- Critical: Keep one or two gallons of water in your refrigerator to prime your Frankencooler as tap water will immediately melt a good amount of your ice, drastically cutting cooling duration.
- Use block ice whenever possible. A rough rule of thumb is one ten pound block per 1.5 hours of cooling (this obviously depends on outside temperature).
- Don’t run blowers at full speed, as there is a point where the air temperature will rise, as air is going through the heat exchangers too fast to effectively transfer cold. I’ve found that 60 – 75% blower speed is a good balance between airflow and temperature.
- If you are going to be using your cooler in a remote area where it is difficult for you to reach the motor controller to turn on/off/adjust blower speed (such as in a small aircraft). consider placing the motor controller on the end of a cable coming from the cooler. As long as you use adequate-sized wiring (I recommend 16 gauge for this), you can cable the controller 4′ – 5′ away from the cooler. Make sure you wrap your wiring in a protective sleeve.
- In addition, for remote operation of your cooler, Home Depot/Lowes also offers 48″ (and longer) 4″ flexible aluminum duct tubing you can use in place of the 24″ units I specify in my plans.
- After using your cooler outside, especially in dusty areas, wipe down the interior to keep it clean and prevent debris from accumulating in the heat exchangers.
Frankencooler Tips
Hello. I just viewed your new yt video about the Blowbox. Are there any advantages over the Frankencooler? It obviously has room for more ice. Will you make plans available for the Blowbox? If not is there a time frame on availability? Thanks.
Hello Rod,
The only advantage is the fact it’s small, and when used with soft-sided coolers, can be stored in a small area.
This came about because I store numerous Frankencoolers in my garage and am rapidly running out of room : )
I don’t know if I’m going to sell complete coolers, offer plans with a major component package, or both. I’m not planning on offering plans alone for this.
Hi Again. I would love to get a Blowbox as I think it serves my needs a little better but I need something pronto. If you will be offering it soon then I will wait otherwise I will get the Frankencooler. Are you in a position to know the timeframe? Thanks for the reply.
Hi Rod,
I’m already a month too late on this. I hope to have plans done by the end of this week, but it will probably be another week before I can get a few of the components I need. I’m guessing two weeks before I at least can offer the parts package. BTW, the reason I’m only going to offer plans with the parts package is because I have a company making the 2 different type of adapters that makes this thing work – they’re not available anywhere. The parts package will include the blower/heat exchangers/tube mounting flange assembled in one unit.
That sounds awesome. Very versatile. I’ll wait for it. Can you do a blog post when you start taking orders?
I will.