Effectiveness of air coolers

[hocuspocus]

Has anyone bought on of those air coolers about the size of a dehumidfier. They cost from 2000 baht upwards. I was assuming they were like a small portable air-con but these things put water into the air as opposed to an air-con that does the opposite. My question is do they actually work and make the air cooler when in theory putting water into the air would make it more humid? I need to keep a small room a bit cooler without using the expensive to run air-con. Thanks in advance.

[kannot]

Useless........next?

[pgrahmm]

Waste of time and money....Put 42c water in them on a 42c day and you're starting a humid rain forest environment....

Couple that with the fact that if not effectively cleaned/maintained you're adding mold, spores, legionaires disease to the possibilities while breathing in that room....

[chickenslegs]

I have one that you put water and ice packs into and (in theory) the fan blows cool air, no "misting" spray.

Complete waste of money (around 2,500 THB) as you need to be standing less than 1m away to feel any benefit.

I have air con in every room but, like you, I was hoping to save a few baht on running costs. Bad decision.

[daviddabit]

Totally useless in hot environment....

[Saastrajaa]

Totally useless in a HUMID environment. That kind of cooling is quite effective in places like Arizona, where they used to plentiful. But in Thailand, the only months with predictably low humidity are, say, November to mid-January...exactly the time that you don't really need a cooling system at all.

[hocuspocus]

I have one that you put water and ice packs into and (in theory) the fan blows cool air, no "misting" spray.

Complete waste of money (around 2,500 THB) as you need to be standing less than 1m away to feel any benefit.

I have air con in every room but, like you, I was hoping to save a few baht on running costs. Bad decision.

Thanks everybody for your replies now I know not to waste my money. In a Country with such high humidity why are dehumidifiers so rare and so expensive? as I am sure that they would be a better option. Probably because aircons do the dehumdifiying. Most times I can stand the heat but the humidity is very hard to get used to when it gets over 90%.

[pgrahmm]

I have one that you put water and ice packs into and (in theory) the fan blows cool air, no "misting" spray.

Complete waste of money (around 2,500 THB) as you need to be standing less than 1m away to feel any benefit.

I have air con in every room but, like you, I was hoping to save a few baht on running costs. Bad decision.

Thanks everybody for your replies now I know not to waste my money. In a Country with such high humidity why are dehumidifiers so rare and so expensive? as I am sure that they would be a better option. Probably because aircons do the dehumdifiying. Most times I can stand the heat but the humidity is very hard to get used to when it gets over 90%.

Some days I'm a big fan - of big fans....Ceiling fans are even better....

[stoneyboy]

I have one that you put water and ice packs into and (in theory) the fan blows cool air, no "misting" spray.

Complete waste of money (around 2,500 THB) as you need to be standing less than 1m away to feel any benefit.

I have air con in every room but, like you, I was hoping to save a few baht on running costs. Bad decision.

Thanks everybody for your replies now I know not to waste my money. In a Country with such high humidity why are dehumidifiers so rare and so expensive? as I am sure that they would be a better option. Probably because aircons do the dehumdifiying. Most times I can stand the heat but the humidity is very hard to get used to when it gets over 90%.

Some days I'm a big fan - of big fans....Ceiling fans are even better....

I was once big into tractors I'm not any more I'm an ex tractor fan.

[stoneyboy]

Title should be ineffectiveness of air coolers.

[jadee]

I have one that you put water and ice packs into and (in theory) the fan blows cool air, no "misting" spray.

Complete waste of money (around 2,500 THB) as you need to be standing less than 1m away to feel any benefit.

I have air con in every room but, like you, I was hoping to save a few baht on running costs. Bad decision.

Thanks everybody for your replies now I know not to waste my money. In a Country with such high humidity why are dehumidifiers so rare and so expensive? as I am sure that they would be a better option. Probably because aircons do the dehumdifiying. Most times I can stand the heat but the humidity is very hard to get used to when it gets over 90%.

That's right - air conditioners are dehumidifiers - all units have cool, fan and dry settings - the dry setting is the dehumidifier setting. In a sale, or if you hunt down a good bargain, you can find 9,000BTU units for under 10,000 baht - that should be sufficient for cooling a small room.

[connda]

We have a large and small one that we run during the dry, hot season. They work well enough. We like them. Others will disagree. But once the rains set in, they are not very effective. We have inverters in our two bedrooms, so once the rain and heat sets in, we make one bedroom into a living room for the duration of the rainy season. Works for us. Your mileage may vary.

[JayBird]

I think they are known as Swamp Coolers. The idea being that spraying cold water into the room should help cool you off and not harm humidity. Only heard of them used in desert like environments (I've seen them in California a bit)

[thaihome]

Before air cons were readily available in cars, they were very popular in the southwest US.

TH

[Thian]

33 celcius with a humidity of 50% is much more bearable than 60-70%.

If you let the aircon dry the air and turn it off while keeping the windows closed it stays dry for a while.

Especially at night the humidity gets high like 70% which is uncomfortable.

But also too dry (<40%) is not very comfortable. Our bedroom is 70% at night before we start the aircon to go asleep, next morning it's under 40% which is pretty dry.