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.
The latest scam is the little cube “air conditioner” *ahem* (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, and still blow through ice quickly because incoming hot airflow is not segregated from the ice/water storage.
Every Frankencooler™, Blowbox™, Blowbox TWIN, and Blowbox Express features multiple Frankencooler™ 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. In addition, 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 retired and do not do this to survive, but 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 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 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 🙂
