Redneck River Air conditioner

[Tbrownski]

I spoke to a few people at Halletts in Havasu about the AC / swamp cooler I had in my 270's cabin and figured I'd post it up. So I took a couple ideas I had found here and on a couple other random google searches and made a cooler to sit in my 270s cabin so my daughter can take naps on the river. The first day of HIH it was 115 outside and the boat cabin stayed at a cold 80 degrees for about 2.5 hours. It went through 20lbs of ice and melted about half a block in that time but considering it was so hot outside that's fine with me.

I took an old cooler I had sitting around and mounted a bilge pump in the bottom, It pumps up into a heater core that's spaced about an inch off the cooler lid and then the cold air is sucked out through a blower fan. The entire thing cost me about 100 bucks and was worth every penny to have a super cool place for my 1 year old to nap while the adults play.

 

[Go-Fly]

That's how you do it.

 

[Flying_Lavey]

Pretty cool! I wouldnt be surprised though if you could get better thermal efficiency by reversing the airflow and pulling off thr heat exchanger instead of through it first.

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[KENDOG689]

67 in the back ground?

 

[Tbrownski]

Pretty cool! I wouldnt be surprised though if you could get better thermal efficiency by reversing the airflow and pulling off thr heat exchanger instead of through it first.

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Good point. This one was kind of experimental just to see how it goes but that’s a good idea. If I reversed it on the next one the air would be precooled before it hit the ice so it might last longer.

67 in the back ground?

The Vw is actually a 74 with the ugly bumpers cut off. Picked it up for 500 bucks, threw a ridiculous 2017cc in it and it’s like a really scary go-cart.

 

[spectracular]

Try adding some salt to the ice next go around. It’ll lower the freezing point and let that water get really freaking cold.

 

[Sleek-Jet]

I built one of those for using in my airplane in Tucson. There is a company that builds these if a guy doesn't want to do it himself. They also make a real compressor type AC unit that is portable and runs off of 12 volts.

A combination if blocks and cube ice works the best.

 

[Delta9]

Has anyone tried the ryobi
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-18-Volt-ONE-50-Qt-Cooling-Cooler-P3370/301698063

 

[Havasu Rehab]

Has anyone tried the ryobi
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-18-Volt-ONE-50-Qt-Cooling-Cooler-P3370/301698063

That's pretty damn "cool" (pun intended). I wonder if it works?


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[River Dirt 2]

Pretty cool! I wouldnt be surprised though if you could get better thermal efficiency by reversing the airflow and pulling off thr heat exchanger instead of through it first.

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Looks to me like he is pulling thru the heat exchanger, no?

 

[Boat Doctor]

@Travasu

 

[Tbrownski]

Looks to me like he is pulling thru the heat exchanger, no?

Yeah it pulls through the heat exchanger and intakes in the open hole. I’m not sure which direction would be more efficient thinking about it.

 

[Deja_Vu]

I like it. Good job

 

[River Dirt 2]

Yeah it pulls through the heat exchanger and intakes in the open hole. I’m not sure which direction would be more efficient thinking about it.

Looks like you got it right to me. Now those of us with OCD might think the foam job could us a weeebit of touch up
Great idea, nothing better than boating with the kids. My daughter was 2 1/2 weeks old for her first River trip.

 

[Flying_Lavey]

Looks to me like he is pulling thru the heat exchanger, no?

Ahh shit. Youre right. I didnt notice the hinge in the pic where it was in the boat.

Yeah it pulls through the heat exchanger and intakes in the open hole. I’m not sure which direction would be more efficient thinking about it.

The direction you have it set up as yields the most cooling and is the most efficient direction. If you put a vertical divider that goes part of the way down from the lid it would force the incoming air to run over, through, and around the ice before going into the heat exchanger and would further drop discharge temps as it would just about eliminate short cycling (air not running across the ice first and going straight into the heat exchanger). Although the more it runs across the ice, the quicker it'll melt.

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[Gelcoater]

Try adding some salt to the ice next go around. It’ll lower the freezing point and let that water get really freaking cold.

I’ve read about this and seems to be true. The trade off is the salt ice melts faster.

 

[1cole280S]

Simply genius that’s what that is .......

 

[Flying_Lavey]

Try adding some salt to the ice next go around. It’ll lower the freezing point and let that water get really freaking cold.

I’ve read about this and seems to be true. The trade off is the salt ice melts faster.

Its true. Its used in homemade ice cream tumblers to freeze the ice cream. But, then you'll be pumping a saline solution through the aluminum heat exchanger....

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[tkrrox]

I'm not understanding why you need the water to go through the heat exchanger (radiator), wouldn't the whole cooler be a heat exchanger? IF anything, I would take an intercooler and drop it in the bottom, fill water/ice/salt around it and have it plumbed to the 3" intake/;exhaust, but I'm no a/c guy so I could be talking out my a$$

 

[SoCalDave]

I'm not understanding why you need the water to go through the heat exchanger (radiator), wouldn't the whole cooler be a heat exchanger? IF anything, I would take an intercooler and drop it in the bottom, fill water/ice/salt around it and have it plumbed to the 3" intake/;exhaust, but I'm no a/c guy so I could be talking out my a$$

Goood thought but you need air in volume to cool any size space. There is no way in hell you’ll get any air flow through that size radiator...well maybe enough to cool your right but.

 

[spectracular]

Basically he is relying on water to pump through the radiator to cool the air passing through it. Water stops flowing when it hits 32 degrees. When you add salt, you lower the freezing point of water to about 6 degrees. This means that with enough salt, the water will become pumpable at much lower temps.

I doubt that salt water and aluminum will be an issue in the short run. Run it, flush it with soapy water and call it a day. It’s not like the salt Is going to dissolve the thing like the blood from one of the creatures in alien.

 

[spectracular]

Its true. Its used in homemade ice cream tumblers to freeze the ice cream. But, then you'll be pumping a saline solution through the aluminum heat exchanger....

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Lol. Dump a cup or two of salt in the beer cooler of someone you don’t like!! Funny shit

 

[tkrrox]

Goood thought but you need air in volume to cool any size space. There is no way in hell you’ll get any air flow through that size radiator...well maybe enough to cool your right but.

An intercooler like on a turbo diesel wouldn’t let you flow enough air through?


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[SoCalDave]

Inter cooler yes, radiator as applied here no.

 

[Willie B]

...I have a swamp cooler type set up at my place at Lake Oroville...
...It is designed for people who are off the grid...and is manufactured by an off grid guy somewhere out in the desert in the Tuscon AZ area...
...Surgical stainless...enclosure...about an 18” fan...water is gravity fed from a 500 gallon water tank...a 12v marine bilge pump with a float shutoff, pumps the water up through a mesh type material similar to what you would see in a standard swamp cooler...air is drawn in from outside...
...never thought about putting ice in the bottom of it as I have been ok with the 20* temperature drop...
...with a good 12v lift pump...would be excellent for house boat applications...drawing water from the lake/river would be a no brainer with a couple of 6v golf cart batteries...in series...and a roof mounted solar panel with a charge controller...
...probably wouldn’t be to practical for pointy at the front type boats...
...Looks way better than a normal Swamp Cooler...Oh and it would cost a bunch more than the OP’s invention...

 

[Berne Eric]

I think it's a cool Idea.

 

[DUNEFLYER]

https://www.b-kool.net/product-video.html

 

[Kelly Brown]

https://www.b-kool.net/product-video.html

thanks for share this video link.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Have you thought of using either two fans, or one larger one, at a lower speed? Trying to think of ways to increase the volume, but slow down the airflow to increase thermal transfer. I'd even wonder if an air to water intercooler could be used. I don't know what the drop in ambient would be if you used raw water and a small 12v pump to feed it. That would negate the ice, or could be used in conjunction with it, depending on core design. There are cheap China ones on eBay now, and you wouldn't be pressurizing it at all.

 

[Demoman]

I made a version to use on the beach for our grand daughter. Used a Ryobi battery powered fan. Really worked great and had good air flow

 

[RiverDave]

I'm thinking we all need to build our own and have a little contest for which one is the best at the end..

RDP Creative science contests?

RD

 

[Outdrive1]

I had one of these years ago. Seemed to work pretty well.


https://swampy.net/mk3.html


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[Flying_Lavey]

I'm thinking we all need to build our own and have a little contest for which one is the best at the end..

RDP Creative science contests?

RD

Oohhh..... Dont threaten me Dave! Lol! I'm thinking the Baby will need an A/C to hang out under the bow next summer.

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[SBMech]

The B-Kool setup is pretty bad ass.

There is a company making an actual tiny portable A/C unit that runs on batteries now....

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1253665084/zero-breeze-the-worlds-coolest-portable-air-condit

Also one that is already out.....

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Evapola...VA7bACh11YQr0EAQYASABEgLkVPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[Angler]

throw a piece of dry ice in with a bag of cubes. Ice will last a lot longer.

 

[Xtrmwakeboarder]

Made one of these with my dad when I was in 3rd grade for a science project. It was out of necessity because we only had a single cab truck with a camper shell and us kids got to ride in the back on the way to the river. A combo of dry ice, a block, and bags of ice worked the best. Never tried salt though....