Plastic vs Wooden Vinyl Record Crates
Wooden crates look better. Plastic crates are lighter, more consistent and easier to live with. Which matters more depends on whether the crate ever moves.
By Zachary Medeiros, Groove Crate. . 4 min read.
Once you have decided on crates rather than shelving, the next question is what they are made of. Both plastic and wood are used widely, and the trade-offs are fairly clear-cut.
Weight
Plastic wins comfortably. A full crate of records is heavy before you add anything, and a solid wooden crate adds meaningfully to that. If you are lifting crates down from a stack regularly, or carrying them between rooms, the difference is noticeable every time.
Wood's weight is not purely a downside. A heavier crate is more stable on the floor and less likely to slide.
Durability
Both last, in different ways. Wood is rigid and takes a lot of use, but it can split at joints and corners under repeated load, and joints can loosen over the years.
Plastic flexes rather than splitting, which is usually more forgiving. Thin or brittle plastic can crack, particularly in cold conditions, so build quality matters more than material here.
One point in wood's favour: a damaged wooden crate can often be repaired. A cracked plastic one usually cannot.
Appearance
Wood generally looks better, and there is not much point arguing otherwise. It reads as furniture, it ages visibly, and it suits a room where the collection is on display.
Plastic reads as functional storage. In a consistent colour and a consistent size it looks deliberate rather than improvised, which is a large part of why matched crates beat mismatched ones aesthetically.
Portability
Plastic again, mostly because of weight, but also because moulded handles are easier to build into plastic than into wood. Wooden crates often have cut-out hand holes, which work but are harder on your fingers with a full load.
Storage when empty
This is the biggest functional gap. A wooden crate takes up the same space empty as full, and there is no way around it. Rigid plastic crates are usually the same.
Collapsible plastic crates are the exception, and it is a real one. A Groove Crate folds to 4 inches high when empty, which means spare crates can be bought ahead of a growing collection and stored flat until they are needed.
Maintenance
Plastic needs essentially none: wipe it down. Wood may need occasional attention depending on the finish, and unfinished wood can raise splinters that catch on sleeves, which is worth checking on any wooden crate before you load records into it.
Wood is also more sensitive to humidity, expanding and contracting with it. That matters more in a damp basement than in a normal room.
Stacking
Both stack. What matters is whether crates locate into each other rather than balancing on top, and whether every crate in your stack is the same size. Matched crates of either material stack well; a mixed pile of either does not.
Cost
Prices vary too much to state, but the general pattern holds: comparable plastic crates cost less than solid wooden ones, and handmade wooden crates cost considerably more. Compare current prices rather than trusting a figure in an article.
Groove Crate compared with a wooden crate
Since this is the comparison most people are actually making, the specifics: Groove Crate is plastic, folds flat to 4 inches when empty, has moulded carry handles, and every crate is the same 14.5 inch exterior with a 13 inch square interior. A good wooden crate will usually look better on a shelf and feel more substantial.
If the crate is going to sit in one place and be looked at, wood has a real advantage. If it is going to be lifted, stacked, moved between rooms, or stored away when it is not in use, plastic makes more sense, and a collapsible one more sense still.
A note on environmental claims
You will see both materials described as the greener option. Neither claim is straightforward: it depends on the specific timber source, the specific plastic, transport, and how long the crate lasts. We are not going to make a claim here that we cannot support.
The short version
- Wood if appearance is the priority and the crate is staying put.
- Plastic if the crate gets handled, carried, stacked or stored away.
If you want to see the plastic option, the Groove Crate range is here.