Home bar & game room questions, answered
The questions we get most, with straight answers. Still stuck? Ask us directly.
What should I buy first for a home bar?
A cocktail shaker and a jigger. Cocktails are ratios, and accurate measuring is the single biggest difference between a home drink and a bar drink — it is also the cheapest thing to fix. Glassware second, ice third. See what to buy, in order.
How much space do I need for a pool table?
About 17 by 13 feet for a 7-foot table with standard 58-inch cues. The formula is the table footprint plus a full cue length on all four sides. If you do not have that, bumper pool needs about 11 by 11 feet. Our room-size guide has the full chart.
What size room do I need for a bumper pool table?
Roughly 11 by 11 feet for a 48 to 54-inch table. Bumper pool uses short 48-inch cues rather than 58-inch ones, which is why it fits rooms a pool table cannot. See the bumper pool roundup.
Which game table fits the smallest room?
Shuffleboard, counter-intuitively — a 9-foot table is only about 20 inches wide and needs no side clearance, because nothing is swung. After that, bumper pool, then a compact 6.5-foot pool table. Cheaper and smaller still: a dartboard needs only a patch of wall.
Do countertop ice makers keep ice frozen?
Most do not. The basket is insulated but not refrigerated, so ice melts back into the reservoir and is re-frozen. Treat rated output as pounds per 24 hours of running, and run the machine during your event or bag early batches into your freezer. See the ice maker roundup.
Should I buy a wine fridge or a beverage fridge?
A beverage fridge, for almost everyone — it runs cold, into the mid-30s°F, for cans and mixers. A wine fridge runs at 41 to 65°F, which is cellar temperature, so drinks from one are not cold. Our comparison covers when a dual-zone unit is the answer.
What height bar stool do I need?
Measure floor to the underside of your counter and subtract 10 to 12 inches. A 34 to 36-inch kitchen counter takes a 24 to 26-inch seat; a 40 to 42-inch bar takes a 29 to 31-inch seat. See the height guide — this is the most common reason stools get returned.
How high should a dartboard be hung?
5 feet 8 inches from the floor to the center of the bullseye, with the throw line 7 feet 9.25 inches away measured along the floor. Those dimensions are fixed worldwide. The mounting guide includes the diagonal check for an uneven floor.
How do you keep your prices accurate?
Every price comes straight from Amazon's live data and is stamped with the date we verified it. If a price is older than our freshness window, it disappears and the button reads "Check price on Amazon" instead of showing a stale number. We never hand-type a price.
Do you actually test the equipment?
No, and we say so plainly. We don't run a lab. Instead we read the manuals, compile the published specs, do the room and capacity math, cite our sources, and summarize owner-review consensus as others' experience. Read the full method.
How do you make money?
Affiliate commissions, mostly through Amazon Associates. When you buy through a link here, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes our picks — the gear that meets the spec for the least money wins. See our disclosure.
What gear should I avoid?
The classic traps: tabletop bumper pool sets, battery-powered air hockey tables, coiled-paper dartboards, a steel-tip board with no wall protection, thermoelectric coolers in a garage, bar carts that cannot stand a bottle upright, and any stool bought before you measured the counter. Each roundup has a 'Skip this' section naming the specific duds.
Where do you ship / can I buy from you?
We don't sell anything — Bar Bumper is a publisher, not a store. When you buy a pick, you buy it from the retailer (usually Amazon), who handles payment, shipping, and returns. Questions about a recommendation? Contact us.