Vertical Carousel Cable Drum Storage: World Electric Supply, Hialeah Gardens, Florida
How an electrical wholesaler put its heavy wire and cable drums into two motorized Vidir carousels instead of another aisle of reel racks.
Customer
World Electric Supply
Location
10701 NW 142nd Street, Hialeah Gardens, FL 33018 (Miami-Dade County)
Product
(2) Vidir carousels, Model T45200-0944-15, 9 carriers each
Application
Powered storage and retrieval of electrical wire and cable drums
About the project
World Electric Supply is an electrical supply wholesaler serving contractors out of a South Florida distribution warehouse at 10701 NW 142nd Street in Hialeah Gardens, Florida, in Miami-Dade County. Like every electrical distributor, its highest-turn, heaviest and most awkward inventory is the same thing: wire and cable on drums.
Material Handling USA supplied and installed two motorized vertical carousels at that warehouse — Vidir Model T45200-0944-15, nine carriers per machine, 17’9″ wide and just under 18 feet high. The order was signed in January 2024, the machines shipped that March, and both were delivered and installed by the factory crew in a single delivery window.
The project is one of the installations behind our vertical storage for electrical supply and wire distribution page, and part of the wider Vidir vertical storage line we sell, install and service nationwide.
The machine model is Vidir’s carousel platform normally cataloged for tires — the same hardware, carriers and drive, sized here around the drum diameters the branch actually stocks. That flexibility is the point: a Vidir carousel carrier holds whatever round, heavy, hard-to-shelve product a business turns over most.
Project scope at a glance
The situation
Wire is the worst-behaving product in an electrical warehouse. A full drum of building wire or feeder cable is heavy, round, and impossible to stack; it has to sit on a rack that lets it spin so a counterman can pull and cut a length. Traditional reel racks solve the spin problem and create a floor-space problem: every reel needs its own axle position at a reachable height, so the rack grows sideways down the wall and the aisle in front of it has to stay clear.
Growth then forces one of two bad choices. Either the branch adds another run of reel rack and gives up sellable floor area, or it stacks drums on the floor and in pallet positions, where finding a specific gauge and color means moving other drums first. Both options cost picking time on the highest-volume line items in the building.
A vertical carousel inverts that. The drums ride on powered carriers that rotate inside a single enclosed tower, so the storage grows upward into unused ceiling height instead of sideways, and the requested carrier comes down to a counterman standing in one place.
What Material Handling USA supplied
The solution was two identical Vidir carousels, Model T45200-0944-15 — freestanding powered vertical carousels 17’9″ wide, 7’6″ deep and 17’11″ high, each with nine carriers on a motorized drive and a fixed pick opening at floor level.
Two machines rather than one taller machine was a deliberate call. The pair fits under the existing warehouse roof structure, splits the inventory so two people can pick at once, and keeps the branch running if one unit is ever down for service. Because both machines are the same model, spare parts, controls and operator training are identical.
Each carrier is a full-width cradle 186″ wide rated at 1,000 lbs, so a carrier can hold several drums side by side up to 33″ in diameter, and the machine as a whole is rated at 9,000 lbs. Product is loaded and picked from one opening at the front instead of from a 20-foot run of open rack.
Vidir’s factory crew handled installation. Site preparation was straightforward but specific: an isolated 208V three-phase 15 amp circuit per machine roughed in ahead of time, an electrician on site mid-install for final hookup, a 5,000 lb forklift with 6′ forks and 15′ reach for unloading, and an 18–20′ electric scissor lift for the tower work. Our vertical storage installation services page walks through that checklist in detail.
Full product specifications
A vertical carousel is a manufactured machine with published specifications, so here is the full product data for the model installed at Hialeah Gardens — the same sheet used to confirm it would fit the building and carry the branch’s drum weights.
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Model | T45200-0944-15 |
| Product type | Vidir vertical carousel (tire carousel platform) |
| Quantity supplied | 2 machines |
| Overall width | 17′ 9″ (213″) |
| Overall depth | 7′ 6″ (89.5″) |
| Overall height | 17′ 11″ (215″) |
| Total carriers per machine | 9 |
| Usable carrier width | 186″ |
| Maximum product diameter | 33″ (838 mm) |
| Overall weight capacity | 9,000 lbs (4,082 kg) |
| Maximum weight per carrier | 1,000 lbs (454 kg) |
| Carrier weight | 203 lbs (92 kg) |
| Shipping weight | 5,155 lbs (2,343 kg) per machine |
| Electrical | 208V, 3-phase, 15 amp (isolated circuit per machine) |
| Power connection point | Front, top right corner of the machine |
| Controls | Powered forward/reverse rotation at the front of the machine |
| Customer-supplied equipment for install | 5,000 lb forklift (6′ forks, 15′ reach) and 18–20′ electric scissor lift |
| Included in scope | Machines, freight, factory installation |
What the distributor gained
Vertical carousel or wire reel rack?
| Vidir vertical carousel (used here) | Static wire reel rack | |
|---|---|---|
| Floor footprint | One 17’9″ x 7’6″ footprint per machine | Grows sideways along a wall, plus clear aisle |
| Vertical use | Stores to 17’11” and still picks at floor level | Limited to safe manual reach |
| Retrieval | Powered rotation to a fixed pick opening | Walk the rack, find the reel, spin it in place |
| Drum weight handling | 1,000 lbs per carrier, 9,000 lbs per machine | Depends on rack design; heavy reels go low |
| Access control | Enclosed tower with a single opening | Open rack, open aisle |
| Best for | High-turn drum inventory in a tight building | Small reel counts and low-volume branches |
Our wire spool carousel vs. wire reel rack comparison goes deeper on the trade-off, and the vertical carousel vs. traditional storage page covers the same question for parts and supplies generally.
How to specify a cable drum carousel
Sizing a drum carousel takes three numbers before anything else: the largest drum diameter you stock, the heaviest loaded drum, and how many drum positions you need live at the counter. On this project those numbers pointed to a 33″ maximum diameter carrier rated at 1,000 lbs, nine carriers per machine, and two machines to reach the required position count.
Next comes the building. Confirm clear height above the machine’s 17’11″ overall height, a level concrete floor able to carry the column loads, a door path and staging area for the tower sections, and 208V three-phase power at the machine — one isolated circuit per unit, roughed in before the crew arrives. Anything missing on install day turns a one-day set into a return trip.
Last is the option list. Wire and cable applications commonly add payout and metering hardware, spinner spools, loading dollies and security gates; the vertical carousel accessories and options page lists what bolts onto these machines. If you are still comparing machine types, the Vidir Wire Carousel uses dedicated wire-bay carriers with rods for spools, while the vertical carousel vs. vertical lift module comparison covers taller or highly variable loads. For budgeting, start with our vertical storage cost and pricing guide.
Frequently asked questions
Can a vertical carousel store electrical cable drums and wire reels?
How much does a motorized wire carousel hold?
How much floor space does a drum carousel save?
What power does the machine need?
What does the customer have to provide on install day?
Is a tire carousel the same machine as a wire carousel?
Do you install vertical carousels in Florida?
Storing wire and cable drums in a building that is out of floor space?
Send us your largest drum diameter, your heaviest loaded drum and your clear ceiling height, and we will size a Vidir carousel — machines, carriers, options, freight and installation — for your branch.