The Doobieus Cooler - Home made AC

Ok so here's my very first tutorial, hope it doesn't disappoint lol.

Anyhow I've seen 2 main designs for a Home made AC, one design is the well known copper make shift radiator on a fan outside of the cooler, the other doesn't utilize a copper radiator at all, but lasts longer cooling wise and doesn't have that messy condensation. I have been overlooking these designs and have been re-designing them for awhile now.

After all the brain storming and re-designing I have come up with what I will call "The Doobieus Cooler". It takes both designs and combines them into one. Stays cooler longer, and no messy condensation.

All materials can be found at Walmart, and the cost is less than $40 (Prices may vary depending on state and tax).

What you will need:

- 4 inch ducting
- Copper tubing (I just used a scrap piece)
- Fan at 10 inches max
- Fish water pump/Aquarium pump
- Styrofoam cooler (Or any cooler really)
- Duct tape (The god of ghetto lol)



Step 1: Clog the water pump as shown, if I had some silicone I would just have given it a nice blast of that to clog it.



Step 2: This part is kind of a hassle, but get some pliers and pinch the copper tubing until it squeezes into the plastic tubing that comes with the pump, then duct tape to ensure a good seal.



Step 3: Set the pump inside and line the bottom of it with the copper tubing (Be careful and gentle while bending it), bend it back up and bend the end into a coil (Make sure the coil's end is pointing DOWN or else you'll have a watery mess lol). The coil is where the duct will be. (Note: If I had more copper tubing, I would have lined it far more, I will probably buy some more later down the line and re-vamp it, but this setup works well too, I'm just a perfectionist).



Step 4: Make sure the ducting is even with the coil, get the ducting and press it against the cooler to make a mark, cut out the circle, and place the ducting in the hole as shown.





Step 5: Cut the lid to accommodate your fan.



Step 6: Put 2-4 frozen 2 liters inside.



Step 7: Put lid on.



Step 8: Put fan on lid and turn on.



Some pictures of it in action, note the condensation on the copper tubing.





Some pictures of it in the grow room, yeah I know the setup looks ghetto but money's tight lol. I plan to eventually hook it up to the HPS, but for tutorial purposes this will work.







A picture of writing I put on the cooler to prove that I made it lol, yeah that was an after thought and Step 5 was also taken after the fact but whatever lol.



I hope this tutorial helps people with heat issues, happy growing and toking to all.

Pretty kool innovation..

Cool man. but can you redo the pictures looks like a bunch are missing....

How often do you have to replace the frozen water bottles?

Very nice doobieus!

Persistance said:

Pretty kool innovation..

Click to expand...

Thanks dude.

bleubeard said:

Cool man. but can you redo the pictures looks like a bunch are missing....

Click to expand...

Yeah I plan to, I actually uploaded the photos on my cell phone's connection, we don't have 3g either lol, I should have highspeed back on Thursday, so I will definitely fix it when I get high speed again, just moved into this place.

potsticker said:

How often do you have to replace the frozen water bottles?

Click to expand...

It depends on how many you use, 2 bottles you're looking at changing them every 2-3 hours, 4 in there about 4-6 hours. I'm also basing this off of the temps where I live, it's been 100F plus out here, so if you're in a cooler climate you probably won't have to change them out as much.

Mysticlown150 said:

Very nice doobieus!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the compliment Mysticlown.

What kind of temp changes do you see when using this.

This is defininetly something I wanna look more into. Portable AC units are around 250 dollars... And the cheap ones are bullshit. What are the temp changes? How big of a room are you using that in? Great post!

As far as the temp drop question, the temps out here have been around 100F where I live. The evaporative cooler for the house drops that by 15 degrees or so, so it's about 85F in the house, the cooler adds around another 13 degree drop so my closet is between 76F-78F. The closet is I wanna say about 10ft W, 8 ft H, and 2 ft D, I hooked it to my reflector and it's working a little better but not drastically or anything. I'm sure you can do it with a bigger cooler if you have more space to chill, but I was going cheap and didn't need too much extra cooling.

this is a brilliant idea, and like you say the more copper you have wound round the better it will work.

bloatedcraig said:

this is a brilliant idea, and like you say the more copper you have wound round the better it will work.

Click to expand...

Thanks Craig, yeah I just had to deal with the scrap pieces I had or else I would have lined more of the bottom and made the coil tighter.

WOW exactly what my closet needs. whats with the missing pictures though

Vaporzonger said:

WOW exactly what my closet needs. whats with the missing pictures though

Click to expand...

Yeah.... Didn't have high speed to upload them properly lol. I've been on my damn cell phone for internet and the speed is 115k yes, it makes me want to cry lol.

I was supposed to get high speed again like 2 days ago, but the first day the cable guy went to the wrong house, and the second he didn't even show, so now the supervisor is coming out today. So hopefully I will have high speed today, when I get it back I will repost the pics.

Okay so how are we adapting this to a minifridge?

Cuz I have been trying to find the best way to cool a space with one.

Ok so here's my very first tutorial, hope it doesn't disappoint lol.

Anyhow I've seen 2 main designs for a Home made AC, one design is the well known copper make shift radiator on a fan outside of the cooler, the other doesn't utilize a copper radiator at all, but lasts longer cooling wise and doesn't have that messy condensation. I have been overlooking these designs and have been re-designing them for awhile now.

After all the brain storming and re-designing I have come up with what I will call "The Doobieus Cooler". It takes both designs and combines them into one. Stays cooler longer, and no messy condensation.

All materials can be found at Walmart, and the cost is less than $40 (Prices may vary depending on state and tax).

What you will need:

- 4 inch ducting
- Copper tubing (I just used a scrap piece)
- Fan at 10 inches max
- Fish water pump/Aquarium pump
- Styrofoam cooler (Or any cooler really)
- Duct tape (The god of ghetto lol)



Step 1: Clog the water pump as shown, if I had some silicone I would just have given it a nice blast of that to clog it.



Step 2: This part is kind of a hassle, but get some pliers and pinch the copper tubing until it squeezes into the plastic tubing that comes with the pump, then duct tape to ensure a good seal.



Step 3: Set the pump inside and line the bottom of it with the copper tubing (Be careful and gentle while bending it), bend it back up and bend the end into a coil (Make sure the coil's end is pointing DOWN or else you'll have a watery mess lol). The coil is where the duct will be. (Note: If I had more copper tubing, I would have lined it far more, I will probably buy some more later down the line and re-vamp it, but this setup works well too, I'm just a perfectionist).



Step 4: Make sure the ducting is even with the coil, get the ducting and press it against the cooler to make a mark, cut out the circle, and place the ducting in the hole as shown.





Step 5: Cut the lid to accommodate your fan.



Step 6: Put 2-4 frozen 2 liters inside.



Step 7: Put lid on.



Step 8: Put fan on lid and turn on.



Some pictures of it in action, note the condensation on the copper tubing.





Some pictures of it in the grow room, yeah I know the setup looks ghetto but money's tight lol. I plan to eventually hook it up to the HPS, but for tutorial purposes this will work.





A picture of writing I put on the cooler to prove that I made it lol, yeah that was an after thought and Step 5 was also taken after the fact but whatever lol.



I hope this tutorial helps people with heat issues, happy growing and toking to all.

MeisterYo said:

Okay so how are we adapting this to a minifridge?

Cuz I have been trying to find the best way to cool a space with one.

Click to expand...

I could probably find a way to do it with a mini freezer or fridge but I'd have to have a scrap fridge/mini freezer to take apart lol.

Well All you really need is a way to keep the water cool right?

Take a mini fridge with a res of water in it, maybe even with antifreeze so it doesn't turn to ice. Have the copper coil exit the front of the fridge and enter back through.

Now you have the coil external. mount a comp fan behind it and throw some flexiduct over it.

then pretty much setup your doobcooler

I am sure there is a better way, like using the heat pump of the fridge and an icebox to super cool your light/grow room.

MeisterYo said:

Well All you really need is a way to keep the water cool right?

Take a mini fridge with a res of water in it, maybe even with antifreeze so it doesn't turn to ice. Have the copper coil exit the front of the fridge and enter back through.

Now you have the coil external. mount a comp fan behind it and throw some flexiduct over it.

then pretty much setup your doobcooler

I am sure there is a better way, like using the heat pump of the fridge and an icebox to super cool your light/grow room.

Click to expand...

If I were going to do that, then it'd be cheaper to just get a water cooling kit for a computer. Most of the kit's have pumps that are specifically for coolant. I thought about doing a cooler that way, but this is one of the cheapest cooling ideas I have.

That's why I posted it first, I'm sure I will continue to screw around with stuff when I'm bored, and if it's good enough post it on here.

The only problem I see with a mini fridge is that, a fridge gets hot because of the way it creates the cool. I think that the heat from the fridge would honestly hinder some of the cooling the unit would produce. I'll have to look into that when I can find a mini fridge.

I looked up people cooling computers with them, the minifridge isn't really designed to handle that kind of heat transfer through its stock system.

A standard icebox system would already be way better than this.

Your budget system is nice and simple.

Can't beat that.

Do you need to have the water running? can you just put in 4 bottles of frozen water and have the air blow directly onto the ice and exit out the vent?