Arctic Air Conditioner Unboxing and Review
This is the 52-quart, 24 volt unit.
My boss and his guests were complaining about the heat back in the cabin area of the King Air B200. These airplanes are notorious for not having very strong a/c. We had been using the B-Kool air conditioner which you can actually see up against the wall of the hangar in some shots. The little guy did a stellar job but it was just too small for our larger cabin on a hot day and within 30 minutes, all of the ice in it was just water. Furthermore, it looked ugly... its just an ice chest with fans sticking out. The Arctic Air looks much nicer and has a larger capacity for longer periods of use. I also like that it has a drain tube so that I dont have to constantly place and replace it in the plane. Just drain and refill. Done.
I don't like that it only comes with a 6' power cord. Sportys will try to sell you a 42" extension cable (which I think is actually an elongated 4-pin ATX connector commonly used in computers) for $25 each. No thanks. I bought one 5 meter and one 3 meter 24 volt car cigarette lighter extensions which I will just run from the cockpit outlet, between the wall and the seats, all the way back to the baggage compartment. The extensions were just $20 total on ebay. I couldn't find them at walmart or bestbuy. To buy the appropriate amount of ATX extensions from Sporty's would have been about $75. So without those extensions, it will have to sit on the divan as shown in the video and reduce our passenger capacity from 8 to 6. My plan is to always have it in the baggage compartment and run the power back to it. A little electrical tape to hold the extensions together probably wont hurt.
I only put 3 bags of ice into it for the test run but it looks like it'll swallow 5 or 6 of them! On a flight day, I will connect the plane to the ground power and blast the arctic air for at least 40 minutes prior to go-time and report how it did.
While researching Arctic Air, I called their sales line. None other than their owner/inventor picked up and was a delight to speak with. He offered to bring me a unit at no delivery cost if we flew into Tifton, GA. He also said that he will give you an air conditioner for FREE if you book a stay at one of his properties in the Bahamas. So that deal could save you a lot of $ if you are planning a trip out there. Just call the sales number listed at www.arcticaircooler.com and ask for Mr. Turton.
Check out Nutnfancy's great review on my knife here: • Spyderco Stretch: "Greatness Achieved" by...
I'll update with more videos as we get to use the Arctic Air in the field.
Stay cool!