Home Improvement Product Reviews

Honest review from someone who knew what they were buying, June 12, 2011

By 

Ashlea Beers – See all my reviews

  

I hate weeding through the reviews for evaporative coolers because it seems like the majority of bad reviews are from people who have no clue what they are and what they are supposed to do, a few are from people who can’t follow basic instructions, and there are only a handful of legitimate negative reviews that are usually due to defective issues.

I live in Denver, CO. It’s dry here and it’s the perfect climate for evaporative coolers. I’ve had whole-house swamp coolers in previous homes I’ve lived and know many friends with them. In my home, I have no option for a portable or window A/C air conditioner as I spend most of my time in our finished basement and there’s not a good option for exhaust. Last summer we got quotes for central A/C but it’s a lot more money than I want to spend and I also don’t want the electricity bill that goes along with it. We have a whole house fan (not to be confused with an attic fan) that we run in early morning before it reaches 70 degrees and that we run again at night, usually after 9pm, or whenever it gets cool enough outside. Sometimes with an afternoon rain shower we turn it on sooner.

I bought the evaporative cooler to supplement the whole house fan on those reallllly hot days and/or for the middle of the day when we we’re not running it due to it being hotter outside than it is inside. The house fan cools the ground floor much better than our basement due to the lack of air flow from our basement windows because of the window well covers we have. Also, this summer I’m pregnant with a due date of August 15th and that doesn’t help my comfort situation. Basically, an evaporative cooler is exactly what I wanted and what fit our situation.

Think of it as a fan on steroids. Cold air DOES come out of it. Today it is 88 degrees outside and humidity is 16%… a typical Colorado summer day. I have the cooler about 3 feet away from me and 8 feet away from my husband. I have it on high and I’m actually getting cold. I have it on the “swing” setting otherwise I would probably turn it down. It doesn’t guzzle through water too quickly and filling it once a day is enough since I’m not running it 24/7. I use a gallon pitcher to fill it up faster since it holds 10 liters (2.5 gallons). I have an automatic ice maker in my fridge so I don’t have any issues running out of ice. I can’t think of any features it’s missing. It’s not too loud even on high – it’s like a normal fan. There’s no smell at all but I do actually change the water frequently and follow the cleaning instructions. Trust me on the smell thing, I can smell anything from very far away ever since I’ve been pregnant. You can wash the air filter on the back but DO NOT USE WATER to clean the wick. It is meant to be placed in direct sunlight to clean. I think that is why some other people had issues with smell or mold. Follow the directions, please. It has a remote, timers, sleep modes, swing function (just the fan blades inside swing, not the entire unit), warning beeps and visual indicators when it runs low on water (nice feature to avoid burning out the water pump), and an extra place to put ice on top in addition to putting ice in the water tank. You can adjust the blades on the front to direct the air flow whichever way you need to vertically. It also has an ionizer and you can run it as just a fan if you’d like, so no need for a second unit just to get some air circulating.

All in all… this thing does exactly what it says it will do. It’s exactly what I wanted. It came assembled, which was a big bonus. It’s only 17 lbs and has built in handles on the sides so I can actually carry it upstairs by myself if it’s empty, even being super pregnant. It’s on wheels to make it easier to push around when I don’t have to take it to another floor. It was less than half what other similar units cost for the same tank size and air output.

I’ve only has this thing for a week. I will be sure to update my review once I’ve had it for awhile.

UPDATE 6/24 – I’ve found that when I run this thing on high for 8-10 hours per day, we do need to fill it every day or every other day at the very least (depending on if I fill it to the max level… usually I just add 1 gallon when I fill it). However, when I’m running it on medium or low and not using it as much (more like 5-6 hours per day), it can last about a week without needing a refill. I typically don’t bother putting ice in anymore unless it’s a day with over 95 degree temperatures and I want extra cold air. The only thing I wish it had was an easy way to drain it in case I want to move it upstairs when it’s not empty. However, I don’t think any model I looked at had this feature (or at least it wasn’t mentioned). It has NEVER made the room feel muggy even with no open windows and honestly I don’t feel any difference in the humidity in the room. Almost every day it’s been less than 20% humidity outside, and I’ve never seen it…

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 Comments (7)

Works for me., June 18, 2010

By 

Ryan Herzer “Ryan2258″ (Castro Valley, CA) – See all my reviews

  

I live in California in the Bay Area. Not much humidity and the weather is typically pretty mild but it does get pretty hot in the summer (90+ degrees). I received the unit on a particularly hot day recently and I ran out and grabbed a bag of ice because i wanted to test this things cooling capability. I set it up next to my computer desk and turned on the cool air function. I was sitting about 5 feet from it and in 5 minutes my arm was freezing cold. I was perfectly comfortable the whole day but if i moved from the fan at all the heat was unbearable. This thing does not cool a room but it will cool the area directly in front of it. Once it cooled down a bit I emptied the water (which was made very easy due to the lightness of the unit) into my bathroom sink and used it that night as a normal fan. Its pretty quiet and the fan is powerful. Ive heard these swamp coolers can generate a musty smell so I make sure to empty it of water when I’m done using the cool air function. I only fill it with water when its extremely hot because the fan works fine for me most days. It’s a very nice unit and it’s exactly what I was looking for. Better than a fan and more efficient that an air conditioner.

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Not really worth the effort, August 14, 2007

By 

Mark Finzel (Colorado Springs, CO) – See all my reviews

  

To be fair, the product does not claim to be an air conditioner. However, it does claim to cool 12 degrees cooler, which I didn’t find at all. I live in a dry Colorado climate, and still it is barely cooler than a fan. You have to fill it with tons of ice to even get that, and it requires refilling with water and ice often. If you don’t clean it at least once a week, it starts smelling really bad.

All this effort of refilling and cleaning is not worth the 3 to 5 degrees cooler you get. For that, I’d rather just plug in a fan and not have to worry about it every day. Save your money and buy a portable air conditioner. It’s worth the extra investment, trust me.

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