Our season runs from March to September. Outside of that period, we carry as little inventory as possible. If you need a component package or built unit outside of those months, we can likely accommodate you – please contact me at fr**************@***il.com.
Thank you,
Bob
Built for a friend’s birthday. Large 9Ah knock-off Ryobi batteries can now be had for 2 for $80(!) on Amazon. 60 QT Igloo ice chest provides hours of runtime. I added a couple of inexpensive digital temp readouts (about $8 each – Amazon) because they look cool : )
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 stylish, purpose-built units from companies like Icy Breeze and Solo Kool.
The latest scam is the small, cube-shaped “air conditioner” (below), heavily advertised to cool a room in minutes. This “technological marvel” is nothing more than a small evaporative cooler (swamp cooler) that utilizes an anemic PC-type fan blowing through a paper pad wicking up water. They quickly go through their tiny water supply, leaving everyone who wasted their money on this Chinese piece of crap feeling hot and stupid.
The purpose-built ice-fueled units on the market either perform poorly, go through ice exceedingly fast, or (usually) both. The fancy ones feature impressive styling but utilize cheap, weak fans, one small radiator or ‘cool tube’, and still blow through ice quickly because incoming hot airflow is not segregated from the ice/water storage.
The Icy Breeze pulls hot outside air into the ice chest itself, before venting it up through the single small radiator. Essentially replicating the classic “giant tube snaking through an ice chest” design, the Solo Kool features an aluminum pipe at the bottom of the ice chest that ducts hot outside air from a slot at the bottom, up to the cover, where a single small blower expels it. This design makes the ice chest floor a hot plate, rapidly melting the ice. Both of these designs look great, but are expensive and deliver short-term, disappointing performance.
Every Frankencoolerâ„¢, Blowboxâ„¢, Blowbox TWIN, features multiple Frankencoolerâ„¢ heat exchangers, the finest marine blowers available, robust 750 GPH marine pumps, infinitely adjustable blower controllers, and total separation of hot incoming air from the ice/water storage. Additionally, my Bioenno Power batteries are the finest lithium-iron-phosphate power cells available for the money anywhere.
The result of all this is my units simply work – average temperature differentials are a phenomenal 50 degrees in triple-digit heat, while my competitors strive for 30.
The negative aspect is they are pricey, thanks to me using premium products and having to pay retail for many components. I could easily make these cheaper and sell more but I value satisfied customers over dollars. I am in my 70s, retired, and do this because I truly enjoy it.
Over the last two years, more than half of my sales have been to pilots and aircraft owners, including some small commercial airlines. My units are popular with campers, 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 participating in leisure activities and sporting events.
After 7 years, my products are still ugly (it’s hard to make a Frankenstein mishmash of parts look good), but still outperform any other ice-fueled cooler on the planet in spades, regardless of price 🙂
Cheryl relaxing in a dual stream of 50-degree air on a 107-degree Phoenix afternoon : )
