3 Sizing Tips to Keep In Mind When Choosing Your Communication Racks
One of the most important factors you'll need to consider when choosing communication racks is size. From height to width to depth, here are three key tips to keep in mind.
Add extra depth
Your communication rack needs to be deep enough to house your equipment safely. In general, this means you'll want the entire unit to fit on the rack without hanging over the edge. Any overhang can leave your equipment unstable, and it may only take one jolt or jostle to knock your expensive units over the edge.
That said, don't make the mistake of thinking it's fine to buy communication racks that just fit your equipment. A 28-inch deep rack won't leave a 28-inch serve hanging, but it also won't leave you with any room for cabling or other peripherals. In general, you'll want to choose racks with at least 1 inch (2.5cm) of extra depth to accommodate cables you need to plug in. If your equipment has ports on the front and back, you may prefer to opt for an additional 2 inches (5cm) of depth.
Maximise height
No matter where you're using your communication racks, you likely don't have unlimited floor space to work with. As such, it's always a good idea to maximise the height of your racks. The taller your rack, the more "rack units" (shelves) it will have. The more rack units, the more equipment you can fit into one area of floor space.
If you're looking for a particularly tall communication rack, make sure to check out open-frame options. Since these racks are lightweight, they can be built taller without safety issues.
The only factor you'll need to keep in mind is accessibility. If you don't need to reach your equipment often, a safe step ladder will suffice for accessing high rack units. However, if you need to perform regular maintenance, repairs, or cable changes, you may want to opt for a slightly shorter rack that's easier to reach without steps.
Understand width
Keep in mind that the actual width of a communication rack will be wider than advertised. A 19-inch rack, for example, has an internal rack width of 19 inches. The exterior width, however, will be wider by several inches.
This means you'll need to account for extra width when working out how many communication racks you can fit in your designated space.
For more information, contact a local dealer.
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