GarageSmart Archives - Storage King

StoreWALL, Slatwall, Storpanels, Flexipanels, Handywall, Smartwall. These are all Garage Storage Wall Panels, but are they the same?

The majority of Garage Storage companies selling Slatwall or Wall Panels sell a solution that looks like the picture below. The panel is about 300mm in height and has grooves spaced every 74mm.

The garage wall panels are designed to sit on top of each other in order to cover an area of your wall. You will notice that the back of this panel has a rounded mold. It is designed to be screwed onto your wall with screws directly through the panel. This type of panel is not designed to be installed with any metal bracket for additional support.

These types of wall panels also have rounded grooves. This rounded profile is easier to produce, resulting in a cheaper wall panel. It also means that accessories locked into these grooves are held less securely as the edges are rounded.

StoreWALL Slatwall Panels

StoreWALL sells 3 grades of Garage Storage Wall Panels. Heavy Duty, Standard Duty, and Basic Duty. What makes StoreWALL different from every other Garage Wall Storage supplier is that our wall panels are designed to be installed with a supporting metal bracket that we call an Installstrip.

StoreWALL has a custom-designed installstrip for its Heavy Duty Panel and a separately custom-designed installstrip for its Standard Duty Panel.

StoreWALL Garage Storage Wall Panels — Standard Duty

When you look at both the Heavy Duty and the Standard Duty panels you will notice that the back of the panel is not rounded. Rather, the mold is designed with a downward-pointing corner. This corner is used to latch onto the installstrip and secure the panel.

All of the weight on the panels from your stored items push downwards onto the installstrip. The strength of the installstrip and its fastening to the wall with 12 -15 screws/nails makes it a far superior installation method to simply screwing into the panel and onto the wall.

Without the installstrip, the strength of the solution relies entirely on the panel and the screws.

Furthermore, StoreWALL’s Standard and Heavy Duty Panels have grooves designed with straight square edges. This ensures that any accessories are securely held into the slatwall groove. In addition, our CamLok locking mechanism ensures they never fall off the wall.

Why do Installstrips Matter?

StoreWALL’s Installstrips are made from rolled steel and are galvanised. They are installed onto your wall with 12-15 screws or nails. Combined they allow your wall panels to securely support a lot more weight than a panel that is installed with just screws through the panel.

How much more weight?

The maximum weight that a 1.2m panel can support is:

Standard Duty – 56kgs (1219mm), 113kgs (2438mm)
Heavy Duty – 68kgs (1219mm)

Furthermore, using installstrips means you are not screwing through your wall panels, damaging them. They are kept clean with no screw holes.

Several weeks ago I had an enquiry by a customer in Melbourne who had recently built a new home with the GarageSmart Storage System installed in his garage.

Upon initially talking to him I wasn’t quite sure what system he had on his walls. The gentleman was looking for some bins and our Rotating Bike Hook. When people tell you they have an existing slatwall system, it can mean so many different things. Whilst the majority of PVC based slatwalls have very similar spacing between grooves, MDF slatwalls can be quite different.

I have had several customers purchase hooks from StoreWALL and have had Garagetek walls panels. However GarageSmart was a little unknown to me.

The gentleman’s home was about 30mins from me so we arranged a time for him to visit and show me an accessory so that we could try it on a StoreWALL panel. Idea being that if his hooks work on StoreWALL panels, then StoreWALL would work on his.

GarageSmart Storage System

Garage Smart is a local Melbourne business. I am sure they provide a good service to their customers and many of them would be happy with the product they have received.

On inspection of the hook that the gentleman brought with him, it seemed to fit quite well into a StoreWALL panel and so he placed an order for a Rotating Bike Hook, some bins and a shelf. I offered to deliver it to him later that day.

The thing about PVC slatwalls is that much of the product in Australia is the same. It looks very similar to the StoreWALL Basic Duty range and is installed with screws directly through the panel. So no Installstrips. StoreWALL offers 3 ranges of panel, Heavy Duty (installed with Heavy Duty Installstrips), Standard Duty (installed with Standard Duty Installstrips) and Basic Duty (installed with screws through the panel). 80% of our customers purchase Standard Duty.

When I visited this gentleman to deliver the hooks we ventured into his garage and it looked great, really nicely organised. A section near the garage door was dedicated to several bikes which he wanted to hang upright (perpendicular). This is what the Rotating Bike Hook was there to solve. We tested it on his wall and it fitted perfectly. With the CamLok locking mechanism his bikes where not going to leave that wall until they needed them.

Locking Mechansim

I took a closer look at one of the GarageSmart Hooks that was already on the wall and noticed that it used a unique locking mechanism. You can see it in the photo above. There was a Lip locking the Hook into the upper groove of the panel (similar to StoreWALL) but nothing to grip the lower groove. The lower section just rests on the panel. The challenge with this approach is with heavy items. There is just not enough gripping the panel to safely secure your items. This is why CamLok is so unique and why the gentleman was looking for a better bike hook.

Needless to say, the gentleman’s garage looked great and he returned and purchased 3 more Rotating Hooks the next day to complete his bike rack.

If you have the GarageSmart Storage System and are looking for alternative accessories to use, you can be confident that StoreWALL’s accessories will work for you.