cooler to hang meat??

[JHinCA]

Our climate here is not reliably cool enough for long enough to hang meat as we would like to and the local processors often don't have the space. How have others dealt with this? Has any one built or purchased a walk in cooler?

[Beeman]

I've seen people buy an old milk truck body, insualted body with a reefer unit on it that runs on diesel or plug in electric.

[agmantoo]

I bought for $35 a large 2 door freezer of the type used in convenience stores/mom-pop grocery stores. I then got a line thermostat, for $62, used to make a keg refrigerator. After installing the thermostat the modification converted the freezer to a cooler that I can set the temperature. The same thing can be done with any freezer, be it a home upright or chest type. You can revert to the freezer by simply bypassing the line thermostat, this only entails unplugging the device from the thermostat and then plugging the device into the wall receptacle. Works Great! I have a deer in it at this time.

[farminghandyman]

I bought a old walk in cooler from a liquor store that shut down, got it for $25
it was rough, had to rebuild the roof, or top of it, but it works well, (beer cooler are better than old grocery store units as the citrus acids will work on and in time destroy the aluminum that is used in many of the evaporators in them, severely shorting there lives,
it is about 8' wide and 12' deep, I have a rail that goes out side to the killing floor, (cement pad) (scale on one side, and the hoist on an I beam over it, the rail runs in the door, by the cutting table and into the cooler, and bends around in the cooler so I can easily hang two beef in quarters or more in there, I put channel iron above the cooler to support the rails.
I have a foam block that seals about the rail,
I have a dunnage rack on the floor and a set of wire shelves in the back of the cooler for other things and to set tubs of meat on, use pizza tray or serving trays in a fast food place for putting cuts of meat on to transfer to the wrapping center. and then into the walk in freezer. (I pay much more for the freezer than I did the cooler) the fans and air movement is a lot of the key to rapid freezing, and then transfer into the chest freezer.

[tamsam]

I saw a nice home made one once. Was about 8x8 I would guess. It was wood and well insulated and had a small ac unit in the wall. I remember the guy had a pig roast and had beer in it, and the beer was ice cold. I also put a 5,000btu ac in the back window of a motor home I had when the roof air went out and if you closed the door in the bed room it would get very cold. Sam

[MELOC]

Originally Posted by tamsam

I saw a nice home made one once. Was about 8x8 I would guess. It was wood and well insulated and had a small ac unit in the wall. I remember the guy had a pig roast and had beer in it, and the beer was ice cold. I also put a 5,000btu ac in the back window of a motor home I had when the roof air went out and if you closed the door in the bed room it would get very cold. Sam

what tamsam said...i saw a homemade unit too.

[watcher]

build a frame, cover with a tarp, make a rack, drop in critter and fill with ice.

I have seen people wrap the critter (pig, deer, etc) with a tarp, tie off the bottom then keep it filled with ice. That way you don't have to worry about trying to drain the water.

[JHinCA]

Thanks for the responses. We now have several possibilities to think about.

Jean

[Gregg Alexander]

I have a homemade freezer. Built it out of plywood and 2x4's put a window airconditioner keeps the meet safe and cold until i cut it up and put it into the home freezer

[sugarbush]

walk-ins can be hard on the electric bill. They can be had cheap though at liquidation auctions. If you only need it to cool meat you can turn it on only when you need it. If you keep bees they are great for keeping hivebodies and frames in for the winter to keep pest out.