New life into an old ice chest..

Howdy everyone..

So I always joked with my friends that have smoked weed over the years that weed does NOT lead to crime. I agree with Dennis Leary completely when he says it leads to carpentry, as you try to figure out what you can make your next bong out of.

Now I realize the carpentry aspect is not about bongs, it's about what I can make a grow space out of next!

Which leads me to this project.

I have this old ice chest that I have never liked. I bought it last minute for a camping trip when it was on sale not thinking about any extras. The lid is not attached in any way, which IMO makes it a lousy ice chest, but should make it a great candidate for a small grow.

My thinking is the ice chest is naturally reflective inside, easy to clean and sterilize, and infinitely portable. I'm still thinking about how to install the airflow/cooling. Suggestions are welcome.

So here is my chest. Inside dimensions are 10 3/4" wide, 19 3/4" deep, and 9 3/4" deep. This works out to approx 1.5 sq feet of flat space. I plan on growing with CFL by mounting them on the removable top. I will use a PC fan to move air around, maybe one on each side, one pulling in and one exhausting.

More pictures to come, and any feedback or advice is welcome.

Ok, update time. I ran into my first problem before drilling my first hole. Better than being found right before wrapping up I suppose.

So, here is my first problem. I found these at my local Lowe's store. A flexible light mount just begging to be used for my project. These ran about $2.50 each, two dollars cheaper than the regular lamp style bulb socket.

I grabbed 4 and a some CFLs and headed out. I opened them up to test fit and much to my dismay, here's the first problem. The built in ballast does not fit into the socket which is designed for a flood lamp style bulb. So I either return these, or head out to the chop saw to remove the flange on the sockets. Just a temporary setback.

I held them together and started doing some test fitting. My goal was to have nothing exposed on the top or sides of the chest. Holding them up inside the box shows me that I may need to reconsider how to mount these due to their width. I do have the option to bend them 90*, and then set them in there.. Once I get the bulb to fit in the socket, I can cross that bridge.

I considered mounting them 3 different places:


I could mount one in each corner vertically, and I think this would work better than mounting horizontally, and then run the wires across the bottom of the chest to a junction box on the back, next to where I plan to put the vent.

I also envision cutting a rectangular hole in the bottom of the chest for an inlet vent, covered with some fine mesh to keep the bugs out..

I have 2 Bubba Kush plants that I just started LST on this morning that I plan on testing this with. From what I have seen this is an already short plant, so it should do well in a small enclosure, right?


Critiques, questions, ideas? Please offer any input you have.

Ok, progress!

Today I found the answer to my mounting issues. A trip to OSH netted me these little gems.



I thought they would work PERFECT with their surface mount wires, so I only have to drill one hole through the chest for wires instead of 2. I did consider the humid environment, and plan on coating the wires with either liquid tape, or silicone once I get everything set up to prevent any accidental arcing.

Here is the difference between the first ones I chose and these..



I marked the center of my chest width wise, and then measured an equidistant amount on each side to set the lights up. I also measured the size of the largest CFL (2 1/2" in diameter) and measured down far enough to keep them out of the way of the top closing completely.



I drilled a hole in the upper corner of the chest to run the wires through, into a standard metal 4 gang box.



A quick test showed me life!



Here is my test setup.. Looks like it ought to work good for 2 LST plants in vegging, maybe even flowering if you were an expert trimmer?



Tomorrow I will test it with light on and the lid down to see how hot it gets, and work on mounting the fan.

Ideas? Critiques?

2 more cfls would be great, and you need to sort out ventilation Leave it on and check if the lid gets hot or even starts melting.

That's what I was thinking about next dc.. I have a pc fan to mount on the back side next to the metal box to draw air out.

A few holes in the bottom of the chest to let air in, and I am hoping it would be just right.

Those cfl are 54w each. Maybe I will mount one or two on the other side down the middle if this isn't enough light. I was hoping the reflective propoerties of the ice chest would help keep the light even.

the pc fans are a good idea, but i got to ask, how much yield are you going to get out of that, i mean where the heck is the plant going to grow?

chrishydro said:

the pc fans are a good idea, but i got to ask, how much yield are you going to get out of that, i mean where the heck is the plant going to grow?

Click to expand...

Well, this isn't just for yield obviously. This ice chest is twice as big as the largest PC case I have seen, so I would think it could yield twice as much as one of those. It seems there are so many variables when it comes to yields anyway.

I have a 6 ft x 3 ft x 7 ft room I am growing for my main grow, this is just for giggles. It may end up being used just for clones, vegging, I dunno. It was just something I got sucked into after seeing all the pc case grows. I figured an ice chest would make just as good, if not better stealth grow. With some proper training of the plants growing horizontally, I could see this having some success with multiple short colas?

Mostly just for giggles. Somewhere on here there is a user with the best tagline ever. "Smoking pot isn't addicting, but growing it is!" Exactly.

More progress.

I read on here how to power a PC fan by using an old cell phone charger, so I dug around through all my old boxes and found this. An old DSL modem power supply that yields me a solid 12v DC, which is perfect for the PC fan I want to use.


And here's the fan. Just a simple PC fan I scored for free from a friend.


I lined it up with the chest where I wanted to mount it, and traced the outside of it onto the chest, then also traced the inner uncovered airflow area.


I drilled some 3/4" holes in the inner airflow area to allow air to pass through, then mounted the fan. I may clean up the area to have one big hole instead of a few smaller holes. I just didn't have a 4" holesaw.

I mounted the fan, and then messed with the wiring between the plug and fan. Really simple. Just touch the wires together till the fan comes on.



Test wiring the fan and the light on at the same time did not show much heat gain inside the chest at all. So it's time for a test. I have two Bubba Kush plants bought at the same time as clones. Assuming same genetics (clones from same plant, bought same day at same dispensary) I have started LST on both of them. One has taken it well, then other not so well. Here is the weaker one.


I put it in the chest with the lid on an hour ago. Going to check on it right now for signs of heat burn.

The nice thing about this chest is the lid is not air tight, so the fan exhausting the air is not creating a vacuum inside the box.

The bad thing about this chest, is apparently the lid is NOT completely opaque like the body. It glows when the lights are on inside. Almost like it holds something magical. Oh wait.. It will!

First test shows lots of heat without the bottom ventilation drilled yet. Will have to do some thinking on how to cool the inside. If it gets hot with just 2 23w bulbs, it will get very crispy with 2 54w bulbs..

it may do better with some sort of passive intake on the bottom and having the top fans just exhaust.. maybe on the glowing lid deal...you can paint it black and then cover it with an emergency blanket ??? i dunno if a layer of black then flat white over that ?? im not sure i never done anything like that before...just throwing out ideas

orezbus12 said:

it may do better with some sort of passive intake on the bottom and having the top fans just exhaust.. maybe on the glowing lid deal...you can paint it black and then cover it with an emergency blanket ??? i dunno if a layer of black then flat white over that ?? im not sure i never done anything like that before...just throwing out ideas

Click to expand...

I was thinking of the flat white paint myself..

And I had planned to drill a few holes in the bottom for air intake, and cover with some screen material as a passive intake.. I think that might work.

Busy working on the grow closet at the moment.. Will post more progress in a few days.