Battery powered (6Ah Lithium Ion) Portable Air Conditioner. Just add ice. $379?!

[JEDI]

https://www.amazon.com/IcyBreeze-Portable-Air-Conditioner-Cooler/dp/B08HJM8PR5

Grand Negus would not approve.

I'm betting you can make one yourself for cheaper:
cut hole in Igloo cooler, add fan + rechargeable batteries (either AA or 18650)

btw- what happened to @RossMAN?
(Last seen Dec 31, 2019 )

 

[ultimatebob]

I'd love to know how many of the reviews for that item are fake.

Blowing air over some ice cubes might cool a tiny room by a few degrees for an hour or two at best. If you want to do it right, you need a compressor and a separate vent for dumping the hot air somewhere.

 

[Fir]

It doesn't blow air across ice, it is actually legit in that it uses a sump principle, ice floating in water, water is pumped through a radiator and the fan pushes air through radiator.

However, its capacity isn't going to be very high.
One ton of AC is 12,000 btu/h. To achieve this rate for a day needs 1 ton of ice! And that's assuming perfect transfer efficacy. Not close.

I suppose it's a novel concept and overpriced at that.

It would be interesting to play with though.
Adding salt to the ice bath would seriously drop the temp and make the air very cold but (of course) use up the ice much faster. No way around conservation.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I see this concept pop up often either as a DIY thing or someone trying to market it. Barely an air conditioner. You still need a way to make ice and if you're using the freezer in your home you're actually just generating more heat. For that price you can probably buy a small window AC unit. Actually, you can:

https://www.homedepot.ca/product/danby-10-000-btu-window-air-conditioner-with-wi-fi-for-450-sq-ft-room/1001342436

Also I get tons of "air conditioner" spam in my spam folder now days trying to sell these small desk swamp coolers. Humidity is what makes the heat worse so why would I want to add even more humidity to the air?

Before I had AC I was stuck at home in a heat wave once and I did get desperate and bought a bag of ice and was blowing a fan over it, it kinda helped, but it was very short lived. Using a normal refrigeration cycle is still pretty much the best way to cool a room.

 

[Captante]

Adding salt to the ice bath would seriously drop the temp

Way back when I worked in a bar, we would use ice-water and salt to chill multiple cases of beer quickly on busy nights. We're talking 15-20 minutes from room-temp to ice cold. (works even faster with aluminum cans)

 

[Fir]

I see this concept pop up often either as a DIY thing or someone trying to market it. Barely an air conditioner. You still need a way to make ice and if you're using the freezer in your home you're actually just generating more heat. For that price you can probably buy a small window AC unit. Actually, you can:

https://www.homedepot.ca/product/danby-10-000-btu-window-air-conditioner-with-wi-fi-for-450-sq-ft-room/1001342436

Also I get tons of "air conditioner" spam in my spam folder now days trying to sell these small desk swamp coolers. Humidity is what makes the heat worse so why would I want to add even more humidity to the air?

Before I had AC I was stuck at home in a heat wave once and I did get desperate and bought a bag of ice and was blowing a fan over it, it kinda helped, but it was very short lived. Using a normal refrigeration cycle is still pretty much the best way to cool a room.

The 10k window shaker needs 120VAC though.
The desk swamp cooler things are a joke. Stick with a decent fan and you'll be fine.

Way back when I worked in a bar, we would use ice-water and salt to chill multiple cases of beer quickly on busy nights. We're talking 15-20 minutes from room-temp to ice cold. (works even faster with aluminum cans)

Yes it's an old school way to make ice cream too!

 

[Scarpozzi]

I think Ryobi sold one of these for $200. I remember a guy reviewing one in a hot closed car.

This I think....

 

[sdifox]

The 10k window shaker needs 120VAC though.
The desk swamp cooler things are a joke. Stick with a decent fan and you'll be fine.



Yes it's an old school way to make ice cream too!

 

[Fir]

I think Ryobi sold one of these for $200. I remember a guy reviewing one in a hot closed car.

This I think....

There is an Amazon review (negative) on the same line...

A car AC unit is quite powerful. Several tons of capacity actually. There is simply no way for this unit to be effective for long under such circumstances. A warm, breeze-less night in a tent this would be perfect.

Another product using a similar principle is a Breg chiller, it circulates the chilled water through a galley of tubes embedded in a pad and is a therapeutic device.

I'm sure with all the water cooling geeks here someone could make one of these with spare parts lying around for next to nothing! Buy a broken cordless drill off ebay and use the connector for the battery pack. An 18V 12Ah Milwaukee Fuel battery could run a fan and pump for a long time, well longer than a bag of ice would last I presume.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah I suppose these things could be nice for camping. Come to think of it a good design would be to make it into an actual freezer where you can make ice during the day using available power such as solar. You would move the whole thing out of the tent so you are not heating the tent with the refrigeration cycle. Then at night you switch to cool mode, and it would use an internal rechargeable battery to run a fan that then uses the ice to cool the tent. Now THAT would be a decent value for $379. Depending on how much ice you produce in a day you could also make ice for your food/drinks cooler with it.