6 replies to this topic

[billharr]

Saw this on another forum. Might be big enough for our 4WC's. Who wants to make one and test it.
I normally do not camp in the heat so I am not sure I would use it.


Evap Cooler in a bucket.

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

That is a very interesting cooler.Not a hot temp camper either,but good idea.
Frank

[chnlisle]

If anyone is interested I've got one of these.



We used it for 3 or 4 days several years ago in Bluff UT in August. It works pretty well when you consider the temp was 105. I be willing to part with it for $75 + what ever shipping is. I think we paid $180 for it. Here's a link to their web site;
http://www.canopycool.com

[Bosque Bill]

I like the concept. I have the big version on the roof of my house here in New Mexico. Works pretty darn good.

I'll have to brain-storm on how to hook this type of thing up to the camper. You can't just sit it inside, as it depends on a fresh supply of dry air for the evaporative effect.

Perhaps you could sit it on the ground and duct it through the side window... sounds like a tricky ducting situation & you'd need 12v outside.

Perhaps if your camper has a window that opens to the truck cab, you could sit the bucket in the cab (behind the seats if an access cab or double cab.) Ducting would be a little easier, maybe; power would be a little easier, maybe; the bucket would be shaded, which is good; but you'd have to leave the truck windows at least partially open, which is not good.

It would be a challenge to sit it on the camper roof and duct through the ceiling vent. Though if you're clever you could use the vent fan, though corrosion might soon become a problem.

Hmm, I'll have to give this more thought.

[Bosque Bill]

I think the most practical way to get this to work for us, though not without a down side, is to reverse the flow!

The thing could be built pretty much the same, but use the pipe in the lid as the intake. Duct it from one of the turnbuckle access ports (for those of us with campers that have such) using a flexible vent tubing such as is used to vent domestic clothes dryers. Anyone who has opened one of the access doors with the ceiling fan on knows there is plenty of air available through there. A square adapter would need to be fashioned.

Reverse the direction of the fan or if the camper is reasonably air-tight, perhaps the ceiling vent fan could draw air through the cooler - that might not work as the air resistance of the intake and pads might put too much load on the ceiling van causing overheating (or there might simply be too many places for hot outside air to leak in.) But one could certainly try this before purchasing and installing an internal fan.

Depending upon the volume of air pushed (or pulled) though the cooling pads, there might be a "spitting" problem. In the original design, any water droplets that fly off the pad are contained in the bucket. In the reverse flow design, those would be flung out onto the floor, seats cushions or cabinets. If there is only a small number of droplets this might not be a problem.

And in a small camper like mine, one would have a 5-gallon bucket inside the camper taking up space. [A really clever person could figure out a way to build a cooler into the space between the camper and the walls of the truck bed - that wasted space. A tube would need to be run to refill the water lost to the evaporative process, of course, and the ducting could be an engineering challenge, but what a slick deal that would be if it worked!]

[ntsqd]

Wonder if the fan being on the wet end will die earlier than expected?

[garyoNC]

Very cool, should be simple to build and try.


The link to eplaya is even cooler. A whole forum that big dedicated to Burning Man! I have not seen that before and am looking forward to spending some time checking it out. I would love to go to Burning Man someday.