Putting a Homemade Air Conditioner to the Test | Consumer Reports

[@cheeto.1]

I made one in a pinch for my square drop camper its small 10x5x5. Definitely helped me relax watch a movie in the rain then sleep at night and used 2 1gal frozen water jugs. When I woke up I had cold water to drink too. Worked ok for me. I do have a window unit installed now it freezes me out but the cooler trick kept my balls cool 😎

[@Iickme]

Lol

[@danielkinney6325]

I USED ONE IN MY GARAGE And it worked and saved my Kitty Kats mother and 4 babies during the summer.

[@lordoftheskies4029]

daniel kinney lying ass .. they.dont work... the ice melts too fast! Lol

[@balkandivision3827]

great commercial...

[@brentcharles9225]

Consumer reports says: don't buy ice and a fan, buy expensive shit, CEOs need money 🤑

[@johnh9748]

Yes...Its all about a conspiracy and has nothing what-so-ever to do with science. For this to work like a common 2-ton AC unit, you would need to supply it with *gasp* 2 TONS of ice per day. SO while you are putting it to the man...enjoy running to the store every 7 minutes to buy a 20 lb bag of ice.

[@gene978]

You MISSED THE WHOLE POINT of the HOMEMADE A/C UNIT'S and they were made for SPOT A/C and for people that don't have much $$$ and want to stay cool for short periods of time. And You can buy a block of ICE at most Grocery Stores. They're not made to cool down 90 degree rooms.

[@KinGoddess]

exactly. or just freeze a gallon of water or two and reuse. why keep buying ice.

[@seth4567]

Use salt water in a gallon of water and freeze that, make or 3 gallons so you can just swap the gallon when they done

[@jackstauffer6638]

Was thinking the exact same thing 🙂

[@wintime456]

Funny how they say they don't work and them immediately say...but you can buy this one here for xx amount of dollars.

[@shepdshepd4667]

You didn't mention the relative humidity of the room. Considering that's the entire way these units work, your test was completely invalid and the results should be ignored. If you are in a humid environment, these devices will not help and worse, will make the room more humid, increasing the humidex rating (that is the case for where I am). If you are in a very arid area, these will help a lot and the added humidity will be welcomed.

[@martinterry7613]

too much common sense here

[@stevenrachelroxy]

These aren't evaporative swamp coolers.....it's just ice in a container cooling air.

[@cookiect2003]

This is a commercial for GE! Blowing the air onto the ice.... what the hell is that going to do? These coolers are poorly designed and the results are sketchy at best. "The room is set to 90deg." Are they constantly pumping heat into the room?

[@Shadoefax760]

They're for small areas to cool a person & persons space, it's not meant to cool a giant room but if you're trying to stay cool in say a car or a tent than they 188% work perfectly & keep you & car or tent more than comfortable. You critiqued it as if it were meant to put the AC industry out of business & it's simply for those who have no means to get or build expensive traditional AC units. For small personal area it's the best & cheapest alternative & most can't tell difference.

[@mentalhobo9074]

Dont forget to buy our 175$ air conditioners 😂 & dont DIY

[@hannawomack6041]

Let me tell you I live in south Texas....its over 100° out right now without the heat index I made two of these using two small styrofoam coolers two small fans couldn't find any regular tubing at the house Used plastic cups and having the 2 of them going I was finally able to get some sleep the other night after my central unit has been out for 2 weeks waiting for replacement

[@davidshearer567]

This seems like a very skewed or outright deceptive report. My understanding of the use of home made a/c's is to provide auxiliary cooling to keep your main unit from running continuously, or to provide cooler air in a particular room/area. Keep in mind that a central air conditioning unit can only hold 20° less than the outside ambient temperature in optimum conditions - not great for a polar bear in Miami, but mostly acceptable for humans needing to cool off after a beach run... It also seems strange that your output temperature from homemade unit would register only 15° lower than ambient temperature since you're blowing air directly across 32° ice in a very confined area (the bucket) - it seems your output would be more like 10°-20° above freezing - not 15° below the ambient room/area temperature. Maybe this is Consumer Reports is failing...

[@markme4]

Central will cool the air inside your home 20* not outside ambient temperature. In other words, if its 90* in your home, the temperature of the air will be 70*, as your home cools, these numbers will become lower and lower.

[@illusionnl9237]

Was that an ad? Omg

[@RockymountainRobert]

This only works in a dry climate in the west or north, it does not cool a vehicle or home in the south with high humidity and dewpoint, temps above 95.

[@Thundersnort]

The homemade AC's are not designed to cool an entire house or even a large room. They're designed to cool you and or a much smaller area. Going to make one to try (I live in Georgia, high heat, high humidity) and see how it goes.

[@toasterbread75]

how did it go?

[@MrTwitch217]

What if you took the fan and had it pull air in to the cooler down to the bottom so the air had to bubble up through the ice and water then blew that air into the room. Kinda like a bong chills smoke.

[@matttumlinson2239]

I've seen a video of a 28 quart ice chest with a small fan blowing 46 degree air. They are clearly trying to get you to spend your money. Two frozen milk jugs covered in ice should last several hours.

[@DevinBigSeven]

Not sure how comparably priced AC units do; they compare it to units costing $100's. If you live in a northern climate where it only reaches 80F for maybe two weeks, its not worth spending $300, or $150 if you have an appropriate window for a window unit. You could keep a freezer in a garage to freeze water bottles, assuming that the garage's air circulation is separate from the rest of the house, and you won't have additional hot air being generated from the freezer going into the rest of the house.

[@shepdshepd4667]

These devices literally don't work at all in Northern climes because they are high humidity zones. In fact, they will make the room feel hotter and more unpleasant.

[@DevinBigSeven]

Hence the water bottles. And I live in a subarctic (Dsc), low humidity zone, Alaska, not a humid continental climate (Dsa, Dsb, Dfa, Dfb, Dwa, Dwb), Köppen climate classification. Humidity is 39% right now and is in the mid to low 70's in the sun (about 23C), and using the ASHRAE comfort index calculator, comfort.cbe.berkeley.edu/, humidity change does not have much of an effect at this temperature range. If I were to decrease the temperature by one degree, I would have to increase the humidity by at least 10% absolute to mitigate the effects. Yes, if you just have the ice in there open to the air, then you will increase the room's humidity, which will be counter productive, plus you will have a mess of water to clean up.

[@martinterry7613]

or roll up on any crappy motel with a cooler, fill up, and dip. EASY button

[@njitir32]

The bucket they used was all wrong. Need Styrofoam in the bucket with a solid piece of ice not cubes.

[@tuanas458]

The homemade AC doesn't work. My car doesn't have AC and I tried it to cool the interior down with a few bottles of frozen water. The reason why this stuff doesn't work is because there's a few things to consider - surface area, rate of cooling, and heat absorbtion. Water can absorb alot of heat but that's only during the phase change from liquid to boiling. The heat absorb from ICE to liquid isn't much at all. This means the amount of heat you can absorb is very little, unless you have a ton of frozen ice water around. The other thing is that the rate at which these things absorb heat is very slow. It can take 30mins to hours just to absorb a bit of heat because the surface area is small than an evaporator with metal fins. The water and ice itself is'n't a good conductor to absorb heat. A real AC system can absorb an enormous amount of heat and really fast too because of the refrigerant.

[@Sharperthanu1]

The problem isn't the price of the air conditioner.It's the price of the electricity to run the airconditioner.Better buy:a BIG BOX FAN FROM WALMART.ALREADY ASSEMBLED.

[@gamingscientist7445]

I've seen videos on KZbin that feature home-made swamp coolers, where water is pumped into a mesh that air is pulled through. Could you test those?

[@wadepierson4438]

I have a window unit in my bedroom. It works great but the problem is the compressor fan turns on ever 10 minutes and its so loud that there's no way i can sleep with the cool on. I have to turn it to fan :( Any solutions for the hot nights?

[@martyhollar3763]

Ear plugs

[@tieck4408]

Small window AC = 10,000 BTU output or 1,000 joules per second (ie 1,000 watt OUTput). Melting one gram if ice to water, then heating it to 80 f or so takes the better part of 1,000 joules. Round up to be generous: you need one gram of ice to melt every second to rival the AC unit. That's something on the order of 10 lb an hour, a gallon and a third or so. How even? Now suppose you get your ice at 10 cents per pound. 100 days of cooling would be about $1,000 plus a lot of work. (And obviously you don't want to use your own freezer to make the ice. That would just dump the heat into your home.)

[@ericlogos9568]

You don't lower the room temperature, you just let it blow on yourself. That's it. It's a personal cooler. Screw the room. Consumer reports always does this kind of shit. They straw man a topic and then blast it like they've proved something. On a hot miserable day, put some ice together with a fan and cool down. What's the big deal or the harm in that?

[@thefriesens1071]

Cuz buy stuff.

[@omkarbhadvankar149]

Cool

[@harambetidepod1451]

The ads are getting smarter.

[@bradleyshimels492]

No your picking the least effective designs out there for your test .There are other DIY air conditioning units that cool better and that will preform better under test conditions. Give them a try and then tell us your results. Thanks.

[@BoRerunn]

BTW can you tell me what full size electric stove kitchen range waste the least amount of electricity

[@avonluukala3136]

I love you all.

[@coletanner5193]

So the air coming out of the plastic pipe was 15 degrees cooler than the air in the room..test your own floor or wall vents and see how much cooler they are..ideally..15 DEGREES! This proves that the bucket coolers are as cool as an HVAC unit!

[@mrchainsaw8320]

Haha this sounded like an add right off the bat. “Pitch meeting”…. I got it! Well have Chris the new intern pretend he’s a scientist. Then well crank the heat up to 90 and leave it on until the ice melts! I’m sold already give me 10 of your finest AC units please. Haha. Oh and Chris wears 2 different colored shoes not joking. 0:36

[@arthercurey1726]

I just don't trust anything they say when there's a commercial at the end.. nothing like telling you the cheaper substitute doesn't work so they can push their product

[@xdevs23]

So you'll make ice using your fridge which takes heat out of water and pumps it into the room just to then cool down the room you just heated up.

[@Rickmakes]

It is cheaper to run an air conditioner than it is to buy or make ice.,

[@hillsandstreams8152]

Yeah, not to mention the extra heat dumped into the home while making the ice.

[@kwson2020]

The fridge/freezer will work regardless, I'd rather not spend dollars in the hundreds off buying an AC from this pathetic excuse for a comercial.

[@therealnoodles7638]

But the freezer is always on anyway.... might as well. i just put water bottles in the freezer overnight.

[@cookiect2003]

Yea, well, if you have a freezer running anyway.....

[@DYI]

You are correct. I just did the calculation and it is 250x cheaper. See my post for details

[@brandonseelochan7731]

I use my air condition on 28 Degrees Celsius in my bedroom.

[@timkennedy1192]

Might as well just sit in front of the fan.

[@pomojah69]

Tim Kennedy @boogdabeast

[@martinterry7613]

um, no have you tried putting an ice bucket in front of the fan, when you are close it DEFINITELY helps, and that is the point. This is for spot situations like if you are trapped in a crappy office answering phones in a building that has lost all AC due to an outage or major electrical issue.

[@FoxScotty]

my homemade ac unit cools down the room just for perfect and if i put on battery of 12v ventilators and i go out of town after 3-4 hours when i come home the temperature in my room is almot 17 celsius .... i dont know in fahrenheit ...

[@drrice1123]

You should have used dry ice even though it releases carbon dioxide

[@johnh9748]

For all of you that think this is a good idea, a 2-tom AC unit would require you to supply it with 2 tons of ice every 24 hours.

[@Latovv]

Feels like an ad against diy ac

[@roncoleman6693]

Your comparing apples to watermelons!! No way a diy will keep up with a 5000 btu unit. Dahhhhh. But it will help alot if people that need a diy and affordable option to beat the heat.😎👍

[@veryhairykrishna7225]

They did it all kinds of wrong. No liner in the bucket and you use a frozen jug and ice packs, not loose ice.

[@OmerTheGreatOne]

i got a better idea, why dont u pour that ice all over ur self. it works without a fan.

[@martinterry7613]

take an ice bath maybe, lol.

[@gabec2494]

If the point of making a personal ac unit is to just cool a person, not necessarily a room, then why not full a cooler with ice and water and just stick your damn feet in it?! I guess common sense isn't that common....

[@faris5341]

can you put dry ice in sealed metal tubes or something, and put it in the watter instead of ice? would that be better

[@JohnMishima_]

putting dry ice would not be a good idea ever

[@mentalhobo9074]

You can just make sure it has constant circulation

[@charlesarmsterd]

Pee poor again CS. I see this test socks like your car reviews. I built mine with an ice chest and it works fine

[@LibertyLeslie]

Totally missed the point of the DIY AC unit for Camping, VAN living, home repairs, off grid homesteads or tail gating.... and a waste of my time. You also covered the DIY upgrades poorly such as using Dura cool fabric and radiation panels.That being said...You did cover the poorest made DIY ac unit and maybe saved some people some time.

[@martinterry7613]

thank you

[@FordGuy]

No really a real a/c will perform better.

[@BenjaminForge]

I tested it in a at my home and it just made it really humid. Waste of time.

[@lordoftheskies4029]

I should of watched this video , before waisting time on a homemade cheap ac . It only slightly cooled down the room for about 1 hour then the ice melted . So did the frozen bottles ...

[@martinterry7613]

u missed the point brother

[@TheGerson2021]

You should have tested and mentioned the danger of using dry ice. I'm sure there's people out that will try that.

[@martinterry7613]

This video MISSES the POINT: this is for those in SPOT situations who need to be cooler. Let's say your AC breaks down at work and you work in a sweltering office for a week while they try to fix it. You sit at a desk all day. The 20 dollar investment OR if you ALREADY have the materials is FREE and you can get ice at a convenience store or hotel for FREE. Consumer Reports swung and missed here. Period.

[@audio-love3765]

Propagated advertising

[@dbx104]

dry ice

[@carveroutdoors4364]

Worst experiment I've seen in a while. The bucket had no styrofoam liner. Which makes it colder and keeps it colder longer. Using regular ice won't last as long as a frozen gallon jug. These ACs are designed to support and existing AC and hotspots in a home. Looks to me this channel got paid to deliberately build it wrong, trash it, and advertise other large company window unit ACs.

[@renards90]

LOl i make my ac with ice and i like in this ways ... either your ac are toxique and dangerouse for smell it i did trash the ac and we can breath comfy with out toxic... when the comercial lose customer to buy ac hahahahaha

[@jp7489]

A swap cooler!!!!

[@dcfansclub]

Paid vdo

[@saynotop2w]

Bag of 5lbs Ices = 2.50 USD a day, in 3 months that adds up to 70 bucks. So, store-bought AC basically evens out with these homemade projects even with electricity costs in 3 to 4 years. The real winners here were those youtube makers who has clickbaited everyone into watching their video, and get paid from it.

[@Iron936]

You would spend more than 2.50 a day on electricity for the aircon some, probably one of the most power hungry appliances in you house.

[@iknowhatisaw]

I rotate frozen gallon jugs, one time cost of 5$. I live in a small room, it cools it very well, I live in a dry heat area which I believe is crucial, probably wont work in humid heat. There is no window in my room, no AC, this works GREAT.

[@keg10609]

A 10 pound bag of ice at the 99 cent store is only 99 cents....

[@martinterry7613]

or crash a hotel and fill a cooler for FREE. Easy button

[@johnnytable844]

@@iknowhatisaw It works fine in humid conditions with it in the jugs. The condensation is coming from the air outside the jug so there's no added humidity to the room.

[@edkelley1649]

RUBBISH

[@ReaperDawg102]

👎

[@lumbridgehooligans8405]

How patethic