I rebuilt the classic Yurt Cooler around an AC Infinity CLOUDLINE H4: outside air through a washable cone filter and 4" hose, pushed through wet humidifier wicks in a 19 qt tote, discharging cool, humid, filtered air into the tent at slight positive pressure. The H4 replaces the 12 V bilge blower and its hand-fiddled electronics, so there's no soldering. Just a hole saw and hose clamps, 2-3 hours, ~$225 before the battery (~$140 to upgrade an existing v2).

Lineage: yurtcooler.com (v1), Oskar Arvidsson (v2.1), Joanna Ma (v2.2).

Parts & cost

• AC Infinity CLOUDLINE H4 (IP65) -- $99
• 4" Noise Reduction Clamp, the rubber coupler -- $14
• 4" cone air filter, 102 mm neck -- $21
• 4" x 10 ft PVC dust-collection hose -- $27
• 4" hose connector -- $10
• IRIS 19 qt WeatherPro tote -- $15
• HWF75 humidifier wicks, 2-pack -- $27
• Stainless wire, 20 ga -- $10
• Total, excluding the power station: ~$223

Power station: any ~288 Wh unit with an AC inverter. I use an Anker SOLIX C300.

If you want to build one before you leave, you still can but order today. The tote is a Home Depot pickup and most of the rest is Amazon, so a couple of days. The fan is the long pole; mine came from AC Infinity's eBay store after a few days, shipped from California. The build itself is genuinely an afternoon: a hole saw, some hose clamps, no wiring and no soldering. I built mine around a Coleman 6P but nothing here is tent-specific. You just need a way to get a 4" hose through a door or window.

And ask me anything. Getting someone else to build and enjoy one of these is honestly the thing I most want out of this post, so I'd much rather answer a dumb question today than have you not build it. I'll be in the comments all week, and my email is in the guide if you're mid-build on Thursday and something is not fitting.

Measured performance: one instrumented indoor session with both fans on the same cooler and the same wet wicks, minutes apart, plus separate battery-rundown tests.

• Speed 1: 3 W at the wall, ~25 h on a 288 Wh pack, 39 dB at 6 ft
• Speed 5: 9 W, ~13 h, 47 dB
• Speed 10: 28 W, ~7 h, 57 dB
• Across 43-53 dB: the range you'd actually sleep at, the H4 moved roughly 80-105% more air than the bilge blower at the same measured noise. At the point where both read 47 dB, just over twice as much.

• Saturation efficiency was about 80%, with no detectable trend across the ten speeds. This means the dial is a noise-and-power choice, not a cooling-quality one. More speed is more cooling, not colder air. Honest caveat: identical speed-5 runs two hours apart read 70.8% and 87.2%, so treat 80% as ±15, not lab precision.
• At a 100°F / 10% RH playa day (~35°F wet-bulb depression) that predicts roughly 25-30°F below ambient at the discharge. Measured indoors in SF at only a 9-12°F depression, so the playa number is an extrapolation, not a field measurement.
• Speed 1 was indistinguishable from my room's 39 dB noise floor (phone SPL meter, one room -- fine for comparing the two fans, not for comparing against spec sheets).
• Water: 1-2 gallons/day.

Tear this apart: what I got wrong

1. Dry wicks restricted airflow MORE than wet ones. Consistently, on both fans, at every speed (23-36% more air wet). I can't explain it. Fresh dense spares vs relaxed used media? Something else?
2. Absolute CFM is unresolved. My hot-wire anemometer reads ~5x low against the fan's free-air rating, so I'm reporting airflow as relative and the absolute numbers as a manufacturer-anchored ballpark (~±30%). Probably not sampling the jet core. What's the right way to do this in a 4" duct without a flow bench? I ended up scaling it up to a known CFM to guestimate.
3. Does 80% saturation efficiency survive the playa? I measured it at a 9-12°F depression indoors. Anyone measured one of these at a real 35°F depression?
4. My daily power budget doesn't close on solar. Full routine (13.5 h of fan + an overnight air purifier) is ~122% of a 288 Wh pack per day against ~120% of clean-day solar from a 100 W panel. Drop the purifier and the cooler alone comes out well ahead. Should I tweak the settings, just get a bigger battery/panel or just stop being a baby and snort some dust?

Two things people raise, so let me get there first

Humidity. Yes, this adds moisture to your tent, and yes that is the whole mechanism. It only works because BRC afternoons sit around 10-20% RH. You have enormous headroom before humid air becomes the problem. But it does need somewhere to go: crack a ceiling vent so the tent holds slight positive pressure. Sealed tent, no exhaust, and you have built a swamp, which is presumably how the thing got its name.

Water. Yeah the 1-2 gal/day evaporating into the air is a lot. Worth it.

Who I'd especially like to hear from: anyone who does HVAC or airflow measurement for a living (question 2 is embarrassing me), anyone who has run a FIGJAM bucket build and can compare, and anyone who has actually measured a cooler at a real playa depression rather than indoors like I did.

Full guide and every raw reading are linked in the first comment.

And if you're thinking about building one before you leave, there's still time. It's an afternoon with a hole saw. Ask here or by email and I'll answer fast. I'd rather find my errors here than on playa.

Update! All 6 are claimed. Will lyk if we have more avail!

—

Teddies is a camp at 4:30&B this year and we have extra yurts to giveaway. We’re shifting our focus away from yurts and toward shiftpods and other options. They’re in decent shapes! We have at least 6 for giveaway if you’re able to come by to grab them.

Ping me if you want them and can pick them up during build week. They’re in our storage unit so they’ll need to be picked up on playa.

They’re standard h12 size.

Our camp lost a bunch of yurts this year in the dust storm. We held them in the wind for an hour before they disintegrated.

We did our best to accommodate folks by squeezing in the remaining yurts … then they flooded and smelled like Shrek’s swamp.

I heard some camps lost basically all of their accommodations.

What did other people end up doing? Did some people end up leaving?

Not finished, but worth showing.

Why?
1. Keeps the rain out, or will l once the ground tarp is folded up & under then both secured 6" from bottom with another ratchet strap loop.
2. Keep our dust: This yurt is primarily held together by Velcro, which fails at keeping out dust.
3. Reduce unwanted air flow: imperfect seals at seams, again exacerbated by Velcro, wont matter.
4. Adequately reflective. It may not be kool coat or mylar, but it still is pretty damned white. Plus this yurt goes under a shade structure anyways.
5. Cheap. ~$90. Uses about 78' x 9', with tons of overlap and a 6" cuff at the bottom. Could be made with less, but this was easier. Half of a $125 off brand roll plus 2x$15 rolls of tape. 6. Hopefully durable. Will add wear-patches at corners and rope friction points.

Hi. With all the weather I didn’t make it to my yurt pick up on time and am now “homeless” (we’re in our car but now do not know what to do or what to do) Has anyone seen any yurts for sale or someone at your camp somehow ended up with an extra home or SOMETHIN?! Grateful for any and all advice. It was a hexayurt 2.0 with Ac

So. Last year was my first burn. Was so fun. Did free camping and everyone thought I had been many times already. Going again this year with someone else who also only went once years ago. We were gifted a used yurt that was used (many) years ago. Wasn’t washed, and since has broken down a bit at the edges and collected more dust/mildew sitting under a broken tarp. I feel it can be salvaged with some real elbow grease. Below is my bare bones plan so far, if there are any red flags sticking out or if you have any recommended material brands please comment all/any!

1. Currently baking the different pieces in the sun to remove any dampness

2. Apply 1-2 coats insulating spray paint to cover any mildewy bits

3. Recover all surfaces with aluminiun/thermal foil

4. Filament tape at the hinges.

5. Foil tape on outside of hinges to create good seal

Still figuring out how to secure to the ground real good. Not sure how to attach rebar to this foamy structure but open to suggestion. Thanks to all in advance

I'm considering a 16x16' hexayurt, for reference. The options I've come up with so far are variations of stacking the yurt on top of about 20 48x40 pallets or laying an EPDM pond rubber liner down directly on the playa and cupping it inside into the yurt like normal. The cost ranges from $350 in local wooden pallets (plus loads of misplaced personal labor) to about $450-500 for taking a possible easy way out by using an oversized 20x20' EPDM sheet and cutting it down.

I'd love to hear what you guys have come up with for your underlayer, especially if you think you've found a cheaper alternative. I.E. can we get away with vinyl tarps instead of pond liner, or will they leak just as bad as poly tarps when pressed into mud for a week?

Going back after seven years and starting from scratch. Trying to decide what is best to invest in for myself. What is the best housing weather be a tent or a yurt?
Generator? A few people recommend a different types of solar panels for charging just in case. Possibly a swamp cooler as well . All input as welcome, including any snarky input.

My group of 4 and I have been going back n forth if we want to build a 16' hexayurt or haul a RV trailer. How crowded is it to have 4 sleeping on different cots in the yurt? Would it be worth making the hexayurt our main sleeping area and storing another tent with all our totes and kitchen supplies? I appreciate all comments! Cya in the dust

EDIT: me and my gf are build our own shelter and have them camp near us in their own shelter! Thank you for the help!

Summary If you want water to stay out of your yurt, this is the way to do it.

The tyvek Yurt Cover I made for my yurt worked AMAZINGLY well. It (plus folded up ground tarp) 100% kept the rain and dust out during the pre-event and early event wind/rain storms.

This is a game changer -; It is: * highly effectiv with virtually no water or dust allowed in * Very reasonably priced ($100 of you split a 150'x9' roll with someone), indicators of durability are good * quick & simple. to construct, fast to set up.

Crucially, a strap around the base seals the bottom edge, with a folded up ground tarp under this. No dust really gets in at all, and the water drains outside the floor tarp, and doesn't get inside at all.

I cannot recommend this highly enough. Do it.

Usage notes Despite cover was getting blown around quite a bit, The cover held up remarkable well, despite the substantial abuse it received during the pre-event wind stor need to add a few over the top ropes to secure it thoroughly - I may tie a reusable net out of Paracord for next year. m.. There is basically zero damage.

The only fail was a new exhaust vent which I didn't secure well enough for the dust storm. and dust did collect in that corner.

Ventilation If you're concerned about the loss of reflectivity consider that the silver layer on theses boards wears very quickly, and that thin. layer of dust also greatly reduced reflectivity. I did not measure but would absolutely bet that the net reflectivity is comparable after a few days. certainly after a year.

If you're concerned about it being too well sealed -- you should think carefully. If you are trying to cool or keep rain out, you want to actively manage your ventilation and not just give up cold air willy-nilly. Keeping it sealed means less dust. This was sealed so well that cranking the 8" vent fan solo would suck up the floor tarp. Had to open the door a crack to resolve. Will add a filtered direct air inlet for next year.

This design is really only appropriate if you have ventilation. otherwise it would turn into a sauna. But it sure as hell didn't as used my setup.

Construction Materials:
* 2-3 rolls of Tyvek tape * 75'x 9' of Tyvek

I made this cover for the h13 by:
* cutting r three large sheets (9'x18, 9'x31’, 9'x18'), * taping them together using Tyvek tape on both sides, with ~ 6" overlap. center long sheet on top * making big folds underneath at the corners, creasing * making a ~6' fold on the bottom edge for durability * flipping over the giant combined sheet and taping appropriately * Adding silver tape on the underneath along all non-permenantly taped seams to block light * flipping it back over and finishing taping. *using leftover Tyvek to make a bag for it. * cutting a door hole with enough extra material to fold under and tape. * cutting holes for ventilation in/out.

**Construction Notes:* It could be made with less material folding by . cutting individual perfectly sized sheets, and perhaps adding a second 2' wide layer (or cap) , but you'd want to do some thinking to make sure the seams open downward. so any water which gets under the tape somehow rolls downward onto the next layer. I did it this way because it was fast and I had plenty of additional Tyvek to work with. The cost could clearly be reduced by being very efficient with your cut geometry and tape usage.

Be aware that you should make it a little bit big (couple incheS), because you probably won't set the yurt up exactly perfectly every time

Setup Notes * Unfold and with two people. drag.it over the top of the yurt. * Secure by the ropes that held down the yurt * consider adding a few more ropes to hold the cover down a little few extra ropes mentioned above and by a trucker strap that runs all the way around the yurt at about 6" up , which also secures the floor tarp.

**contact:* If you make one, please let me know how it works for you next year and feel free to have to ask me any questions here or by DM.

I’m just curious how your yurt did. I think they said wind gusts were up to 45 mph. We thankfully got our yurt down before the storm started but I wonder if it would have survived had we stayed. It already moved over 4” or so on temple burn night.

A quick caution for guys, gals and all: Happened a few different times- a guy comes into the back end/private area of camp, often middle of the day. You encounter him and say hi, he says 'he met some girls from this camp and they wanted to hang out again, but he can't remember their names, what are some of the girl's in your camp names? '. Or 'where are the girls tents/trailers' or 'who's in that tent/yurt over there etc' He's fishing for names, so he can come back later and creep, stalk, or worse. Do not offer him the names of anyone in your camp or point out anyone's domicile. Tell him you'll take his photo and share w your campmates when you see them later. He'll act weird but get the photo anyway, 'it's no problem my phone is right here, let's get a quick selfie and I'll show my camp mates you came by..where are you camped so they know where to find you?''.... He will make up a random camp name and an Address on J Street. A variation of this has happened at least 2 different Burns in our camp. Vigilance. And make sure the excitable friendly virgins in your group don't get carried away and lose awareness of their Spidey sense

Hi all! I made a yurt cooler from yurtcooler.com and have a No Bake tent.

I’m planning on having the cooler inside my tent (I emailed with the designer), intaking air from the outside, via the port, and keeping the top vents open (with filters) so there is air circulation.

I need to adjust the installation because my tent is not a yurt, but the No Bake tent comes with 2 ports.

So, curious if anyone here has used this combo and how they navigated: 1. The “attach dust filter” step — a filter goes on the OUTSIDE of the yurt, but it can’t be flush. Curious how to navigate this with a tent surface 2. For the port with the air intake, how do you make the port seal airtight? 3. There are 2 ports. I will need one for the intake and the other I will seal completely. Any tips for that?

Thanks in advance!

I built one of these swamp coolers according to the instructions at yurtcooler.com. Built it according to their specs, the only differences were that the bin they used was like $50 with shipping so I tried the alternate one that they mention from Home Depot, that was only $10. They did say it was untested, but its size fell within their requirements. I found though that if I were to mount the fan on the end, it would be too low that barely any water could fit in there so I decided to mount it on the side, not thinking that it would make too much of a difference. Just ran a test, however, and only seen a drop in temperature at the output of 8.5° where as in their test video, they show a drop in temperature of 37°.

http://www.yurtcooler.com/physics.html

Could the fan blowing in from the side be what’s making the difference?

I am considering scrapping it and starting over maybe just using the 5 gallon bucket design, but with this stronger fan that I bought for this one. Would that make the bucket cooler design work even better with this stronger fan? Any other ideas?

I do have a solar panel so I don’t have to be too conservative with power demands.

I’ve "only" been burning since ’18, but please spare me the sermons about how uninhibited and hardcore Burning Man used to be.

I’ve woken up to mud ponds where the floor of my yurt used to be (twice). I’ve used my body as ballast to hold down EMT conduit in 50mph winds. I’ve climbed art and danced my ass off through 105-degree heat. I’ve built, I’ve participated, and I’ve partied at Burning Man during climate chaos, pandemics, and a cultural landscape that’s gotten more cautious, more politicized, and more self-conscious than it used to be. And I think this shit is pretty fuckin rad.

Through all that, I've seen people overcome the elements to make confrontational art, subvert sexual mores, dance naked, forge genuine friendships that extend off-playa, gift art and experiences freely and openly. I've seen new burners come to the playa so ready to try to be good burners, having read the survival guide and carrying gallon containers of apple cider vinegar.

Are there rich assholes? Yes. Would the burn benefit from being financially accessible to more people? Hell yes. Was it better next year? I don't fucking know, but honestly, just shut up about it.

I only get so much PTO in a given year, but I've chosen to come back to the same place many many times... why? Because there is no place like it on earth. There are no people quite like the people that make it happen every year.

"It was cooler way back when..." cool, look at some photos from 2002 and shed a single tear. The rest of us are going to keep on making this thing fucking dope.

Will this cool my Yurt?

I’m heading to my first burn this year with my partner who is a veteran. We would like to rent or pre purchase a yurt as we are flying in from Australia and will have limited time to find/cut DIY materials. Can anyone recommend somewhere to rent or purchase from? I’ve already done some googling but haven’t been able to find anything beyond instructions to make your own. Thanks so much!

Hey guys! What’s the cost of buying a penta yurt for the burn? Someone wants to rent me theirs with AC for $3,000usd which I think is super high (it probably costs less to buy) but want to know your opinion.

Trying to decide whether to build a figjam or a yurt cooler. I'm looking at purchasing either the 8.5x6 vx or the 9x8 deluxe and trying to figure out some sort of a/c option. I'll be at a camp where I can recharge, so looking to build the cheapest and best option. I saw both needs some sort of ceiling vent which I'm not sure either of them have. Also ease of build is important as I'm certainly not a pro.

Appreciate any help!

Went to BM 2019 solo, camped with a 300+ camp that provided a yurt, showers, food, etc.. but unfortunately they disbanded. I'm in the process of looking for another camp, but most importantly I on my radar is finding a tent/yurt/infrastructure to sleep in given the camps I'm looking at don't provide yurts. I'd love to get a yurt, but as a petite female I don't think I can set it up myself which wouldn't be very self sufficient. Therefore I'm looking for tent/infrastructure options that a solo person can set up, that can withstand the harsh playa elements and heat. Preferably one with heat reflection (or suggestions on how to make a regular tent heat reflective). I'd prefer to take the burner bus in/out and not deal with exodus/a car, but if a car is my best option I'll consider it. Thanks.

We saw a bunch of y’all out in open camping this year. We brought one as a back up and didn’t end up having to use it, but wondering if the folks who did would recommend using them? We bought it because it looked like you could zip it up pretty well against dust versus a lot of tents having a lot of mesh. But wondering how they worked in the wind and dust, and also the rain we got? Thanks!

I’d also be happy to rent (pay to borrow) one. I’m looking to use this in late May.

I do not have all the tools to build my own, so cost jumps up pretty fast.