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The size of the ice cubes is directly related to the time available for cooling and inversely related to the degree of cooling.
Regular ice cubes provide lower temperature, but they melt faster and you can't use the cooler for as long. I have found that these ice blocks about the size of small loafs of bread provide a good balance of cool temps/cooling time. I also don't start off with much water in mine--I place the sump pump in one of the rear corners of the unit, fill with ice blocks, prop the unit up so that the water flows to that back corner, and I only add enough water to get thing going (somewhere around 1/2 gallon).
I too turn mine off at altitude and back on with descent and landing. I looked into the STC'd AC some years ago, the one that puts the scoop on the belly of the plane. As I recall it was about $20K installed. I figured I could freeze a lot of water for $20K.
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