Evaporative Cooler

[Alan j]

Does anyone have experience with the effectiveness of Evaporative Coolers. Last year I bought an air conditioner at Home Depot and it worked well but it took up too much space and I ended up giving it away. Now I am looking for something small to beat the heat. I expect it will be for shore power. Any thoughts?

[john61ct]

Only effective in dry weather, use a lot of water.

[Alan j]

Thank you.

[MartinR]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Only effective in dry weather, use a lot of water.

ditto. Perfect in desert climate, though

[Cheechako]

many large manufacturing facilities have them. They work surprisingly well even from a 20 ft ceiling. My company had them in Seattle and they worked well there too. Not a dry climate. I suspect though that one would be larger than a small AC unit. You should be able to make a $165 AC unit fit and work well with some plywood adapter ingenuity.

[a64pilot]

Only thing a swamp cooler would do on a boat is make you understand why they have that nickname.
When I lived in West Tx., they were the main stay, so much so that regular air conditioning was uncommon and was referred to as refrigerated air.
A swamp cooler was actually necessary, without one the air was so dry your furniture could crack, honestly.

[did-g]

Isn't the sea the biggest evaporating cooler you could get?

[transmitterdan]

The sea cooled aircon does not evaporate seawater. Most places where boats are moored have humidity too high to make the swamp (evaporative) cooler viable.

A regular seawater cooled aircon will use the least electricity per BTU.

[Suijin]

If space is at a premium then built in is the most compact. Second would be a Cruiseair hatch top model. For whatever reason most used chandleries have a few floating around. Not exactly compact but easier to stow than a window unit and plywood baffle.

[dustman]

Would have to have a multiple stage evaporative setup to work in a humid environment. Probably more efficient to use an AC.

[SailingHarmonie]

Just what I want on my boat, MORE humidity in the cabin!