How to Cool a Cooler to Hang Deer

Hanging a deer is essential if you want tender meat. The trick is to hang the deer at a temperature above freezing but below 40 degrees. If it gets any warmer than that, bacteria will begin to eat the deer. If you don't have access to a commercial walk-in-box that is cooled by a compressor, you can build your own cold storage room in your garage with insulation board and a window air-conditioning unit. This is a much more cost-effective approach. To cool your deer-hanging cooler, however, you will have to make special modifications to the window a/c unit, which is not set up to provide temperatures less than 60 degrees, much less temperatures in the 30s. A better alternative is to purchase a product that can basically turn your window a/c into a compressor so the ideal hanging temperature can be reached and the unit will not freeze up.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Purchase a large window air-conditioning unit (at least a 12,000-BTU unit if your cooler measures 8 by 8 feet) and mount it in your cooler.

2. Purchase a CoolBot (see Resources) or a similar product that can be used with your window a/c unit to essentially turn it into a compressor to cool your deer-storage cooler. This is much more cost-effective than buying or maintaining an actual compressor.

3. Plug the CoolBot into a standard electrical wall outlet near your window a/c unit. Observe that there are three wires sticking out of the CoolBot. Setup is very simple; you don't have to make any changes to the window a/c unit, and there are no wires to be cut and nothing to be re-routed or soldered. (A toll-free help line is even provided with the CoolBot.)

4. Let the first wire simply stick out, attached to nothing. This measures the temperature of your deer cooler room.

5. Grab the second wire--the "frost sensor"--and put it in the "cooling vent fins" of the window a/c unit. It does not even have to be taped or secured in any way.

6. Connect the third wire to the temperature sensor of your a/c unit with electrical tape. Turn on your window a/c unit and let it cool your deer cooler to the ideal temperature. The CoolBot is a miniature "brain" that controls the a/c unit and makes it act like a walk-in cooler compressor, moving the cold air on out into the room without freezing up.

Tips & Warnings

• Determine if your garage or backyard shop might hold the ideal temperature for hanging a deer. If it is in the 20s during deer season, for example, the walls of your garage or shop might provide just enough insulation to bring the temperature into the ideal 32-to-40-degree range. Then you can simply hang the deer by the neck in your garage or shop. As an alternative to building your own cooler, a fellow hunter may be able to grant you access to a regular walk-in cooler box, where you can hang your deer.
• If you try to modify a window a/c unit on your own, keep in mind that you will be voiding your warranty in the process. Even with the modifications, there is still a grave risk that the window unit will freeze up while attempting to provide temperatures in the ideal 32-to-40-degree range.

Resources

• Yahoo! Answers: Problems modifying an a/c window unit
• A simpler way to modify a window a/c without voiding its warranty