Pirep: Arctic Air

[Ken Ibold]

I sprang for an Arctic Air portable air conditioner at Sun N Fun, and today tried it out for the first time. Local weather was humid and clear, temp in the low 80s. (Car dash said 83. Silly me, I didn't check the OAT on the airplane.) This was a ground test only, as I had to sit in the airplane to wait for the XM activation on the new 496.

For the purposes of the test, I only put 16 pounds of ice into the cooler, or about 1/3rd capacity. It went into my Lance, in the rear baggage compartment. The airplane had been sitting outside the avionics shop, and it was warm inside, but not as warm as it could have been because the morning had been foggy. I didn't measure, but I would estimate the inside temperature at about 105.

I put the unit in and ran it off the ship's battery for about 15 minutes with all the doors shut. Climbed in and it was about 75 inside. Very nice! I then switched the power over to the car, so as not to burn the airplane battery while doing the XM download, and sat inside the airplane for the next half hour or so dinking around with the avionics etc. Very comfortable the entire time. Once, I switched it off to see how fast it would get hot, and after a couple of minutes I couldn't stand it anymore and turned it back on.

This was a ground test only. At the end of the test, the ice was about 90 percent gone, but the water was still cold.

I'll post more as I put this thing to work operationally. While it doesn't cool the interior like your car on max a/c, it does work as advertised and, in these conditions, made sitting in the closed-up airplane not only bearable, but comfortable. And the fact that it removes humidity was a big plus. Can't wait to try it on a 92 degree day with 4 pax.

 

[gismo]

Cool!

 

[jesse]

$535.00

for a cooler with a fan bolted on the top? Is there more to it then this? If not perhaps I'm in the wrong business.

 

[gismo]

$535.00

for a cooler with a fan bolted on the top? Is there more to it then this? If not perhaps I'm in the wrong business.

IIRC there's a pump and a heat exchanger. Blowing air over ice water is likely to just raise the humidity as much as it lowers the temp. I looked at those coolers last year and concluded there was $100-150 in parts.

 

[mikea]

$535.00

for a cooler with a fan bolted on the top? Is there more to it then this? If not perhaps I'm in the wrong business.

There were a bunch of guys who worked on duplicating it. You;ll find some web ages on it.

You need an Igloo ice chest, a 12 volt bilge pump, a 12 volt fan, and a small radiator, like a heater core or oil cooler.

 

[KennyFlys]

It sounds like a very expensive and profitable swamp cooler.

 

[Tim]

I can put up with a lot of hot air for 500 Bucks!

 

[Ken Ibold]

You need an Igloo ice chest, a 12 volt bilge pump, a 12 volt fan, and a small radiator, like a heater core or oil cooler.

Yup. And then a housing for the fan and a panel to hide all the internal guts and a 6-foot long power cord with switches and a closeable vent to keep cold in when it's not running.

Yeah, it's maybe 100-150 bucks in parts -- if you exclude the vacuum formed plastic housings that I wouldn't know how to do. Plus, the whole thing has a finished look to it that would be difficult to replicate making one yourself. Well, for me, anyway. I'd rather pay him to do the assembly than muddle through it myself just to save $300.

 

[SCCutler]

It sounds like a very expensive and profitable swamp cooler.

Well, no, a swamper cools by running air over water and relying upon evaporative cooling- needs dry air and makes it moister (more moist?). This thing uses cold water, from ice, and actually removes humidity from the cabin through condensation.

I can put up with a lot of hot air for 500 Bucks!

Base yourself in Florida, or Texas, and say that again. Many's the time, of a summer afternoon, "Bonanza one six whiskey, number four for takeoff, five jets inbound, hold short..." at Addison. Sweat pours off of the face...

Yup. And then a housing for the fan and a panel to hide all the internal guts and a 6-foot long power cord with switches and a closeable vent to keep cold in when it's not running.

Yeah, it's maybe 100-150 bucks in parts -- if you exclude the vacuum formed plastic housings that I wouldn't know how to do. Plus, the whole thing has a finished look to it that would be difficult to replicate making one yourself. Well, for me, anyway. I'd rather pay him to do the assembly than muddle through it myself just to save $300.

I don't think anyone should belabor this guy his money- he came up with it, built it, it works great, and sells it. Everyone I know who's bought one, loves it.

The thread about building your own is here: http://dfwpilots.org/board/index.php?showtopic=1721

A lot of innovative ideas there.

Ken, think about this: Your Lance has a forced-air ventilation system already in place, overhead, with the fan and ductwork readily-accessible behind the baggage compartment bulkhead. Read the DFW Pilots thread, and apply some creative thought to that...

 

[Ken Ibold]

Ken, think about this: Your Lance has a forced-air ventilation system already in place, overhead, with the fan and ductwork readily-accessible behind the baggage compartment bulkhead. Read the DFW Pilots thread, and apply some creative thought to that...

Spike, I've already looked at that possibility. I haven't checked the DFW pilots thread, but the show-stoppers to me at this point are that I don't want to carve a hole in the aft bulkhead cover to run ductwork, and I want the existing ductwork to be intact for use when the cooler isn't necessary. Are there solutions to these two issues? I like the plug in, plug out simplicity of the portable, but I'm open to something more ambitious.

 

[SCCutler]

Spike, I've already looked at that possibility. I haven't checked the DFW pilots thread, but the show-stoppers to me at this point are that I don't want to carve a hole in the aft bulkhead cover to run ductwork, and I want the existing ductwork to be intact for use when the cooler isn't necessary. Are there solutions to these two issues? I like the plug in, plug out simplicity of the portable, but I'm open to something more ambitious.

Well, Ken, read that thread for some ideas about how they have taken the Arctic Air concept and re-engineered it. My idea would be that you'd use the existing fan and ductwork and, thus would only need to:

1. Run cold water supply and return lines through the bulkhead;you'd want to have quick-disconnect fittings for these lines, so you could fill / drain the cooler and leave the lines in place, but QDs are plentiful, effective and cheap;
2. Place a radiator (heat-exchanger?) in line with the existing ductwork, behind the bulkhead.


If you look on the DFW Pilots thread, one enterprising fellow has a Six with factory A/C which is inop because of the belt-throwing issue (no big surprise with that puny belt), thinking about adapting the factory evaporator to run the cold water through it instead. This makes great sense, and would also utilize the factory condensation draining scheme (whatever that is). I bet you could get the factory A/C parts from an air salvage outfit, if you wanted, although I cannot imagine it would take too much complex engineering to design, fabricate and install something in your plane's existing forced-air system.

Come to think of it, you'd want to provide for a third, smaller tube to come through the bulkhead and go into the cooler, as a condensate return, if you did not find and adapt Piper's factory A/C condensate drain method.

It should work, and work well, and be bone-simple to do; Piper's air blower and ducting are simple and move a lot of air.

===

Edit: My main point is, you would not have to alter Piper's ducts at all; behind the bulkhead (check me on this, but I am pretty certain), there is just a big squirrel-cage blower and orange, wire-reinforced, tubing for air (SCAT?). You could place an evap/radiator in-line without cutting a thing, and could later remove it and restore to original, in minutes.

 

[EdFred]

I just leave the door open until take off. Worked for me when it was 115 degrees.

 

[Ken Ibold]

I just leave the door open until take off. Worked for me when it was 115 degrees.

And what about when you're #8 for landing on a 95 degree/90 percent humidity day and ATC is vectoring you around three counties at 2000 feet?

 

[EdFred]

And what about when you're #8 for landing on a 95 degree/90 percent humidity day and ATC is vectoring you around three counties at 2000 feet?

Cancel IFR and land. lol