I picked up what I think is an 8 cubicle Expedit shelf at an estate sale a few weeks back. Using it horizontally and did not have to assemble it. Currently full of vinyl. Works for me
New Ikea storage unit great for LP's!
Desiring new racks for my LP’s, and hearing that the Ikea Kallax was popular with collectors, I went to the Ikea in my new city to check it out. I found the Kallax to have one enticing quality: very large capacity for very little money. Other than that, it didn’t fulfill my desires. At 15-3/4" deep, LP’s are too far from the front edge of the rack. Even worse, the rack is open on the backside, having no rear panel! It is meant to be a room divider, not an LP rack or bookcase. I’m guessing owners don’t mind, as the rack will usually be placed up against a wall, that wall then acting as a rear panel. But I want my LP’s to be inside an enclosed structure, not an open one, if for no other reason than to keep dust away from the LP cover opening. The lack of a rear panel is also at least partially responsible for another problem with the rack: it is not very structurally stiff and strong, being a little wobbly, able to move side-to-side. Ikea has other similar racks---the Bitrade, Valje, and Nornas, but they too fell short of my requirements.
So I kept looking. There are some fine LP racks out there, but I consider the prices ridiculous. Last night I went onto the Ikea website, again looking at their storage units. There was a brand new one named EKET pictured, and it looked like it might fit the bill, so today I went to Ikea to have a look. I do believe I have found my new LP racks! The EKET comes in several different sizes, from a single 13-3/4" cube to a 4-cubicle box. The 4-cubicle version measures 27-1/2" x 27-1/2" x 13-3/4" deep exterior, each cubicle having interior dimensions of 12-7/8" tall, 12-7/8" wide, and 13" deep, perfect for LP’s. Priced at only $50, the EKET 4-cube model provides over four linear feet of LP storage. And it has a back panel! It is also considerable more stiff than the Kallax, which gives me piece of mind. There are a couple of accessory options, including a set of four adjustable feet ($5!) and a 4" base platform, also height-adjustable ($15). Another is a set of screw-on clips which hold multiple units together if they are stacked one atop another. Three of the racks and a base platform end up being 86-1/2" (7’ 2-1/2") tall, perfect for me.
The Ikea EKET is best LP storage deal I have found, so if you have enough LP’s to make their storage an economic concern, check it out. It will leave you more dough for the LP’s themselves!
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The Kallax and the earlier Expedit series would collapse from improper installation not by design. They need to be fixed to a back wall and that's just common sense. The directions support it and the brackets are supplied. Knocking the product for not following the supplied advise and overloading shelves with the unit placed on its side, not on its base is the biggest problem. I find it odd that the Eket is being lauded as sturdier over the Kallax or older Expedit series. The latter two can hold twice the weight per shelf as the Eket can which is only 15 lbs per shelf the others are 29 lbs per shelf. At 50 lps approximately per shelf , 15 lbs of max load is pushing it on the Eket. The dimensions are not the only supplied data of the on line description. I have an eight cube Expedit , ( 2, 4 cube units ) loaded with just with my Blue note and rare import lps, and unlike a unit in a showroom that is put together without load or fastening to a wall, by some kid, these units are surprisingly strong and sturdy when put together and fastened properly. Probably a good reason why they were and are so popular. I have the majority of my other 8000 albums in shelving I made decades ago out of 3/4 Russian ply ( before it was as absurdly priced) , dado and glued in a dry basement room . Even given that overkill , I have no qualms or worries storing some of my most irreplaceable gems in the Expedit in the living room. I made a couple wooden crates that I swap out every couple weeks or so from the basement storage to keep rotation with less room taken up in the livingroom. I do like the look of the Eket on those wood bases though, but I wouldn't load them as heavily as the Expedit and feel as sure of its 15 lb per shelf rating vs the 29 lb rating of the Kallax and Expedit. I think either is a good economic choice when used properly and within their limits. A little dab of carpenters glue on those dowel pins is what many do to "stiffen them up" and either a back or fastened to the wall ( especially if you have kids or grandkids visiting) . What ever works , and its for keeping vinyl spinning is great in my book................... |
The maximum load capability of a shelf is partially determined by what constitutes a shelf. The EKET 4-cube model (the largest EKET) has only two approximately 13" cubicles per shelf wide. The Kallax in available in many different configurations, the most commonly used by LP collectors being the 8 (2 cubicles wide x 4 cubes tall, or 4 cubes wide x 2 cubes tall), 16 (4 x 4), and 25 (5 x 5) cube models. The 16 and 25 are the same side-to-side and top-to-bottom, and must support considerably more weight than the EKET. The 8-cubicle can be positioned upright---in which case a shelf is 2-cubes wide, or laying down---4 cubes wide. Laying the Kallax on it's side---if space allows---would seem to me to be preferable. One may also secured an EKET to the rear wall, but it is sufficiently stiff and well-braced to not require doing so, unlike the wobbly Kallax. The Kallax is also backless---allowing dust access to the LP cover opening, and is a couple of inches deeper than I prefer, though that can be cured, as others have pointed out, with the addition of a spacer behind the LP’s. Whichever IKEA model unit one chooses, it will provide LP storage at the cheapest price per LP that I have found. |
The shelf's rating is per cube the same as it is for the Eket, except the Eket will only hold half the rated weight of the other two. Laying the Kallax or Expedit on their sides defeats the purpose of being screwed from the top not from the sides. The best way for a horizontal 8 cube length is two , 4 cubes placed side by side if not braced from behind or within. Think of how a wall is constructed with a plate across the entire length top and bottom and the outer joists sitting ON and OVER the plates.Take those studs on either end and support them into the ends of the bottom and top plates and the wall is no longer supported at the ends or tied across the full length of it and all those other studs. A Header is useless tied into a kingstud without a jackstud to support the load on its ends. Same principle here. If you stay in the weight the shelf wont deflect and push the ends out which is why having them on their sides makes them fail .I'm NOT knocking the Eket as a choice at all, or stating the Kallax is a better choice, just stating the facts and how to avoid the failure of not setting them up properly and using them within their capabilities. I really like the look of the Eket on those platforms they sell. I have quite a few friends who hate either of them simply because they can't read the spines and/or refuse to alphabetize and sort albums in genre and like to flip through them like the record stores used, so they can see the covers. With a large collection and the space that would take and the absolute need to be rigidly fastened to a wall when weights shift outward, for me makes them impractical. If I had a smaller, or some might say more sane record collection, I would , space permitting prefer flipping through them covers out. One of the thriftiest and smartest uses I have seen for storage and audio rack combined was using the Expedits. A friend came up with this idea because of space and finances after a divorce. I thought it was brilliant and the end result was a good looking , functional and vibration greatly reduced rack and album storage, that saved a lot of time and costs for the end result. He got four of the white Expedit (kallax) units on sale and arranged them side by side along the long wall in his living room. We got a sheet of 12 ft. long by 4 ft. wide no void maple veneered one side ply and I cut it so it ran full length of four units , one piece across top of 4 units and one for bottom. Measured and drilled exactly where each of the 4 long bolts was located on the top and bottom of each piece of ply. Put the bolts back in and 4 units were now a solid single unit you could stand /walk on. I fastened 5 pairs of feet on the bottom from Herbies with the damping and Teflon to slide easy he had bought. Tipped it upright ,wrapped the exposed edges with maple veneer , sealed it and load it up. Room for 800 albums , he has his turntable on a sand box, and integrated tube amp, small footprint phono pre (Graham Slee Reflex) and cd player all sitting on herbies footers I had and were not being used, with monitors toed in and the TV wall mounted . I made him some doors for each individual cube to finish it off , and with the leftover ply 2 shelves either side of his TV wall mounted for his CD's and it looks great, his system sounds great and was really inexpensive for all it does. It put the whole necessity is the mother of invention thing back into perspective again for me in regards to practical vs. how carried away we can get sometimes.... I'm sitting on top of 2 fully loaded Expedits in my living room in the profile pic I added to show, stacked together with my 185 lbs, 400 albums weight, and the weight of a drawer with about a hundred sacd's sitting between the Expedits,..... I wobble more than the shelf ever will ... |
I ordered these in a custom Lava Orange High Gloss. http://www.simplewoodgoods.com/record-storage-cube/ I will report back once received. I HATE IKEA. Pure Garbage chipboard crap. |
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