How should I hang my laundry room shelves?

Question

I want to hang two shelves in the laundry room above the washer and dryer. The shelves are 2x12's that are 60" long. I bought a pair of heavy duty brackets (11 5/8" x 8 1/4") rated to 1000 lbs per pair. My plan is to use 2 brackets per shelf and secure them to the studs. I'll use 6 x 1 1/4" interior screws to attach the shelf to the bracket. I'm at a loss for what fastener to use to attach the brackets to the studs. I have 1/4-2 3/4" exterior Power Pro screws. I'm worried these might be too long. Maybe I should use 1/4-2 1/4" screws instead. The bracket is 1/8" and the drywall is 1/2".

My main questions are, how do I choose the right fastener? Also, does this plan make sense? The previous shelves fell down recently (the previous owners hung them with drywall anchors), and I have a feeling my brackets are overkill, but I want to avoid any crashes in the future for us or future owners.

EDIT: I hung the shelves. 1/4-2" lag screws into studs with 3/32" pilot holes. 3 lag screws per bracket. Brackets are rated to 1000 lbs. per pair. I connected the shelf to the brackets with 1-1/4" screws. I even hung on them for good measure and everything looked good.

Thank you to everyone for your advice! It was very helpful. Picture of installed shelves is below.

Answer 1

Those brackets and shelves should do just fine. The nominal length for screws into studs is 1.25". A stud is 3.5" thick. 1.25" from each side allows for up to 1" in the middle to run wires or plumbing. 1.25" + 0.5" (drywall) + 0.125" (bracket) = 1.875" or 1-7/8". 1-3/4" or 2" should also be just fine.

I would not recommend 1-1/2" (not enough holding power) or 2-1/4" or longer (risk of damage if there are wires or pipes in just the wrong place).

Answer 2

Yep, I think the shelves are over designed but they sure won't fall down. you only need 3/4" screws to fasted the shelves to the brackets and use 1/4-2" for mounting the brackets to the studs. Just make sure you hit the center of the studs.