cooling your tent or van

[unjonharley]

Damn it Fig,

Have a homer bucket all cuts made.

Little water pump.. Can convert 12v to 7v to run the solar pump..

Fan, Short on money and with what I have.. 12v 1.2 watt fan.. 7 inches.. 7to6 inch reducer. 6 inch flex dryer hose..

wiring, all

It all fits the bucket good.. Now get off ass and do it..

[FIGJAM]

See you soon!

[Conduit]

I have the harbor freight solar pump and I'd like to connect it to my deep cycle battery. That being said the solar pump is 7v and the battery is 12v so I bought a voltage reducer. Do you happen to know which of the wires in the power cord of the pump is positive and which is negative? One is blue and the other is brown.

[unjonharley]

I have the harbor freight solar pump and I'd like to connect it to my deep cycle battery. That being said the solar pump is 7v and the battery is 12v so I bought a voltage reducer. Do you happen to know which of the wires in the power cord of the pump is positive and which is negative? One is blue and the other is brown.

I would just touch the wire to power for a second. Which way will start the pump.
Have not hook mine up yet..

[Conduit]

I have the harbor freight solar pump and I'd like to connect it to my deep cycle battery. That being said the solar pump is 7v and the battery is 12v so I bought a voltage reducer. Do you happen to know which of the wires in the power cord of the pump is positive and which is negative? One is blue and the other is brown.

I would just touch the wire to power for a second. Which way will start the pump.
Have not hook mine up yet..

I did that and it works either way. I'm going to have an electrician buddy test it this weekend and I'll report back. The reducer needs to be connected to the positive leg.

[FIGJAM]

Put the pump in the bucket with a gallon of water and do the touch test again.

One way will pump twice as much water and it will be obvious.

[Conduit]

Put the pump in the bucket with a gallon of water and do the touch test again.

One way will pump twice as much water and it will be obvious.

Thank you good sir! I'll let you guys know how it goes...

[unjonharley]

my voltage step down has a pole switch.

[Conduit]

my voltage step down has a pole switch.

Are you flirting with me?

[theox]

i've got mine built! looks great and i'm figuring out the venting-into-camper-van part now... one question - how do the pads do in the dust? i'll be out there all week and am wondering if i should bring some extra pads to switch out if the first ones get clogged. because it'll be on the outside of my van there'll be no hiding little swampie from the dust

[FIGJAM]

So far the water seems to keep the dust flushed out of the pads very well and settles to a layer at the bottom of the cooler.

[unjonharley]

For some reason HD did not let me order pad.. Lowes did.. they will be here Monday..

[FIGJAM]

Did thet charge for shipping?

Ace will ship store to store for free.

[unjonharley]

Did thet charge for shipping?

Ace will ship store to store for free.

yup, payed the shipping.. Was done messing around.. just did it. Now Lowes has added a day on delivery by a second e mail.. Got the pusher trailer set up.. Batteries on Thurs...

[FIGJAM]

Can't wait to see the pusher.

[psyki]

I tried building this at the last minute 2 years ago (my last burn) and it didn't work so well, I went with solar powered everything and while I don't believe I was low on power, I think the problem was either the cooling pads I got, or how I had them positioned.

This year I have done everything by the book, got the correct duracool pads, 115ah costco battery, nice 190cfm fan, and a pump that will do 100gph. But just today it hit me... I had been putting the pads in the bucket tight against the edge so the air would be forced through the pads. Today I just read (on page 62?) that you want the pads NOT touching the bucket, but forming a gasket at the lid. This actually makes a lot of sense as it should force air evenly through the pads instead of just through where they would touch the holes. This was not at all clear in the OP. But now I am concerned I already cut my pads too short.

I have a bit of scrap though, could I just cut out a ring and lay it on top of my pads to seal against the lid? Or better yet, glue a ring to the bottom of the lid?

[FIGJAM]

It will be easier to add pad to the bottom of the tube if you have to.

The drip line creates the gasket.

There's a complete recap of the designs on page 66.

[unjonharley]

Can't wait to see the pusher.

It's so simple it will be an mad max anti climax..

[Bounce530]

Oh crap, I didn't realize the pump is 7v...how long is it going to last connected to the 12v battery before the pump blows up?? I bought the exact pump listed on the page 62 recap.
Also, what size holes are cut into the side of the homer bucket?

[FIGJAM]

Just use the pump with the solar panel that came with it or there is still time to get this one.

http://compare.ebay.com/like/4005193924 ... s&var=sbar

I think the holes are 2", but it's not that critical as long as the surface area of all the holes are about twice that of the duct.

[oly14]

I have the harbor freight solar pump and I'd like to connect it to my deep cycle battery. That being said the solar pump is 7v and the battery is 12v so I bought a voltage reducer. Do you happen to know which of the wires in the power cord of the pump is positive and which is negative? One is blue and the other is brown.

Brown is positive, blue is negative. I put my meter on the solar panel and then looked though the connector at the wires.

[Dusmir]

I think it's funny when you go to amazon and look up the cooler pads, at the bottom where it says "people who bought this also bought..." and it's cpu fans, fountain pumps, and battery operated led and el wire. It's like a burning man shopping cart.

Great thread Figjam, I actually read all 73 pages! Good work. Some need to pay a little more attention to voltages and instructions, but they'll learn when they let the smoke out.

D.C. is for batteries, A.C. is for gennys putting out household 110volt, Red is positive, black is negative, a 7 volt motor WILL run on 12 volts for about 1/2 a second, you can't run 2 amps worth of motors on a $19.95 autozone solar battery charger, check the specs BEFORE you click 'buy it now,' etc., etc. And most important, if you don't know what you are doing, following the instructions to the letter will get you a cooler that works! If you don't, you're gonna be hot...

[theox]

thanks for the response about the pad life in the dust, fig. i'm almost ready to roll but had siliconed my 4 inch septic line connector to the lid a few days ago and it just popped off. what do you use to "goop" yours on so it stays put? and do you apply it once you've got the fan attached (i don't want to take the fan off but will if the goop gets messy).
thanks. stoked about the "window" i built to run swampie into our camper van. so will post pics

[fgcastle]

fig. i'm almost ready to roll but had siliconed my 4 inch septic line connector to the lid a few days ago and it just popped off. what do you use to "goop" yours on so it stays put? and do you apply it once you've got the fan attached (i don't want to take the fan off but will if the goop gets messy).

I am sure Fig has a smarter way, but here is what I did. Attached a 5" to 4" reducer with angle brackets and then siliconed around the bottom seal.

swamp cooler top connector.JPG

[theox]

looks solid! maybe i'll throw some angle brackets on there... thx

[FIGJAM]

GOOP is GOOP!!!

https://www.google.com/shopping/product ... CFkQ8wIwAA

Make sure you clean all the silicone off first.

My connector hasn't budged since I stuck it to the bucket.

[unjonharley]

The only tweeking I have done.. Is a different model fan and wired the pump to run off a battery.Not even messing with the design.. The fan is the same amp..

Waiting for the pads in the mail..

[sambojones]

has anyone tried the aspen pads with the bucket or box designs? from researching the duracool and aspen pads it seemed like most people that used them in home systems agreed that their temp dropped between 5-15 degrees more with the aspen pads vs duracool due to the synthetic material not getting saturated enough. One reviewer even tried doubling up duracool pads in his evap cooler and said that it still didn't match the temp drop using 1 layer of aspen. I searched this thread and found 1 or 2 people were using them or thinking about using them but then they never posted results. I know the duracool will be less messy to build with, but from reading reviews the aspen didn't seem too bad as far as creating a mess when cutting it. Anyway just wanted to get y'alls input as well as see if anyone has experience using the aspen pads in their cooler. I'll be building either 3 bucket coolers or 3 unicoolers to cool our 3 yurts and will be powering them off our generator using something like this 10" box fan and this harbor freight fountain pump. thanks in advance for any input

[FIGJAM]

I've used both types in house coolers and there is no difference.

Under perfect conditions you get 30 degrees cooling.

That's what I get and the duracool pads are easier to work with.

[Yellfire!]

Im confused about which pump you actually used. The harbor freight one doenst say its 12V and the other one says 6-9V. Can you post a link to exactly which one you used please? Thanks!