3 years ago, I bought a couple of Seville Classics 4-shelf wire shelving systems, and reviewed them quite favorably. They have held up great since then, and I recently needed to order a couple of more.
The one downside at the time was that I could not find something similar with an extra shelf. You could typically buy extra shelves for these types of systems, but at the time I couldn’t find the exact ones from Seville Classics either.
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Good news – since my review 3 years ago, Seville Classics has come out with a 5-shelf system that also includes both leveling feet and wheeled casters.
The weight capacity goes down when you use wheels, from 600 lbs per shelf with leveling feet, to 500 lbs total with casters, but that’s still plenty.
I love wire shelving systems because of their versatility, adjustability, strength, affordability, and quick assembly.
Half of the units I’m currently using have casters, the others are stationary.
Once the 2 units I ordered arrive, barring shipping damages or missing parts, I should have them both assembled, with shelves perfectly spaced to my needs, in about 30 minutes. Maybe a little longer, because it’ll be a lot easier to move them in parts, from where they’re delivered to where they’ll go. Each box weighs around 75-80 lbs.
I have used multiple sizes and styles of wire shelving systems before, but find myself preferring this 18″ x 48″ x 72″ sizing for workshop use. It’s large enough to hold lots of tools and storage bins, but not too large so as to be difficult to move around.
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There’s a larger 24″ x 60″ shelf size, but I think that would be a little much for my needs.
With wire shelving, you often get your money’s worth.
With less expensive systems, you often get lighter duty plastic sleeves, which support the shelves, and lower weight capacity.
With more expensive systems, you get beefier plastic sleeves, sturdier shelves, and greater weight capacity. Industrial or commercial-grade systems have even greater weight capacities, many more size options, different mounting methods, and lots of accessories.
The Seville Classics units I previously purchased are the best consumer (or light duty commercial?) wire shelving products I have ever bought.
$125 can seem difficult to justify, when you can get similarly sized units for less, but I’ve found that other brands’ units aren’t built quick as sturdily, even if the weight rating is similar.
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bob dobalina
Have you ever used Metro shelves? I am (pretty) sure that all wire shelves (including the Sevilles) are Metro knockoffs.
I have had a ton of them over the years (I live in New York and you can usually find them cheap on Craigslist) and they are very durable.
RC WARD
Seville does make great stuff for a good price. But those wire shelves have to have some kind of layer on top or things just fall over all the time. I use 1/4 in thick plywood cut to shape and it works great. #TIA CREW
Farid
Stuart,
Sams club carries a 6- shelve unit. It marketed under Members Mark Brand, but are made by Seville. It comes with casters and plastic shelve liners that are really nice for keeping smaller items from tipping over or falling through, and keeps dust off lower shelves.
6-shelves is too much for for one rack. but, you do have the option to assemble two 3-shelve units if needed. They provide both casters and fixed feet, so one half can be stationary and other mobile (I have one setup like that in the garage. I have several units and for $99 they are pretty nice.
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/seville-commercial-industrial-shelving-6-ct/152201.ip
I am pretty sure Costco has a 5 or 6-shelve unit as well for $89 (in store only), but those do not come with the shelve liners. I do believe those are Seville but could be Alera. I’ll have to look next time I visit.
Stuart
By the time I factor in a Sam’s Club membership, and the hassle of making room for two or even just one unit in my car, the Amazon to-my-door price works out a lot better.
I know they sell these as Sam’s, but never saw that as working out well for me.
Farid
FYI: You can buy without membership (I believe at 5% higher premium), but you are correct about the hassle of pickup or delivery. The boxes are heavy to load and unload for one person.
Stuart
I looked into that once or twice, and recall the premium being 10%.
Still, straight to my door is worth the slightly added cost.
mike aka Fazzman
You should look into origami shelves from amazon.
RX9
A lot of the same wire frame shelving units parts have the same dimensions, despite coming from nominally different manufacturers. I suspect that a few factories in China supply the same shelving to several retailers under different house brand identities.
What’s more, you can convert pretty much any wire frame shelving unit to a wheeled one using a swivel caster kit.Even the smaller wire frame shelf kits can be wheeled – the trick is to find out the thread pitch where the leveling feet screw in, and search online for swivel casters of that pitch.
Jim Felt
All of these “wire shelves” are Inter Metro knockoffs. Metro lost their ancient design patent in the 1990’s. And now every imaginable importer is using the 1″ incremental template they created. And many are using the same wire gage. Though certainly not all.
And sadly Metro themselves are mostly produced in the very same countries as their knockoff competitors.
We’ve used them since the late 1970’s and have never once regretted the investment. And the use innovation that’s now optional via competition.
And as someone noted Costco has two nice k/o brands. And they do indeed deliver.
fred
I’m not a fan of shelves that are not anchored in some way to structure that prevents tip-over accidents. Particularly with small children (grand children, great-grand children) an accidental tip-over can be deadly.
We would tie-back some of our rolling cabinets with cable loops to substantial wall anchors – and many of ours had safety interlocks – preventing more than 1 drawer at-a-time opening. With shelving – while all our workers knew that a rolling stair/safety ladder was the correct way to reach a top shelf – we had some disciplinary events over the years where workers were found doing otherwise. Lucky for them that they were only warned or lost some pay – and that the shelves could carry their weight and were tied into the structure so an injury was not inevitable.
There are several sites like Meghan’s Hope (meghanshope.org) that explain this danger you children. Here is the one from the CPSC
http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Safety-Education/Safety-Education-Centers/Tipover-Information-Center/
Stuart
In my case, the wire shelving will be used in places my son (and visitors’ small children) wouldn’t be allowed to play or even be unsupervised or unattended, such as basement, garage, and off-site storage.
Eventually, what I might do is use pipe brackets, straps, or cable loops as you suggested, to secure them to a wall. I like that idea. Or I’ll figure out what I need storage-wise and build cabinets with wide footprints or tethered tops.
I was looking at a new office cabinet (IKEA Galant), and liked that it had safety interlocks to only allow one shelf open at a time.
For everything else, once we finalize their placement, every dresser, drawer unit, and floor-standing cabinet, plus TVs, will be anchored to a wall.
I’ve toppled a tool cabinet once, and wire shelving unit. The tool cabinet because I started loading the bottom drawer at full extension when the rest was empty, and the wire shelving unit when I was routing wires under it and lifted a rear legs just a tiny fraction of an inch.
KenZ
On that note and others, there are a few of these shelf vendors who have all sorts of crazy add on options, like hanging attachments to hold sliding trays, to locking cages around them for tool or part security, to feet that can bolt into the floor, and attachment systems to secure them to the walls.
Stuart: perhaps a rundown of the best wire shelf-related tool-happy modification add ons would be an interesting article? Look at all this crazy stuff…
http://www.shelving.com/Wire-Shelving-Parts-and-Accessories-s/217.htm
Stuart
Some of those are new to me, such as the post to wall brackets!
garrett
I usually mix and match my own stuff – you can get individual parts (shelves, rods, etc.) online or at a local Container Store. Buy the Seville/Metro/Home Depot versions, and add other items to match.
I actually like black uprights with chromed shelves with some home-made hardwood shelves and some casters – looks way slick and high-tech. Its what I use for my home-grown computer-racks