swamp cooler

[MDJordan]

Please share anything about rv swamp coolers.  Where to see/buy cooler units?  Experience installing and using?  Coolers and solar power?  Thanks.

[Big Rick]

An evaporative cooler will work only in areas with low humidity. The principle is to have water flow over the coils and air blow across the coils, cooling the air.

[MDJordan]

Got that dry climate part.  Thanks.  Where to shop for an RV swamp cooler?  A style that installs in the bathroom exhaust vent?

[Bill Joyce]

https://www.turbokool.net/product-p/2b-0001-turbokool-swamp-cooler.htm is all I could find that mounts on the roof.  It sounds like one an RV blogger used many years ago.  

Best RV Swamp Coolers - these are all boxes for inside the RV.  

 

[RV_]

Bill, I'd never seen those. They would work well where we live now for summer camping.

[bigjim]

A friend had one of the turbokools on his travel trailer. He said it was helpful but you can have issues with the quality and quantity of the water. He had a lot of solar so that was not much of an issue. When I knew him he was pretty much in the mountains at low elevations near Albuquerque. They hopefully have a "monsoon" season and it was of limited use at those times. (Not the kind of monsoon I was used to.)

During that time their humidity goes up considerably and according to the locals it is miserable but being from the south I am still waiting to see the high humidity here.  I don't know what it is like where RV is now but he will probably croak before he notices it based on where he came from to his location now. He will probably be able to count the mesquitos now vs mistaking a swarm for a flock of birds in northern Louisiana.

[lappir]

A simple one to try out is a Humidifier, they come in various sizes for all sorts of rooms. I recently saw some at the Tulsa Home Show, but they were for sticks and bricks. A wet towel over a window with a breeze coming through may also work. Me,  I like and just turned on my mini split system and I will be cool and comfortable in a few moments

 

Rod

PS. the mini split works well in the winter too. 

[MDJordan]

Thanks Bill and everyone.  A water supply is certainly critical.  I'll go to the link you sent.  

[RV_]

54 minutes ago, bigjim said:

 I don't know what it is like where RV is now but he will probably croak before he notices it based on where he came from to his location now. He will probably be able to count the mesquitos now vs mistaking a swarm for a flock of birds in northern Louisiana.

I would get mosquito bitten daily and bites from gnats in my scalp and neck back in LA but the major PITA were Red-bugs or Chiggers. Whenever I cut the grass if I forgot or did not spray my bottom pants legs and socks/shoes with plenty of critter repellent I'd have get three or four bites. Then the fire ants were everywhere. I spent a lot but managed to keep them mostly out of my immediate front and rear yard. Love-bugs messing my car paint up, ticks and brain eating amoebas in some municipal water supplies rounded some of them up.

None in my yard here! And yes we get humidity in Colorado. but not for long. You're right I don't notice it much here.

[whj469]

I can attest that they don't work in humid climates. I have seen them recently in El Paso, Texas.

[Randyretired]

Evaporative coolers work really well in a dry climate. We have the units with 8" thick pads and it will keep our house cooled in the low 70's even when temperatures reach into the low 100's.  However, evaporative coolers need large pads and plenty of water.  Most of the better coolers are big boxes and would not be easy to carry around.

[GlennWest]

Those unts amaze me. We use them at work. They are large though, not for rv. They are very cool when it is hot outside. Can't see a small rv unit cooling down enough in mid to high humidity.

[TXiceman]

Water quality will effect the life of the pads.  As the water evaporates, it leaves behind the minerals.  Hard water areas will coat the pads fast.

Ken

[Will B.]

I had to look them up.  Ran across this post in just .04 seconds in Google:
https://rvshare.com/blog/best-rv-swamp-coolers/

[Randyretired]

I have not had good luck with the portable swamp coolers.  As the air gets recycled through the cooler the inside humidity continually rises to point where the cooler is ineffective and it is not comfortable.  The best coolers pull outside air through the pads and pushes the inside air out. Our house is designed so that the air is pushed into a well ventilated attic and then on to the outside.  The coolers are pushing around 6500 cfm through the pads into the house and out through the attic.

[Lou Schneider]

On 3/28/2021 at 11:08 AM, Randyretired said:

I have not had good luck with the portable swamp coolers.  As the air gets recycled through the cooler the inside humidity continually rises to point where the cooler is ineffective and it is not comfortable.  The best coolers pull outside air through the pads and pushes the inside air out. Our house is designed so that the air is pushed into a well ventilated attic and then on to the outside.  The coolers are pushing around 6500 cfm through the pads into the house and out through the attic.

I was about to post the same thing.  Swamp coolers are one pass devices - to work properly they have to draw in dry outside air for the evaporating water to cool, this also adds humidity to the output of the cooler.  Then the cooled air passes through the living area and out an open window making room for more cooled outside air to enter.

In a small space like an RV, a box unit just recirculates the inside air, quickly loading it up with humidity until there's no more dry air to cool.  They may be effective spot-cooling a small area in a large shop or warehouse where there's lots more hot, dry air for it to draw from.

 

Edited March 29, 2021 by Lou Schneider

[RV_]

When we were full time we stopped in Odessa TX and went to an inside flea market, The front doors had it blowing outside and I wondered how the inside was so nice and cool when it looked like the poster for the parental admonishment - "What are you doing, trying air condition the whole neighborhood??"

Makes sense to me.

Only drawback is that where they work best, very dry climates, are also generally where water costs more. Here, after watering daily for three weeks to start new sod last year cost three times more than our electricity including our central A/C unit.

[Randyretired]

We don't notice the additional water on our bill.  An extra hundred gallons or so a month isn't much. While carrying water in an RV it could add up. 

[Chalkie]

2 hours ago, RV_ said:

Only drawback is that where they work best, very dry climates, are also generally where water costs more. Here, after watering daily for three weeks to start new sod last year cost three times more than our electricity including our central A/C unit.

True on the dry climate. When we lived in Colorado Springs we had a big window swamp cooler in a spare bedroom that was rarely used as it was frigid in that room. The rest of house was nice and cool, in fact, our next door neighbor with central air always complained that our house was always cooler than his.

A swamp cooler does not use that much water, I would actually be surprised if it used more than 2 or 3 gallons per hour which is a miniscule amount when compared to bathing, dish and clothes washing and outdoor use such as lawn watering. I doubt it would be enough to tip you up a tier like they charged us in Colorado Springs.

All that said I truly can not visualize using one in an RV, even a small window unit unless the RV is stationary long term.