What Size A/C do I need for my Walk-In Cooler

This is a chart showing the size air conditioning unit we recommend to cool a well-insulated room.

The "industry standard" for a walk-in cooler is at least 4" of styrofoam in walls, ceiling and floor.

Dimensions of Cooler	Size of A/C Unit
6' x 8'	10,000 BTU
8' x 8'	12,000 BTU
8' x 10'	15,000 BTU
8' x 12'	18,000 BTU
10' x 12'	21,000 BTU
10' x 14'	25,000 BTU

A/C capacity vs. room size

What BRAND of Air Conditioner should I buy
By now it seems one customer or another has tried the CoolBot on every brand of A/C unit that's our there and so far it has worked on *ALL* brands of air conditioners that have a plastic (electronic) temperature sensor AND digital display. That being said, it works better on some brands than others.

In thousands of customers since 2006, as of May 2010 only 3 (THREE!) people have now reported compressor failure on ANY brand of Air Conditioner running a coolbot. And one guy it was just his motor start relay, not even the compressor. That's an amazing statistic!! We have had reports of electronics problems, but it's mostly temperature sensor problems ($3.75 repair - not worth a warranty call) and we're talking 2% for that problem in all those years...

LG Brand and Kenmore (all are made by LG)- FIRST CHOICE! (** NOT THE SAME AS GE!!**) Sold at Home Depot stores and online across the country (they are cheapest at Home Depot). All models above 8,000btu work flawlessly with the CoolBot (they only use electronic plastic temperature sensors). THOUSANDS of our customers have LG units, and only a few people have had problems (bad when they first got them) and Home Depot immediately replaced them. They run even during the fall and winter when outside temperatures fall (this is not true of all brands!). We use an LG for our larger cooler here on the farm (flyingbeet.com) and have never had trouble in years of use.
Samsung - Sold on the internet and at most of the Lowes stores across the country. Also a good choice. We have a few hundred customers using these and they are happy as well.
Frigidaire NOT A GOOD CHOICE FOR MOST PEOPLE. An "okay" choice people in southern states who are okay with temperatures at 40 or above. These air conditioners turn off it gets cold outside! While that's a nice help and feature if you're just cooling your house, it's a real problem if you need to keep your meat below 38 degrees! These are finely built machines and have good cooling power, but unless you are living in a southern state AND only need to cool down to about 40-42 degrees, this isn't a good choice for the coolbot. When the inside temperature gets cold, it thinks the outside temperature is cold and shuts down until you plug and unplug it again!
Sharp - sold in a number of stores. All seem to work okay. All brands above 6500 btu's that we've seen have plastic temperature sensors.
HAIER - These are now sold at WalMart since in 2009. Haven't been tested as long as other brands, but since spring of 2009 we've had hundreds of people using them (including over the winter in Canada). Not a single problem reported so far and they work through the winter AND they are cheap. I think they only have a 3 year warranty instead of the 5 years that LG and Samsung both offer. ** Starting June 2010, in their instructions they now say they air conditioner will TURN OFF if outside temperatures fall below 61 degrees!! Obviously that's not our experience (people in Canada are running them through the winter) but... maybe they changed something in design? We don't know! Outside nighttime temperatures in Canada are regularly below 61 and no one is reporting a problem... so... I'm not sure what to make of this new info...

Brands of Air Conditioner that we know DO NOT WORK with the CoolBot are:
DANBY People that have Danby's and fiddle with them and the coolbot are successful about 30% of the time... Mostly they are unsuccessful. I THINK the problem is that Danby has programmed in a LONG time-response delay between their temperature sensor and compressor action? That's the only thing that (sort of) fits. We don't recommend them for that reason, although they may otherwise be a terrific company! GE Brand - We don't like these much either. Some work, some don't.... you have to check the temperature sensors. The electronic ones with a digital display SHOULD work, but... they all don't. We don't strongly recommend this brand because of that complication.

Emerson (all the models tested so far have metal temperature sensors) so that's why they don't work.
Whirlpool (all models tested so far have metal temp sensors -some LOOK like plastic, but they are metal!)
Goldstar (most models have metal temperature sensors. The few that don't don't seem very sturdy.)
WESTPOINT A bad choice. We can only get them to cool down to about 47 degrees.
Any and all brands of "portable" A/C units - They all actually "work" but because they constantly suck (hot) fresh air into the room they are extremely inefficient and you won't be able to get the room very cold. People making cheese caves are the only people that seem happy enough with them, but even if you are doing a cheese cave, for efficiency sake we still don't recommend these!

Store It Cold with

What Size A/C do I need for my Walk-In Cooler