Cool Room

[cccsmom]

We are interested in building a cool room and are open to suggestions/ideas and pictures if you have one!

 

[Ohio1]

http://coolcalf.com/

 

[Tallcool1]

Before I even start, I have to spew out the usual "A cooler alone will not grow you any hair.....brush brush brush, blow blow blow, rinse rinse rinse" talk.  Thats a joke for anyone that didn't see that!  Seriously, what a cooler will really do is speed up the process DRAMATICALLY, if you are willing to do the work.  And it really speeds it up. 

Just built one.  I know that everyone is gonna tell you to go to coolcalf.com, and they are at the top of the cooler game.  I just plain and simple was NOT going to spend $5000+ for a cooler.  I am trying really hard to have our whole show steer experience have at least a SLIGHT resemblance to economic reality.  FYI, that isn't going so well! 

I got the floor plans from coolcalf as far as how they tell you to set up the concrete.  It was a perfect match to an old flat milking parlor that we renovated.  It is about 13' wide and 11' long.  It will hold 4 fat steers but we put them in 2 at a time.  We are in the Central US and I don't believe in any more than 90 days in a cooler.  We put in the county fair stuff early, and then the State Fair calves. 

Then I talked to Matt at CalfClimate.  He sold me two CoolBot units and a whole bunch of Rubber Mulch.  The CoolBot units are basically a processor that will override the controls of a window A/C unit.  Out of the box a window unit will not cool below 60 degrees before it freezes up.  The CoolBot will "trick" the unit into cooling well down into the 40's with no problems.  It is amazing.  The biggest thing Matt did was do the engineering for the size of the window units that I needed.  And the neat thing was that he did it for NOTHING! 

Bought 2 window units from a refurbishing distributor.  Each unit is rated at 25,000 BTU.

Bought a little insulation, and some plywood and we are done.

I spent $600 on the CoolBots, $900 on the window units,  $420 on the rubber mulch, and about $300 for construction materials. 

Keep in mind that we did not hire any of the work out, including electrical.  That saved us a lot of money. 

So we spent about $1500 as opposed to $5,000.  Don't get me wrong, if I had it in me and wasn't so stubborn about some things, I would love to have a unit from coolcalf.  But I just couldn't do it.  I told my boys that we could either do an expensive cooler, and fill it with cheap cattle......

To me, one thing that i had never thought about was ceiling height.  We were able to really improve the performance of our cooler by dropping the ceiling.  We have a 7' ceiling, and that really cuts down on the square feet that you are tying to cool.

 

[ChristaCheatham]

I've been talking to my dad about getting a cooler...but he sees it as "winning at all costs." I've worked my butt off this summer with my steer and luckily he's kept his hair but hasn't grown any. We have a 12x12 stall that we would only put one calf in. We have a guy who would sell us the AC unit and insulation. What else would we need if I ever got my dad to approve...?

 

[okiegirl]

Here's some pics of our cool room.  A/C people are coming monday to hook us up, lol.  We bought  a walk in cooler from a grocery store that was moving for 850.00 and built a room that measures 18x11 on the inside after cooling unit and tie rails.  Here are some pics of the process

 

[okiegirl]

a few more pics.  We are building our showbarn under a shed built off the side out our machine barn.  We had to run both electric and water.  We will be adding a feed room, 3 12x14 pens with a 100ft run off of each pen.  Each pen will have a drop down outlet for a fan.  Can't wait to be finished.  We are having a barn warming/cookout to show it off.

 

[Ohio1]

Here's some pics of our cool room.  A/C people are coming monday to hook us up, lol.  We bought  a walk in cooler from a grocery store that was moving for 850.00 and built a room that measures 18x11 on the inside after cooling unit and tie rails.  Here are some pics of the process

Looks nice that's a good deal if it works out!