Advice needed for building walk in cooler
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I am happy to be back on this site. Thanks to all that have helped me in the past. I will be building a walk in cooler for a tavern that I will also be constructing. I intend to build it onsite, hopefully in a basement. The size of the bar will be approximatley 3000 square feet. For now it will mainly used for beer and some items used for mixed drinks. I am comfortable paying a bit more for the rigid insulation up front to keep the operating costs down. Thanks, Peter Yost Portland OR
Replies
I had a buddy that built one out of a old deep freezer, I don't know all the details, but that might give you a direction to go in. I do know that he removed all the cooling stuff from the deep freezer, and mounted it in the ceiling of the cooler.
And sometimes that kinda stuff does go up for auction, like when a butcher shop goes out of business.
Hope that helps.
PB
Thanks so much I will check it out.
Peter
Building bars & restaurants is my specialty.
You need to buy a real walk in cooler and compressor form a dealer. You can get some used ones but all I would use is the panels. If you are getting inspected you need to be sure what requirements your area has on type as fire code issues have been the downfall of many coolers. I would not put a used compressor with it; there is no way to tell if it will work for a week or 10 years. It isn’t worth the money saved to have it go down. It will cost more. You do not need to get one of the more expensive brands of coolers; an off brand will do fine. There are only a few manufacturers of the compressors and them all private labels. The panels are pretty much the same, it’s the doors and the seals you need to pay attention to.
DO you have drawings from an architecht? More & more areas are requiring stamped drawings from either an architecht or engineer. If you aren’t familiar with bar design/construction it would be money well spent even if there is no requirement. Don’t forget to submit your plans to the local health department.
Do what Robrehm said. I have built a number of structures requiring walk in coolers. Would not even think about building my own coolers. It's a whole nother business/industry/trade.
Thanks for all the great feedback, it sounds like good advice. I will likely be doing the drawings myself with a little help from others.
The one question that I had was how much has the actual insulation values changed over time. And does it make sense to try improving the existing panels to reduce the operating costs, or is that a waist of time?
Thanks again,
Peter Yost
I would make a call to the building department and see if they will accept your drawings. Have you also considered the liability issue of doing the drawings yourself? You will need to show the UL listing for fire assemblies (there is a specific UL label for cooler panels the number escapes me at the moment) and also ADA compliance.
As for insulation quality long term on the cooler: I know there does tend to be some degradation of the insulation over time but it is negligible. What makes a difference to the insulation values over time is corrosion of the fasteners. The skins are aluminum but not the fasteners. The various cleaners, Kitchen grease and the inevitable vermin can and do take a toll on the foam. I’ve seen boxes that were 20+ years old and in good shape and some that were 5 years old that were awful.
Not trying to be a butt head about this, just want to keep you out of trouble. Restaurants are a different animal than a house.
another issue you can run into is satisfying health and safety codes so the facility can get it's licensing. If you don't know what you are doing on that issue, you can hurt yourself really bad by building something that might pass a building code, but not satisfy the health people and get you sued by the owner.
Know guy who ran into something like that. It cost him a bundle to rebuild the thing.
Although we haven't done
Although we haven't done exactly that, I know there are plenty of SPF contractors that spray closed cell foam on/in a framework to form walk in coolers. I wouldn't expect any fire code issues as long as ignition/thermal barriers are in place. If it were me building it, I would build a box with steel studs, attach rigid foam to the inside for a surface to spray against as well as a thermal break (important with steel), spray cc foam in between the studs, and then sheathe it on the outside. The cc foam will give the box a lot of rigidity as well. I'm sure you would want to line the interior with fiberglass panels or similar, and fire code may call for something such as 5/8" drywall on the outside. I've heard that 4" closed cell foam is typically used for freezer applications, and I'd expect this to be adequate....and for those who would question R-valueadequacy, remember, that's only a measure of conductance. Try passing air, moisture, or heat through 4" CC foam and see what I'm talking about.
The companies that specialize in this have panels made of rigid foam with light gauge aluminum or plastic skins glued on, similar to a sip panel, and some specialized fittings to connect things with.
I'd try finding an online source, or check with a company that specializes in doing this work. They may actually be less expensive than the time and materials to figure it out yourself.
I'd also look into using sips, and installing your own plastic inner facing.
If you don't go with a company that does them, you may have trouble sourceing a code compliant door.
http://www.uscooler.com/
US Cooler
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