Air Conditioning in an ice chest???

Here is a pic of an ALLSTATE that I bought. I had to repair it and have not had a chance to use it to see how well it works. not sure on year. but is it 12V

 

Sorry, forgot the pic

 

I once dated a girl with a pleasure chest.

 

Looks just like the swampy unit. How much was it?

The deal with the cooler units. (The one for $40 is about $30 more than to make it yourself. But the anti-splash characteristics of it - and not having to build it - are worth the $30 IMO.) Is they cool a small place fairly well for about the first half hour to 45 minutes of block ice use. Cooling is factored by square foot area of cooling surface. Thus the use of coils and fins - which adds surface area. A block of ice has comparatively limited surface area that diminishes quickly. You might be able to keep the cab of a 30's type car or truck cool for 45 minutes. (at temps of around 80 to 85 degrees - at higher temps it is less effective as going from 100 to say 90 or 95 isn't enough of a drop to make the h***le worth the while.) But after that you need more blocks of ice. For a typical 2 to 3 hour trip you'd need your cooler and two backups for more ice. I'm not sure where you'd store all that in such a vehicle. It's a pain too as the water startes sloshing around as the ice melts. Coming out thru the fan vents and shorting things out if not sealed correctly. So you have to stop and drain the cooler or have some set up that drains it out of the car on a regular basis.

I even hear complaints about the $400 Swampy units. As the ice usage is similar. The fans are even more powerful so you go thru even more ice quicker.

49Lincoln

 

hmm.. dry ice... I need some to try to take a dent outta my hood anyway. Might try some in the seats... I'll letcha know how much it takes to cool the inside of a huge black sedan.

 

shoot.. I forgot... dry ice is carbon dioxide... maybe not such a good idea.

 

YIKES, $600!!!! I'm talking $75 here for what i saw. For THAT price i can see you being disenchanted with the whole idea

 

What is it called, so i can search Ebay???

 

The homemade $75 thing had a means to route the air through the ice more efficiently than this with some kind of coils i should've paid more attention to. $40 is CHEAP, but it don't look very efficient at all. Next please, you're getting close.

 

I honestly don't know. I remember it was an Sears Allstate brand, because my Grandfather was a long time Sears guy and we had Allstate stuff everywhere. I still have a '59 Vespa Allstate in the garage! Here's one of similar design on Ebay now (I'm not affiliated!), but without the drink cooler option. This gives you an idea of what I was talking about.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1950-s-AIR-CONDITIONER-NEAT-OLD-ACCESSORY-12V_W0QQitemZ160003655314QQihZ006QQcategoryZ6763QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

The old units are the same thing as the Swampy I mentioned earlier. The principle is the same - cold surface area and a fan. Put some ice in front of a fan and see how long it takes to melt - pretty fast. If you want to fill your back seat with coolers of ice and stop to refill and drain water every 45 minutes for a 5 to 10 degree reduction in heat - go for it. If not, bite the bullet and buy one of those under the dash real a/c units.

In the long run it's the only thing that will work on a regular, h***le free basis. With enough temp reduction to make it work your while. Even if you reverse the process and send the air thru a radiator placed in an airtight, ice filled cooler - the surface area has been reversed. Not to mention the air flow. You'd be better off placing wet towels in your open windows.

49Lincoln

 

FOUND!!!!!!!!!!! The guy that was selling these. He's near Paso, and i will be trying to orchestrate a drive up there for 2 of these (one for a friend) at $90 each. Hell, for $90, i'll try it. If it don't work, i got another place that makes noise to haul beer in. The guy's a retired guy that tinkers and swears the ****er had ice left in it after FOUR(!) hours in 100 degeree heat in the back seat of his 52 Ford just yesterday. I'll report back in a few days how it goes. Before you go off now, the one you showed me was the same **** for SIX HUNDRED BUCKS! So what's $90 for an experiment? This one can go in all 7 of my cars, one at a time, that's why i'm shying away from "real" AC.

 

My dad gave me a Swampy but I've been too lazy to try it out. I kinda like driving around Phoenix in the summer with no AC, it makes you feel alive(cause it takes you close to death).

 

I wasn't endorsing the swampy. Quite the contrary. $600 is ridiculous. I'm in complete agreement with you.

49Lincoln

 

My buddy's going tomorrow morning to get 2 of them. We'll all know something(?) soon. If they're junk, i've got a noisy ice chest. If they work, maybe i can drum up some business for the guy, and help some of us deal with summer heat. I'll definately post my findings here SOON.

 

At least you've found an alternative for the ridiculously priced swampy. You'll love it the first time you fire it up. But our experience has been once you deal with all the ice, water and refilling and extra ice etc you end up not using it. I just hate seeing people taken by stuff like this. I think if they really worked with a minimum of effort they'd be alot easier to find.

Please let us know your results - after you've taken three or four multiple hour trips with it.

49Lincoln

 

I've also wondered about whether those air conditioners on rollers at Home Depot might run off an inverter in a car. I know there are issues with freon but there must be some safety concerns met with these indoor units. They're still at the edge of the price gap though. I think close to $300. And rather large. And of course not quite as period correct as the unit you've found. lol.

49Lincoln

 

this seem like a very good idea, especially considering how hot it has been lately.

why not add a 12v ice maker to the mix? almost a closed loop system, recycle the water from the melted ice to make more ice. makes sense to me if you can pull it off, and i would imagine that the ice would freeze quicker considering the environment and the fact that the water would be almost freezing to begin with.

just a thought

 

OK, just in. This is what it looks like and the guy says to drain into a plastic tray from SavOn or something because the ice does melt too soon to leave in and drain later. ALSO, he says to use "block" ice and NOT cubes. He makes his own from 8x8x4 inch trays and this gets some "mileage" from the ice (seems to have covered most issues). I'm thinking of just poking a 1/2 inch hole in the floors of some of my not so nice cars to eliminate the drain pan thing. My buddy that got one today as well will test and report tomorrow, so stay tuned

 

Did you have to use a muffin fan on her to keep her muffin cool

 

This is cool

L

 

I'm seriously not trying to bag you man. Or say that I told you. But...

LOL! That's what you bought?! It's an old electric fan! You could have done the same thing with a couple $5 dc fans (new) and a cooler. I thought you were buying one of those metal units with the two blower vents sticking out in chrome. Like posted above. I can't believe you paid $90 for that.

Sorry but this is hilarious. The guy sold you an old used electric fan and a $15 Walmart cooler for $90. Trust me - ice will not stay unmelted in this for 4 hours. This is essentially the same low tech system I describe above except it only appears to have an exhaust fan and no intake fan. Even the intake/exhaust fan units I have built didn't work for much longer than the 45 minutes described.

So this is "the same **** for SIX HUNDRED BUCKS!" huh? LOL. I don't think so.

Stay cool.

49Lincoln

 

The website you showed me shows EXACTLY this ice chest with a fancier lid for $589! It's about $50 in parts and a couple hours labor. While he was charging me $25 an hour, i was busy making $50 an hour doing what i enjoy. So, let the guy make a buck. Also, he's with you on the fast melt thing and insists block ice will do the job more efficiently (4-6 HOURS on 100 degree day). We'll know tomorrow, and if nothing else i'll have a noisy place to keep my beer. If you read my INITIAL post it was for JUST this item. An ice chest AC unit so quit acting so surprised. I did also post "FOUND", the unit in question. I take no offense from any of this, so don't worry about that. This guy's made a ****load of different designs before doing this one. Maybe it'll work. "IF" it does, $90 is ****ing cheap to have a unit to go in 7 of my cars, believe me. If it don't, i'll hump someone else for the $90 (LOL). PS- i got 5 bucks on the old man that built it that it works as promised. You in?

 

....

 

That's funny! I was thinking Sanford and sons

 

I was in Austrialia in the late '60's and all the cabs had the window units with dry ice like posted by 30roadster.Worked like a charm."Give the right man a lump of **** and he'll make you a mountain of gold".Dave

 

i would realy like to know if this works. please keep us posted.

 

btt... because I want to see how this works out.

 

First test-ice cubes(not recommended by builder, but all that was available this morning)=ice cold air, but for only about an hour before melting. Again, this WAS expected. But it was ****ing cold, so not a waste if you don't mind stocking ice as 49linc suggested earlier. The block ice (as recommended) will come soon. So far, it's done everything that the builder said it would do, including going through ice FAST if cubes were used.

 

Btt....