Drink Cooler


  This evaporative cooler is designed to accept three 20oz bottles of soda or three 12oz cans. If you haven't heard about evaporative coolers, they use warm water and evaporation to cool a medium in a way similar to the human perspiration system. Apparently they were used in ancient times to cool water and other things.

What you need:

  • (1) can of Krylon Fusion Plastic spray paint (white)
  • (1) empty paint bucket
  • (2) rags/washcloths (anything that holds water: sand, sponge, wool, ShamWOW)
  • (1) mesh gutter cover
  • (27) small plastic zip ties
  • steel wool
  • painter's tape

The tools that I used are also very common:

  • drill press 1" hole saw drill bit
  • diagonal pliers/wire cutters
  • tin snips
  • scissors
NOTE: Original author: JamesRPatrick. This project won a prize in the Krylon Summer Projects Contest on Instructables.com (http://www.instructables.com/id/Dew-Bucket-Evaporative-Drink-Cooler/).

How and How Long:

  1. Prep the bucket by cleaning out the old paint.
  2. Drill 18 holes into the bucket in a honeycomb shape.
  3. Paint the bucket.
  4. Prepare the drink tubes with wire mesh and fabric.
  5. Squeeze the drink tubes into the paint can.
  6. Soak the fabric with water and wait for cool drinks!

What it Costs:

Cost is under $20, most supplies can be found in a garage.