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How to make a ghetto a/c AKA Ghetto Breeze 600


Cleopatra Jones

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So I've been wanting to try this for a while and I actually wish I had known of this sooner....like over 20 years ago sooner. Might've saved me a lot of days nearly bursting into flames driving in 100 degree weather in a car with no a/c. I still love you Stanley :)

You've probably seen these in youtube videos and you may have even made one yourself. I've decided to finally stop procrastinating and freaking make one already. I got a styrofoam cooler, a PVC elbow and a fan that can be plugged into the cigarette lighter. This here was just my tester to see that this actually has potential. I think it does. After I got it together I tested it out in my Pathfinder and after a few minutes there was a noticeable difference. To see if this was actually working, after it started to feel cool, I turned off the fan and it would get warm. Turn the fan back on and it would start to cool again. So tomorrow I do this for real on a 48 qt cooler. I'll list what I used and show you step by step how I made the cooler. Til then, here's my prototype.

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Good going Colourbox! :thumbup:

I bet Stanley will appreciate it too!

I'm going to keep an eye on this thread & give it a try. My little Blanca has A/C but I haven't connected it up since the engine swap. I've been melting all summer for no damn good reason. Did you just fill it with regular ice or?

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Window mount swamp cooler doesn't require an electrical connection, just about 20 MPH.  If you could find one after all these years. AZhitman [Gregg] has one in his WRL411 wagon [but in the wrong window by my experience through Utahs "Dixie" hot zone.]  See you at JCCS! Gregg will be there, it's the only red WRL411 you will see at the show!  I tossed my swamp cooler a long time ago before I realized just how collectable they were. Put one in the left rear window, crank open a bit on the right front passenger window and relax!  I really want to see Stanley!

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Draker: I only had it in the Pathfinder for maybe 10-15 minutes. I just wanted to see how well the fan blew the cool air out. I thought it was doing a pretty good job. I had it up in the front seat with me and I did notice a difference in temp in just that amount of time. Stanley is half the size of Thadeus so I have high hopes for this.

Angela: Just for my quick test I bought a couple bags of ice and put them in the cooler. I poured the ice in. I didn’t leave them in the ice bag.

MikeRL411: I’ve seen those. Actually, met a guy at one of the shows I went to a while back that had one on his truck. Personally I don’t want no weird shit on my car. I ain’t that ghetto :) And I agree with tr8er. I’m making this for JCCS and although I’m hoping I can put up a canopy, which I think we can, it’s supposed to be 84 degrees that day which means 800 degrees in the car.

Mike: I didn’t put anything in there other than the ice. Hadn’t thought of putting in something that would separate ice from water. Interesting idea.

I want to try a few things this week if I can. In the videos I’ve seen the crushed ice lasts about an hour and a half while a large block lasts about 5 hours. I wouldn’t mind trying both myself just to see. The large block won’t matter really because the show lasts for 6 so it would be done before I left. I’d have to get more ice anyway so I may just do the crushed ice to and from the show. I’ve got about an hour’s drive to get there and Lord only knows how long to get back home because LA  traffic.

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Ok here's the list o' shit

4" 12 volt vehicle fan with stepless speed regulation by Zone Tech.
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4" PVC 45 degree bend. Did 45 degree instead of 90 degree like in the videos I've seen because it takes less effort to push air through.
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48 quart Coleman cooler
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Drill and jigsaw although my husband just informed me that he's not allowed to use the term jigsaw anymore. He and his coworkers have to call it something else, but he forgets what, because jig is racist. Since I'm half black I'm going to use the term jigsaw because I can. And so can you cause that shit is just ridiculous. People so sensitive these days. Poor fragile things. Ugh!
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Yeah at some point it will become water with floating chunks, a single surface area the length and width of the box. If the ice is suspended the air can circulate around a larger surface area of the remaining cubes... and the cold water is still there. It might go through the ice faster but at the same time it's absorbing more heat. 

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This is interesting, Colourbox. I think if you added some sort of wire basket as Mike is suggesting it might help make this more effective. But serious props for trying this! I will look for Stanley on display at JCCS if I make it 1) because I have enjoyed your posts the last year or two, and 2) to ask if this worked out well for you.

 

Please post pics as you go!

 

Being up here in the Central Valley, where things get hotter than a conversation about the infamous "Canby Truck" I would be interested in trying this myself.

 

Questions: If hubby is coming along, won't you need two 45 degree elbows? Link to that fan purchase?

 

Thank you kindly. If this works well I will try one that is based on a smaller cooler just so it can fit in s smaller car/truck better. 

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I know in an ice chest if you let the cubes become slushy water in the bottom it will melt faster than if you leave in it's plastic bag and set it up on something away from the sides of the cooler. This is because water conducts heat to the walls faster than air will.

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Yeah I want to try different ice variations. Big blocks vs crushed ice with and without water. I'll try it throughout the week if I don't get lazy. I'm curious to see what has the potential to work the best.

 

ol' 320:  I thought of a couple of the 90 degree PVC on there but since this is all new and a work in progress we'll see how this works out. Just finished and I'm going to test it in Stanley shortly. It's motherland hot out there so the conditions are perfect :) The cooler was only $20 so if I decide to try two corners I'll just get another.

 

So the warden took this picture of me mocking up my cutting lines. It's his tools I'm using so he's the warden. I told him I get photo approval before that gets posted anywhere but it looks ok.

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We went to Home Depot to get some L brackets to hold the PVC and fan in place and caulked around the PVC. Got it sitting in the sun to cure right now. Turns out the hole I cut for the fan was a better fit for the PVC. The fan just sits around the hole so no caulking necessary.

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About to grab some lunch and then I'll get this over to Stanley and try it out. More to come......

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This is the temperature I was dealing with today when I tested it out.

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I put 2 bags of ice in the chest and then added another after a half hour. Had to drive to Stanley's location so that's why the time gap. I left the ice in the bags. Turned the fan on while I was warming up Stanley (he's in a garage). The cooler was in the back seat. I took a 20 minute 6 mile jaunt. Half the time the sun was in my face and the other half the sun was behind me. I kept the windows up. There was a small difference and I didn't die in that 20 minutes but was still hot but not as hot as it could've been. I would've liked there to have been more air flow. While the fan isn't bad I think I need more of a hurricane. After 3 hours I took the ice out of the cooler. Probably an inch worth melted so I think crushed ice will last longer than an hour and a half like one of the videos I saw said. I don't have a lot of experience with coolers so that's why I want to test everything. In the bag, out of the bag, crushed and big block. Out of the bag would most likely be best. Makes sense to me anyway. Not sure why some folks in the vids I've seen left it in the bag. Anyway, we are now looking into a larger fan. I'm also thinking two fans. I believe the PVC is plenty big enough so that's not an issue as far as I'm concerned. Just need more air pressure. The experiment continues.

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If you get an additional water pump and a heater core (ie a radiator) and pump/circulate ice water through the core, and run ducting from your cooler outlet to one side of the core/radiator, then you will have essentially a real AC unit.  The air will come out much, much colder...but your ice will melt much, much faster.

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My husband was looking into that but went against it for some reason I can't remember. He used to do heating and air conditioning so he's bringing some knowledge to this project.

 

We're getting a bigger fan to see what happens. My husband also used this as an excuse to by a tool that'll measure air flow. We'll be able to see what the 4" put out compared to the 6" we're getting. I still think it needs dual fan action.

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