North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

FWIW, the cooler itself is just a waterproof, well insulated room.  If you feel like building it yourself, just build a freestanding shed with studs that are 2x6 or wider.  Put it on a cement slab.  Use foam slabs for insulation, and line the inside with marine plywood, and seal it with several coats of marine polyurethane or epoxy.    Be sure to  have the electrician wire it before you put in the insulation.  You also need a small dry well outside for the drip line (condensation) from the compressor.   If you can find a used cooler type door, that helps a lot, though you can get by with a heavy solid core door if you put good sealing around it.  You can also have the inside of the cooler sprayed with foam insulation if you want extra protection.
Then just have the compressor installed.  The circulating fan is hung inside and  a couple of holes for the lines from the compressor outside are drilled to allow you to hook it up to the fan.   Seal around the lines with poly foam  and you're ready to go.  Just be sure the temperature doesn't go below freezing as this can make the soil under the slab freeze and heave it up.  
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
On Apr 6, 2006, at 7:25 AM, Jwlehman@aol.com wrote:


tanisgrif  wrote: 

 <<Some people want a deck w/ a hot-tub; I want a fruit-storage cooler.>>

 Watch the papers. I've seen walk in coolers for sale by beer & wine stores. Seems they get them when more cold storage space is needed then later build a refrigerated area and sell the coolers. I purchased one such and have seen several others advertised. 

 One thing to watch for, some compressors are "indoor compressors." The design uses a light weight oil that becomes too thick if the temp gets down to about 10 degrees and wears out quickly. The walk in cooler I bought was setting indoors in the rear of the store and lasted 2 winters out doors here. The new compressor was more than I paid for the entire unit 2 years prior.  Still, I only have $2,700 total in mine.