Low noise air cooler

Thanks for sharing. I kinda need something this for my rental apartment's living room. Did you buy it on that site itself? And how much did it cost you?

ibose said:

Flipkart : 5400 with offer. Off season would be cheaper I guess but I needed one now.
It is a personal cooler though so you need to have it close to your sitting and do not expect it to cool the room ( it will just cool you ! ).

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Thanks. When faced towards you, does it feel almost like sitting in front of an AC ? (when cold water is added)

Am looking for an air-cooler too. I have no idea which one to get.

A couple of questions
1) How long can you run this?
2) Does it occasionally spray droplets of water on you?
3) is water container steel or plastic? I get hard (150-180ppm) water most of the time.

kalph09 said:

Am looking for an air-cooler too. I have no idea which one to get.

A couple of questions
1) How long can you run this?
2) Does it occasionally spray droplets of water on you?
3) is water container steel or plastic? I get hard (150-180ppm) water most of the time.

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I had this model when I was in Delhi back in 2015. It worked great for two years. With use, dust started accumulating and its efficiency dropped. Finally it became dirty enough to not allow hot air to pass through it. If you are serious of getting an air cooler, then I would advise you to remove the evaporator foils, give it a good wash and store it somewhere where it won't catch dust after you are done using it for the season. The foils are the heart of the cooler, once this gets chocked, you won't feel the same cool air as used for the first time.

1. Depends on how many hours you use and the dryness in the air. In my case, during April-May, when the air was very dry, even 50L was insufficient for my 7 hours use. However, the cooling was amazing for the first year. But as the foils became dirty, meaning less water evaporated, so I had around 30% of water remaining. This also applied during July when the humidity peaked. So this is subjective, will vary as per the efficiency and the environmental factors.
2. Mine did. Especially when I kept it near to my bed. Had to keep it at a good distance so as to avoid spitting water on me. It happens more when you use the fan in full power as it is basically sucking in all the air inside the cooler, including water. Chances are, if there is any water droplet near the fan, it will spit it, no matter what fan mode you use. I tried everything, finally surrendered!
3. Most of the branded and new generation come with plastic containers for ease of cleaning and to prevent accidental electrocution. I am hoping water hardness shouldn't be an issue.

I find the term "desert cooler" mentioned by these brands misleading. They are noway near to what real desert coolers are. Massive, powerful air throw, enough to cool 3 rooms. And the khas-khas or wooden chauff are easily available. The only issue is lack of temperature control.

ibose said:

So after lots of research and reviews, bought this

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I'm looking for one too. Can you please share some key points of your research like which brand is reliable, is desert cooler still the best option for a place with high temperature and high humidity?

MadAxe said:

is desert cooler still the best option for a place with high temperature and high humidity

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You stay in Delhi right? Like it or not, Delhi has a favourable weather which fosters growth of dengue carrying mosquito. This was the main reason I stopped using water coolers. You need to take good precautions to prevent their growth. If you can do that, then you can use it from April-mid June and mid Sept-October.
Ventilation is very important when using a cooler else you would start feeling uncomfortable.

Running coolers in an already humid place is pointless as you will be adding additional water to existing humidity. You would feel very muggy.

I have a big a$$ cooler crompton optimus 100L in my room and I have made it very silent. I wish I had seen thread before. Would have saved money for you.

MadAxe said:

high temperature and high humidity?

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Check humidity on google weather. Is it over 30% all day? then forget getting air cooler.

ibose said:

No worries, we needed two coolers anyway and this one is for when I am WFH. Do share how you made it silent though as others would benefit from the same and, if feasible, I could definitely use that to silence the B52 Crompton bomber.

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It's very simple. See, how you use fan regulator to control ceiling fan? Same principle here. Only I'm using dimmer instead of a fan regulator.



I made this extension 6 years ago only for silencing the coolers. Dimmer controls the fan speed. If you go to local shops to buy dimmer they try to sell you fan regulator. Both look same but operate differently.

This has made the fan of my cooler inaudible but hasn't affected cooling a bit.

ibose said:

So essentially you are able to use this and decrease the fan speed to much lower than what the cooler fan regulator can do. Based on how dimmers work, isn't this risky to the fan motor and the water pump ?

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I haven't faced any issue. Dimmer is rated for upto 450W whereas my big cooler doesn't pull more than 160W. About water pump, it's unbothered about it. It keeps pumping same amount of water no matter where the dimmer is set.

About the answer from the link, the dude is wrong suggesting lights are resistive load. Most light sources we use like CFL and LED are inductive.

ibose said:

Why not change the default cooler fan regulator with an electronic step type regulator instead ?

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Because,
1. Warranty
2. Last cooler I opened I found, for every step on the fan regulator there's a seperate wire that goes to the motor. It's complicated.
3. Why complicate things when there's a simple plug n play solution that's working for me for so many years?

ibose said:

Desert coolers are best for high temps and dry climate provided you have a well ventilated room and you place the cooler near the window.

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All brands claim their products as 'desert cooler' but are they actually?

Kaleen Bhaiya said:

You stay in Delhi right? Like it or not, Delhi has a favourable weather which fosters growth of dengue carrying mosquito. This was the main reason I stopped using water coolers. You need to take good precautions to prevent their growth. If you can do that, then you can use it from April-mid June and mid Sept-October.
Ventilation is very important when using a cooler else you would start feeling uncomfortable.

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I've heard about coolers with mosquito nets.
Is the performance of these so called 'desert coolers' satisfactory?
Which brand would you recommend?

MadAxe said:

I've heard about coolers with mosquito nets.

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Seems good. But do ensure that the nets are also in the front end, rather than the sides. If there's no net in the front, mosquitoes would easily escape from the fan, defeating the purpose.

Though I am curious on the impact of air throw with the net at the front.

MadAxe said:

Is the performance of these so called 'desert coolers' satisfactory?

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The "real" desert coolers are entirely built from metal and you won't see a shread of plastic anywhere, unlike the ones branded as desert coolers. Metal ensures the water remains cold which helps to further lower the temperature. Frankly, there ain't any brand for the desert coolers. You need to ensure that it has wooden wool or khas-khas on all the three sides and nothing is covering the sides.

The performance of the cooler depends on the quality of the wool and how much air it can suck in, proper ventilation and insulation around the fan as mentioned by ibose above. If you get these things right, they match, or at times, even excel AC, unless you want to experience Kashmir. The only thing I wished coolers had was a temperature regulator as you can end up with a sore body in the morning if the air throw is on your body.

Also like AC, you need to ensure the cooler is maintained, especially the wool. With prolonged use, dust or salts from water will accumulate during use and non-use. You need to wash the wool with clean water to rid of dirt and you are good to go.