DIY Walk In Cooler Build

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No worries man.

I'm back at it today. Yesterday, I got all the roofs coated with 3 coats, tightened up some rogue screws that were not all the way down and I got the weeds in control by spending a couple hours with the weedwhacker.

Today I'm working on the tap area a bit. I'll post a couple pics once that is all good.

Edit: I got some cleaning done but then some friends pulled a random pop-by with a few bottles of kriek. Nothing kills productivity like a few bottles of kriek. That's ok though as I need to have some parts anodized before I throw them up so I will take those to the anodizer this week and hopefully he can flip that schit fast. This is a short week as I'm off Monday and Friday and I'm heading to Jester King on Friday so this next weekend is already DOA. But it's a good kind of DOA.
 
I'd recommend several BBQ joints in town over Salt Lick, but they do have a good atmosphere there, and it's close by to Jester King.

Franklin
John Mueller Meat Co.
La Barbecue
Mickelthwait's
 
Thanks for the recs!

Edit: I was at a party last night at Fat Jeffrey's (who is a chef/foodie type) and he was raving about JMueller. Apparently the guy goes in at midnight and preps all night for a 10 AM opening and serves until he is sold out. The line is about a 4 hour wait or something nutty like that. He first saw it on some show of Anthony Bourdain but then actually went and said it was worth the wait in line. I don't think I'll have that kind of time but I would be willing to check it out if it's a shorter line than an hour or so.
 
I just read through the whole thread. Great build and great notes/ pictures.

I'm planning to convert a coal room in my basement into a humidity controlled walk in (if I ever stop financing other hobbies long enough to save the money for the supplies). Luckily my space is already inside a basement with concrete walls, ceiling, and floor - so only the small window and door would need to be insulated to prevent a draft. I'm bookmarking this for future reference. Have fun at Jester King - and bring back some beer to fill that sad, empty walk in!

Roger
 
Had a great weekend in Austin. That place is much nicer than I recall. I got about 40 bottles to add to the walk in, which I loaded last night when I got home. No pics as it was too late.

Jester King really has a great thing going. The beer is creatively done and their house flavor is pretty unique. The spot they are at is just plain awesome. I highly recommend heading there if you have a trip planned to the area. They are fostering a great bottle share scene there as well. I was fortunate to try a bunch of great beers I can't get locally and to have met some nice beer geeks/geekettes and homebrewers as well. The humidity isn't my cup of tea but it was tolerable compared to some place like New Orleans...
 
Irrenarzt said:
The humidity isn't my cup of tea but it was tolerable compared to some place like New Orleans...
Click to expand...

You definitely don't want to live in a place like Charleston then. Our humidity is regularly 80%+. Austin is quite tame compared to that. Stoked you had a great time. I always do when I go back home.
 
Irrenarzt said:
It's bone dry in the southwest.

I have yet to see a drop of water come out of the cooler AC. And it's not even close to icing up.
Click to expand...

Except during those monsoons you get...it's like extreme opposite but only for a short duration right?
 
Got about 40 more bottles in the walk in:

kpo4odO.jpg


I think I need about 160 more plus homebrew.

Data point, I got my first electric bill. It was 150 while last years this past month was 120. So if that trend holds, it's an extra 30 a month. One data point is not statistically significant so I will need to monitor this over the next few months. It will start cooling off in October so that will help as well as I will be turning off the AC unit in my bedroom about then. Also bear in mind that I have decommissioned 2 chest freezers as well which were both running full time last August. That factors into the equation somehow but I cannot really quantify that at all.
 
It's tough to compare bill by cost. You have to look at the actual usage if they provide it for you, which I think they have to. Plus it makes a big difference if the usage is read off the meter or estimated.
 
Well not much to say. I've been away the past two weekends as I was at Red Rocks for the Furthur shows, Avery for the Rumpkin release and then in the Bay Area this past weekend for the Furthur Greek Theatre shows and a couple visits to see the lovely Erin over at Drakes. Damn that girl is hot.

I've been living the high life these past two weekends for sure. Sunday's Greek show was one of the most fun shows of my touring career (136 shows with Jerry, 30+ with Furthur). My SWMBO also cleaned the house real nice and upon getting home last night let me do really dirty things to her. I'm pretty high still you might say. I also scored a couple Plinys, a few Heretics, a few Bruerys, some Allagash and a couple Alesmith bottles so I am continually adding to the thermal mass within the cooler.

I did get parts back from the anodizer on Thursday before I flew out so I will be putting that stuff up this next weekend. My SWMBO is having a birthday party for me on Sunday and we will be putting on one or two commercial kegs so I will be working on the draft system here pretty quickly. I will post up pics over the weekend once taps go up...
 
Well I went to upload some new pics today and it appears Imgur also has a limit of 225 pics without upgrading to a pay per year arrangement. That sucks. I guess I'm not surprised.

I'm beat so I can't take the time to figure out an alternative right now.

Edit: Looks like only the most recent 225 pics are active so the older ones at the beginning of the thread may be blocked. Someone will have to check this and let me know as the older ones are showing up for me so they may be cached on my PC.

I have loaded a number of new pics on Imgur today. But I'm beat. Time for bed. Stoked that ASU just got housed though...
 
Some pics from yesterday:

Cooler getting filled more:

lB2maAX.png


Shelves are sagging under the load of the beer, which isn't cool. So I ordered some thick aluminum plate and I will machine new shelves here in a week or so. Sagging will not happen on my watch.

Had to redo the inner frame box as it didn't quite fit the outer box Solar Steve made for me:

oYZE2We.png


Insulation getting glued into the outer box:

QiYGyGm.png


Insulation in place:

IdhEjCQ.png


Tap holes laid out:

Ld1wrUH.png


Drilled:

YitAAzA.png


The shanks I have are the ones with a 90 degree hose barb so I had to drill the holes a bit bigger so they would be able to pass through. I would go with straights if I were to do it again. Less slop is always better than more slop, unless you are talking about a squirter.
 
So I was working hard to get the taps all going for a birthday party we had at the house on Sunday but I didn't have the right hose clamps so I had to abandon the plan at the last minute. I did run a beer line with a picnic tap out the hole in the cooler and that worked ok, especially for 35 people all pouring their own pints. I had a large plastic tray on the surface below the taps and it was full of spilled beer so in a way it was probably better than if I had people pouring out of the Perlicks.

I ordered new hose clamps so I should be good to go here soon. Unfortunately GABF is this weekend so I won't be home to finish up...
 
Hey I just build a 100 sqft walk in. I'm have trouble with the AC coils freezing. I'm stuck using my phone to look through this thread so finding a post about it is a pain in the neck so I figured I'd just post here. Any solutions out there?
 
I was going to suggest that. To help a little more, I think the coolbot helps by tricking the window unit fan to continue running after the desired temperature has been reached. This is in contrast to just turning the power off. Running the fan should help/prevent the ice on the fins from forming
 
keeping the fan going is one of the keys - it helps evaporate the moisture that collects when the compressor is running during the off part of the cycle.

The other thing the coolbot does is sense the temperature of the evaporator coils, and turn the compressor off if it gets too cold.
 
It's pretty stable temperature wise. So far I've noticed only 3 degrees up and only one degree down off my set point of 38. Now bear in mind this is merely my looking at the temperature displayed on an independent thermometer, not the coolbot. I haven't logged any data and plotted it. I would need a way to collect data without me being in the cooler. I can say it is pretty stable. If you leave the door open, you will start to climb but it's pretty slow. We had a party a couple weekends back so the door was open a lot showing it off etc and it went from 37 to maybe 43 in the 10 minutes the door was left open. The PVC curtain does help considerably.

Scored another 40 or so bottles at GABF this past weekend. I noticed the shelves cannot handle the weight of the bottles so I ordered some 5/8" thick aluminum plate and I will be using these to make shelves from in the next few weeks. This should help.
 
Yep. Just spent the last 2-3 hours reading every single post on this thread. One of the best documented and greatest builds I've seen out here man. Well done. I plan on building something similar to this one day but it would end up inside the house. Much cheaper this way, but it's good to see that a window unit can run it down the such a low temperature with that Coolbot. Looking forward to seeing those taps pumping.
 
kerklein2 said:
Seriously. 5/8" seems like some serious overkill.
Click to expand...

I think Overkill defines the whole build. But such wonderful overkill. Once again great job all round. With that much weight though, I would highly suggest securing the shelves to the walls. I would not want one of those falling on me (and not just for the beer losses).
 
I am working on brackets to mount to the walls as well but this is a ways out.

Also only the shelves that will have a load on them will be aluminum. The top shelves, which are going to be less loaded, are going to be the plastic ones I already have.

5/8" will not flex, even with the fattest person you know on there, much less 50 bottles. Plus aluminum will be a nice cold sink, keeping things cooler easier once they are cooled down sufficiently.
 
This build is incredible....SWMBO asked what i was reading so i showed her. I am now grounded from HBT!!!

But, seriously, she's killed the idea before i asked.

Great job, though!!!
 

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