Cool Bot walk in meat cooler, Tips & Tricks appreciated.

[JDL]

I’m building a walk in meat cooler using the Cool Bot Pro. This cooler will mostly be used roughly 4 months out of the year August through November. Im building it now and wanted to reach out and see if anyone had any information to share about this. I’m retrofitting a 7’ by 7’ by 10’h vaulted ceiling 3, 8” cinderblock walls and one 2x4 wall with an exterior door. What type and how thick of insulation would you recommend. I know coolbot says you should have an R value of 25 is that necessary for something you will be using so sparingly? Any info will help.

 

[JDL]

I’ll post pictures as I go. I’m in the middle
Of redoing an older block garage built in the 60s turning it into a taxidermy shop. Thought the walk in cooler would be a nice touch and attract some more costumers.

 

[Blockcaver]

Insulate the heck out of the floor, roof, and walls. R25 sounds good to me.

We have a cool bot cold room, 6' x 8' x 7.5" high, poured concrete for the floor, roof, and 3 of the 4 walls, and also one 6" stud wall.

Our insulation is 2" of blue foam on the outside of the poured concrete walls and floor, and 2" on the inside of the room except the floor. The 7,000 BTU LG ductless mini-split AC unit barely gets it below 40* C when it is hot out in August and the system is off. Once it cools the room down good and temps drop outside it works fine. We should have gone with a 10,000 BTU AC unit. And probably 4" of blue foam on the inside of the room, including the roof.

 

[Team4LongGun]

I did one and it was awesome. 2" rigid foam and tape seams, fill cracks with spray foam can, you will be set. Ours was already framed and roofed on backside of barn, and out of direct sun.

Make sure you have at least 3 or 4 hanging hooks, as you may want to age deer. I placed the beam and eyelets/hooks in line with the AC unit, so I could have the deer chest cavity facing the blower, as I leave the hide on for aging. No trimming or waste when you process.

 

[JDL]

Insulate the heck out of the floor, roof, and walls. R25 sounds good to me.

We have a cool bot cold room, 6' x 8' x 7.5" high, poured concrete for the floor, roof, and 3 of the 4 walls, and also one 6" stud wall.

Our insulation is 2" of blue foam on the outside of the poured concrete walls and floor, and 2" on the inside of the room except the floor. The 7,000 BTU LG ductless mini-split AC unit barely gets it below 40* C when it is hot out in August and the system is off. Once it cools the room down good and temps drop outside it works fine. We should have gone with a 10,000 BTU AC unit. And probably 4" of blue foam on the inside of the room, including the roof.

I’m either going with 15,000 BTUs, possibly 18,000. It has concrete floors you’re saying insulate on top of that?

 

[JDL]

I did one and it was awesome. 2" rigid foam and tape seams, fill cracks with spray foam can, you will be set. Ours was already framed and roofed on backside of barn, and out of direct sun.

Make sure you have at least 3 or 4 hanging hooks, as you may want to age deer. I placed the beam and eyelets/hooks in line with the AC unit, so I could have the deer chest cavity facing the blower, as I leave the hide on for aging. No trimming or waste when you process.

This gives me relief Im thinking 1 1/2” rigid foam and then I’m thinkin to finish with 1” atlas board. So in reality that would be 2 1/2” of foam.

 

[Blockcaver]

I’m either going with 15,000 BTUs, possibly 18,000. It has concrete floors you’re saying insulate on top of that?

We put 2” blue foam under the concrete…obviously placed before we poured. I’ve thought about adding 2” inside to the floor and putting something over it to walk on and seal it but haven’t done it. Not sure about what kind of a washable cover I’d use…blood is nasty stuff. We put drip pans under quarters but would need a membranes of sorts. Our cold room serves for apples (over 800 off our trees last fall) and many other perishables besides a meat cooler. Really nice to have shelving in it too.

You will be in great shape with an AC unit of 15,000 or 18,000 BTU. Room will cool down quickly and go to 35*F (or whatever) in hot weather with 2” of rigid foam. You will have over twice as much cooling capacity as our 7,000 BTU unit. Note, our HVAC contractor put the wrong ductless mini-split unit in the cold room. We’d spec’d a 9,000 and he put that in another room in the house interchanging the units. We didn’t catch the error for several months and decided to let it slide. The 7,000 is definitely undersized in hot weather.

Insulation thickness just becomes an energy saving/economics question at that point. All that depends on material costs and electricity rates and payback years.

 

[kevingm1987]

Cold air travels down which will help here but a 10' ceiling is quite high unless hanging the entire animal. I would personally think about framing a ceiling in and keeping it at about 8'.

Another thing I would do, if this was a long term solution to a problem, I would contact my local insulation company and get a quite for spray applied insulation. I'm not sure if you're in the US or Canada but in Canada this would cost maybe $1-2k. I wouldn't hesitate to spend this money if the plan was to use this as my meet cooler moving forward. If that isn't an option, some type of rigid insulation for sure, not batt.

We built a hunting trailer and put one in the front 4' to make a refridge section after we killed something. We were able to secure old cooler panels from a Safeway that was getting renovated. Works great for October moose hunting in BC.

Another thing we did, we coated the floor of the cooler with a traffic coating usually used in underground parking lots. we rolled up the walls 4' so after a successful hunt we can just hose it out.

 

[Dantastic]

great info

 

[wytx]

Have one on the ranch we work for, minimal insulation. It is part of the metal barn. They simply put some batts of fiberglass insulation between the metal panels for the walls.
Concrete floor as well.
It is about 4x10 ft or so with 8 foot ceiling and a rail to hang.
Put a 10,000 btu a/c in it and it works great

Cooler started out with a small comm. unit in it but that died and we put a Coolbot in.

 

[DmrbigEshotT]

Put some type of temp alarm in there to run during the warmer months while you have meat hanging.

Our unit took a dump this year with 2-3 deer hanging. Thankfully, it was mid October with daytime highs were not too warm and we noticed it in time.


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[mike.adams.467]

Mine is 5'x8'x10', 2x6 insulated walls and ceiling, concrete floor with a drain. I installed 2 - 1 1/2" pipes to hang meat, and put in a spigot to rinse the floor. I built some shelves in one corner. On the warmest days (85 degrees), I can keep it at 38-40 degrees. One trick is to hang the wire temp sensor as high as possible, to cool the rising warm air. I live in grizzly country so having the room also keeps them out.

 

[Customweld]

I have hooks in mine, but am thinking of putting 2 runs of uni strut in with these little runner trollies. I didn't use Cool-bot, I wired mine in using a Ranco controller.

Unistrut Trolleys & Trolley Hangers

Find the perfect solution for your overhead mobility needs with Unistrut trolleys and rollers. Choose from light, medium, or heavy-duty options and Unistrut roller hangers. In-stock.

unistrutohio.com

 

[JDL]

I have hooks in mine, but am thinking of putting 2 runs of uni strut in with these little runner trollies. I didn't use Cool-bot, I wired mine in using a Ranco controller.

Unistrut Trolleys & Trolley Hangers

Find the perfect solution for your overhead mobility needs with Unistrut trolleys and rollers. Choose from light, medium, or heavy-duty options and Unistrut roller hangers. In-stock.

unistrutohio.com

I’m definitely using 1 5/8” uni strut I’ve already bought the runner trollies they are 35$ for a 4 pack on Amazon right now good heavy duty stuff.

 

[JDL]

Put some type of temp alarm in there to run during the warmer months while you have meat hanging.

Our unit took a dump this year with 2-3 deer hanging. Thankfully, it was mid October with daytime highs were not too warm and we noticed it in time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We bought the Coolbot Pro so it will be connected to WiFi & plan on getting an AC that is WiFi compatible as well. I’m excited for that feature.

 

[AZmark]

I just built one last year using the cool bot pro, still not completed but have already hung 3 elk and 2 deer in it and it works great. Someone above said you didn't need a tall headspace...WRONG....if you want to hang elk whole or halved you need lots of headspace. Mine is 11' to the ceiling and the rail is right at the top. I don't have a lot of pics but if there's something you have ? about just PM me and I can send pics of what I did. I still haven't made a door yet, just propped insulating panels up to the opening. Mine is 4'x9' inside and I am making it where I can block off half of it internally when I only have one animal hanging. These pics were taken before I had completed the upper framing and had to hang my sons elk so had it blocked off inside so I could use it, the next week I had mine hanging in there also and hung for 2 weeks before cutting.

 

[mike.adams.467]

Mine at work.