2007 August 21 archive at Planet Saedel | PlanetSaedel

AutoCool - picture from http://www.bestofasseenontv.com/ The Auto Cool infomercial looks convincing, and I’m pretty sure you’ve seen it, too. That’s why you are here reading a short review about it.

In the commercial, they showed that if you park your car under the sun, chances are when you get inside it, it feels you are sitting in a 100 degrees oven. The commercial even shows an egg getting cooked on the dashboard.

With AutoCool, you won’t have to worry about the heat anymore. Just slide it on one of your windows and voila the fan will spin letting cool breeze in and hot air out. For a small amount of approximately $20, you have a portable car aircon. But I don’t want to pay $20 for that. So I bought mine from ebay for half the price.

I’m going straight to the point here: The item doesn’t live to the expectation.

1. The fan spins only when it is under direct sunlight.

2. The fan spins not hard enough. It won’t even move a paper.

3. The case is fragile. Mishandling will break it apart.

The item is a good “thesis” idea for a college student. And the end product is a combination of pile of select plastic junk encasing an electrical wiring attached to a small fan with the hope that it would cool something as big as a car.

It wouldn’t. I used it in my Honda Accord, parked it under the sun. I checked it after couple of hours, I couldn’t feel any difference. I can cook a bacon inside my car. I’m almost positive that AutoCool will melt if left under the sun unattended.

So my suggestion to keep your car cool is to block the sun by putting shades in your windshield. Leaving the front windows a little bit open will somehow let the hot air out.

Keep your $20. Buy a good book or watch a movie instead.

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I got my first car in April this year (2007). An old one actually. The title says it — built 1990. So why did I buy it in the first place? Here’s the story: I commute when I go to work (I’m a computer teacher in a Private Catholic School), and my father thought it was tiring for me so he volunteered to drive me in the morning before he goes to work, eventhough it is out of his way. I was getting embarrassed. I didn’t want him to drive from point A (our apartment) to point B (my school) then go back to point A then drive to point C (his work).

So when I learned that a family friend’s brother is getting rid of his car due to limited parking space, I took the offer. Who could resist a $600 second-hand car? It was a good deal, I thought.

The car is older than ALL of my students, but whenever they see me driving or getting in or out of the car, they’ll say: “Nice car, Mr. P!” and I can’t help but chuckle by their innocence.

Here’s the pic.

A week later, one afternoon when all students were all gone and most teachers had left, my car wouldn’t start! After numerous attempts, it simply won’t go alive. It was almost 5pm, I don’t want to be stuck in traffic. I admit, I’m a computer doctor, but I know nothing about a car’s anatomy. So I phoned my father for tips. He said maybe it’s the battery, and he asked me to push the gas a couple of times while starting the car. Won’t start. Press the brake, then start again. Ugly sound.

Then I remembered my favorite movie: Back To The Future. If you have seen it, you probably knew what I’m going to tell you. Do you remember when Marty was about to go back to the future but all of a sudden, the DeLorean “died”? When he ran out of time he simply banged his head on the stirring wheel then surprisingly, the car started!

But I didn’t do that. I’m not yet nuts to hurt my own head, it is my life. What I did was, I hit the wheel (and the horn) with my forearm and then click the key simultaneously. Boy, it worked! Thank you, Marty!

Eversince, it happened few times, and my solution worked most of the time. So I made a theory that maybe, the battery needed an electrical catalyst (in this case, the wheel and the horn) to somehow jumpstart it. I told you I’m not good at cars. I can’t support my theory with strong facts but a sci-fi movie. If you’re a car expert, is my theory correct?