BILD 800 Wine Room - Anyone know anything about these?

All thoughts welcome… I am looking for a low cost means to store as many bottles as possible in vacation home.

Don’t know those specifically Drew but I do know some people who bought cool rooms from restaurant supply places. You can sometimes find those used and they’re essentially the same thing. Would have to find some racking, but the few people I know who’ve done it have been quite pleased.

Interesting option, Greg. Will have to look into that. thx

Curious as well. I’m thinking about putting one in my garage but it sits around 95 in the summer which is the upper limit. Curious what others experience is like.
And is it hard to build?

I think these units are made by Le Cache.

Someone on the old board posted about buying a used one, and they were pretty handy so they took great pains to caulk, tape and seal all the joints, walls, where the walls meet the floor, etc. and apparently I worked out well. I’d also take extra precaution to make sure the door was square and sealed well. Just remembered him saying he could actually cram many more bottles in there than was advertised, if that sways your decision.
I have seen a few of these on Craigslist thru the years.

The wall panels and doors of restaurant style coolers are around 4" thick, more than most direct to consumer wine rooms. Restaurants close quite often so these units, often barely used, are sometimes available for a good price from restaurant supply houses. If you’ve got somewhere to park them (n.b. they’re made to survive outdoors when necessary).

A cool idea. I’d never heard of this.

I don’t see any mention of insulation ratings in the specs for this one, though, which raises red flags. And the door doesn’t look particularly thick or insulated (leaving aside the glass). I would guess the restaurant-grade ones might be better insulated, since they would likely need to keep temperatures to refrigerator levels – presumably 40F or something like that.

Vintage Keeper used to make these years ago. I know someone that has one. Actually he has two that you could put together to make an even larger vault. He’s had his going for years and it is VERY tightly packed to say the least. Great idea if you want something bigger than typical fridge, but don’t want to be tied down to a $ build in a home you may not stay in.

Thanks all. Does anyone have a link to such restaurant style coolers/supply houses?

Drew,

These units are commonly called walk-in coolers (or freezers); the other kind are called reach-ins. They’re often made up of fairly easy to assemble panels, but not always. Here are a couple of links just to give you the idea:

NYC used to have a lot of restaurant supply houses for both new and used, many down along the Bowery; these days, I don’t know.

Thanks, Frank. They don’t seem very easy to get into my basement. [wow.gif] Anyone ever bought a new or used walk-in and have any insight into how they are delivered and, presumably, built inside? [cheers.gif]

Bumping this up. I was thinking of biting the bullet on the BILD 800 to go into my den/office in the house.

Has anyone purchased one? Do they like it?

I built a similar pre-fab walk-in unit about 25 years ago. Capacity ~2000 bottles. Got it from IWA but not sure of their source. Not BILD back then. Walls were not thick enough to offer terrific insulation but the chiller had no trouble keeping a constant 55 degrees, and I don’t think it added much to the electric bill. It didn’t run much once it was half full. It was in a walk-out basement with ambient temps 68 to 78.

It came disassembled. The largest panels fit through the sliding door to the basement. They were moderately heavy and too unwieldy for 1 person to handle during assembly. There were a LOT of pieces to screw together to create the racking, but the pieces fit, the instructions were reasonably clear, and all the pieces were there. It took 2 of us about 2 and a half days to put it together. I’ve been thrilled with it and am sadly leaving it behind as we downsize.

Cool! Thanks so much for the info. I think this is the route I’m going to go. Invite some friends over to help and open up a nice bottle for the effort :slight_smile:

Walk-in refrigerators are made with 4” insulation panels. The last ne we had built for our restaurant was about $12K (including the refrigeration unit).

An 8’ x 8’ walk-in with no refrigeration is about $4,500. A cellarpro cooling unit would add about $2K

https://www.webstaurantstore.com/nor-lake-kl7788-kold-locker-8-x-8-x-7-7-indoor-walk-in-cooler-box/596KL7788.html

We had one of the modular walk-in wine cellars in the late 90’s. Bought it from Wine Enthusiast. It took the two of us to put it together - if you are cnsidering buying one make sure you have some friends to help with assembly. We had the unit for about 5 years and sold it to a friend when we built a wine cellar. He has replaced the cooling unit once but the cellar module unit is still fine. A good option if you don’t want to commit to building a permanent wine cellar.

Thats super cool. Im not sure if i could get a big stainless one wife-approved and it looks like it will cost a good chunk more than just doing the lacache BILD route. I wonder if I could make the exterior more stylish somehow because I like all the different options for sizes.
Would it work well for wine? How about humidity and noise levels on the cooler?

I’m in the middle of building my own version of this - but custom built with 2x4 framing, ply sheeting, pre-hung exterior steel door and spray foam insulation (R29). I shoot the spray foam this weekend. Cooler will be an 8000 btu window AC controlled by a CoolBot. Notice that the largest available cooler from CellarPro is less than 1900 btu…

$2200 all in. 750-ish bottle capacity.

This is a super interesting idea. I do love building things. Do you have any pics/guides/or info that you used for this?