STEP 1: GATHER THE PARTS
For starters, you'll need to gather the parts and simple tools that you'll need to complete this project. Don't worry — you don't need anything fancy or expensive. In fact, you likely will have many of these items if not all of them laying around in your garage or home.
Here's a list of the parts and tools you will need:
- 5-gallon plastic bucket with a lid; you can find one at a Home Depot or a similar hardware or building supply store
- Drill with a ‘hole saw’ type bit. Any common electric drill should work just fine. You can get an inexpensive hole saw set at any hardware store or Home Depot. Since you'll only be cutting plastic you don’t need anything fancy. Both 1.5 inch and 2 inch drills are good sizes to have for this.
- Evaporative cooler pad that is at least 14×31 inches. Dura Cool makes some that are available from Amazon. You can also find them at Home Depot or another hardware store.
- Utility scissors or shears that will be used to cut the pad to size
- Long straight-edge ruler that'll help you cut accurately
- Permanent marker or tape to indicate the maximum water level
- Fiberglass screen as used for windows or screen doors or a garden cloth will also work
- Sturdy utility knife
- Small DC powered fan
- Submersible aquarium or fountain pump (look for a 12 V DC submersible water pump on Amazon)
- About 4.5 feet of aquarium tubing to fit your pump (usually 1/4 inch or 5/16 inch clear vinyl is fine)
- Small clamp that'll be used to pinch the hose
- Have a thumbtack ready
When you have gathered all of the materials and tools, you can get started by preparing the plastic bucket, which is described on the next page:
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This may make you feel cooler but actually adds heat to a room (remember to cool you have to transfer the heat somewhere else). You can make a two bucket system with two fans, one set inside and one out that would actually cool, but you have to connect then through a wall or window somehow.
Justin Havok Hamill
Del Hagley II
Kenny Feazell
Your back up for Monica Moosbrugger
Hey that’s no joke. I actually built one of those last year and bought the copper, water pump, etc to Julie another one here just in case. Lol
If it works build it!!!!
Th copper tubing one is certainly the way to go
I just need to pick up a box or oscillating fan and good to go.
Use it as a Steele in the winter…
Uh I don’t partake any longer bro but yea it wouldn’t take much to make one.
Didn’t work
Yea that’ll end well
We used one where i used to work in va. Feels about 5 to 10 degrees cooler. Its a swamp cooler and when its 90+ makes it feel a little better but its not an air conditioner and uses the water quickly.
Swamp cooler, not air conditioner. It puts humidity into the air, which makes things worse here in the south
Arlis Hall III
Quick question…… if your in a blackout , where do you get the ice !?
It’s not A/C, it’s a swamp cooler. They can be useful, so long as you don’t have high humidity already.
It’s not A/C, it’s a swamp cooler. They can be useful, so long as you don’t have high humidity already.
Yeah during a blackout I’ll just go out and get myself a shovel full of snow
These dont work.
Tyler Nelson Lonnie Garrett
Max Miller
If you have power then why not just run a window unit ac?
If you don’t you soon will have running this
Stick some ice in your pants, works better and no hassle
They don’t create high humidity, but they will raise it up to normal levels in especially dry areas. They use evaporation for cooling, so as long as the water is evaporating, it’s cooling. 🙂
Douglas Funk
where does one find ice in a black out
people please stop sharing this stupid thing.
More like an evaporative cooler.
Jesse Peterson
Uhm,
Only works in dry places, not in humid climates like you’d need. Also, I’ve made a few ice A/Cs different methods, and they are very inefficient. A whole cooler of ice barely cools a small cab pickup for maybe an hour before it all melts. Best bet is to find a way to run coil through whole… large blocks. Still were fun to make though.