Anyone have a walk in feezer?

I don't have a walk-in, but I do have 5 freezers (2 upright; 3 chest). I don't know if a walk-in would use less energy. I personally would prefer to have the regular chest or uprights, as they give me more flexibility to move stuff around if a compressor should go bad. My uprights are NOT the frost-free style, as those are more prone to freezer burn/desiccation of contents. I built "dollies" with caster wheels for all of them so I can easily move them around my limited shop area as needed. Also, by the very nature of a walk-in, much of the available space is unused to allow for ingress/egress. If budget is a concern, used freezers can usually be picked up pretty cheap from folks who are moving and don't want to haul them. Bottom line, I prefer not to have all my eggs in one basket if a freezer goes out. (p.s. - freezer alarms are cheap, and good insurance).

 

My 2 cents. I prefer chest freezers. I had all the panels given to me for a walk in, I just had to buy the compressor and when I was looking at them (unless I was reading it wrong) the efficient ones cost $200.00 a month to run. I believe the efficient chest freezers only cost like $30.00 a year to run. I did the math I like the money in my pocket.

 

Unless you are a huge shop taking in thousands of pieces, I would stay with chest freezers. I have always been afraid to have everything in one freezer just in case it decides to go south on you.

 

The other thing to consider is the type of power you have available. Most walk in's would probably require a 480V connection. Your house is 208V.

 

I have one, it's 10x6x8 best decision I ever made. I'm not sure exactly what it cost to run a month.

 

Bad choice, imho. cost to run is way over the cost of running a chest freezer series. the 240V. while might be a good idea you have a huge space in the middle of the freezer that will be empty space. cost of a walk in is pricey also.

Now if you need a heavy duty cooler. For about 1000 bucks you can build a 10X10 heavily insulate the box and use the coolbot http://storeitcold.com/ My biddy built one and is running a 15,000 btu a/c unit and its holding at 28F. 10X10 with 6 inch thick walls.

After seeing how this unit works, I would build one with a 8 or 10 inch thick walls, floor and 12 inch ceiling. I think a 25,000 btu ac unit would pull it down even lower.

 

At a game ranch that we hunted at he used a AC as a cooler. It worked just fine. He was a bit on the cheep end of things and all he did was took what I believe is called the thermal coupler (the little copper thing in the front) and bent it around to the out side of the room. That way the AC never showed that the cooler was cool and kept running.
I always thought a walk in cooler / freezer would be a great idea. But after seeing how much it cost to run I don't know.
Ralph

 

It just depends on your working situation and how you want to set it up and use it. I have a good friend, a fulltime taxidermist who was getting sometimes 5 to 6 deer on opening day of gun season here in Ohio. He was working over 20 hour's days during this time because he had to and this still was not enough to keep up. He finally bought an 8’ X 8’ walk in cooler and now says it is the best investment he ever made. His has 220 A/C unit on it, he had it set it up in his garage. These can be set up outside your shop as free standing, the doors will lock. Or they can be adjoined to your building through a doorway opening so you open the door and walk into walk in cooler from inside your shop. I could see where this could benefit a taxidermist getting 2 or 3 deer or more of whatever a day if he or she is busy dealing with customers picking out forms, etc. He or she could just put the animal in the cooler and attend to customers and get their information and work on the animals as time allows.

I did an internet search for "used 6’ X 6’ walk in cooler” and found a ton of them, some with 115volt A/C units more or less like running a window A/C unit. The smaller 6'X6'X6'7" walk in cooler 115volt units do not take that much power to run and only about as much as half a car if you are putting it in your garage. But they are a few K's unless you find one at an auction, which I have, but they went for to much.

 

Walk-in coolers sure are nice when stuff comes in by the truckload. The electrical cost on mine is at least $100/month. I have a 7 X 12 cooler. The downside is that occasionally a compressor or fan will go out. Repairs are seldom less than $500, and can be as much as $2500 if you need to replace the entire cooling unit. Stick with chest freezers unless you are taking in huge volumes of work.

 

I built my own walk in cooler I keep it at 38 degrees and charge my hunters $20.00 per animal per week to hang there game in. . It is 6 ft x 9 ft x 8 ft I use a air conditioner with the coolbot computer and it works fantastic , if you go to coolbot website they take you through step by step if you want to build one. Remember this is a walkin refrig not a freezer.

 

Joker on here showed me his walking cooler with several small doors on the back side. It was for people to drop off their deer when there was no one there. He had work sheets that the customer filled out and a lock on each door. It looked like it was great idea.
Ralph