Has anyone had success storing a large vinyl collection
(2000+)
in the Ikea Eket shelves? I'm worried about the weight restrictions per shelf. My current shelves hold about 40 lbs. per shelf, but the Eket is rated only 15 lbs per shelf. Any experience with this?
Over time the shelves will bow and possibly pull away from the sides. This is very cheap construction most probably MDF or worse plain particle board. As a short term solution maybe.
The best way to do this is cabinet grade plywood with a chin of hardwood on he shelves 2 inches wide. This braces the front of the shelf and plywood is stiffer than MDF. Doing it this way would cost at least 4 times as much. The shelves should be the long pieces and The divider the short ones. This prevents the load from damaging the cabinets. Records are heavy and the load is fluid which is why shelves will bow under records.
Glad to see this thread continues. We decided on the tall SEKTION cabinets (without doors) from Ikea kitchen dept. These are about 8 feet tall. We have 8 of them side by side and they're amazingly strong - no bending shelves. I highly recommend this option!
Most of mine are stored on the Odyssey boxes. Great storage japanese rice papers inners and sea lake Japanese Mylar bags, then in the Odyssey boxes. A little hard to get to, but, their amazing!
I use a Kallax double which I lay sideways then I lay a single on top of that using nothing but some 2" diameter thin rubber washers (more in the middle), the weight of the records is more than enough to keep everything in place, this gives 12 squares for vinyl. I have the whole thing up against the wall about an inch out because of baseboard. I love this setup for vinyl.
Ikea is the most popular shelves for record collectors worldwide. Everybody use them, they are cheap. Instead of one huge shelf you could use many smaller sections for safety reason. I am using 4 section models, two of them here on the right (earlier production with thicker walls). On the left side i have big one for 45s (7 inchers) from the old medical clinic, it was a present from my friend, very nice :)
My advice: buy 4 of them (with 4 sections in each one) and put them together as you wish. It will be fine and more rigid for 2000 LPs. Definitely better than one big shelf of the same size for same amount of records.
If you want to build a tower up to the ceiling then it’s another story, but on the floor they are very nice and stable at least for 4 sections up.
@kennythekey I too own the Kallax units for my LPs/gear display. I added some ripped 2x4s across the back of the Kallax units and secured them with threaded wood screws. This did the trick of helping to solidify the units and prevent the LP from sliding too far back. At the time I bought the Kallax, the Eket line was not in production, otehrwise I would have considered it as a storage option.
@awilson0601, you don’t want to get the doors for the EKET cube. For one thing, they won’t close all the way---LP’s come to within 1/2" of the front edge of the shelves. Plus, the hinges stick out into the cube, and block access behind them. LP’s can’t be stacked against the inside of either side wall.
I have the black 25 cube unit and it's rock solid. I made modifications to the wall brackets and attached it to the wall with lag bolts into the studs. If I didn't need all the cubes for records, I could jazz up some cubes with art objects, for example, and the unit would become quite attractive IMO. Very happy with the outcome.
Yep schubert, the Kallax is the best deal around for LP storage. Now I'm looking for an old file cabinet for my 7" 45's. I have my collection of around 750-800 in the cardboard boxes offered by Bags Unlimited, but they're not so user friendly.
Last week I saw my ikea was having a sale .My kind Chinese neighbor took me down in his truck and I bought a 16 cube Kallet for the grand price of 78$ + tax. My kind Chinese neighbor and his son are very handy and put it together in a half-hour and wouldn’t take a dime . Satin black looks elegant on my wall space and REALLY helps in my small condo !
I have to admit I never even gave Ikea a thought for record storage. I got my shelves from Amazon, will have to see who they were made by, but each unit consists of a 4 compartment cube at approx $60. No back but the outer wood is an inch and half thick so it ain't moving! The no back annoyed me for albums going too far back so I just added some flat wood " bars" to the backs( 2 on each shelf) which stopped them all in same depth. I feel the house will fall down before these will.
Fwiw, I decided on the Kalax, 2 units of 4 cubes, stacked and connected via barrel bolts. I could not be happier with them and plan on adding a backing panel for additional stiffness. But that has time and is not a priority. I did add some felt pads to the bottom unit to facilitate ease of moving as required from time to time.
Quite right, Elizabeth. When I checked out the EKET and the Kallax at my IKEA, I saw the EKET had a back panel, the Kallax not. I pushed on the side of a 16-cube (4 X 4) Kallax, and it moved---a lot. When I assembled my EKET's, they "gave" a little when pushed (not nearly as much as the kallax), but were very structurally stiff after the back panel was slid into place. It locked the whole structure together.
It's too bad they stopped making the Expedit line. The Kallax, which replaced the Expedit, is basically the same as the Expedit but thinner and weaker. That was the whole point of the Kallax. They wanted to reduce cost/use less wood. When I put my Expedits together, I glued every piece together with construction adhesive and then carefully leveled it. It's extremely solid now. You could probably do this with any of their stuff to increase the strength. https://gizmodo.com/heres-why-ikea-is-discontinuing-everyones-favorite-sh-1527126312
I received a real nice PM from Erik in Stockholm, inquiring about the strength of the EKET cubes. He said he had bought one, and was concerned about its’ structural strength; he was worried the cube would collapse on him. A justifiable concern! I told Erik I had assembled nine of the 4-cubicle EKETs, and stacked them three high and three wide.
IKEA offers a little packet of brackets to secure one EKET to another (on their back sides), and I have done just that to each stack of three. Each stack is on its’ own optional 4" stand, which has legs fitted with adjustable feet. I made the front two feet on each pedestal a little longer than the two in the back, so as to get the stack to lean back just slightly. Positioned correctly, the top back edge of the top EKET rests against the wall, and the stack becomes very stable. Pushing on the front or side of the stack produces absolutely no movement---it feels like it’s part of the rooms’ structure!
Yep shadorne, the Simple Woods cube is really nice; I love Baltic Birch. But to get the linear footage I got in the EKET for $500, the equivalent Simple Woods would be $3200. I would rather spend the $2700 difference on LP’s themselves.
I have the single Kallax unit that measures 6' x 6' and gives you 25 cubes. It is solid after assembly, plus you need to use the wall brackets that they provide for additional support and safety. Mine is black and up against a wall in the room right behind my system front wall. I find it's aesthetics to be neutral, so you mostly see a wall of records.
One thing, is that the shelves are also open in the back and due to my floor molding, the unit sits out 1.25" from the wall. When putting albums back, this prevented the front edges of the albums from being uniformely flush. This bugged me, so I got five 6' lengths of 1/4" allthread, drilled holes, and ran it horizontally through the backside of the cubes as record stops. Kenny
Ispice---There are several Ikea shelving units that work well for LP’s, as attested to above. I went to my Ikea to look them all over, and chose the EKET. I too had concerns about it’s weight capacity, but they have (so far!) proven to be groundless.
I have nine of the 4-cube version (each measuring 27.5" tall and wide, and 14" deep, with a back panel, which many of the Ikea shelving units do NOT have), stacked three high in three side-by-side rows. Ikea offers a bag of connecting clips, which secure one 4-cube unit to another, either it’s lateral neighbor, it’s vertical, or both. I have each stack sitting on the optional 4-legged stand, which raises the bottom EKET 3.5" off the floor. It screws onto the bottom of the EKET, keeping the bottom shelf from accumulating the floor dust that always seems to get in. Right?! Each of the four legs has threaded inserts, into which screw adjustable feet, which provide leveling. I adjusted mine so that the stack leans back just slightly, the top edge of the upper EKET’s back butted against the wall. So placed, the stack is rock solid, not budging even slightly when nudged from the front or side. The nine EKET cubes feel like they are part of the room’s structure! I am 100% happy with them, and I don’t please easily.
The 4-cube EKET is $50, the 4-legged stand $15, and the bag of clips $5. My EKET assembly provides 459 linear feet of LP storage for exactly $500 (Oregon has no sales tax!), imo an excellent value. Some of the other Ikea shelving units provide even more linear footage per $, but they don’t have back panels, are too deep for my liking, and aren’t as structurally stiff as the EKET. Others prefer different Ikea racks---it’s all good!
Plus 2! for the Kallax shelving, you can buy single or double ones and stack them sideways or look at a huge quad! . This is one of the best products for holding vinyl period! http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10275862
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