Groove Crate vs Milk Crates for Vinyl Records
Milk crates have stored records for decades and there is nothing wrong with that. The differences come down to fit, consistency and what happens when the crate is empty.
By Zachary Medeiros, Groove Crate. . 4 min read.
Milk crates and records have gone together for as long as people have been carrying records around. They are sturdy, they stack, and for a long time they were the only thing that was roughly the right size and easy to get hold of.
Groove Crate is a crate built specifically for 12-inch vinyl. Here is how the two actually differ.
Dimensions are the main difference, and they vary
There is no single milk crate. Dimensions differ by dairy, by region, by manufacturer and by decade. Some are close to a 12-inch sleeve, some are noticeably larger, and some are too short to hold a sleeve upright without it sticking out of the top.
That variability is the practical issue. If you find milk crates that fit your records well, they work. If you buy a set sight unseen, you might get crates where LPs slide around or lean.
Groove Crate is one known size: a 13 inch square interior and 13.5 inch interior height, exterior 14.5 by 14.5 by 14.125 inches. Every crate is the same as every other crate, which matters once you own several.
Record fit and leaning
An LP that has room to lean is being slowly bent. In a container noticeably wider than a sleeve, a partly filled row will slump.
A crate sized to the record limits how far anything can lean, because there is nowhere for it to fall to. This is the single most useful property of purpose-built record storage, and it is the one that is hardest to guarantee with mixed milk crates.
Access and browsing
Both are good here, and this is why crates in general beat shelving for browsing. You lift the crate out, put it in your lap or on the floor, and flip through it properly.
Milk crates with deep hand slots can be easier to grab. Some have sharp moulded edges that catch on sleeve corners, which is worth checking on any crate you are considering.
Stacking
Most milk crates stack, but whether they interlock depends on the design. Crates from different sources often do not stack squarely on each other, and a stack that is not square is a stack that shifts.
Groove Crates are designed to stack on one another consistently, which is mostly a function of every crate being identical.
The empty crate problem
This is the clearest difference. An empty milk crate takes up exactly as much room as a full one. If you have four crates and only need three, the fourth is a 14 inch cube of nothing sitting in your flat.
Groove Crates fold flat to 4 inches high when empty. Spare capacity can be bought in advance and stored under a bed until the records catch up with it.
Appearance
This is taste. A wall of mismatched dairy crates has a genuine look to it and a lot of collectors like it. Others want storage that matches. Groove Crate comes in a consistent finish, currently black, white and a limited edition diamond blue.
Availability and legality
Worth stating plainly: in many places, dairy milk crates remain the property of the dairy, and taking them is theft. Crates sold as storage crates by retailers are a different thing and are fine to buy. If you are sourcing milk crates, buy them from a legitimate seller.
Cost
Second-hand or generic plastic crates are usually cheaper per crate than purpose-built record storage. That is a real advantage and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise.
What you pay more for with a purpose-built crate is a known fit, consistency between crates, reliable stacking, and the ability to fold it away. Whether that is worth the difference depends on how much of the variability above you want to deal with.
Which should you choose?
Milk crates make sense when
- You have already found crates that fit your records well.
- Budget is the deciding factor.
- You like the look, and consistency between crates does not bother you.
- Storage is staying put and you do not need it to fold away.
Groove Crate makes sense when
- You want a known fit rather than hoping a crate is the right size.
- You are building a stack and want crates that match and sit squarely.
- You move, or you want spare crates that store flat.
- You want the collection to look deliberate rather than improvised.
If you are weighing this up, can you store vinyl records in milk crates covers the practical question in more detail, and how many records fit in a milk crate covers capacity.