Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Homemade Walk in Cooler

Last fall a neighbor showed me the walk in cooler he built for butchering cows & deer. He ended up giving me more than enough material to build my own, I just needed to supply an AC unit & controller so it will get colder than the factory setting. I am just about finished with it & it appears to works well.

What he gave me was 4 inch & 5 inch foam insulated, steel clad panels. I believe they were from a pole barn project. They were about 12 feet long by 43 inches wide and have tongue & groove edges.

I made it about 43 inches wide by 60 inches long with a 7 foot ceiling. Since there is sheet metal on each side of the panels I was able to use self tapping screws and angle brackets to join the panels at the inside corners. I used caulk to seal all the seams and then used angle pieces and screws or foil tape over the caulk. I used less than a can of low expanding foam spray to seal the outside corners.

I cut the panels using a circular saw and carbide blade, and eye & ear protection. Lots of sharp little pieces of steel flying around with all that foam dust. One blade cut everything I needed but it is pretty well shot.

I debated about the best way to hang meat inside. I didn't want to rely on the strength of the panels to hold what could be a few hundred pounds or more (unlikely). I ended up using a piece of 1 1/2 inch heavy pipe long enough to go through both side walls and protrude about 6 inches. I cut a hole in the top of a full 2x6 inch board & mounted it to the inside wall so the pipe slides through it. Going from floor to ceiling should provide enough support on that side. My AC unit is mounted on the opposite wall so I fashioned a strap around the pipe outside the cooler & lag bolted a small length of chain to the floor joist above it. I spray foamed the openings at both ends of the pipe and caulked around the edges of the holes inside & out. I hung several metal rings on the pipe & made some S-hooks with rounded ends as meat hooks. I can make adjustments if I need things hanging higher or lower and the rings can slide one way or the other if needed.

There is a 110 outlet next to the AC unit and a battery operated magnetic light on the wall. I used 4 standard door hinges and a full panel as my door. I used a metal door latch but a simple bungie cord would work just as well.

I set this up in the basement of my barn. An old dairy barn with a cement floor. I thought about insulating the floor but decided the basement floor would probably do fine & it's usually quite a bit cooler down there anyway.

Wondering if anyone here has used an AC unit in their cooler & how it's worked for you?

Installed one for a client, a cidery and bar.
Coolbot brand. Works great.

My brother built one in the barn, as have several friends. All seem to work well.

I built a cooler about 7 or 8 years ago using a Coolbot and a 12k btu window a/c. I've had to replace the a/c 1 time but other than that, it's been flawless. It'll easily hold the temp at 35F. It has a plus - in the winter, I put a small space heater in it set at 50 and it's good for squash and spuds plus I keep freezable stuff like paint and pesticides in it. My wife also stores flower bulbs in there.
Right now it's at about 38 and I have pears, watermelons, and cantaloupe in it. It'll keep watermelons good for about a month. Sweet corn will keep in it for a couple weeks so we can pick it at it's prime and freeze it when we get to it.

The Coolbot is overpriced for what it is but it works so well that I can't complain a bit. They've raised the price at least $100 since I got mine. Besides, I don't know of any other controller that will do what it does.

How long/often does the a/c unit run to keep it in the 30's?

Mine is 6’ x 10’ 8’ 6” high. Has a 3’ 0” by 8’ 0” high steel door. Runner mine with a 18k 220v ac unit and coolbot. Had 7 deer in it this morning for our Michigan youth hunt. I love mine. Wouldn’t go without one now

I had to put a hot water timer on mine built in my garage. Condenser would freeze up and stopped cooling. Other then that it worked good. Outside might work better. AC takes the heat out, so it got pretty hot in a garage

That totally depends on the outside temperature, and the level of insulation. The a/c cycles as needed but I've never timed it.

I've never had mine freeze up. It vents to the outside on the north side of the garage. I keep the fan running full time when it's on to pull out moisture and also a fan will last longer if it doesn't cycle all the time.

i have not had mine in service long enough to say how often it runs but on a test run it got down to 34 F. pretty quick on a 60 F day. It's probably big enough to fit 3 deer. I was not sure my AC unit was big enough but so far it seems to be working, was worth the time invested.

Some years ago we had a great cooler thread with several Coolbot builds pictured. Can't find it. Might have been around the time of RockChuck's build? Hopefully it'll show up again.

I'm thinking of something fairly basic, possibly a leanto off an existing north wall. Don't need the bigass walk in. It'd be nice but not needed. Maybe 7x6 and maybe 8 tall. Have a Coolbot and proper 12K AC. Two deer/antelope size or an elk broken down. No concrete. Hmmmm. I'd like to keep under $1000 on the HD card!

If you need ideas, the Coolbot site has a lot on building coolers. It's worth looking through it before starting.

Slumlord built 1 too !

You could PM him.