The Franken Cooler

[no4mk1t]

So, this guy Bob, who lives in Phoenix is a sports fan and loves to tailgate. problem is, pre-season game tailgating in Phoenix is beastly hot. Bob wants to have a way to stay cool. He ends up spending 4 years experimenting and developing what he calls the Franken Cooler.
Now there are commercial ice chest type coolers that blow air over ice to produce cool air. The Icy Breeze is probably the one that is best known. But it just blows the hot outside air over the ice. It claims a 30* temperature drop. Bob knew he could do better. And what evolved from his efforts is the Franken Cooler. The Franken Cooler is different in that the hot outside air never touches the ice, it is directed through heat exchangers two times to produce a 50* temperature drop. On a 90* day, it will blow 45* air. That is the same as your car A/C.
It also has the advantage of being able to be powered by 12V, 110V, or on board battery that can run all day.

Oh, and you can't buy one. Bob only sells the plans and some of the major components. If you want one, you have to build it yourself. Something uniquely suited to this audience.

I'm not going to go into any more detail unless peeps ask questions.
Here are the build pics.

Not shown is an foam divider that insulates the ice from the hot air.

After installing the finish panel to hide the amateur wiring.

Ambient air temp 86.7F
Discharge air temp 43F

Details:
Lid stay made from 550 cord.

 

[Michele]

Interesting , we built something similar to this to use in AZ desert. It worked really great until the ice melted. Need an ice making machine to keep er going in 100* heat

We didn’t use heat exchanger so our ice melted pretty quickly.

 

[no4mk1t]

Interesting , we built something similar to this to use in AZ desert. It worked really great until the ice melted. Need an ice making machine to keep er going in 100* heat

We didn’t use heat exchanger so our ice melted pretty quickly.

And that's the big difference. Being the hot air is kept away from the ice by an insulating divider panel, it lasts longer.
Last August, I took it to our annual silencer test day in Georgia.
95F and humid.
Cooler was loaded with 35lbs of block ice and 1 gal. of chilled water to start. Discharge air temp was 45F, and it maintained that for about 4hrs. before I noticed the temp starting to climb. Probably would have put out cold air for another 30-45 minutes before the temps got into the 60's. And this is dehumidified air too. I brought along another cooler with more block ice and reloaded the Franken Cooler. That took use to the end of the day.
With a LiFo battery, it would be great for camping and having a cool tent or camper to sleep in. Other uses will occur.