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Ice cream mobile freezer

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raynerd:
Evening
I've got a summer fate coming up and I've decided to make an ice cream box for the front of our pashley trike and try and earn some money for the school. I'll obviously have it then for using on the trike for myself as well. The trike has been my latest project and needs a little more work but is nearly there. I am looking for suggestions as to the best design for a freezer box to run mobile and keep ice cream frozen for at least 3 hours, ideally 4+.

Commercial trike freezers are now 12v mobile units that run on a battery, hidden in the bottom of the unit. However, these run at £1200+ and are far far too expensive for such little use, even if I use it after the fate for my own use (which I won't that often!!)
http://www.veloelectrique.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/VendorX-parasol-frame.jpg

The old pashley freezer boxes were insulated boxes with eutetic plates:


Now this exact one was on ebay for £350. I nearly went for it but decided it was still too expensive. The owner actually suggested I made one as he has in the past. His suggestion was 9mm ply lined with 100mm kingspan insulation board and fitted with 2-3 eutetic freezer plates.

Making my own insulation lagged box would be fun and certainly doable. I'm just not sure how to fit a lid and the functionality of it. If you look at the old ones, they had a master lid and two little openings to limit heat exchange when opening to take ice creams out.

I also don't know anything about eutetic plates other than then being glorified freezer blocks! Are they genuinely better than a stander cooler freezer block?

Do you think the whole design would keep my ice cream cold for 3+ hours? Should the inside insulation be lined again with more ply or aluminium. Would adding a few bags of ice to the bottom help?

The outside box size would be a max of 640mm x840mm and 800mm high. Inside would be big as possible after insulation!
I'm looking forward to the thoughts of the madmodders.

Chris

awemawson:
 Good insulation and a block of 'dry ice' ie solid carbon dioxide would be much more effective than any electric unit you can struggle to carry batteries for I reckon.

russ57:
I agree ; 50 years ago,  a canvas 'box'  probably insulated with kapok was able to keep icecream frozen in the Aussie summer for several hours using dry ice.  I'm sure that expanded polystyrene will be far better.  Since cold drops,  I'd not be complicating the lid too much.

vtsteam:
Yes, like Andrew, I'm thinking the batts would be a concern. Best way to tell is to check the wattage of the eutectic plates, figure how many plates you need, and then plan on them running continuously, which might be likely, even though mfr. says not. Figure your draw, and then work out what batts you'd need, and their weight and the cost of a good charger.

While everybody says dry ice, it's great if you can source it, but uncool if you can't! I think it would indeed be the perfect simple solution, and traditional, too.

raynerd:
Morning, yes, the issue with dry ice is sourcing it.

I think I should clarify, my plan is to have nothing to do with batteries. The eutetic plates I talk about would be frozen over night and then stuck in the box before the journey starts.

I'll look into dry ice today.

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