Customer Reviews

Rubbermaid 7086 72-Inch Five-Shelf Shelving Unit

5 star:		(75)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great shelving unit for the shed.
It's easy to put together and it's very sturdy.

I've stacked floor tile, old paint cans and other heavy items on it without any worries about whether it could hold them or not.

I've already bought three and I'm going to order another two.

I bought these shelves for extra storage in the laundry room. The shelves are EXTREMELY easy to put together. (Make sure you tap down the shelves so they are level and secure. No tools necessary.) The unit is very sturdy. I was able to organize and store my items, and I still have room for more stuff! I highly recommend this shelving unit! I got 10% off and free shipping to the door from Amazon...great deal!

This shelving unit is much more durable than those medium duty metal shelves. It holds loads of weight, and is very light if it needs to be moved. Unfortunately, Rubbermaid has designed the unit to look appealing at the expense of usable space. A slight curvature of the shelves means the unit will not fit flat against a wall. The shelves are supported by plastic tubes that take up too much valuable shelf space due to placement and width. This is probably only important if you are storing large boxes, however. Overall a strong unit and a great price.

Took less than 10 minutes to put together. They are very sturdy and a great price -- light and easy to move around compared to metal shelves. I ordered 2, then 4 more! The shelves are not a solid sheet of resin, but for lack of better words... a structural grid. If you plan to store tiny items on it, they could fall through the holes or become unbalanced by the holes. For boxes and anything with greater than a 4-inch base -- these are perfect.

We bought 5 of these, after having owned several other plastic shelves by other manufacturers. Compared with plastic shelves from Home Depot, these are far easier to assemble (and I mean a _lot_ easier). Average assembly time per shelf, start to finish, was around 15 minutes (with a partner to help).

Most cheap plastic shelves are difficult to assemble because their manufacturing tolerances are too large. So you end up with plastic burrs that you have to file down (or mallet through), or warped parts that don't come together. Rubbermaid has really done a great job with the manufacturing tolerances of this shelf, which basically assembles pretty much without the use of mallets -- just your bare hands. It's not quite as tight-tolerance as Legos, but it's a breeze compared to other shelves we've owned.

Sure, they tell you it'll hold thousands of pounds, and withstand small safari animals resting on it, but in reality, like most plastic shelves, they'll begin warping downwards over time. Even with fairly light objects on each shelf (around 20-40 pounds), I can already see sagging after 3 months of ownership. But that's what you get with plastic, and for the price, it's really unbeatable.

If you're in the market for plastic, this is the shelf for you. Take it from a man who's bought other brands -- this one's well worth it.

The plastic shelves are designed more like a wire rack, ie., they have a pattern of holes in them. This may be a design feature which makes them stronger or lighter, but it wasn't mentioned in the product description or evident in the photos. After looking at the shelves in person, I can see the pattern in the online photo.

If you need to store small items on the shelves, they will have to be placed in boxes or on pieces of cardboard, etc.

If the shelves must be cleaned frequently, cleaning all those holes is a pain.

Rubbermaid has a winner with these shelves. Only takes a minute to assemble. They are very heavy duty so you can store away your heavy garage type items easily. Make sure to store heavy items on the bottom as with all freestanding shelves.
Since they are plastic they will weather the dampness in a basement or a garage.

Need storage? Get these shelves.

We bought 5 sets of these shelves several years ago. As others have observed, assembly is easy. Weight capacity is within reason for garage shelving, however small heavy objects can only be stored on the end of the shelves near the uprights. Items like spare vehicle batteries, power supplies or heavy tools will cause the shelves to sag. This is not a black mark as these are not advertised as industrial shelving and I didn't subtract stars for this.

What is significant however is that our shelves became brittle over time. Some cracked and became unusable. This could be specific to the UV stabilizers used in our 5 units or it could be a product wide engineering issue. My experience is limited to the 5 units I own and some are clearly more brittle than others so it is impossible to draw broad conclusions. The fact that their service life has been less than 5yrs and is compromised has lessened their value in my eyes and I have rated accordingly. When we recently moved we did not attempt to use them again and bought wire rack shelves which are considerably more expensive.

I purchased one of thses shelf units about 5 years ago. I stored 4 window air conditioners and a 19" old TV, as well as other plastic storage bins filled with paper files. It is so sturdy, that I decided to buy a second unit for additional storage.

Good luck in your purchase. I highly reccommend this product.

I can't think of a downside to these. I have two sets in my basement and have just ordered two more for my winter cleanup project. These ship free via Amazon Prime (finally), are super-easy to assemble, arrive very quickly, are extremely rugged, and capacious enough for even your bulkiest items. for the price they're well worth it. I've spent twice as much for terrible shipping prices and long assembly procedures so these really stand out. Because they have no walls or sides however, they're not really appropriate for books. Some sort of shelf brace for books would be a great addition. I'm an Amazon junkie and these are one of the best products I've found here.