This is why I unpack my styros at my local nature preserve. No pesky cleanup!
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I use styro 6 packs for carting wine around town. Nothing better. As long as you keep direct sunlight off and don’t let them sit in the heat, they are fantastic at keeping bottle temp consistent for hours.
Sometimes they make a mess but I find that to be rare. Its probably a styro quality issue where there is less cohesion in some.
I don’t love the environmental aspect but pulp and carboard just don’t work as well as they are essentially just boxes that are not quite sealed.
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A certain berserker had so many styrofoam shippers throughout his house I was part of a conversation with other acolytes that he should simply put them all around the outside of his house and then apply stucco over the outside of the boxes. Just think about the R factor insulation.
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This. Never thought id have to actually tell an auction house that they should use styro when shipping very expensive, pre-1900 vintage wines…but i definitely underestimated Zachys and their shipping partners incompetence. Fool me once…
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You two need to stop going to strip clubs if you’re worried about glitter 
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You seem quite familiar. Voice of experience? 
Lol I’ve been around 
next time you’re out here I will show you first hand the hazards of glitter.
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Love Hate for me. But I live where it can get pretty warm and so it is the best for insulation by far and necessary for probably 8 months of the year. It is messy - little pieces get all over the bottles and not very amenable to recycling.
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Hate the mess and the difficulty to recycle.
BUT recently had a bottle break in a cardboard shipper (the kind that stacks in layers and lays flat) and that never happens with styrofoam.
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I take all my shippers (styro and others) to a local wine shop and they reuse them. It incrementally reduces my feelings of guilt and shame at preferring styro
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Inflatable wine bags ftw. Must be dirt cheap to boot.
I’ll just use them to ship wine. The pulp ones are very difficult to pack and ship wine in, in my opinion.
Makes sense. I never ship wine though
Yes, styrofoam is horrible. And wax capsules too!!
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I’ve had many hundreds of wine shipments in styrofoam, and I could count on one hand the number that made a mess like that. Maybe you’ve been unlucky about it?
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Respectively disagree. More often than not each bottle has little white bits that need to be wiped off. But unlike John, I try to do it outside so there is no other clean up.
I am the camp that have found over time styro is the best for keeping bottles cold- and I always do overnight or 2-day air, no matter the time of year. Even with express delivery, cardboard inserts just don’t cut it.
One problem I have with styro at times is not just the ones that have little bits of styro getting everywhere- but the fact in those circumstances the shipper has been recycled many times and will often have holes in the styro- usually at the top where a capsule broke out a little circle of foam due to repeated bottle movement. In these cases you not only have a mess, but the holes certain would seem to have an impact on the overall integrity of the shipper.
The most elegant solution I have seen- but unfortunately very expensive- are laydown shippers that use a moldable foam of some kind and then each sleeve is covered in a very durable plastic. They don’t break and they work quite well- but again they are expensive and when you add in the plastic are also extremely unfriendly to the environment. Happily they recycle quite well and hold up for repeated use.
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Six strips a must. Bottom, top, and two across each–at 1/3 and 2/3. If box shape is weak or re-using shipper (i did a lot of recycled styro! it cuts environmental impact in half after all), then tape EVERY edge, folding half to each side. And NOT the flimsy wide tape they use at FedEx, but the good Scotch brand, heavy-duty. Laid FLAT, not mushed up–that’s the packing equivalent of looking away and missing the bowl while pouring.
Four strips ok only on 2-3-4paks
Just one obsessive Shipping Manager’s take:
Remember it’s a rolling 24hrs for “room temperature” to penetrate and that temperature is changing over those hours; thankfully not a box sitting at the sunny top corner of a truck at midday for a straight 24 hours.
Hopefully your truck is always moving.
So, it leaves the cellar at 55F, typically I’m dropping it at latest possible minute, so only a couple hours til dark, then next 8-12 hours are overnight. By next day, worst case I’m the top box (but odds are I’m not) at midday on I5 in California or out on the desert heading cross country but by that evening pressure comes off as it hits a coastal zone or higher elevation, in/out of a facility, changing trucks again.
I do math in pictures, so imagine two rolling sine waves, the first (actual temps you passed through) higher amplitude than the second, running at a lag, the flatter curve is the inside of your box.
Key to safe shipping cross country is obsessively watching temp forecasts at multiple points along the way to time departure. Of course, MOST critical days are pickup day and delivery day with the doors constantly opening and closing. Which is why I generally drop off. And another reason delivery to a local FedEx is a plus (off the truck earlier in day). Also key is understanding where it will sit over a weekend. South Florida from California is the tough route. I’m so happy I now ship those from Nashville (after B2B cold-chain by pallet to Nashville).
As a shipper, I do a happy dance on orders for overnight or 2Day Air. In 14 years, that’s been less than half a dozen times? This year, I’m loving GLS that moves overnight from Wine Country/SF to SoCal. Wasn’t expecting that. $10-11/box more than FedEx, but done in 24hrs, in original packaging = solid service. Probably looks like shit at your end, but my printed cartons look so nice at THIS end
FOR SURE, if repacking, top quality styro is the best insulator. Also helps support the cardboard. The crumbly styles are annoying. The best styro is indestructable–I love scoring the Duratherm brand and re-using.
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R value is only about 4 per inch. I hate it also. I get a 12 inch piece of duct tape, wrap it in a circle with the sticky side out, and then touch all the bottles and wherever the little pieces of styro have gone. Labels aren’t damaged and it’s the easiest way for me to get rid of the crap.
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