Has anyone used one of these in a TD?

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Has anyone used one of these in a TD?

Postby ae6black » Thu Mar 16, 2017 12:00 pm

I just picked up a Culer Solo Portable Evaporative Air Cooler. Its small enough to sit on the ledge in my TD. I am wondering if anybody has ever used such a critter in a Tear Drop? The only way to find out is to try. Obviously I don't need it much since most of my camping is done in Spring, Winter, and Fall. But for those few times I do go during the Summer months, particularly with the dog, Pa humidity and heat on a foam mattress can be a real killer. Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with these units. Obviously, the windows and vent will be as wide open as I can get them while this thing is running. I miss the old water bed days where on a hot day that colder mattress would suck the heat out of you and you would actually need warm blankets on the warmest nights. I wish I could come up with such an alternative without having a waterbed mattress, but I can't think of any alternative. I didn't put AC in my build, thinking I'd never need it, but it surely would be nice for certain applications. I just don't want to have to do a major modification at this stage since I really don't need it much.

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Re: Has anyone used one of these in a TD?

Postby troubleScottie » Thu Mar 16, 2017 12:36 pm

No, I have not.

However, evaporative coolers ( swamp coolers) require low humidity ( < 10%, maybe < 5% ) and lots of air volume turnover to work. Great in the desert, not particularly useful in PA.

Our Utah house had one. It was wet at the input to the house, literally walking through a wall of mist, and a bit noisy. My personal observation was that it is better than nothing, but did not compare to AC.
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Re: Has anyone used one of these in a TD?

Postby MtnDon » Thu Mar 16, 2017 1:14 pm

As was already stated, these work well in dry air. They are used a lot in NM, AZ, UT, NV, though most people building new homes now use refrigerated A/C. Many folks in our deserts now don't like them any more as they use a fair amount of water and water can be more valuable than the electricity for reefer A/C. The water needs to evaporate freely to provide any cooling. That raises the humidity which can be a plus when the relative humidity is in single digits. When we get our rainy season they can be almost useless; just moving air through the house helps but there is little cooling effect when the humidity rises.
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Re: Has anyone used one of these in a TD?

Postby working on it » Thu Mar 16, 2017 2:17 pm

troubleScottie wrote:No, I have not.

However, evaporative coolers ( swamp coolers) require low humidity ( < 10%, maybe < 5% ) and lots of air volume turnover to work. Great in the desert, not particularly useful in PA.

Our Utah house had one. It was wet at the input to the house, literally walking through a wall of mist, and a bit noisy. My personal observation was that it is better than nothing, but did not compare to AC.
  • From personal experience, here in humid North Texas, I have to agree with troubleScottie. My father installed a huge evaporative cooler unit in our smallish house in about 1954. He also put a large attic fan (usually located in the house eaves) in the hall of the house, with louvers that would open upward when the fan would come on, since he installed it sucking air directly up into the attic. Obviously, a non-standard installation (I believe I inherited that kind of thinking!). The evaporative cooler was placed in a widow directly facing the kitchen door, because my mother wanted more airflow when cooking in the spring and summer, and the cooler actually helped, with cool moist air. But for the rest of the house, in rooms in the other direction away from direct airflow, it didn't help much, until he put in the attic fan. Then, it pulled the air from throughout the house, directly into the hall and up into the attic, and out the screened eaves.
  • It worked pretty well, except for 4 things... 1) if humidity outside was too high, pictures on the walls of the "evaporator" room would have condensation on the glass, 2) when watching TV or listening to radio (yes, I listened to radio as a kid; it was better than early TV) , 3) the attic fan was also sucking in air from outside through the window in our kid's (including me) bedroom that was the farthest away from the evaporative cooler, this window had to have the screen cleaned daily, or kept shut (I wonder if my allergies stem from that?), and 4) walking through the hall, when the system was on high speed, there was a lifting effect on clothing and especially my Grandad's hat (he always had a hat on, sometimes when passing through a house).
  • He lived three houses away from us, but never came to our house, we went to see him and Grandma. The first time he visited us, and the system was working, his hat got sucked off his head, and lodged in the louvers. After that, he watched the system in operation, called his brother over (he was a skilled carpenter, my Grandad an ex-Seabee), and before my Dad returned home that night, they had re-done the attic fan system. They moved it to one of the eaves (enlarged it), put a smaller screened/louvered vent in the hall, and put a window fan in my bedroom, blowing outward, keeping out the pollen.
  • We were all appreciative of the change, though my Dad wouldn't admit it was better than before, and we used it that way for six years, 'til we moved next door (it had one more bedroom). This time, Dad installed window air conditioners (nobody we knew went to the expense of central air, not in the old pier and beam houses we had). I even got one in my small bedroom, which after I became a teenager, I didn't share with the rest of the house, I closed my door.
  • I agree, A/C is better; I even retro-fitted my house with widow units, I like them so much. But to this day, I still miss the whole house hum of the attic fan , and the moist whistling wind passing over me, as I sleep.
  • evap cooler & attic fan.png
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Last edited by working on it on Thu Mar 16, 2017 7:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Has anyone used one of these in a TD?

Postby Cathy P. » Thu Mar 16, 2017 2:38 pm

I stayed with some in-laws years ago in north central KS, sort of to the west maybe. They used one as pictured in the summer and it did actually help, the moving air was nice even with humidity.

I lived in the desert near Tucson for 6 years. It was great until the summer monsoon season, but in that case, the heat without humidity was already unbearable. We were living in SE KS, the far corner and have moved more toward central KS now and used an evaporative cooler in one room of the house in the summer and it did fairly well even with humidity although I don't really know how this compares with W PA. Ours came with 2 ice packs, 1 at a time were dropped in the water to help cool and it did help. I did put ice cubes in a portable one during the summer in AZ to cool the water and the breeze it sent out. An extra fan would be a real plus. Yes, we "get around" and aren't stopping now!
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