Fort Worth Motorcycle Riders

Anyone every see/try this? Take a 5 gallon bucket, cut some holes in it, fill it with ice and put a fan on it. Several people online say it works really well.

[youtubell][/youtubell]

That concept has been around for as long as po' folks existed. I may have used similar contraptions myself. Works alright.

Yea it's funny you mentioned this, I've been wanting to make one to blow on me while I'm in the garage. Also we now have about 5 people come in each Sunday asking for the bucket liners to make one...sold out. When my ac went out last year I just took the ice tray out and put my box fan I'm front of it. Then I took a towel and draped over it letting it draw air through one side...it works. Just don't be expecting too much

Build an evaporator instead

I could post a very very long post about what is wrong with the ice bucket AC, I've made several different contraptions for cooling, the most complex one used a combination of dry ice and water..

fixxervi6 wrote:Build an evaporator instead

I could post a very very long post about what is wrong with the ice bucket AC, I've made several different contraptions for cooling, the most complex one used a combination of dry ice and water..

How about the cliff notes version?

DarcShadow wrote:

fixxervi6 wrote:Build an evaporator instead

I could post a very very long post about what is wrong with the ice bucket AC, I've made several different contraptions for cooling, the most complex one used a combination of dry ice and water..

How about the cliff notes version?

Built a bucket style AC that used heat sinks on floats, when water covers the ice you lose a lot of heat transfer, lasted about 6 hours with a big ass ice chest and used PC fans to blow air.

Later built a large (very large) pelteir channel with hot on the outside to be submerged and cold on the inside to blow air through the channel (a square tube made of foam board with fans on each side) the peltiers drew so much power that it instantly melted 14 guage wire which proceeded to catch on fire.

Took an electrical box, built an aluminum heat sync on the bottom with two fans blowing across the heat sink, sealed the box up and used a garden hose to vent the Co2 gas as it expanded, fill it with dry ice and top off with water.

In the end, the most cost effective cooling method turned out to be renting a camp site with power and strapping an AC into the door of the tent.

Bottom line, the only good way to cool without using a lot of energy is evaporation cooling.

As stated, don't expect much. I've done similar as miles said, ice bucket behind the fan. Works to keep cool air flowing, but your not going to cool any type of area with it. I've also got a little evap cooler here at work. Same thing with it. Keeps cool air flowing but won't help drop the temperature. But it does make you feel more comfortable.

fixxervi6 wrote:

DarcShadow wrote:

fixxervi6 wrote:Build an evaporator instead

I could post a very very long post about what is wrong with the ice bucket AC, I've made several different contraptions for cooling, the most complex one used a combination of dry ice and water..

How about the cliff notes version?

Built a bucket style AC that used heat sinks on floats, when water covers the ice you lose a lot of heat transfer, lasted about 6 hours with a big ass ice chest and used PC fans to blow air.

Later built a large (very large) pelteir channel with hot on the outside to be submerged and cold on the inside to blow air through the channel (a square tube made of foam board with fans on each side) the peltiers drew so much power that it instantly melted 14 guage wire which proceeded to catch on fire.

Took an electrical box, built an aluminum heat sync on the bottom with two fans blowing across the heat sink, sealed the box up and used a garden hose to vent the Co2 gas as it expanded, fill it with dry ice and top off with water.

In the end, the most cost effective cooling method turned out to be renting a camp site with power and strapping an AC into the door of the tent.

Bottom line, the only good way to cool without using a lot of energy is evaporation cooling.

This is why Fixxer rocks.

Everybody knows that swamp coolers are the most efficient form of A/C, but Fixxer will *set shit on fire* to prove it.

If you do the ice bucket idea. Dont use ice. Use a gallon milk jug that you fill with water and freeze. You can have a couple in the freezer for quick changout and when it melts it dont make a mess. You simply put it back in the freezer and drop a new one in.

I used to use dry ice at work, either with a fan and a box or just putting a little bit in each pocket.