Tips on How to Choose an Evaporative Air Cooler

Here are some  tips on how to choose an evaporative air cooler. You wouldn’t be browsing in here if you were not complaining of the hot climate you are enduring at the moment. The low humidity and warm air has probably taken its toll on you to push you to find the most suitable evaporative air cooler for your home or office. Buying stuff can be particularly hard for you if you really want something worth your money, well, that is just how smart shoppers are. There are so many brands and units flooding the market and anyone in their right mind would also be swamped too. At the end of the day, you will be asking yourself, “Which cooler should I choose?”

So to aid you in selecting the right brand and right unit of evaporative air cooler here are 17 helpful tips you need to know:

Note the area you need to be cooled and the unit’s CFM rating

Before buying an evaporative cooler, you should take into account the size of the area you need to be cooled or the number of rooms you need to be cooled since coolers have varying capacities in cooling spaces. A bigger space may require a bigger unit for cooling and in the same manner; a smaller unit may be ample for a smaller space. The goal is to supply the consumers with the ideal evaporative air cooler that will work efficiently to maintain cooling without wasting energy.

To find the best evaporative cooler that will be appropriate for your needs then calculating the CFM rate should be done. The CFM aka as the cubic feet per minute is the amount of air that circulates in a space or environment per minute. To determine the CFM rating to find the evaporative air cooler that will efficiently cool your space, simply multiply the square footage of the space or room by the ceiling’s height in feet and divide it by two. The result of the equation is the CFM.

For example:
350 square feet x 10 feet= 3500 Cubic feet/ 2= 1750 CFM

Note the cooler type

Evaporative air coolers come in many types and these are:

• Portable coolers usually are ideal in cooling small rooms of up to 300 square feet
• Window or through-the-wall coolers can cool an entire room or the whole house or garage
• Down discharge coolers are placed on the roof, releasing the cooled air descending into the edifice and are intended to cool the whole home.
• Slide discharge coolers are usually placed in the side of the building but can also be placed in the roof, using an elbow to run the wind current through an opening in the top. It can cool the whole house.
• Mobile coolers are more adept to be used in larger spaces such as garages or warehouses and even outdoors like in patios.

Note the evaporative pad type

Evaporative pads are the main cores of the cooling system. They can either be fiber or rigid media pads. Fiber pad are economical than rigid media however require more cleaning and maintenance and even replacement. The rigid media, in contrast, is more costly but require less cleaning and maintenance but can last a considerable length of time if properly taken care of.

Check the fan types

Evaporative air coolers can either be equipped with a centrifugal fan or an axial fan. The centrifugal fan is drum-shaped and is generally quieter but consumes more energy for cooling and costs more than the axial fan. The axial fan, on the other hand, is cheaper, uses less energy but is much noisier.

Check the material of construction

The most important thing to consider is the ability of the material to resist corrosion. The materials that fit this criterion are plastic (polyethylene or polypropylene made units), marine grade aluminum and stainless steel.

Check if it has a remote control

A majority of the evaporative air coolers currently available are equipped with a remote. At least with remotes you will be able to set your evaporative air coolers even across the room.

Check if it has air throw up for outdoor use

For outdoor use you will need to procure an evaporative air cooler that has a wide air throw-up.

Check for adjustable louvers

Most of the evaporative coolers now are equipped with adjustable louvers that are able to redirect stream of air from the unit into any one direction, usually just up and down. But if you choose to go a step higher there is also the oscillating type that allows air to be redirected in varying directions.