Cooling the Bait bucket or livewell

[duane]

Ok this subject I know about first hand. I drove a truck 25 years OTR and these cooler hit the trucking market a long time ago. I still have one but do not use it because of the power consumption. Now the newer models may use less of the power consumption than the older model I have.

The power consumption of one of these cooler in a 24 hour time frame can and do pull a 24 volt battery system down to the point it will not start a truck. Remember truck starters take a lot more power than a car. Many are 24 volts starters but the newer trucks have a 12 volt starter.

I do not think the unit in these cooler which is inside the cooler can be underwater. Also direct sun light and heat would make these coolers work more and be less help.

If you have a direct question I maybe able to help. Ask away.

[duane]

The use of Ice to Cool down the water can be good and bad. First only use ice from a bag or from water that does not have chioline in it. I used ice from my ice marker a couble of times and killed all my minnows. I learned quickly what I had done. I now freeze empty soda bottle with water and use them for both my cooler with drinks and food when I can also use them in my minnow bucket as needed. But please do not do like Tom (CP) does and drink from the bottle after it has been in the minnow bucket, sure the water inside is ok but the inside would be nasty.

[Moose1am]

I agree with you duane. I shivered a bit when I think of someone drinking bottled water when the outside cap of the bottle has been exposed to the slimely water of a minnow bucket.

Why not take some other water along and keep it clean and away from the minnow buckets.

Good discussion going here on the bait bucket cooling devices.

I would like to clarify one thing though.

I am actually talking about two different type of devices.

1. A commercial cooling device for large bait tank that the bait shop owners can use. This could run on AC power.
2. A small minnow bucket that could be cooled using the pizo electric effect that runs on 12 v DC power. A spare 12v battery may be used to run this device. Or you could just plug the thing into the cigarette lighter of the boat.

The device in Number 1 above would be something like a dehumidifier while the device in Number 2 above would be a small 5 gallon or less minnow bucket that possibly could be designed to run on smaller "D" sized batteries or an external battery pack.


I envision two different markets for these devices. One for bait shop owners and fishermen that spend a lot of time on the water. Guys like Jerry Blake that go fishing with minnows over 200 days per year.

The other market would be for guys like the rest of us crappie fisherman that need to keep small quantities of minnows alive while fishing in the summer months. Something that can keep the bait bucket cooled down for a few hours. This market may not be there as its just too easy to take bottles of water and freeze them and then dump them into the minnow buckets. This method workd great if you have an insulated minnow bucket and an aerator system. I can keep 4 dozen minnows alive easily with this system. And I am fishing in 95 deg F weather out in the sun for at least 6 to 8 hours. But I need to take 4 bottles of frozen water along. Each bottle is about 16 oz of water (ice ) inside it. I keep one bottle in the live well until the ice inside the bottle melts and then I take another iced bottle and put that in the minnow bucket. I keep the extra frozen water bottles inside a seperate insulated cooler. When I get home I clean the outside of the water bottles with a bleach soln, rinse them off really good and dry them. Then and only then to I put them in my home freezer compartment of my refrigerator. These will be frozen by the next morning if I put them in the freezer before 10 pm. I normally don't get back home until after dark and this time of the year that is 9 pm. By the time I get the boat stowed and the charger hooked up and the fish out the boat it's 9:30PM. Then by the time I clean the fish and bury the guts it's 10:00pm.