Hi all,
I’ve seen people mention that they use cardboard tubes for storage in their wine lockers. Could anyone recommend a manufacturer? Also, what size did you get? (Diameter, length?) Do you remember what the thickness was of the cardboard?
I’m looking at double deep, so probably 24" length, ~4" diameter. I have no idea what thickness is best. I’ll be storing regular bordeaux bottles and burgundy bottles, so I want the diameter to be large enough for burgundy bottles without wasting extra space. (No large champagnes… I have a separate space for those.)
I purchased from Uline, and they are for magnum and champagne storage, so I got the 5 inch diameter ones. Work great, mine are 36" long, so reaching that last bottle is a little tricky. But the upside is I can store 3 magnums per tube or 4 champagne bottles. The last bottle sticks out of the end, but it’s plenty secure.
Jumbo Kraft Mailing Tubes with End Caps - 5 x 36", .125" thick
Uline is the way to go. Keep in mind that the length shown on the website is for useable space inside, meaning the actual length of the tube is slightly longer than what is stated, given there are end caps that are accounted for. I made the mistake of not realizing this and had to re order shorter sizes. Also, you don’t have to order the extra heavy duty ones, the normal cardboard tubes work perfectly. I fit 3 burgundy / bordeaux bottles per tube; champagne works too but I can’t close off the tube with endcap on those.
I like the convenience of tubes, but they take up precious space.
Visited my locker today, which is designed to hold around 144 bottles (12 cases). The configuration of the locker is three cases wide, slightly over two cases tall, and two cases deep. So if you store using cardboard boxes, you can access 6 cases at any given time, and would have to remove some to access the six cases stacked behind. I can also fit a few bottles on top of the cases, so in total, I can get about 150 bottles in there.
Another locker nearby fit about 57 tubes (6 rows, some hold 10 tubes and others only 9). If you go 2 bottles deep, that means you can only store about 114 bottles, or 30 less than using boxes. The tradeoff is easier access to the entire collection, plus the tubes don’t wear as quickly as boxes.
Another positive, don’t have random boxes with only 9,10,11 bottles in it cause too lazy to refill the boxes in the back . I figure over the course of a lifetime of storage, it’ll end up holding a little less via tubes but the tradeoff of access is worthwhile.
My storage facility charges $2 a month for 40 tubes. I could buy a bunch and after 4 years it’ll pay for itself. I just can’t think that far ahead
I use paper tubes in one of my locker. I think I got them from Phenix Tube in Indiana, which I think is part of Paramount Tube now. I don’t remember the exact size, but they are double deep
storbox/winegrotto in pasadena. The facility itself is not very cheap and they don’t accept deliveries for free ($5 a box charge O_O) but the tubes are cheap!
. I figure over the course of a lifetime of storage, it’ll end up holding a little less via tubes but the tradeoff of access is worthwhile.