Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Affordable cooler to hang deer in

Looking to build or buy something to use to keep deer cool for a few days. It needs to work as apoor mans walk in cooler. Anyone out there have any ideas to create a refrigerated space large enough to hold a deer or two and keep them cool in a warm southern climate. What have you see that works.

Dont ask slumlord about a coolbot.

My best guess, and that's all I'll say about it , a guess.

Resin outdoor shed, this one seems big enough for 2 deer, would be easy to wash out with a hose too.:

https://www.suncast.com/bms6500.html



Cut hole in side, scab in a small window A/C unit that will go as low a temp as you want. Mine only goes down to 60F though, so I don't know if others exist that will go colder.

Good luck with it.

AC's function great as meat dehydrators.

Wouldn't know personally. Never had to use one.

Know folks who have built insulated rooms in the corner of the shop and used A/C units to turn them into walk ins. Maybe they do something special to them?

Double door Coke fridge, rail it out and hang carcase.

Framed up a 10x10 structure out of 2×6's, insulated it and then sheeted the inside with 2 inch closed cell foam board.
Taped all the joints with that aluminum tape they use on duct work.

Cost me 1500.00 to put a refer unit in it and that was with me installing the condensing unit inside and mounting the compressor outside and wiring it up. Hired a refrigeration guy to come run the copper between them and charge it up.
I could hold the temprature at 35 for aging meat but more often used it to keep produce in when I was dabbling in that trade. Anymore I just use it to start seedlings in to keep them from freezing in the spring.

If you were to build a small version of what I did and tossed a few pounds of dry ice in there and close it up and see where that takes you. If its sealed up good it might work if your just trying to hold the deer for a couple of days. Dunno, just guessin', a lot of heat to displace in fresh killed deer.

Show off....

It'd be worth a try, they are cheap. My warm season produce needed to be held around 50 degrees, not sure what temp guarantees meat from spoiling. Not gonna get too much cold outta your typical window shaker AC though. They are basically a dehydrator.

Yeah....you use a big ass unit..m

Oh yeah, my fancy backyard walkin, it's highfaluttin.

If you only knew!

Friend of mine scored a real one from a fast food joint that was being torn down. They just let him have it.

A broke ass dream.

build an insulated room with an a/c window unit and one of these

coolbot

Koolabuck



Portable,

Doesn’t look real durable.

Look at Coolbot controllers for a room air conditioner coolers to do the cooling

great thread

I might get some idears

Oh yeah, saddlesore has me on ignore too ^^ LOL what a douche


welp, guess he’ll miss out on anything I post about my homebrew coolbot set up. Which works stupendous by the way

Find a cheap refrigerator. You can quarter a deer and hang inside

AC unit must be newer style (last 15 years) the electronic frost sensor is the magic nugget

I used a 25k btu LG brand. With my Coolbot

Coolbot has a micro trace that fools the frost sensor on the AC unit to make just over run


Mine was a 6x8 walk in cooler from a fast food joint. The condensor part was already scrapped and defunct.

I screwed an additional 4” of styrofoam to the outside of it then covered it in roofing metal.

I can go from 80 f October afternoon to 35f in 1/2 hour.

I built mine on 3ft block walls so I’m almost 10ft ceiling with an electric winch on my ceiling and an overhead hanging beam.

Built mine on a small concrete slab, insulated my floor too

you can store a lot of dead whores in that motha fugger

That is sumtin I've never heard of before and it's pretty dam 'COOL'.

The Amazon reviews on it are outstanding!

Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2019
I insulated a 4x6 brick storm room and it held at 34 degrees for a week in 90 degree outside heat perfectly. Able to dry age meat now anytime of year
10 people found this helpful

Xxxxxxx

Works even better than expected !
Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2020
Using this for cold storage meat hanging, our "cold box" is 12' x 5.5'.
Butchered a steer and hung all 4 quarters. The room is staying at 34 degrees.
I received this on a Friday and hooked it up, had the beef hanging Saturday afternoon.
5 people found this helpful

Xxxxxxx

Game changer!
Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2021
This little gadget is so awesome! We built a "cool room" for hanging deer in October in Michigan and this kept the temperature perfect! We put in an additional thermometer to make sure, and it was very accurate. It's VERY easy to set up and get running. If it doesn't keep the temp where you want it, that means you need to seal up your room better or get a larger AC unit for the room. We can now bow hunt on those warm spells in October with no worries!

Build your own walk-in cooler in minutes

With a CoolBot and a window air conditioner, you can turn a well-insulated room into a walk-in cooler in just a few minutes. The CoolBot is perfect for hunters, florists, brewers, restaurants, dairies, mortuaries, and much more.

Save $1,000s on refrigeration equipment and operating costs

Together, a CoolBot and a standard A/C unit costs up to 83% less than a traditional walk-in cooler. They also use about 40% less electricity, which saves thousands on energy costs.

A CoolBot allows a standard air conditioner to cool a room or space down to 35 degrees F. Installs with no tools or electrical knowledge required.

Standard A/C units available from any hardware or appliance store have lots of power but they are electronically limited so that they cannot go below 60 degrees F. This is because they would freeze up. Commercial refrigeration for walk in coolers combat freeze with increased surface area on the fins as well as fans. Instead the Cool bot technology uses multiple sensors, a heating element and programmed micro-controller to control your air conditioner in such a way that the unit can go below 60F and not freeze up.





https://www.amazon.com/COOLBOT-Gen6...07&sprefix=coolbot+cooler&sr=8-3

guys use those for beer coolers. i have a 6x8 walkin that the compressor went bad on and am going to convert it to one of those when i get around to it. i don't have a lot of use for it so its kind of low on my priority list.

Any shed in ND.

What I use, except I lay the quarters on wire racks. miles

The best thing about using a standard run of the mill AC unit is they are cheap to replace when they die.

After paying my refer guy to install the copper pipe required for my commercial refrigeration unit it put me at a couple grand total in it and that was without including construction costs.

A couple years back my compressor locked up and being it was a cheap unit as far as those types go, it's not repairable, it needs replaced. That's why I don't use it anymore for anything but keeping my seed starts from freezing in the spring, I can't justify the expense in replacing it. I got about 12 years outta it before it died.

https://www.coueswhitetail.com/foru...price-65000/?tab=comments#comment-960467

Here's how a local guy made one and then had it for sale.

Kent

The last 20 deer I shot, I quartered the deer and put it in a giant cooler. A big 62 quart Coleman cooler. I put in five gallons of water and mixed in one pound of salt. Then dumped in twenty pounds of ice. Make sure there is enough water to cover the meat.

Put the quartered deer in there, the salt water will draw the blood out of the meat. Keep an eye on it and if the ice melts, add ten pounds more.

I would keep the deer in the salt ice water for three or four days, makes a big improvement of the meat as opposed to processing the deer on the day I shot it.

Yeh, in Montana also. The hard part is keeping things from freezing.

One summer I was working for a big game outfitter way out in the wilderness in British Columbia. This guy lived way out in the woods near Manson Creek, BC.
He had a little log cabin. One day I noticed some kind of little shed, it was 12 feet up in a tree. There was no ladder to get up to this shed.
I asked the guy how he could get up to his woodshed without a ladder.

He said it wasn't a woodshed it was his game locker. He said that when you shot a moose in November, you could walk right to the shed on snow shoes.

That was mind boggling to me, I am from Georgia, but that is how they do things in Canada.

I got a old refrigerator that I took shelving out, took 2x4's and framed up sides and at top placed a steel rod to hang quartered meat on. Place trays across bottom to catch drippings.....works great. When not in use, just place shelving back, and back to as before. Will keep meat 35-38 degrees....perfect, and cheap. If one needs more space, can buy old units for few $$.

A guy that works for me, him and his brother-in-law have an old refer truck body. The refer unit is gone and they have a Coolbot setup. The thing has worked great for the past several years until last November. They had 3 deer hanging and they went in there to cut them up and it was 65*. They had to chuck the deer and hose it out. First thought was maybe the AC unit died, but it turned out that the Coolbot malfunctioned. The thing was 10 or 15 years old. They replaced the Coolbot and they're good to go.

That's what makes the Coolbot so good. It overrides the thermostat on the cooler and lets it go down to almost freezing. It's overpriced for what it is but it does work very well and is the only way I know of to make an a/c work like that. Several years ago I built an 8x8 cool room using a 12k BTU a/c. It works great.

This was my first thought with you guys up North. I let a deer freeze one time. Never again.

When it stays below freezing for a while, I unplug the a/c in my coolroom and put a space heater in it. I plug it into a $10 Thermacube that keeps it between 35 and 45.

This year it was warm, almost 70, so our rifle season deer were skinned, quartered, and sitting in a refrigerator within an hour or so of being shot.

Skinning was a LOT easier, but overall it was a PITA compared to what we do when it's freezing (or close to it) outside.

This won't work for OP in the South, but worked great in Idaho, in October with 55-60 degree days and 30 ish degree nights. Had a two car insulated garage, put a box fan blowing outward in a side window, on a timer to run only at night when temperature was cold. Raised the garage door about 2 inches to let cold air in. This setup would keep the interior temp at 34 to 38 degrees during the warm afternoons. We kept two quartered elk for a week with this.

two of my sons built a walk in cooler in the shop. They got their hands on some insulated cooler panels. Instead of using a coolbot unit they went with an Inkbird. I think they said the coolbot unit was in the
$300 dollar range and the inkbird setup was around $75.00. They picked up a used air conditioning unit off of craigslist and they can get the temp down to about 36 degrees.

It'd probably be a good idea to install a alarm to warn you if the cooling unit wasn't working.

Any standard line voltage thermostat wired to a 120v bell or light would work if the low end range reaches down to 40 degrees, most do.

A guy might want to use a circuit separate from the one he plugs his AC unit into or the alarm would fail right along with the AC if loss of power, such as a blown breaker was the source of the problem.

I use an old 21 cf. up right freezer. Put a timer on the plug. Depending on how warm it is outside I set it to run a while and turn off. It works.

The Inkbird has no way of overriding the minimum temp on an a/c, usually around 60F. How did they get around that? The Coolbot uses a heater that attaches to the a/c sensor to keep it above 60.

You can get a plug in 120 volt thermostat that works well, real cheap. You can make it shut the electric at a preset high temp, or a preset low temp, so that you can use it on a heater or an air conditioner. I have one on an electric heater in my camper to keep things from freezing up. I think that I gave about 18 dollars for it. It plugs into the receptacle and your heater/air conditioner plugs into it. Remote for setting and adjusting the temps. miles.

Get a Thermocube. They only cost $10. Run the cord inside the cooler, plug it into the Thermocube, and run an extension cord from that to the outlet. It'll keep it between 35 and 45.

"My warm season produce needed to be held around 50 degrees, not sure what temp guarantees meat from spoiling."

Keep the meat temperature between 32 and 40 degrees. When meat temperature gets above 40 degrees the bacteria in it starts growing rapidly. That's not just my opinion. Texas A&M has done a lot studies about aging meat and that's what they found.

Cool bot still seems to be the best route. It’s been around years. Just frame up whatever size cooler you want then attach rigid insulation on all walls and ceiling. Then put a durable paneling that’s easy to clean over top of the insulation.

Thanks, when I have aged meat, I shoot for 35.
Wasn't sure about how warm it could get if your intent was to just hold it for a couple days.

Never heard of the Coolbot thing until this thread.

So my idea wasn't so far fetched, eh?

Your idea sucks. A fugking plastic shed?

This was the method I used until my brother in law built one kinda like Slums. I scored the walk in from a guy that was gutting an old restaurant just for hauling it away.

I have an old fridge in my garage. Typically keeps my beer cold.. for warmer archery season kills I quarter the deer and put in the beer fridge.. pretty simple

Idunno about putting paneling over top of the foam board.

I wouldn't want to trap moisture between the foam and whatever one might panel over it with, mold can develop.

I put 5 1/2 inch fiberglass insulation between my studs then used the closed cell foil covered rigid foam board and taped my seams with aluminum tape. (Walls and ceiling)
When I'd shutdown after extended use I'd prop my door open for a few days and leave the condenser fans running and it seemed to dry out just fine.

Not so sure it'd do as well if the interior walls were layered with other materials unless they were sealed like a sob, taping the seams on the foam board was just plain easy. The 2 inch foam on 16 inch centered studs proved to be pretty durable if you use a bit of care.

The man asked for

You priced lumber and other building materials lately?

Seemed an affordable, easy to clean option to me. He's in Alabama after all.

I'm not sure what they did but it works slick as a whistle. I think they found a you tube video and followed that.

Good info, RC.

I reiterate, a big Coleman cooler and 8 gallons of salted ice water, great way to age deer meat for 4 days. Gets all the blood out, too.

Im planning to put a cooler in next year so I can hang my deer while waiting on the CWD test results .

got about $1600 in this. But that was 2009 dollars.

But, the inner cooler, was from a Subway sandwich joint. I got it from a guy had it stacked in a barn for $300
The styrofoam panels, I got them for free from a guy that builds sunrooms in Nashville
The roofing metal, was leftover from another job I completed here on the farm.

So some disclosure is in order

Me and neighbor’s kid built it in 3 weekends.

Thats a first class cooler there .

I bet youtube is full of them

Good lookin set up slum

If you deactivated the thermostat so it was just constantly running cold, I'd think it would work.

In operation

I got ‘benches’ if your butt can sit on a 2x10

I use my for skinning too. Deer goes right in to immediately start cooling. I will let it hang about 4 hours to slow the deer lice and ticks down. Mfers drop off and will crawl on the next warm host.

Anyway, i can sit on that plank and raise and lower to comfortable height with elect winch if Im caping out and need to take extra time I can

2 hangings cramped but doable
Or 3 does ain’t terrible.

I like to spin one around on the winch when I’m deboning and butchering.

Can drop right into meat lugs and let the lugs stay in there too till I get my own time to set a day grind or slice and wrap.

This allows me to work at my own pace and don’t have lean on a group of family. Do have to be careful of mice Mrs Hitler take care of meeces. And glue traps. .

Had to replace that floor this fall, it was starting to get funky

Live action in use

lol one of them improvised gambrel rods is a rocker arm rod for a 383 chrysler 😬

I watched a youtube about how 1 guy did it. The Coolbot has a little heater at the end of a wire. You pull the 'stat out of the a/c and attach the heater to it. That keeps the stat above 60 and the a/c runs. The guy on youtube invented his own heater. He used a small light bulb on a light cord and wrapped it and the stat wire together with foil. The light's on all the time and keeps the stat well above 60. A little incandescent night light puts out enough heat to do the job but I suspect an LED wouldn't be hot enough.



I used foam board and just painted it with latex. That doesn't trap any moisture. I don't know what oil based paint would do with the foam. The latex is 4 years old now and has worked fine.

heat trace override fools the frost sensor on newer units. Old units had capillary tube

I posted some of that about 40 posts back

But carry on

Talk amongst yourselves.

From your experience could you offer a approximate square or cubic footage vs BTU's required?

Go to the Coolbot site, https://www.storeitcold.com. They have all kinds of info on building coolers with all the specs you need. They have some interesting ideas that might fit your situation.

Coolbot. Or bypass the thermostat ant low pressure switch. Also can use a chest freezer set up with a Johnson Control

Mine is in-between their cookie cutter chart. I’m like 8x7-1/2 and 9-1/2 height. I factored on the slightly overkill side. Then I double insulated. I have a black rubber roof on a southern exposure.
But I dont know their heights, so I might spot on if i jumped up a little into the next column.
I just went with the 24-25 kbtu

And at the time, those LG units were about $399

I figured what the hell

So far, it’s been great no hiccups. 12 years on my set up

Might only get ran 4-7 days a year.

]

This is a cooler I built inside the workshop a couple of years back. Running a 10K LG and Coolbot.

You can get a line voltage 120-240 volt SPDT thermostat in the 30 degree to 100 degree range from amazon for $38. I don't see that a $350 unit for a wall AC that is going to be used for maybe 2 weeks a years would be worth that price. Anything above freezing to 40 degrees should work for what your doing.


https://www.amazon.com/Dayton-6EDY5...g=IMVhL&pd_rd_i=B004ZRMJMQ&psc=1

Nice!

Really clean, don't look so much like a incubation lab for bacteria like others seen here.

They do get nasty after about 50 or so carcasses.

I got tired of tripping over drip pans and spilling the contents, etc. eventually it gets nasty. I replaced my floor and hope to get with a sheet metal hvac shop to make me a low profile condensation type catch pan.

Otherwise, i keep a pump sprayer and mix up some mild bleach. Also hit it a couple times a year with permethrin for brown recluse.

Sorry, but I have that backwards. This won't work. It will turn it off when it gets warm, not on. I used a cooling thermostat for a greenhouse this way. I set it to come on when it got up to 40 and go off at 35. I still had it inside a freezer with the cord run through the lid. It just worked backwards from the Thermocube.

150 quart cooler with baking cooling racks in bottom. Use frozen jugs for ice to keep meat dry to avoid growing bacteria. Do not use ice that isn't contained. Makes for tender flavorful steaks and roasts.

Not as slick as a refrigerated cooler but works just fine and fits in the bed of your truck. You do have to break big deer down to fit.

Bacteria grow in ice water; even with salt. If you want a medium rare steak keep the meat dry. If you season and fry everything to death then you're ok doing whatever weird junk you want.

When I hunt warm weather locally I aim to bone the deer out on the spot. meat goes in 1 gallon ziplock freezer bags then on ice in a chest cooler. in the past the carcass stayed in the field for coyote feed. With changing CWD measures, last season our DNR is now requiring all the carcass to be removed from the field & the bones need to go in to a certified land fill. More cost effective & a lot less trouble than a walk in cooler IMHO.

Gave this some thought over the years , but have stuck with quartering the deer , drop it in a cooler with ice and salt . Change the ice after first day . Then as needed . When you get time to process it , getter done .
Kenneth