Thinking of a portable cooler for next year

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deertaker

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I'm looking fhr help for next year, hoping maybe someone has some experence in portable coolers/ meat lockers. I was thinking of making something that is colapsable enough to fit in the back of a truck. Hopfuly light enough to carry around and then lift up the sides and roof with perhaps a window air conditioner to cool it. Would this work? does anyone have something like this already? any info/ input would be greatly appriceated!
thanks

John
 
Not sure what you plan on using the cooler for? Most of the moose hunters that are unable to get home or to a cooler before the meat spoils are using a freezer and generater to keep meat until they get it into a cooler. We are 12 hours from home bowhunting for moose and when we shoot a moose someone is on his way home ASAP.
 
this is for around the home farm, if I go out hunting and it is alittle warm out I dont have to worry about buchering it that day, I can let it hang for a day or 2. If I get a deer I can hang it in that and plug in the air conditoner and let it cool it. I am just wonderin if an air conditioner would cool it enough or if there are things that I would have to worry about.
 
I was looking at doing something like that as well, my brother works for a large dairy on PEI and said he would ask the refrigeration guy, I haven't heard back. My brother knows a little about it and though a small room with an old fridge system would work.

Also an old pop cooler would likely be just the right size.
 
I had an idea about building a meat cooler about 8x8, but using a deepfreezer in the back of room and taking the lid off. I wonder if that would work? I would have to make sure it was insulated and sealed off outside with some tyvek or something. Would this work I wonder.
 
It might work Ranger. You would have to set it up so the compressor would be outside the "refridgerated" area. I built some walk-in coolers in a butcher shop in T.O. a couple of years ago. The panels were essentially styrofoam with a layer of light enameled steel on each side for durability and easy cleanup. The thickness varied, but for the most part we used 4" panels. The manufacturer was Coldmatic in Vaughn Ontario and they have the actual refridgeration units as well (I have no idea on pricing). I think just blue styrofoam would work well as long as you were somewhat careful about banging into the walls.
 
"...a window air conditioner to cool it..." Two things. Powering it and it not being cold enough to drop the temperature far enough to matter.
There are 'Reefer' units small enough to be used on an insulated van though. Turns the whole back into a big freezer. Food distributors use them. Some of 'em are electric. I'd hate to think of what it'd cost though.
I've got plans around here someplace for a wooden styrofoam insulated cooler that'd be easily converted to a collapsible box. Same idea as Workin Man's, but using 3/4" plywood. Use regular pink foam insulation panels at least 2" thick and line it with food grade vinyl sheeting.
Plan 'B' would be an old chest freezer. Or this guy's walk in beer fridge.
http://www.brewrats.org/walkin.cfm
Mind you, an ice house is what you're really thinking about. A walk in insulated hut, cooled with big blocks of ice. A small one could be cooled with the compressor out of a chest freezer.
 
Well I wonder if it would be better to use Ice blocks, but how many would you need and would it keep the area cool enough, would you perhaps have to use a fan to circulate the air? I was definatly thinking of using the pink styrofoam insolation to help. I was thinking of making it the size of a sheet of plywood say 4x8 or maybe even 4 x 6. couldnt a window mounted AC unit work for that? the problem with a chest freezer is that the meat would not hang though.
 
deertaker said:
Well I wonder if it would be better to use Ice blocks, but how many would you need and would it keep the area cool enough, would you perhaps have to use a fan to circulate the air? I was definatly thinking of using the pink styrofoam insolation to help. I was thinking of making it the size of a sheet of plywood say 4x8 or maybe even 4 x 6. couldnt a window mounted AC unit work for that? the problem with a chest freezer is that the meat would not hang though.
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The thermostat on the stock AC unit probably can't be set low enough. Even if you could adjust it, it would be sort of like trying to use your fridge as a freezer (operating it way below its intended temp range).
 
So, if I built the cooler a couple feet longer to account for the deepfreezer being in the same room and somehow moved the compressor part of the freezer outside the cooler or somehow keep the heat of the compressor from entering the cooler area, and just remove the lid from the Freezer This should keep that room fairly cold. This is sounding better the more I think about it.
 
So, if I built the cooler a couple feet longer to account for the deepfreezer being in the same room and somehow moved the compressor part of the freezer outside the cooler or somehow keep the heat of the compressor from entering the cooler area, and just remove the lid from the Freezer This should keep that room fairly cold. This is sounding better the more I think about it.[
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I think hanging your moose outside would keep it cooler than a window a/c cooling a room.

When you try to make that a/c into a cooler, the coil is going to freeze up.
 
portable refrig

Hey I might offer some advice .I do refrigeration mainly industrial but build 3-4 a year of these.Simple angle ironn frame condensing unit on one end and evap on other.plywood bulkhead between the two .You cut a hole in your cooler wall same od as evap,bulkhead is bigger than evap, bolt to wall.done deal.You can get a 110 volt condensing unit with enough btu's to cool a 8x8x8 WI cooler.these will produce about 6500 btu at a 35f. air temp if you wanted warmer it would a cool bigger box.I should take a picture of one sometime so people could see it.I've shipped these all over N .BC & the NWT the nice thing with them if you have troubles just unbolt them & ship to get fixed.Only problem is the price new equipment they run about $3000.00 used $1500-2000.The problem with ac units & old deepfreezer's they dont have enough horsepower after all the dicking around they don't work. tks robin
 
Thanks for the info on the condensing unit, unfortunatly alittle more than what I was hoping. We have also talked about making a big Ice chest and then putting Ice blocks on the bottom and maybe inside the cavity of the deer and on top. my concern is that when it melts and all that water would it hurt the meat? we would have holes on the bottom for draining but still. Does anyone have input on that?
 
"...inside the cavity of the deer and on top..." Hang the carcass. Put the ice blocks around it but not touching. Ideally, you want the air temperature in the cooler at or below 4 degrees C (40F).
The outside temperature matters too. Sometimes you get lucky and it's cold enough outside to slow the melting.
"...somehow moved the compressor part of the freezer outside the cooler..." Take the top off and build the freezer into the wall with the motor outside. A bit of solid foam insulation and chaulking will seal the wall. Then tack a cheap tarp over the outside. It won't be truck portable though. You could build the whole thing on a trailer though. Hey, it's not my money.
 
A friend of mine has modified an old chest freezer to chill game in the field. He took the hinges off and attached a 14" plywood extension to the chest, insulated it with sheet foam, reattached the lid hinges to the extension. Then he drilled holes in each end to allow him to insert a piece of 1" black iron pipe thru from side to side. The pipe is to hang quarters on.

He take the freezer and a generator to camp with him on a trailer and runs the generator often enough to keep the game cool but not to freeze it.
 
I picked up a used commercial walk in cooler, 8'x10' for a few hundred $, compressor, evaporator and all. It was from a bankrupt business and I had to go and dissemble it. It was still running when I went to pick it up! All the walls, floor and roof are modular and it took a couple of hours to get it all apart and loaded up.

I have not yet put it back together, but I could make it smaller by not using all the pieces.

There are deals out there if you look around.

A small window air conditioner will work if you add a lower temperature thermostat, but it will tend to freeze up. If it is only for a few days, then you could go and defrost it every once in a while, or put a short duration timer (say, 5 minutes on, 2 minutes off) on the compressor only, to cycle the compressor to help prevent freeze up.
 
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I'm thinking that a window air conditioner might dry out the meat simply because of the volume of airflow. Not sure, but it's a thought.
 
Ranger said:
So, if I built the cooler a couple feet longer to account for the deepfreezer being in the same room and somehow moved the compressor part of the freezer outside the cooler or somehow keep the heat of the compressor from entering the cooler area, and just remove the lid from the Freezer This should keep that room fairly cold. This is sounding better the more I think about it.
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This will work, but like you said , you'll have to have the back of the freezer exposed to the outside. remember a fridge or a freezer is just a heat pump, taking heat from inside and moving it to the exterior. That is why you'll feel heat from the back of a fridge. If you take the door off a fridge, cut a hole in the building and seal around it, then you'll cool down the interior.

I know a guy that uses two air conditioners in a small, well insulated room and he said it works good. Again the air condirtioner has to be mounted so the back is outside as in a window unit.
 
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