Redneck A/C Cletus style.

[CletusBodeen]

Ice is just about all gone now. Fan is still going strong so I'll leave it going for the night and check it in the morning. Inside temp is 72 now so that still isn't too bad considering the outside temp right now.

I'm thinking add another jug for a total of 2. I have some scrap plywood laying around, so I'm thinking insulation may be the key to extending the life of the ice and I'll build a wooden box about 3-4" bigger than the ice chest. I'll fill the void with insulation. I'll even do this over the lid too since that's where I have the least amount of insulation now. I believe I have plenty of air movement which is why I think double the ice and add insulation is the next step to really make this work well.

Any opinions about my next step? In my mind I think making the ice last as long as possible and not letting the cold out of the ice chest will do more than another fan to blow hot air over the ice jug causing it to thaw faster. My mind usually works differently than most so opinions are valued.

More to come since I'll be fine tuning my redneck a/c hootus

[MERF_09]

Ice is just about all gone now. Fan is still going strong so I'll leave it going for the night and check it in the morning. Inside temp is 72 now so that still isn't too bad considering the outside temp right now.

I'm thinking add another jug for a total of 2. I have some scrap plywood laying around, so I'm thinking insulation may be the key to extending the life of the ice and I'll build a wooden box about 3-4" bigger than the ice chest. I'll fill the void with insulation. I'll even do this over the lid too since that's where I have the least amount of insulation now. I believe I have plenty of air movement which is why I think double the ice and add insulation is the next step to really make this work well.

Any opinions about my next step? In my mind I think making the ice last as long as possible and not letting the cold out of the ice chest will do more than another fan to blow hot air over the ice jug causing it to thaw faster. My mind usually works differently than most so opinions are valued.

More to come since I'll be fine tuning my redneck a/c hootus

Very Nice Cletus

I use 2 Milk jugs I also put a little saw dust in the jugs before I fill them with water an freeze them the saw dust makes the ice last twice as long I also put a little ice on top to fill the voids & help insulate the jugs. I have to 2 fans on mine & I can keep it a little cooler than 70 degrees & the 12v feeder battery last about 4 hours then I turn it off & hook it up to the solar panel for
30 min. to an hour & it will last the rest of the day. This year I may use a small marine battery & leave the solar panel on it.

[CletusBodeen]

Fan is still running. So I'm going to let it run. It's been running for 14.5 hours at this time so I think I'm good on battery life.



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[stxhunter]

Have you thought about using those blue reusable ice substitutes? Supposed to be colder than ice and not loose its temp as fast. When I do mine I think I will be using those instead of the frozen milk jugs.

[Halfmoon]

That is sweet....

[macoop]

Mine is being built almost just like yours. Glad yours works so well. I'm looking forward to putting it in my new stone blind and trying it out. Now if I can just figure out how to get a 12 volt T.V. in there I can stay in it all day on saturdays.

[CletusBodeen]

Fan is still running going on 17 hours now.

Of course there is no ice but I checked the inside temp with sun beating down on the sleeper and it's about 112 right now.


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[josephd19]

Ice is just about all gone now. Fan is still going strong so I'll leave it going for the night and check it in the morning. Inside temp is 72 now so that still isn't too bad considering the outside temp right now.

I'm thinking add another jug for a total of 2. I have some scrap plywood laying around, so I'm thinking insulation may be the key to extending the life of the ice and I'll build a wooden box about 3-4" bigger than the ice chest. I'll fill the void with insulation. I'll even do this over the lid too since that's where I have the least amount of insulation now. I believe I have plenty of air movement which is why I think double the ice and add insulation is the next step to really make this work well.

Any opinions about my next step? In my mind I think making the ice last as long as possible and not letting the cold out of the ice chest will do more than another fan to blow hot air over the ice jug causing it to thaw faster. My mind usually works differently than most so opinions are valued.

More to come since I'll be fine tuning my redneck a/c hootus

not real sure how good i would work and it might be too noisy, but what if you put some sort of pump inside the cooler to pump cold water and have a fan to blow cool air like those porta cool fans with the radiators.

[CletusBodeen]

not real sure how good i would work and it might be too noisy, but what if you put some sort of pump inside the cooler to pump cold water and have a fan to blow cool air like those porta cool fans with the radiators.

I considered this option. There are several YouTube videos of set ups like this but you can hear the water and fans running over the person talking. May be too noisy for bow hunting.


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[josephd19]

ya that was my only worry unless you could have the water trickly down some sort of screen but then again as we say at work that we are over engineering this thing!

[CletusBodeen]

I always say "engineers over think everything" and here I am over thinking this hootus. Ill figure out what will work best for my set up through trial and error but I aim giving up.


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[KactusKiller]

Just a thought but instead of the fan blowing straight on the jug, have the fan drawing air from around the jug side of the cooler blowing on you and have the intake drawing into the empty compartment. This should slightly cool the air before it reaches the jugs and make the ice last longer and might make the air colder.

[Richard]

Just a thought but instead of the fan blowing straight on the jug, have the fan drawing air from around the jug side of the cooler blowing on you and have the intake drawing into the empty compartment. This should slightly cool the air before it reaches the jugs and make the ice last longer and might make the air colder.

This is what I was thinking also. Have the Fan mounted on the inside of the cooler underneath the PVC 90 and make your intake air hole smaller than the Fan exhaust hole. This will slow the air down just a little and would probably decrease output temp.

[CletusBodeen]

Fan is still running after 20 hours.

Look at the current inside temp of the sleeper(120+) Outside it's 106.



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[CletusBodeen]

Just a thought but instead of the fan blowing straight on the jug, have the fan drawing air from around the jug side of the cooler blowing on you and have the intake drawing into the empty compartment. This should slightly cool the air before it reaches the jugs and make the ice last longer and might make the air colder.

That's a good idea. I may be able to reverse my fan wires and make it run backwards. If it will I'll try it that way and see if gets colder.


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