( 3 reviews )
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Posted: Aug 14 2007
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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Posted: Jul 22 2007
I've used swamp coolers for years but can't have on in this 10th floor apartment with no porch. I use this cooler to both cool and humidify my bedroom. It does a good job, and unlike the other reviewer I find it easy to fill; I keep a gallon jug in the bedroom and fill it from the tub. It takes around 2 1/2 gallons, which lasts me around 18 hours. It's quiet at low and medium settings; the high fan speed is louder, of course. It costs almost nothing to operate, too. It only cools if the humidity is below 40%. The humidity here ranges from 5% in mid-summer and mid-winter to maybe 25% when it's overcast (when it rains it's cool and more humid anyways). Check your average humidity; if it's above 30% or 40% this may not help you. Second, if you put it inside a room, even with the door open, it will happily humidify and cool away UNTIL the humidity in the room reaches around 40%. Then it just gets humid. Here's how I use it: In the winter I put it in the doorway of my bedroom and run the ceiling fan on low in that room and the adjacent room. I then open a window in the adjacent room (yes, I like things very cool). The cooler pulls the dry air into the bedroom, cools and humidifies it, and the ceiling fan distributes it. In summertime I put the unit inside the bedroom. I blow air-conditioned (read: dry) air from the adjacent room to the bedroom at night. This circulates the dry air over to the cooler, which humidifies it and cools it a few more degrees. As you can see, this ISN'T an air conditioner, which would cost three to four times as much and suck up lots more electricity. If it was ducted to a window it would force air through the room and cool like a swamp cooler. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything that does this. Until I do I'll keep this unit as long as it runs.
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( 8 of 10 found this review helpful ) Posted: Jul 11 2006
Don't waste your money. Very poor quality. Doesn't help to cool very much. Difficult to refill. I tried using it for my bedroom which is pretty average sized, and my fan worked much better than this. Do not expect the cooler can cool your room in the summer.
