a tent cooling device

[boldlyreal]

Has anyone heard of the product Kooleraire?
We are thinking of trying this if we come this summer instead of in December.

T~

 

[Kaler131]

It looks very "kool"....LOL! I haven't heard anything about it, but if it works well it would be GREAT!

 

[BigDaddyRog]

Ive seen them.....they would be ok if you were camping in a closet, and had access to plenty of free ice!!!! But its FLORIDA!!!!! Its already humid enough without THAT blowing melted ice air at you...but it beats "no a/c at all" I guess....keep in mind that a small bag of ice costs like 2 or 3 bucks at the fort.

 

[des1954]

clkelly posted something last fall about a "boot" that you can sew into the side of your tent. It is made to hold a regular window mount AC unit.

We have seen tent campers cut holes into the side of their tents and duct tape a room AC to the tent. They placed the AC on a plastic crate on the outside of the tent. One guy invited us to go inside the tent so see how well it worked. This was in July, and it was actually very cold inside the tent. I found this to be a very resourceful solution to beating the heat while tent camping.

The unit you posted could be accomplished much cheaper by placing a block of ice in a dish-pan and blowing a fan across the ice. However - you would spend a fortune on ice at FtW - and they only sell bagged ice cubes & not blocks of ice.

 

[homebrew2]

They have recently started making portable A/C units.The hot discharge
air is routed into a duct hose. So instead of the whole unit beeing cramed into
an outside opening, only the hose.

I've seen them....I believe at Sears.

Here's what you needhttp://www.portableairshop.com/

 

[des1954]

They have recently started making portable A/C units.The hot discharge
air is routed into a duct hose. So instead of the whole unit beeing cramed into
an outside opening, only the hose.

I've seen them....I believe at Sears.

You're right, Denny.

The ones I've seen at Sam's club are rather large & cumbersome, however.

(Notice the hose at the bottom left - that's what you would stick out the door of the tent)

 

[LiteBrite]

They have recently started making portable A/C units.The hot discharge
air is routed into a duct hose. So instead of the whole unit beeing cramed into
an outside opening, only the hose.

I've seen them....I believe at Sears.

Here's what you needhttp://www.portableairshop.com/

Yeah, but this thing is a LOT cheaper than those! I would love to know if it works or not.

Ive seen them.....they would be ok if you were camping in a closet, and had access to plenty of free ice!!!! But its FLORIDA!!!!! Its already humid enough without THAT blowing melted ice air at you...but it beats "no a/c at all" I guess....keep in mind that a small bag of ice costs like 2 or 3 bucks at the fort.

How much is a bag of ice at the Hess stations? We drive to all the parks except the MK from FW anyway, so we could easily route ourselves by one of the stations on our way back. We're going to be wanting ice in our cooler anyway.

 

[RvUsa]

I know ice is $2 a little bag at the fort, either at the CS's or at the meadows. I never looked at Hess's, but I am willing to bet it's not much cheaper.

 

[LiteBrite]

Ok, so let's say I need 2 bags of ice per day, at $2 a bag. Heck, let's go all crazy and make it 3 bags. That's a total of $6/day for ice (which I'm going to have to get some of, anyway).

The cheapest portable ac I've seen is $275, at WalMart. I could spend $40 on the KoolerAire unit, plus $36 in ice for my 6 day trip, for a total of $76, or I could spend $275 for the portable ac.

I think that $200 difference makes it worth trying to find out if the KoolerAire could possibly do the job!

 

[BigDaddyRog]

Do they sell them at a local store where you are, or have you only seen them online? If they have them in your nearby store...buy one and try it out at home......if it doesnt seem like it will cut the mustard...bring it back and tell them it just doesnt meet up to the quality that it claims to. DRY ice may be something you might want to look into if it DOES work, a good size block would probably last ALOT longer than regular ice, but I dont know this for a fact.

 

[tw1nsmom]

I think the problem is that the small unit you're looking at is unlikely to make even a small difference in the temperature of your tent. This is Florida in the summer and you'll be in a tent with no insulating factor to keep the heat out. Besides, the heat that you feel is really humidity and adding more moisture to the situation isn't going to help things.

I think it's likely that the unit you're looking at will only make things worse. We use the portable A/C units with the ducting in our upstairs. Granted, ours are the highest BTU's we could find, but they really work great. I would either get a small real portable A/C or just stick with fans. I wouldn't want to add more moisture to the equation.

 

[RvUsa]

Do they sell them at a local store where you are, or have you only seen them online? If they have them in your nearby store...buy one and try it out at home......if it doesnt seem like it will cut the mustard...bring it back and tell them it just doesnt meet up to the quality that it claims to. DRY ice may be something you might want to look into if it DOES work, a good size block would probably last ALOT longer than regular ice, but I dont know this for a fact.

I thought about the dry ice too, but wouldn't you die from the CO2, when the dry ice "melts", it releases the co2 into the tent with you... You may be cooler, but on a little more permanent terms....

 

[BigDaddyRog]

LOL...well said!!! How is it that you guys always THINK BEFORE you type stuff.....I gotta learn that trick.

 

[2goofycampers]

I think the problem is that the small unit you're looking at is unlikely to make even a small difference in the temperature of your tent. This is Florida in the summer and you'll be in a tent with no insulating factor to keep the heat out. Besides, the heat that you feel is really humidity and adding more moisture to the situation isn't going to help things.

I think it's likely that the unit you're looking at will only make things worse. We use the portable A/C units with the ducting in our upstairs. Granted, ours are the highest BTU's we could find, but they really work great. I would either get a small real portable A/C or just stick with fans. I wouldn't want to add more moisture to the equation.

I agree completely. You may wake up with that fresh morning dew feeling on everything in your tent. You also have to factor in hassle and time factor between the two methods. eventually the electric one will break even over the ice buying one the it's free cooling from there on. IMHO. & 2 cents....

 

[2goofycampers]

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/20285896.cfm too much free time today, this might help

 

[LiteBrite]

You guys are making sense. Your thoughts, combined with the comments on that link, are making this seem like it just really wouldn't be a good idea.

I am bummed - I hoped this was going to be a good, cheap alternative.

 

[clkelley]

Those things are made on the same principle that folks out west use for air conditioning call a swamp cooler. Unfortunately, they only work well when humidity is low as in 20% or less. With 99% humidity, it ain't gonna work at all.

 

[shocker]

I too have been debating the cool tent dilema for my Aug. trip with 2 young kids. I think I'm going for the window A/C. I've checked online at walmart and lowe's and found the smallest unit brand new will only run me about $100 and I think it will help zap the h-u-m-d-i-t-y. So, now I'm checking for used at pawn shops, ebay, and craigslist in my city. If I do buy new I'll likely resell quickly to get max. $$$ back on a barely used, modern looking unit. My tent has 2 zipper doors. So, I'll zip the A/C in one door at the bottom and use the other for foot traffic. My only issue now is space in the car to haul it down there. I may buy it new when I get down there, and then find some wilting neighboring tent camper to sell it to. When did you say you'd be down there again? Maybe I'll conduct an auction and sell it to the highest sweating bidder. That's probably against FW rules