Frankencooler Versus The Competition
There are an increasing number of ice-fueled coolers on the market, ranging from crappy eBay ice chests with fans blowing into them, ice chests with a giant duct snaking through them with a blower on the end, to sleek, stylish, purpose-built units from companies like Icy Breeze.
Most of these things either perform poorly or go through ice exceedingly fast. The fancy units feature tiny fans, single heat exchangers, and still go through ice quickly because incoming hot airflow is not segregated from ice/water storage.
My designs all feature multiple heat exchangers, robust, premium marine blowers, marine pumps, infinite speed digital blower controllers, and total separation of hot incoming air from the ice/water storage. My batteries are the finest lithium iron phosphate power cells for the money available anywhere, also.
The result is my units simply work – average temperature differentials for my Blowbox models are 50-degrees in triple-digits, whereas my competitors strive for 30.
The negative aspect is they are pricey, no thanks to me using premium products and having to pay retail for most components. I could make them cheaper and sell more but I value satisfied customers over dollars. I am comfortably retired and do not do this to survive, but because I enjoy it.
Over the last two years, more than half of my sales have been to pilots and aircraft owners, including some commercial airlines. This has been from word-of-mouth, as I do not advertise. My units are popular with private investigators who spend hours parked in their cars, pet delivery services that use my units for backup or augmentation in their vans, fishing boats, classic car owners, and of course, families taking part in leisure activities and sporting events.
After 5 years, my products are still ugly (it’s hard to make a Frankenstein mishmash of parts look good), but still out-perform any other ice-fueled cooler on the planet, regardless of price 🙂
Reduced Prices!
Thanks to lowering costs through injection molding and new wholesale accounts, we have lowered the prices on our most popular component packages and built-to-order models : )
Blowbox TWIN Mounted To 30 QT Igloo
I have re-narrated this video I did last summer to more accurately describe this ice chest’s ice capacity ( 2 – 10 lb blocks) and cooling duration (just over 2 hours in triple-digit heat).
New Frankencooler TWIN Express
Here’s a new model I have been working on featuring a vertical Blowbox cooling engine housed in a 20″ roll-around case. This arrangement uses gravity as well as blowers to more effectively expel condensation. Cooling is identical to the Blowbox TWIN – its only advantage is being less likely to suffer from airflow interruption due to condensation clogging in extremely hot, humid environments.
The final version will likely utilize the case shown in the first video coupled with the externally mounted ducts like the unit shown in the second video (not cover thumbnail photo) – this will allow for a smaller shipping box and longer ducts for improved air-focusing.
5/12 UPDATE: I have found homes for these prototype units. I am presently finalizing plans for a TWIN Express Component Package as well as pricing for built-to-order units. Because of the additional cost of the cases and modifying them for sale, as well as UPS shipping costs for the larger, heavier units, pricing will likely average around $30 – $50 more than the comparable TWIN packages. As such, I recommend people go with the TWIN if they are not in an extremely humid region.