Chest cooler w/ peltier in it?

[jmebonner]

My dad's given me a LARGE peltier cooler and I think I'm going to try to put it in our cooler to keep the sandwiches/ sodas cool for the trip home. We'll probably start tackling this in a few hours.

Any ideas? It has a large heatsink on the back to dissipate the heat from the other side. Can I just cut a hole in the cooler, put some expandable foam around it to keep it in place, and attach a 12V cigarette lighter plug to it? (it is 12volt)

[elroy]

I recently purchased a cooler with a peltier unit built in it. I haven't taken it apart so I don't know how large the peltier is but it draws about 5 amps. These coolers have a problem with melting down the cigarette lighter plug on the end of their power cord. Mine melted down after about 3 weeks of use and some friends of mine also melted theirs. They claim to cool the contents 40-44 degrees below ambient temp. I would estimate they do actually cool that well. If I keep mine inside the air conditioned truck the contents stays very cold. One time I actually found a very thin layer of ice on top of a bottle where the condensation had dripped from the cooler unit. You may need a fan on the hot side of the peltier also. Mine has fans on both sides.

[jmebonner]

Cool, I'm done with it, been testing it at work this week. I have a blow in and blow out on the hot side, I think I also need one to draw the cool air off of the cool side, it that what you have?

[immrfreeze2004]

I bought a chest cooler a few months ago and curious to find out what "cooled" the chest, I took it appart. That's when I first learned about Peltiers. I fiddled around with the module and by reading forums such as this one I decided to run the peltier directly over the processor and a water block to dissipate the heat from the peltier's "hot" side. The peltier and the water cooler were powered by an adjacent computer system and a wall outlet respectively. This ensured that the cooling started before powering up the PC. I was able to achieve temperatures in the 11-20 Celcius range at full load. I currently run my P4 2.53 Ghz @ 3.0 stable. Given the fact that you can get a $60 watercooling system nowadays and a peltier for about $25 I concluded that even for non-OC'd PC's, the system I put together is worth every penny. I took care of the condensation problem by sealing the components under the processor and around the socket with waterproof silicone. I also coated the socket pinholes with Vaseline and made a sleeve that keeps air away from the socket area. Cooling the water with an additional peltier has also helped keep the water at an efficient temperature. Chest coolers are great!! I got mine for $25 at Pep Boys. Hope my experience helped at least some of you and I'm open to suggestions and critisism.

[RedFury]

Dang, someone dun gone and took my idea and run wif it! Cool! Glad to see that all my ideas aren't as dumb as I look, or sound, or the Army's best testing indicates

Not that I'm the only person that thought of using the peltier out of a portable cooler.....