I want to apologize on behalf of all the lazy, disinterested and basically ignorant commenters out there. I suppose some folks just have to say something even if it is stupid. Thank you for posting this. I appreciate that you took the time to try this and share the results with the rest of us. I imagine this will work quite well where i live. I cool my house in summer using evaporation and often achieve temps 30f or more cooler than outside.
I'll definitely be using this over the summer for beers. I'll probably go with larger pots and have the beer already cold before i add them. it's certainly a different approach and makes for good conversation. thanks for the video.
Very very well done tutorial. You even predict possible questions/confusion viewers might have (such as mentioning the attic temperature as the bottom number). You're a natural at these kinds of tutorials!
You know that's not how you use a funnel. Just had to smile at that. I know a DIY guy knows how to use tools. Loved the video ...I have never seen this trick before. Thanks
Very good presentation....will add "clay pots" to my prep list........can also keep my silver cool.......and my ammo......and my sippin whiskey........and my fresh possum innards.......Jethro and Granny would love this one.
Okay so yeah, a lot of people really are ignorant in the commenting here. Really cool! I'm considering getting a no-electric fridge one way or another, so this helps weigh options. and I like the music track you picked out. :)
yea this is like the swamp coolers we use here in colorado to cool our houses try putting it out in the wind but in the shade and see how good it does. here in colorado the evap. cooling works really well because the air is so thin and it's so dry so I'm amazed it works so well in florida.
i heard zeer pot was already patented..even this invention got prize CMIIW...very simple but helpfull if you want little bit chiled water or veggies but had no electricity & you live in the desert...i might try this for my project, thanks :)
Wow. In your garage is hardly a dry place - it should be outside in full shade, so it can have a chance to evaporate - limited by the 'wet bulb' in a humid indoor environ, and it still got down to 50 F. I'm impressed. I think you're also supposed to do this with a leaky outer pot, so it can evaporate through the walls, not just at the top through the sand (but a glazed / sealed inner pot). Very impressive
This was originally created by a poor farmer in Africa who's food was spoiling too fast. He created this idea to have food last longer in hot climates and so the young african school girls can spend more time in school rather than rushing to sale the fruits and vegetables before they spoil at a cheaper price.
How often do you have to add more water? And how long will it keep it cold if you don't? Also what was the lowest temperature you were able to achieve? Thnx
In morocco in the moutains they use botles the same colour and material as those pots. they fill the botle with water and the botle has peace of fabric, let say a sort of jacket and then they keep the jacket wet with water to keep the water inside the botle cold. And I can tell you the water is cold. but keep the botle in the shadow not in the sun.
Clever idea to use flower pots. I think the cooling would have gone faster if there was more sand. If you look at Zeer pot in the Sudan, the size difference between the inner & outer pot is greater & they have at least 3 inches of sand or more around the inner pot. :)
here's a useful tip. line it with metal or foil, (or add metal inner pots to the mix) and use lots and loads and loads of the smallest lead birdshot instead of sand. you may find that it makes things a lot cooler
he didn't understand the basic concept of it. it is the same concept as aluminum canteens with a burlap case. you wet them, and as the water evaporates it cools what's inside. it should have a breeze or under the sun.
Nice idea. If put narrow pipes through out the curved surface and the top lid( if you put)... then I guess temp may fall further... Just in case of pots made of red soil
Nice video guy, I am going to try it out now...though living where I do, I need only walk out side to freeze stuff, body & sole too... LOL...(Here it's - 9 months of winter & 3 months of bad weather.) .thanks. Thom in Scotland
Why do you need to add the sand. Keep the inner pot on a stand inside the outer pot and pour water in to get between the pots. As the water evaporates, the cooling happens. A better design would be to use a metallic inner pot that conducts heat. Due to evaporation the water cools down and the same temperature is available for the stuff inside the inner pot.
So have you tried or heard if having more sand (a wider gap between inner pot and outer pot) works better, the same, or worse? I like this. This is really neat. Having very little humidity where I live is supposed to work better. Thanks for using the thermometer...it helps see the results much better than having someone simply say the inner pot is cooler. Great vid.
It is far more efficient to soak the clay pots in water so they absorb water, the pots are porous and will absorb it and since they are saturated the cooling will be increased as the water evaporates from them as well.
for round 2? How about wrapping a hollow tube/coiled pipe in between the 2 pots possibly adding a coil inside the inner pot as well, with a fan pulling warm air through and pushing cool air out. You may have to adjust pot sizes, say from 20" to 16". More or less convert your food cooler to an air conditioner
Evaporative cooling requires a constant Breeze and a very dry Arid climate with very Low Humidity like they have in North Africa. Inside a garage in Florida? LMAO!
i think my cooling pads aren't big enough in the A/C. its probably easier to sleep outside in the shade in front of a misting fan. while working in glasshouses during summer ( like nearly 48C ) they had these tiny little spray jets called misters. a microprocessor system would start up a pump and these things would spray lots of mist like a spray paint can (except water), and I swear it'd go from 48C to like 20C. then humid, then out the roof vents, then hot again and then mist again.
because earthquakes shatter clay. :p Besides, its way more efficient to use a AC unit to chill a house than to build a house to have a sand "shell" and constant water supply to keep it moist as it evaporates. On a large scale this would waste a lot of water, and the humidity of entire neighborhoods built with houses like this would increase local humidity... decreasing it's efficiency. Decent idea for temporary 6-pack storage at the beach though. :)
@TheChareen I live in the high desert in Arizona. My yard is all rock, gravel and sand. There is a layer of clay about 2 feet below the surface.I have made a water filter using this sand and gravel. I did not use any power tools just a wheelbarrow, and a shovel, and sifting grids. No plastic required. No diesel fuel needed. No warehouse, and no store. Low tech works, and does not require modern amenities. Just a little sweat. and ingenuity. this refrigerator can be very useful to some people.
If you put the tape on the inside of the larger pot (you did) and on the outside of the smaller pot the unit will work longer and better. Why? Because the purpose is to prevent moisture (water and mud) from getting outside the large pot and inside the small pot. Putting tape on the inside of the smaller pot will give access to the tape's adhesive. It will deteriorate significantly faster shortening the effective life of the refrigerator... There's some food for thought.
The whole concept is based on a simple principle - *Evaporation causes cooling*. I don't understand how people are so ignorant to now know this because it's taught in 5th grade where I live.
1st time he showed us the clock or what ever he said the 1st one is the temp. in the garage and bottom one is in the attic,2nd time he said the temp. in the garage was 96....which is for the attic....you see where this is going....but gotta hand it to the guy it really did work,disregarding his lies... :D
well... it would increase the delta (cooling effect) inside, but it would actually increase the inner temperature. (i.e. 76/66 vs 85/69... obviously the cooling effect is better in the second set of numbers, but the inner temp is still higher). It'd work best with more evaporation and less temperature. - wind helps - low humidity is awesome - thicker outer pot scalloped for fins? - bigger the pot, the more sand/water it can hold, and the bigger heat sink it becomes meaning slower temp changes.
Great Video, Pete ! I wonder if it is possible to just use a big metallic trash can like a metal trashbin and just put layers of sand and cleaning rads ( cloth) at the sides and have as the outer shell not a clay case, but just a canvas sack, (sheer fabric of cloth), so the water can evapourate much easier and faster ? Maybe you can try this out ? Regards, Stefan.
It should also be mentioned that the outside pot should be porous, (water permeable, no glaze) and the interior pot should be glazed and not water permeable. This keeps your food cool and dry. A nice cold room can be built from cinder blocks with the cavities filled with sand. Since the blocks are porous they allow water to seep through to the outside and evaporate. You can use a waterproofing paint on the inside of the building to make it dry. Do not paint or seal the outside.
Great video. Some comments: 1- Use a system with a thermal probe, it's much less mass and you can monitor the temp without removing the top. 2. Also note the ambient air temp in your garage. Surely it cooled overnight, so that needs to be taken into account. 3. What happened to the beer? It's much, much easier to cool air than it is to cool a liquid. If you really wanted to show it working then keep the environment the same for the whole test. 4. Video is a bit long.
@overunitydotcom No, it has to be clay for the breathability issue. I looked into it, and even if you glaze the inner core it won't work right. This thing works by removing energy from the core via evaporation. Metal isn't porous. This is a stone age tech so stick with pottery or masonry. Even concrete would work.
For God sake give some credit to the guy who first invented this. Mohammed Bah Abba, a Nigerian teacher (1960-2010), may god bless his soul was the first person who implemented this in Nigeria.
Yeah... the thing is that for as long as we have had pottery, we've had this. It is far more ancient than you might guess. But, hey George Washing Carver was accredited with peanut butter, though I'm sure it was passed down for millenniums as well. Credit? It goes to whoever our goldfish minds can handle.🐠
Hey Pete, im a big fan of your videos, and i was wondering if running some heating tubes from a solar heater around the outside of the pots would help speed up the cooling. And maybe add a drip so it would never run dry. Tjener scale it up to maybe a 150 liter inner pot, and see what it could do.
have been seriously thinking of making a tiny thing to sleep in with the same principles as this. I'm not joking. the damn evap A/C here isn't cutting it. I'm an offgridder in Oz.
Great Video! Did it ever get lower then the 50's? Did you have to add water after the first hr or so? Should the towel be re-moistened every few hrs? Cant wait to see how large the pot can be!
he probably did it that way because the sand was already moist so it wouldn't go through the small funnel hole, you can tell by the way the sand was clumping as he poured it out of the funnel.
Wow very ingenious. This is perfect on summer particularly on the beach. I will not bring my coleman box and instead do this. By the way would it be more efficient if i use saltwater? due to the fact that salt can lower and retain lower temp, or will it be practically the same results?? Cheers!
urmm...how relative humidity at your place?dont u think the cooling effect is more effective if u just put the towel at the middle of the pot?and what if we use material at inner pot with high thermal conductivity like aluminium..?just asking..
I want to apologize on behalf of all the lazy, disinterested and basically ignorant commenters out there. I suppose some folks just have to say something even if it is stupid. Thank you for posting this. I appreciate that you took the time to try this and share the results with the rest of us. I imagine this will work quite well where i live. I cool my house in summer using evaporation and often achieve temps 30f or more cooler than outside.
Well, I live in near Houston, and evap cooling doesn't do much in 100% humidity.
This is excellent for people that have no way to keep insulin cool when the power goes out.
I'll definitely be using this over the summer for beers. I'll probably go with larger pots and have the beer already cold before i add them. it's certainly a different approach and makes for good conversation. thanks for the video.
i am glad you did not cut this too short... i like to see what it really takes to get stuff done... thanks so much
Very very well done tutorial. You even predict possible questions/confusion viewers might have (such as mentioning the attic temperature as the bottom number). You're a natural at these kinds of tutorials!
You know that's not how you use a funnel. Just had to smile at that. I know a DIY guy knows how to use tools. Loved the video ...I have never seen this trick before. Thanks
Thank you for using easy-going, mellow music during your DYI. Makes all the difference.
Very good presentation....will add "clay pots" to my prep list........can also keep my silver cool.......and my ammo......and my sippin whiskey........and my fresh possum innards.......Jethro and Granny would love this one.
Okay so yeah, a lot of people really are ignorant in the commenting here. Really cool! I'm considering getting a no-electric fridge one way or another, so this helps weigh options. and I like the music track you picked out. :)
that funnel had me dying
A cool thing that is so simple and natural.
Thanks for sharing...
yea this is like the swamp coolers we use here in colorado to cool our houses try putting it out in the wind but in the shade and see how good it does. here in colorado the evap. cooling works really well because the air is so thin and it's so dry so I'm amazed it works so well in florida.
i heard zeer pot was already patented..even this invention got prize CMIIW...very simple but helpfull if you want little bit chiled water or veggies but had no electricity & you live in the desert...i might try this for my project, thanks :)
very kewl idea will have to try this out
Love your DIY stuff. You always do a great job explaining and testing.
I think it took a bit of time because the pots have to soak water into the clay before it can start to really cool down. Fun, useful project!
Pretty cool, never thought it would be possible to refrigerate food without ELECTRICITY.
very good,Thanks for sharing knowledge.
I'm gonna have to try this in the Aussie Summer.
Wow. In your garage is hardly a dry place - it should be outside in full shade, so it can have a chance to evaporate - limited by the 'wet bulb' in a humid indoor environ, and it still got down to 50 F. I'm impressed. I think you're also supposed to do this with a leaky outer pot, so it can evaporate through the walls, not just at the top through the sand (but a glazed / sealed inner pot). Very impressive
Thank you for sharing. I plan to make this project 👍
This was originally created by a poor farmer in Africa who's food was spoiling too fast. He created this idea to have food last longer in hot climates and so the young african school girls can spend more time in school rather than rushing to sale the fruits and vegetables before they spoil at a cheaper price.
How often do you have to add more water? And how long will it keep it cold if you don't? Also what was the lowest temperature you were able to achieve? Thnx
In morocco in the moutains they use botles the same colour and material as those pots. they fill the botle with water and the botle has peace of fabric, let say a sort of jacket and then they keep the jacket wet with water to keep the water inside the botle cold. And I can tell you the water is cold. but keep the botle in the shadow not in the sun.
Human Being yes we call it alkhabya .and the water is much pur n helthier
They have a variation of that in Spain. It is called a Botijo. A double wall clay jug that keeps the water cool.
Tribes in Africa do this, I seen this long ago. Nice upload
I have heard of this done but never knew just to do it with success. thx for the info
Clever idea to use flower pots. I think the cooling would have gone faster if there was more sand. If you look at Zeer pot in the Sudan, the size difference between the inner & outer pot is greater & they have at least 3 inches of sand or more around the inner pot. :)
Wow! Super useful info. Thank you.
Good cottage idea..
here's a useful tip. line it with metal or foil, (or add metal inner pots to the mix) and use lots and loads and loads of the smallest lead birdshot instead of sand. you may find that it makes things a lot cooler
I was thinking the same thing watching this. "Hey, Dad, it's getting warm inside I'm going to fill the house now!"
If you have a breeze or fan blowing across the top of the pots, the cooling effect will be greatly enhanced
these are meant to be stored outside or sitting by an open window
he didn't understand the basic concept of it. it is the same concept as aluminum canteens with a burlap case. you wet them, and as the water evaporates it cools what's inside.
it should have a breeze or under the sun.
Nice idea.
If put narrow pipes through out the curved surface and the top lid( if you put)... then I guess temp may fall further... Just in case of pots made of red soil
Nice video guy, I am going to try it out now...though living where I do, I need only walk out side to freeze stuff, body & sole too... LOL...(Here it's - 9 months of winter & 3 months of bad weather.) .thanks.
Thom in Scotland
Thanks for the valuable info. Will definitely take into consideration.
Soak the pots first. A lot of your moisture is sucked up by the clay when it is dry
This is really cool i did it for my school project one time
It's a nice idea
Amazing! Thanks for sharing.
Brilliant idea- thanks.
Wikkid video, ty...this will prove useful during zombie apocalypse...lol
Why do you need to add the sand. Keep the inner pot on a stand inside the outer pot and pour water in to get between the pots. As the water evaporates, the cooling happens. A better design would be to use a metallic inner pot that conducts heat. Due to evaporation the water cools down and the same temperature is available for the stuff inside the inner pot.
It's because of the thermal conductivity. Water evaporates faster but damp sand serves as thermal mass that keeps the pot cold once it has cool down.
Good Idea. Thanks :). I'll share this.
So have you tried or heard if having more sand (a wider gap between inner pot and outer pot) works better, the same, or worse? I like this. This is really neat. Having very little humidity where I live is supposed to work better. Thanks for using the thermometer...it helps see the results much better than having someone simply say the inner pot is cooler. Great vid.
It is far more efficient to soak the clay pots in water so they absorb water, the pots are porous and will absorb it and since they are saturated the cooling will be increased as the water evaporates from them as well.
Good question ! I like the concept and it is easy, cheap and not long to build.
LOL, buying sand in Fla. Thanks for the video. Peace to you.
for round 2? How about wrapping a hollow tube/coiled pipe in between the 2 pots possibly adding a coil inside the inner pot as well, with a fan pulling warm air through and pushing cool air out. You may have to adjust pot sizes, say from 20" to 16". More or less convert your food cooler to an air conditioner
Evaporative cooling requires a constant Breeze and a very dry Arid climate with very Low Humidity like they have in North Africa. Inside a garage in Florida? LMAO!
Evaporation will occur at most RH, except 100%, given enought time. What you should of said is cooling would be greater in arid places with a breeze.
i think my cooling pads aren't big enough in the A/C. its probably easier to sleep outside in the shade in front of a misting fan. while working in glasshouses during summer ( like nearly 48C ) they had these tiny little spray jets called misters. a microprocessor system would start up a pump and these things would spray lots of mist like a spray paint can (except water), and I swear it'd go from 48C to like 20C. then humid, then out the roof vents, then hot again and then mist again.
thanks for this great idea...
because earthquakes shatter clay. :p
Besides, its way more efficient to use a AC unit to chill a house than to build a house to have a sand "shell" and constant water supply to keep it moist as it evaporates.
On a large scale this would waste a lot of water, and the humidity of entire neighborhoods built with houses like this would increase local humidity... decreasing it's efficiency.
Decent idea for temporary 6-pack storage at the beach though. :)
@TheChareen I live in the high desert in Arizona. My yard is all rock, gravel and sand. There is a layer of clay about 2 feet below the surface.I have made a water filter using this sand and gravel. I did not use any power tools just a wheelbarrow, and a shovel, and sifting grids. No plastic required. No diesel fuel needed. No warehouse, and no store. Low tech works, and does not require modern amenities. Just a little sweat. and ingenuity. this refrigerator can be very useful to some people.
Amazing!!!
That's Really Cool Man
Great process. Thanks.
Kind o' slow- cool- but I got to go to work. Catch it in two parts- definitely doing THIS !
dude... i dont wanna wait few hours for my beer.. i want it cold now! LOL
If you put the tape on the inside of the larger pot (you did) and on the outside of the smaller pot the unit will work longer and better.
Why?
Because the purpose is to prevent moisture (water and mud) from getting outside the large pot and inside the small pot. Putting tape on the inside of the smaller pot will give access to the tape's adhesive. It will deteriorate significantly faster shortening the effective life of the refrigerator...
There's some food for thought.
superb
The whole concept is based on a simple principle - *Evaporation causes cooling*. I don't understand how people are so ignorant to now know this because it's taught in 5th grade where I live.
home made beer cooler... SUPER
Gonna try this...thanks!
Thank You! Will be trying this one...
Thanks for the video! I appreciate it.
Well done, GBYAY
En Perú así enfriamos las sandias, solo las enterramos en la arena blanda cerca al mar y nos queda helada.
Muy interesante. Gracias!
Thanks for showing this. Never seen such. Wonder if a larger outer pot with more sand would improve the system?
1st time he showed us the clock or what ever he said the 1st one is the temp. in the garage and bottom one is in the attic,2nd time he said the temp. in the garage was 96....which is for the attic....you see where this is going....but gotta hand it to the guy it really did work,disregarding his lies... :D
what if youi wrap the outer pot with aluminum foil will it keep the temp cool ?
it will minimize the cooling effect
could just put my beers in the fridge, yay for science though!
well... it would increase the delta (cooling effect) inside, but it would actually increase the inner temperature. (i.e. 76/66 vs 85/69... obviously the cooling effect is better in the second set of numbers, but the inner temp is still higher).
It'd work best with more evaporation and less temperature.
- wind helps
- low humidity is awesome
- thicker outer pot scalloped for fins?
- bigger the pot, the more sand/water it can hold, and the bigger heat sink it becomes meaning slower temp changes.
Great Video, Pete !
I wonder if it is possible to just use a big metallic trash can like
a metal trashbin and just put layers of sand and cleaning rads ( cloth)
at the sides and have as the outer shell not a clay case, but just a
canvas sack, (sheer fabric of cloth), so the water can evapourate much easier and faster ?
Maybe you can try this out ?
Regards, Stefan.
It should also be mentioned that the outside pot should be porous, (water permeable, no glaze) and the interior pot should be glazed and not water permeable. This keeps your food cool and dry. A nice cold room can be built from cinder blocks with the cavities filled with sand. Since the blocks are porous they allow water to seep through to the outside and evaporate. You can use a waterproofing paint on the inside of the building to make it dry. Do not paint or seal the outside.
Great video. Some comments:
1- Use a system with a thermal probe, it's much less mass and you can monitor the temp without removing the top.
2. Also note the ambient air temp in your garage. Surely it cooled overnight, so that needs to be taken into account.
3. What happened to the beer? It's much, much easier to cool air than it is to cool a liquid. If you really wanted to show it working then keep the environment the same for the whole test.
4. Video is a bit long.
I am going to try using Acetone. I wonder if it will cool colder?
Interesting,... would work good in dry areas but where i live in nothern nsw, australia, i think it would be too humid to work well
I feel like I'm watching How It's Made with that soundtrack you made
you could use saran wrap to cover the smaller pot while you fill the sides. Then remove the saran rap when you are done
@overunitydotcom No, it has to be clay for the breathability issue. I looked into it, and even if you glaze the inner core it won't work right. This thing works by removing energy from the core via evaporation. Metal isn't porous. This is a stone age tech so stick with pottery or masonry. Even concrete would work.
brilliant idea..... any one could manage to keep some perishables cool with one of these systems:)
i am agree..i have that's to and the out side pot is 68 degree and inside pot is 42 degree...
For God sake give some credit to the guy who first invented this. Mohammed Bah Abba, a Nigerian teacher (1960-2010), may god bless his soul was the first person who implemented this in Nigeria.
Seriously this is an ancient principle I cannot imagine that guy was the first one to use it.
Thanks for telling us about him. Some people get lost in the pages of history.
Lol. Easy there Janer. Should we also give credit to sir Isaac Newton every time we talk about how gravity works?
Yeah... the thing is that for as long as we have had pottery, we've had this. It is far more ancient than you might guess. But, hey George Washing Carver was accredited with peanut butter, though I'm sure it was passed down for millenniums as well. Credit? It goes to whoever our goldfish minds can handle.🐠
thanks, major respect! 8-)
Hey Pete, im a big fan of your videos, and i was wondering if running some heating tubes from a solar heater around the outside of the pots would help speed up the cooling. And maybe add a drip so it would never run dry. Tjener scale it up to maybe a 150 liter inner pot, and see what it could do.
Yes,Then theres always Adobe houses/built part way in the ground.They have those in west texas,n mex.and arizona.They stay same temp year round
have been seriously thinking of making a tiny thing to sleep in with the same principles as this. I'm not joking. the damn evap A/C here isn't cutting it. I'm an offgridder in Oz.
Great Video! Did it ever get lower then the 50's? Did you have to add water after the first hr or so? Should the towel be re-moistened every few hrs? Cant wait to see how large the pot can be!
he probably did it that way because the sand was already moist so it wouldn't go through the small funnel hole, you can tell by the way the sand was clumping as he poured it out of the funnel.
Great video. Please include Celsius as well. No one uses Fahrenheit outside of the US. 52 F = 11 C.
Wow very ingenious. This is perfect on summer particularly on the beach. I will not bring my coleman box and instead do this. By the way would it be more efficient if i use saltwater? due to the fact that salt can lower and retain lower temp, or will it be practically the same results?? Cheers!
Seems to me that if you soaked your clay pots it before packing with sand and adding water your cooling effect would be speed up.
urmm...how relative humidity at your place?dont u think the cooling effect is more effective if u just put the towel at the middle of the pot?and what if we use material at inner pot with high thermal conductivity like aluminium..?just asking..
very very nice, thanks. I am wondering, how long time will this setup cool temperature down? do i need to refill with sand/water or? thanks
Hi, nice work, ... can we use sand from the sea?
how long does it stay cool? I would test it a week because you could use that in so many situations...the camping solution LOL
Good project...might have gone faster if you had let the sand run out the other end of the funnel, it looks like you had plenty of space for that.
On another note, I heard that if you used a similar clay lid on the pot, it would be much better than the cloth.
that thing got the temp down to 11 deg C?? awesome!
I read that the bigger the pots, the better it is to keep things cool?