Swamp coolers

[SusanO]

Anybody have one or experience with one? My vet has one or maybe two in the open exam room and that thing feels wonderful. I would not have thought that they would work so well in this humidity but that cooler rocks! I am going to call and see how big it is and the particulars.

We had awful heat early July and then it started raining for weeks. Humidity but lower temps. Now it has stopped raining and we have both 95+ degree heat and a lot of humidity. I stand in the barn and I have water running down my face. My Cushings pony is having a hard time with the heat. He has a big drum fan but it is just blowing hot air. I am hosing him down but he is still breathing hard. Not any cooler outside either. I don’t think a mister will do any good due to the high humidity.

I am looking at least another month with miserable heat and maybe two months. It would be nice to cool down the barn in mid day next to the pony’s stall. Last year there was a large swamp cooler on CL for about $600 and it was pretty new. I would have had to drive to Knoxville so I nixed the idea. I wish I had gone up there and bought it.

[clanter]

we have a large 36 inch industrial size , it will cool the barn about 20 degrees or more up to about 30 degrees once we are down to about 10% humidity (and if you set extra water buckets for the horses in front of it these will be cooled also). The lower the humidity the better it works.

[SusanO]

How many gallons is that? Or is it hooked up to a hose? I think the one at the vet is portable and it is a big one. I am sure low humidity works better but it is humid at the vet and there is definite cooling in front of it. I mostly want the pony cooled down. The other horses sweat but they do not have medical problems like he does and they do fine. And if I can stand in front of it cleaning stalls…priceless.

[HPFarmette]

I am not sure this is something we have up north. Could someone please explain how it works? My minis are uncomfortable too.

[luvmyhackney]

Swamp Coolers Are a Cheap AC Alternative for Dry Climates. Here’s What to...

The lower humidity you have the better they work. I borrowed one for a week for my pony. Once temps get over a 100f he just melts.

[clanter]

@SusanO

How many gallons is that? Or is it hooked up to a hose?

it has a hose connected to supply water that is then circulated by pumping the water to the filter media wetting the media, the 36 inch fan pulls air through the wetted media cooling the air

Every so often the water filter needs to be cleaned, this filter is after the pump but before the jets that apply the water to media The filter is simple to clean and has no parts that wear,

The unit we have was discarded by a company as it needed repairs, we got it for nothing, we spent less than $300 repairing

unit is large, it is industrial grade

these are also known as “evaporative coolers”

[Jarpur]

I have the smallest Portacool for my 26 year old gelding’s stall. Directions state that it works best in 85F and over, and 50% humidity and lower, but it does work in higher humidity (I know from experience). But works best in lower humidity, of course.

I have a shedrow barn, pretty open air with stalls that are only solid the first four feet (horizontal bars above), yet it can still keep his stall significantly cooler – last summer up to 20 degrees cooler! It’s always at least 10 cooler (I check it periodically with a thermometer), even in relatively high humidity.

Our stalls have sliding front doors, and I slide his open enough to accommodate the Portacool. Hang his Hay Play slow feed hay bag next to it, and he happily munches hay with his face right in front of the Portacool – with his long forelock blowing back from the breeze.

It was $500 new from TSC last summer (closest place we could buy one, so we didn’t shop around, just bought it asap), and has been worth every penny. My old guy loves it, and I seriously don’t know if he’d still be with us, with the intense heat we had last summer, without it.

We also have an agricultural fan, and two misting systems. We turn the fan on first, the Portacool on next (when temps hit mid to upper 80s), and those are sufficient until temps hit mid 90s, at which time I add in one set of misters (otherwise, the fan is just blowing hot air, similar to a convection oven). Last year, when it was often several degrees over 100, I turned on both systems. These are all real temps, not heat indices.

[SusanO]

How big is the portacool? I see them advertised by gallons of water they hold and actual measurements. I have full mesh stall fronts on that side of the barn so any air I can get moving blows all over him. I have a big drum fan blowing on him but the air is not cool. He stands there with it blowing on him but I wish I had cooler air. I have high ceilings but no insulation or ridge vents. I am probably going to have to reshingle the roof and I want to incorporate those two things into the roof. But for now, I need some cool air. Maybe 98 today, not as humid as it has been but still a blast furnace. Not any cooler outside under the trees either.

I called vet - no info from them about the size of theirs although the big one is probably over 5 feet tall. I don’t think I need or can afford one that big. I just don’t want to get something so small it won’t work. I am clueless on what size I need.

I will check out TSC’s website to see what they have.

[Jarpur]

Mine is the 510. Rated for 300 square feet. There is one for 500 sf, seen it advertised at $750.

Welcome the Newest Portacool Portable Evaporative Cooler – the Portacool® 510!...

ETA, just checked and TSC still has these, at least in my area.

[SusanO]

I checked out the TSC website for my area. None are in stock at any of the stores in a 60 mile radius. And this is weird - I can’t get one shipped to a store in my area. I thought I would try Northern Tool to see if they had any in stock. Nope.

Good deals on Amazon but most would not get here for about 2 weeks or some not until the last of August. Too late. Going to be 98 or 99 next Wednesday. Hot all next week and hot as far out as the forecasts go. So I ordered from a company through the Walmart website. It is a little bigger than the Portacool 120 and 510. It is supposed to be here Wednesday. So hopefully it will work.

[Rallycairn]

Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace Hardware have them.

[SusanO]

I did not check Ace Hardware but Lowes and Home Depot did not have any in stock. Maybe the $4k Portacool ones but those are out of my budget. I really wanted one of the ones for sale at HD but ship to me was Aug 12-15 and pick up in store is Aug 7-12. Tuesday and Wednesday are supposed to be scorching so I was hoping to get one mid week.

[clanter]

check the imdustrail suppliers

U-Line
https://www.uline.com/Grp_696/Evaporative-Coolers?pricode=WU082&AdKeyword=swamp%20cooler&AdMatchtype=p&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwqre1BhAqEiwA7g9Qhk0CqUN5kcq9GlQYsKskSu7YIOJFiapmvR9IJiSk86dqghs9upRATBoC7sgQAvD_BwE

Grangers
https://www.grainger.com/category/hvac-and-refrigeration/air-conditioners-accessories/evaporative-misting-coolers

if a local branch does not have in stock they transfer in from a branch that does in a day or two

[SusanO]

Well good news and bad news. Good news - cooler arrived yesterday and I got it down to the barn. Bad news - the POS does not work. It comes on, I hear water circulating, but the fan does not come on. At all. Did not appear to be damaged when delivered. The only instructions show you how to screw on the rollers on the bottom, which I did. It has 3 controls. It seems only 1 of them works. Because I sourced it from Walmart on line they are issuing a refund. I was going to do a charge back to my CC if they did not. Not paying for a defective cooler. I am pissed!!!

I think the next few days are the worst of our weather and it will cool some at night. So not rushing out to get another one because when it gets here I can cope with the last of the heat. Probably a next year purchase.

Now to deal with my POS tractor that has decided it won’t start. I think I am going to get rid of it too. Too hot to have 3 days worth of stall cleaning sitting around in muck tubs undumped.

Farm life is fun!!!

[Jarpur]

It’s terrible that it doesn’t work! Do you have to ship it back to get the refund?

If they don’t want it returned, and the cooler is similar to ours, it’s a pretty simple machine; you might be able to change the pump out.

I mention this because, when we had a warranty claim, Portacool sent us a replacement and didn’t want the other back. We’ve kept it on hand for spare parts.

[SusanO]

No. I can just take it to the local Walmart. It is bulky but after I drain the water in the tank it will not be hard for me to put it in the bed of my truck. I could have shipped it back but the box is undone and I don’t want to try and get it packaged up. Easier to just take it to Walmart and let them have it. I could hear the water circulating but the fan would never come on no matter what I tried. When something doesn’t work out of the box I am not eager to mess around with it, especially since I am not great with repair jobs. I am still messing around with my tractor that won’t start. I don’t need another problem.

By Friday it will start cooling off at night slightly. We can make it until then. Oh - and it was missing one of the screws to attach the rollers to the bottom of the tank. I think this was an omen.

[clanter]

@SusanO

When something doesn’t work out of the box I am not eager to mess around with it,

and that is how we got a $4000 cooler for free, the unit stopped working so the company just bought a new one. My son in law grabbed the broken one . A broken $2 on/off switch was the issue.