People have been turning buckets of ice and coolers into “air conditioners” using a fan and a little ingenuity for decades — and the idea of ice storage air conditioning does work if correctly applied.
We’ve seen some wild cooler designs lately, and this one adds to the rich tapestry that is beverage-chilling in 2014.
A new product capitalizes on the simple air-cooling solution popularized by the DIY crowd with the first commercially available beverage cooler/air conditioner we’ve seen.
The IcyBreeze is a 38 quart cooler with an internal battery, water pump and fan that uses ice to cool beer and also air.
Powered by an internal rechargeable battery pack or directly off AC or DC current (with additional adapters), the IcyBreeze pumps ice cold water through a radiator and blows cold air up to 25 mph and up to 35 degrees below ambient temperatures.
The company claims it will run for up to seven hours on a single charge on the low setting.
The IcyBreeze isn’t cheap — the base model that ships with simply a battery charger retails for $349 (it’s on sale for pre-release at $279). Models with adapters to run off 110-volt wall outlets go at up to $425.
We haven’t tested it, and frankly, it seems a little pricy for an unproven product. But if you plan to sit outdoors, with a cooler, in a lot of hot weather, the IcyBreeze might be worth investigating, especially if you like the idea of the old homemade ice bucket coolers but just aren’t handy enough to tackle the project.
