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Evaporative cooler in catch of the day Website for a very cheap price.
http://www.catchoftheday.com.au/smallfish_info.php?products_…
Evaporative Cooler for $62.95
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they are pretty decent for Melbourne as its usually a drier heat…
pretty good considering a normal fan can cost that much.
Yep they only work with low humidity… Not very useful in QLD, though they still sell them in the shops…
what make and model??
Convair Magicool. It was given to me by someone who moved to wetter climes. You could use it as a box fan by decoupling the belt connecting the water pump to the fan, otherwise it makes a racket.
Don't use it near a PC…
I'm using evaporative cooling in my house right now in Melb. It's about 35% humid outside, 70% inside and about 8 degrees lower inside.
However, it's a proper breeze air unit with ducts through the roof. This MIGHT just do one room, but just remember that you get what you pay for.
These tiny evaporative coolers are useless. Sure, they blow air thats slightly less than ambient but they would probably only be enough to cool the volume of a closet. Don't expect it to keep even a small room cool. If you're tight for money buy a 40cm fan, at least they work.
Agreed, I've not seen a useful consumer portable evaporative cooler in years! Remember the ones our grannies all used to have, the big old box on a stand with a fan so powerful it would blow you across the room; now those suckers actually did something…especially when they got older & started spitting droplets of cold water! :)
IMHO, put the money towards a portable refrigerated cooler…my buddy picked one up at GoLo the other week for $249…but going price is usually around $350 most places. Alternatively, a cheap cooling only box unit stuck in a window works even better if you don't mind the aesthetic, and last time I checked those could be had for under $200!
But yeah, value for money nothing beats the $9 fans from Aldi, Bunnings, Kmart et.al. :)
yeah. i definately think that a portable refrigerator is better.
i used to have one of these "coolers", and had to keep making ice to fill it up with, pretty useless on those 40degree days, and its on those days which you need it to work.Stewballs - could you please provide more info on the model your buddy picked up?
Not sure about the make or model, but next time I see him I'll ask. It was funny, we thought it was reverse cycle coz it has heating function, but it turns out the heat is provided by an element, effectively turning it into a blower fan. ;)
Conversely, a family member got one from Bunnings early last year that is R/C, IIRC it was about $450 then…nice little unit too, 12000BTU cooling & very swish mirrored digital display! :)
I've got two myself, one 8400BTU Dimplex I paid $990 for (negotiated from $1499) back in 1990; and a 12000BTU Mistral I got for $349 from BigW in 2006; both are still powering on in spare rooms of my house, and work quite effectively in modest sized rooms! I originally bought the Dimplex in 1990 coz I was a permanent nightshift worker in a very hot rental unit, best $990 I ever spent!!! :D
No completely-indoor refrigerated coolers work.
They can a give breeze of cool air for a while, however, they actually increase the room temperature.This is because electric energey can be converted to heat energy (as in a heater) but cannot absorb heat energy (which is cooling). Refrigerated coolers work by pumping heat from one place to another, thereby cooling the original place and heating the other place. Window-installed units work because they pump the heat out of the house.
You do realise that portable air-con's have a hose to pump hot air out the window?
The ones I have seen just have a single hose, so it is like a car aircon on "fresh" rather than "recirc".
Not efficient, but it works.No completely-indoor refrigerated coolers work.
They can a give breeze of cool air for a while, however, they actually increase the room temperature.Completely wrong!!! These units come with duct kits to vent the hot air from the heat exchange process…if you knew anything about them you would know this! The "ducting" from the box units either through a wall or out a window is by virtue of the ass-end hanging outside, that is the only difference! Please do not comment on things you do not understand surm, it misinforms others!
Manic,
I have seen the vent kits (to be installed on a window) come with the portable refrigerated coolers. A few years ago I was considering to buy one of those but due to the mess it creates, I decided against it. However, I didn't know every refregirated cooler comes with a vent kit.
StewBalls,
"Completely wrong!!!"
Which part is completely wrong? No completely-indoor refrigerated coolers work. PERIOD
If the cooling unit is fitted with a vent that goes outside the house, that is not a completely-indoor cooler. You definitely need a cooler, preferrably one with ass-end haging outside [your selection of words :-) ], to cool you down ;-)
If you want it cold, they use large amount of ice- too much ice.
Also, the water tank level window is hard to see when its full.
I have overfilled my cooler a few times.
Not fun when water goes everywhere.This unit is a good price though.
Has some nice features:3 modes - normal, natural & sleep
7L water tank capacity
3 speeds per mode
Cooling fan, humidifier and ionizer
Two ice boxes to improve cooling
7.5 hour timer
Washable filter for removing large particles
Water tank level window
Vertical air outlet for greater air movement
Remote control
Fully mobile on castor wheels
Extremely economical – only 65W input power!
12 month replacement warrantyAldi is selling a unit for $69 … I didn't check it out for all the reasons stated previously by other members. The only reason I mention it is because of the Aldi 60 days to return. I've had some bad experiences with these "deal of the day" type web sites.
Sounds like a better idea.
These units work if you are in a low humidity area and are very near the unit, like sitting right next to it.
For evaporative coolers to be effective, the unit has to continually suck in dry/less humid air.
Dry air gets cooled by evoporating the water and in turn becomes humid.If the unit sucks in humid air, air doesn't get cooled becuause humid air (which is already saturated with evaporated water) cannot cause any more water to evaporate. As a result indoor units rarely work.
The proper roof-installed units work a charm because they continously suck in dry air, cool it through water evaporation and blow the cooled air through the house to outside through open doors and windows.
Evaporative Coolers can cool down the air by about 6-10 degrees, however due to the breeze, a lot more cooling effect is felt ("wind chill" effect)
If a normal fan blowing air onto your wet skin cannot cool you down then one of these things won't either.
Any type of evaporative cooling is useless in Sydney and QLD Coast. They work OK in Melbourne, Adelaide and inland where humidy is at 25% or less. In summer in Sydney, the LAST thing you want to be doing is creating more humidy.
"If a normal fan blowing air onto your wet skin cannot cool you down then one of these things won’t either".
Agreed, though not practical unless one changes into wet clothes or has a body wash every 15 minutes.
The obvious downside of the "normal fan+wet skin" set up is that wet skin gets dried up quickly. Then the fan is blowing hot air on to a dried up skin!
Evaporative coolers have wet pads (which are continously kept wet from a water supply) by which hot dry air gets converted to cool humid air, which doesn't dry up our skin.
In my experience these portable evaporative coolers are absolutely useless. You can forget it being anything other than a fan in NSW or QLD and in other states the difference isn't really noticeable. In VIC, SA and WA roof coolers work awesome. It's 34 degrees in Adelaide right now and our roof top cooler is keeping our house at 22 degrees - even in 40 degree heat it stays in the low 20's. If you have or buy one of these portable coolers make sure you run it near a window so it has some dry air to humidify - the bigger the difference in humidity the more effective the cooling. Also I can't really see why ice would make much of a difference, does it really?
ice can absorb more heat before evaporating into water vapour, therefore, I guess more cooling effect is achieved. But that is "cheating" :-). Continous ice supply has to come from a refrigerated cooler.
Beware - they are not good for your health
I have one and had a chest infection…don't use it nowYep. There's a very good reason why they're also called "swamp coolers"…poorly maintained ones on rooftops are the most common source of Legionnaire's Disease! ;)
Roasting your own nuts is also not good for your health!
They had an evap cooler at Aldi two weeks back for a similar price - would be cheaper now…. worth checking out!
What kinda nut? peanut or hazzlenut? :-)
Yeah Aldi's deal was better I guess
Evap coolers work OK in dry summers like Perth or Adelaide.
Portable ones need to be against an open door or window, to draw outside air.
But this one looks far too small to be useful, even for a bedroom. Better to spend the money on a ceiling fan.
The ice box is a useless gimmick - it is incredibly inefficent to use ice. Mind-numbingly so.
Product is utterly worthless.Here it is was in the special buys as at 26th Dec 2010: would be cheaper than that now - I saw it as waverly gardens last weekend
http://www.aldi.com.au/au/html/offers/2827_16524.htm
Aldi Evaporative Cooler $ 69
70W
11L capacity
LED display with soft touch control
3 modes - normal , natural and sleep
Timer: up to 7.5 hours
Dimensions: 39.7(W) x 30(D) x 65cm(H
2 year warranty
Stirling brand
I think, Aldi one is a better deal.
Those things are not much use on humid days and there have been quite a few lately. I've even got a used one anybody can have for free if picked up.