Review: Outdoor evaporative cooler

steveinaz

Port-a-cool Cyclone 3200 ( http://www.port-a-cool.com/paccyc3200.html )

I recently purchsed one of these from Home Depot ($739) for our back patio, due to its West exposure. As Arizonan's we've tried numerous solutions to cool the patio; misters, fans w/misters, etc. While misters can do a good job of dropping temps, any sort of wind can render them nearly useless. Add to that the calcium coating on your windows, patio furniture, etc, and the constant need to clean the nozzles. Enter the Port-a-Cool 3200 evaporative cooler. Keep in mind, evaps are only good for low humidity/high temp climates as they use water over pads for cooling. The 3200 is good for 700 sqft and you can either hook a water hose to it, or fill the 16 gallon tank for use when you don't have a hose connection. Plug her in, fill, then fire it up. The pump drizzles water down the pads, and air is drawn thru the wet pads to create a cool output.

The covered portion of our back patio is about 532 sqft, and the 3200 is doing a very nice job of making it comfortable; minus the water mess/maintenance of misters. We haven't even needed the "high" fan setting, as low works just fine and is less noisey. If you're looking for a way to cool a gararge/shop, patio, bbq area, etc give serious consideration to this product. It's a bit pricey, but very well built and fully supported parts-wise by Port-a-Cool--AND it's made in AMERICA. It's on casters and easy to move about, and only requires about 5 amps.

exalted512

I've used several for various things. I have a cheap-o model at home that my dad got at a garage sell somewhere for $50. No squirrel fan, just a regular ~ 10" fan it works great, but no hose connection and not built half as well. (but those things are pretty rock solid to start with).

The only down sides are I wouldn't leave water in them. It gets nasty, then the filters get nasty and start stinking and it'll always stink after that until you replace them. The filter things can be expensive to replace, but they only need replacing every 5-10 years or so, depending on usage. We get a special chemical from Grainger that helps clean the pumps, but I forget what it is called.

Overall, very nice units.
-Cody

steveinaz

The Cyclone 2000 or 2200 runs in the $550 neighborhood, and is good for 500sqft.

They definitely need to be drained if they're not going to be used for awhile.

billbillw

I would love something like that for my garage, but unfortunately, they are worthless in Georgia due to the humidity. Out west, I'm sure they are great.

exalted512

We've actually had very good luck with ours and our humidity level is pretty high being an hour or so away from the gulf.
-Cody

steveinaz

Bill, I would imagine even in a high humidity area, they'd be better than just a fan. The water does significantly cool the air being drawn thru.

exalted512

I literally just got a grainger flyer in the mail with this on it which had the water mineral treatment on it.

http://store.gissn.com/Mineral-Treatment-p/4mh76.htm

Our units are much bigger though, so I don't know how long that bottle would last someone else. We actually have 2 trailer mounted ones and 3-5 ones where the whole unit is about 7' tall.
-Cody

steveinaz

My brother-in-law uses the HUGE port-a-cools for his tent business, they worked really well in Northern Cali for a HOT spring wedding.

tonyb

For that kinda coinage I could hire a naked girl with a fan and a block of ice. Though as summer continued and coin dwindled, by August that naked girl will look like Rosanne Barr.