Swamp Coolers

They will never cool like real AC.

I have had swamp coolers for about 45 years. Installed one in Denver, Colorado years ago.had them Amarillo, Texas, and southern NM. They work great on dry, low humidity, days. If much humidity at all they just add moisture to the air and leave a damp hot place. The water evaporates and leaves the minerals contained therein behind. If you are someplace with very hard water you will have to clean lots of scale off pads and every other place water touched. This maintenance can get to be extensive. Don’t think soft water will cut down on scale because the residual salt in the softened water will corrode every metal it touches. For them to cool you will need about 3 square feet opening for air to exhaust for every thousand CFM.that means windows open for you to get a chance to cool. I’ve converted two homes from swamp cooler to refrigerated acnd and never want another swamp cooler as my only source of cooling.

imgoin4it wrote:
I have had swamp coolers for about 45 years. Installed one in Denver, Colorado years ago.had them Amarillo, Texas, and southern NM. They work great on dry, low humidity, days. If much humidity at all they just add moisture to the air and leave a damp hot place. The water evaporates and leaves the minerals contained therein behind. If you are someplace with very hard water you will have to clean lots of scale off pads and every other place water touched. This maintenance can get to be extensive. Don’t think soft water will cut down on scale because the residual salt in the softened water will corrode every metal it touches. For them to cool you will need about 3 square feet opening for air to exhaust for every thousand CFM.that means windows open for you to get a chance to cool. I’ve converted two homes from swamp cooler to refrigerated acnd and never want another swamp cooler as my only source of cooling.

a good summary, but regarding water softeners. A properly functioning water softener does NOT repeat NOT add any salt to the water!!!!!! they DO add Sodium (Na) to the water and while they remove the minerals that cause soap not to work as expected, (calcium and magnesium) they do no remove all minerals. so in areas with very hard water the resultant water still has minerals that will as you mention will spot surfaces.

imgoin4it gave a great summary of life with a swamp cooler. Points to add.

1. Swamp coolers work best taking outside air, cooling it by way of evaporation, and dumping the moist cool air into a room.
2. To work best, provide copious amounts of water to get the maximum evaporation possible.
3. To work bester still, open windows in the warmest areas away from the cooler to draw the cool air throughout the area. There must be windows or vents open so that all the air being pushed in has a place to go.

Wouldn't even consider one.

FIRST

Buy an accurate hygrometer. It measures relative humidity. It's going to B.S. Proof whether or not an evaporative cooler will work for you. It isn't a YES/NO situation. Anyone who tells you otherwise is an uneducated, inexperienced blowhard.

The lower the relative humidity the more pronounced the cooling effect will be.

For instance high high in the Sierra Nevada mountains we experienced summer days with TWO percent relative humidity and ninety degree temperatures. Air entered the cooler at 90F and exited at SIXTY FOUR DEGREES. With a four foot cube cooler, the chilled air was 20x times the volume that a 15,000 BTU roof air could ever produce. It would chill a 30 x 30 building and make me gasp when I passed in front of it.

In the antelope valley desert of California. I had a 3 foot swamp cooler atop my shop trailer

ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEEN DEGREES outside temp and eighty one degrees inside temp. All summer. A had to throttle the water back when temps merely hit a hundred degrees.

But again, the relative humidity was single digit to upper teens.

As relative humidity reaches THIRTY percent, the evaporative cooling encounters an ever increasing barrier. At forty percent R/H an evaporative cooler may offer TEN PERCENT of the cooling effect as it does at ten percent relative humidity. At FIFTY PERCENT R/H five percent. Get the drift why KNOW BEFORE YOU SPEND MONEY is so relevant? Get a hygrometer.

Places like Tucson Arizona face a different challenge. Early in summer, the air might be bone-dry. But later in the season a weather phenomenon called THE MONSOON arrives, with high humidity from the south. That is humidity that crosses Mexico from the Gulf of Mexico then performs a clockwise curl called the CORIOLIS EFFECT. It brings thunderstorms and sweltering humidity. A swamp cooler simply makes things worse. Evaporative gas (freon) is the only way to chill and I have some GNUS for some folks.

Simply chilling the air IS NOT ENOUGH in tropical climates. Beside air conditioning, a separate DEHUMIDIFIER is almost a necessity. A dehumidifier is nothing more or less than an AC unit that dumps heated air back into the room, and does not pass it outside of the structure. A tray or drain exits the precipitated water from the evaporator.

Never heard of needing a dehumidifier? Then you have not experienced one of the most undesirable environments. I hate it. It is feeling clammy. Cold sweating skin. Sounds like an oxymoron feels like ****. Eighty five degree dry air is far more comfortable than seventy five degree moisture laden air. Don't ever have it? You are fortunate. Hope you never experience it. Chilling and dehumidification may cost substantially less in total kWh than trying to chill the humidity out of the air. I save about thirty percent in kWh by doing just that. Higher air temp substantially lower relative humidity.

I have no idea whatsoever of the OP's climatic conditions. He has to get a hygrometer and find out the truth. What works in the desert will not work where humidity is see.

But the old saw "It doesn't work for me so it absolutely will not work for anyone else" is absurd and damned near an embarrassment. Excuse my French.

And no, evaporative cooling is not an option down here. Period.

Evaporative cooling DEMANDS air circulation throughout the structure. I replaced an A/C unit that could not possibly keep up with Antelope Valley heat and found windows had to remain wide open. The unit was on the center of the roof and windows at both ends of the 33' Nashua trailer had to be wide open.

With regard to maintenance it may be necessary to replace pads and pump and float more frequently if the service water is laden with minerals. Home Depot personnel in areas that have common evaporative coolers can advise you.

If your area displays humidity R/H levels above 30% my advice is to "Try Out Someone Else's Cooler's Output" before purchasing one. In a few instances a LARGER cooler may do the trick.

But knowing before you decide will save a lot of money and frustration.

We had an old Winnebago Chief MH with a swamp cooler similar to the turbo kool. I don't remember the brand but it was designed specifically for an RV and worked off of 12V and drew water from the MH freshwater tank.

As others have written they only work well in dry climates. It will not keep the entire RV cool you need to sit right where the air flow from the swamp cooler is in order to stay cool. In the winnie the airflow pointed towards the dinette area so that's where the 4 of us would sit to be as cool as possible in 80 plus degree outside heat.

All of our RVs since have had air conditioners...no more swamp coolers for us.

i thought the he was talking about his RV since he mentioned (2) different locations, and he mentioned "turbokool" which is an RV cooler
while all the info about humidity is correct
the water softer debate is probably out the window
along with the BIG BOX multi cubic foot evaporation units that can be used on stationary buildings

I HAD a turbo kool in my first class A, used it here in calif
it used a lot of water to cool that 23ft MH

if your going boon docking, gasoline for the genny with roof top A/C is a better option than refilling your water water tank everyday or two

you could probably do it for a weekend, but not for a week or more

Hi,

My stand alone swamp cooler uses about 1 liter of water per hour. It does help a bit with cooling--sitting in front of it is pleasant. I do live in a semi arid climate. It does draw 32 watts going full blast.

Interesting post....I just observed a 30' trailer that had one roof top air and a residential evaporative cooler on the roof..... yes and it was sitting very high and awkwardly on top. It had four guy wires stretched from the four corners of the unit, ten feet to anchor points on the trailer. It was most unusual to see, but if it works????