Swampy K2 evaporative cooler

[5percent]

Hello, All,
We dry camp a lot and are looking for ways to cool areas of our camper to extend our camping rips in summer. Does anyone have experience with the Swampy MightyKool Model K2? Swampy coolers are based in Mesa, AZ. Thanks for your help!

[burningman]

If you want to build yourself a low-cost and highly field-tested swamp cooler, google "figjam bucket cooler".

[Kayteg1]

There is a way to avoid mineralization by purging the water.
I have huge evaporative coolers in my house and they have automatic purge pump that drains the water every 6-8 hr of use.
Than distillate water is 89 cents/gal at Walmart.

[bitster98]

I have a old six-pac tc I have set up exclusively for dry camping in the desert. I live in southern nm and use it for camping in nm and az. I am into desert gold mining. I put one of the turbokool units on my tc. They work really good provided the humidity is low i.e. Less than 12 percent. You can expect around a 20 degree temp drop from the outside air temp. Low amp draw 4.5 amps , I run mine off the load terminals on my charge controller. 2 - 100 watt panels and 30 amp controller. One very important thing , do not use tap or well water!!!!! The amount of mineralization in the water will have you replacing the filter / cooling media every week. I use a pump up 2.5 gallon bottle to supply water to the unit and only distilled water. Under ideal conditions it uses about 3 gallons a day. I only use it during the day.

[Kayteg1]

[yblaw]

Yup,,,,We have a K2 model and live in San Diego County. It's a very nice unit; works well in dry SoCal type climates. We cut out a piece of masonite and velcro it to a bedroom window; cut a 4" hole in the masonite and attached a duct fitting; open the window, cover the screen with the masonite, attach the 4" flex hose that comes with the K2 to the duct fitting and to the K2 unit; cools off the bedroom area quite nicely in our Host camper. During the winter, I run it w/o water to produce "white noise" and air flow.....I think it was a very good investment.

[theoldwizard1]

"Swamp coolers" only work in dry climates and require a lot of water. Forget using one for "dry" camping.

[pianotuna]

I purchased one--not that model. As it is winter I have not tested it.

[Kayteg1]

No knowledge about the cooler model, but educate yourself about evaporation or swamp coolers.
I moved to Las Vegas year ago and had to do it as cooling big house with AC in 124 F weather can get really costly.
So they work excelent in single digit humidity.
Work good in teens of humidity.
Are useless once humidity exceed 30%.
Now I know San Diego has 4 (if not more) climate zones, so any advise has to be location-specific, but from my experience - don't expect too much staying close to the Ocean.

[jimh406]

I don’t have any experience with that product. But, I will note that you might also want to lower the temperature using sun shade fabric.