that was never stained or treated in any way and it is still holding up OK.

When I first moved into this house 12 years ago, I replaced the front outside window sills with ipe, which was expensive as hell. These pieces are still in mint condition, even after 12 years and no treatment whatsoever. I bet I could have gone with a cheaper wood and I would have been fine. The coatings here get trashed from the strong UV, but the wood itself lasts for a long time. North facing, with no standing water? I imagine that frame will last the life of the cooler, which should be 15 years easily. I'll be replacing the AC unit long before I need to replace the frame. The same will not likely apply for people in other climates.

 

[johnsnownw]

It's going to be a walk in cooler, not a fermentation chamber. With an R-20 floor and over R-40 on the walls and roof, I doubt it'll be all that inefficient. My limiting factor is the floor for sure but it's not to the point where it'll be a big issue IMO.

Check out some background on building your own here:

http://storeitcold.com/coolerconstruction.html

Thanks for the link, sorry I missed that it was being used as a cooler only.

Read through some of the information, and what I noticed was that I couldn't really find energy estimates. The cool-bot manufacturer seemed to believe that energy use would be around $200 on average...whatever that means. Also read some articles stating that the system would use half as much energy as a similarly sized compressor. Claims without data...which is frustrating.

The specific A/C unit you have is estimated to run $205/yr on average...which only accounts for power consumption for the A/Cs designed usage. Since you're going to be going beyond that...I assume it would be quite a bit more.

It's an interesting project, and a really neat idea. I just wish I could find some good information on the efficiency of these things. I have to assume they aren't too inefficient, or they wouldn't be so popular.

Just having a hard time wrapping my head around it.

 

[ColeBeer78]

What tempurture are you looking for in the cooler? Can a AC unit like that get down to 40* F?

 

[Irrenarzt]

I'm planning on replacing 2 or 3 chest freezers that are running 24/7 with this cooler, so I should see some savings. What those savings are, I do not know yet. Could be fairly marginal for all I know. At least I will have more space for storing/carbonating/cold crashing/serving/et cetera...

You should be able to get to 35 F with good insulation and good conditions outside (a cool day with low humidity). I'm hoping to get to 38 F, but even if I can store beer at 55 F, that'd be better than leaving all my 750's in the house at over 70 F.

 

[Carlscan26]

Is the door into the room going to be on the inside or outside of the house?

And what is that possible top tier post for anyway?

 

[Irrenarzt]

I was originally planning on having the door in the garage and going through the wall into the cooler. But since then, I've decided against that route as that would mean I would have to build in a header as the garage wall is load bearing. I think we could do it, but it will be a pain to do so. It'll be much easier to put the door outside IMO.

The mini top tier is actually not brewing related per se, but it it will be something really fracking cool. I'll post up pics when I'm done with that, which will be fairly soon.

 

[Irrenarzt]

Some progress today. A bit of an issue though as I didn't know OSB can shrink. We had 3 sheets of 23/32" tongue and groove OSB underpainted with elastomeric white paint (2 coats) and pre-cut to size. On Sunday night, they fit the spot they were supposed to exactly. Somehow they shrank an inch in overall diameter between the 3 pieces since then. It did very lightly rain Monday overnight and everything was covered with condensate early in the morning (very rare to see this here). I'm thinking the humidity got high enough to swell the OSB and then when it dried all the way out (like it normally is here), the panels shrunk somewhat. A quick google search shows this as a possibility and it is not uncommon for OSB to swell and shrink. This screwed up my tongue and groove spacing so we will glue and screw down a second layer to firm it up and eliminate any potential issues. This floor will be loaded with a lot of beer so it needs to be dimensionally stable. We did manage to get some polyurethane glue in the tongue and groove so it should make for a decent base layer at least.

Top vapor barrier layer going on with some additional foam to fill/firm it up a bit:

OSB flooring in place:

New hose reel for Bimmerphiles:

Rotating handle through valve stem bore with knuckle saving extension:

 

[Carlscan26]

That's sweet!

 

[Irrenarzt]

Agreed. Thanks man...

 

[Irrenarzt]

A little more progress today after work. Second flooring layer is glued and nailed down with offset seams:

Should shore it up nice and firm. Now off to my BJCP class.

And one more view of the new hose reel:

It's such a badass hose reel.

 

[Irrenarzt]

Ghettogyle Greg and I are building the wall that abuts the garage wall today. We had to precut the outermost two pieces of foam since the nailers will prevent us from filling the space once the radiant panels are in place.

Nailer that is cockblocking:

Solar Steve is driving down today from Boulder with a couple cases of Avery and Upslope cans. We may not get as much done as I am hoping. I will post pics as they develop.

 

[Irrenarzt]

Vapor barrier going on:

 

[Irrenarzt]

Sheathing going on:

 

[Irrenarzt]

Elastomeric going on:

Third and final coat:

 

[Irrenarzt]

Today was mostly a working on the shed day as we roofed it, hung the door and did a bunch of trim work.

Solar Steve brought over some fun beers from Boulder last night:

The amazing thing is he carried that all in his motorcycle saddlebags. But before we drink more (still feeling it from last night a bit), we will work on the cooler a bit more.

Ghettogyle Greg making the wall penetration for the electrical lines:

 

[funnycreature]

Did you need any permits for this kind of work? I know my HOA would probably go nuts!

 

[Irrenarzt]

The way I read the law here, if it is under 1000 ft^2, it is considered a shed and you don't need a permit.

Back wall put up:

And the side wall where the AC unit will live:

 

[aquenne]

1000 SQ FT? you sure? thats a massive "shed"

 

[Shred]

If you're not too far along, and/or for future reference, you can buy Lowes 10% off "movers" coupons on eBay for around $5 each. Home Depot doesn't honor the full value anymore, but if you buy the right ones they're still usable at Lowes.

 

[brewinginnc]

Lowes gives you 10% off if you show your va card also, if you are a vet.

 

[Irrenarzt]

1000 SQ FT? you sure? thats a massive "shed"

I meant to say 100, not 1000. My bad.

 

[Irrenarzt]

Radiant barrier going down:

We chose not to have radiant barrier on the wall against the garage as this would add cost and take away from the internal volume of the finished cooler. The garage should keep that face from seeing IR heating anyway. All the other walls and ceiling will have radiant barrier with a 1" airgap.

Capping the radiant barrier with OSB on top of furring strips for air gap:

Northern most wall is up:

That was one heavy mofo.

Done for today...

 

[Carlscan26]

So I'm confused. What are the cold room panels you got for $100 for?

 

[Irrenarzt]

Those will be the outer skin of the room once we have it all framed out.