Back Bar Coolers

Back Bar Cooler Buying Guide

A back bar cooler — also sold as a back bar refrigerator or back bar fridge — runs along the back wall of a working bar with its top doubling as a work surface. It is bought on the bar it has to fit into, not on capacity: get the depth wrong and the cabinet will not go in at all.

Shallow depth — 24 7/16"

For a narrow back run, a service corridor that has to stay walkable, or a wall with pipework already on it. Our Polarman shallow line runs 49", 61" and 73" in solid, glass swing and glass sliding.

Standard depth — 27 5/8"

Three and a bit inches more cabinet, and more capacity per inch of bar. Polarman standard runs 58 3/4", 69" and 90 3/8" in solid and glass swing, topping out at 29.1 cu ft.

Kegerators — the same cabinet with a tower on it

Our kegerators are built on the shallow cabinet above: PLM-BCBD2 at 49 1/8", BCBD3 at 61 1/16" and BCBD4 at 73 1/16", all 24 7/16" deep with the same 12.5, 16.6 and 20.8 cu ft. So a kegerator and a back bar cooler from this line sit flush next to each other along the back run — no step, no gap, one depth budget for both. Shop commercial kegerators →

Horizontal bottle coolers

Different product, same bar. A bottle cooler is a horizontal chest with sliding lids that sits under the bar rail rather than standing against the back wall — lower, and reached from above instead of in front. Shop horizontal bottle coolers →

How to choose a back bar cooler

• Depth first, and it is not negotiable. Measure the back run from the wall to the edge of the walkway, then subtract what a bartender needs to pass behind a colleague. What is left is your depth budget.
• Height: 41 3/4" shallow, 42 1/2" standard — with the legs on. The cabinet bodies are 36 1/4" and 37"; the legs add 5 1/2". What has to clear your bar-top underside is the overall figure, not the body height some spec sheets print.
• Glass where the guest is standing, solid everywhere else. Glass sells the pour but insulates far worse than a foamed solid door and runs 40 to 68 lb heavier on the same cabinet.
• Sliding doors open into nothing. Behind a bar the aisle is about thirty inches with someone else in it. Stand where the bartender stands and open an imaginary door — if it hits the bar back or a colleague, buy sliding.
• Size on restock, not inventory. Anything topped up mid-service is a sizing failure. Count what goes in at open on your busiest night, then add a door — two to three doors on our standard line is 20.4 to 29.1 cu ft, a 43% increase for 21 3/8 inches of bar.
• Split a long bar. Two cabinets at the two ends beat one big one in the middle — shorter walk, and you are still pouring when one is down. Full back bar cooler buying guide →

The trade nobody puts in writing: length buys back depth

If you are short on depth but have bar length to spare, the shallow line costs you almost nothing. Compare our two families where they overlap:

2 1/4 inches more bar length buys back the 3 3/16 inches of depth you do not have, with no capacity loss — and the trade repeats one size up, where 4 more inches covers the same depth gap. If depth is not your constraint, take the standard line: it holds more per inch of bar and tops out higher.

Height: read the figure with the legs on

Back bar spec sheets quote height two different ways and often do not say which, so the same cabinet can appear in a catalogue as two numbers five and a half inches apart. Every cabinet on this page is a body on a 5 1/2" leg set:

Two things follow. The number that has to clear the underside of your bar top, an overhang or a conduit run is the overall one — 41 3/4" or 42 1/2". And if it is a 36 1/4" figure that makes a cabinet look like it fits, it does not fit: that is the box without its feet.

Swing or sliding: the two widths where you get to choose

Sliding glass is only built on the shallow line, and only at two widths. If the aisle behind your bar is tight, these are the two cabinets to look at:

Same cabinet, same capacity, same 41 3/4" overall height, same 3 A — the only difference is how the door opens. On those two product pages you can switch between the swing and sliding versions with the Door Style selector without leaving the page. At 73" and on the whole standard line, glass means swing: there is no sliding version, so the aisle question has to be settled before you commit to that width.

Polarman back bar range

All 115 V / single phase / 3 A, R290, 33–41°F, side-mounted compressor, LED interior lighting. Heights below are overall, legs included.

Every cabinet carries 1 year labour, 2 years parts and 5 years on the compressor part.