Do you use evaporative coolers to cool your shop?

[charlese]

I USED A SWAMP COOLER in my shop for one summer. Was dissatisfied for two reasons.
1) Had to keep a window open to cut down on humidity buildup. The humidity got up to 50% in my shop in spite of the open window. Stored wood also gained humidity. No rust on the Shopsmith, but worried about it. Daytime humidity in this area is often in the single digits..

2) Didn't cool the shop at temps over 95.

I bought and installed a small AC unit (Handles 250 sq feet with an efficiency of about 60%) This unit has worked efficiently for over 10 years. Had to saw a hole in the side of the shop and put in supporting 2x4s.

[tomsalwasser]

Great information, thanks Everett. It's interesting to note that Minnesota is half Area B and half Area C. That makes sense to me. I live in the Twin Cities, which is Area C. Sometimes it gets so hot here in the summer that chickens lay hard boiled eggs. And humid! Just a few hours north, in the land of lakes and forests, and you're in Area B. It's almost always much cooler there.

[skou]

OK, my "personal" shop, a small "one car" garage sized
shop in the back yard. NO cooling whatsoever!

Now, the 8 bay shop where I work, has a LARGE
swamp cooler. In over a year, I've seen NO tool
rust.

However, my old apartment, a small one bedroom
cinder-block building (2 apartments) had a LARGE
swamp cooler on the roof. 3, 24 by 30 inch pads.

I had the Model 10 that later went through the fire,
in there, right below the register on the roof, and it
DID show some rusting on the upper side of the way
tubes.

Update, my baby brother lives in Las Vegas, has a
wall unit like the one posted above, has (well, had)
2 Model 10's in his garage, and cooled his WHOLE
HOUSE with that unit. Close the big garage door,
open the door to the house, and open a couple
windows upstairs. Cooled a 2000+ SF home
with a garage swamp cooler. His neighbor
across the street also runs the same cooler.
No rust on either Model 10. (Yes, I DID steal
the other one. I think Sterling is going to steal
it from me, though.)

steve

[everettdavis]

I changed my mind and selected the portable Honeywell CO60PM evaporative cooler that is indoor/outdoor so we can use it on the patio when needed.

Now if I can just persuade my wife that I need to use the 16 x 30 covered patio for my shop overflow..... not likely too frequently, but possible.

It cools up to 850 square feet indoors and sends cool air for up to 12 yards outdoors. It has honeycomb cooling media on three sides and a continuous water supply connection for uninterrupted operation outdoors, plus a 15 gallon reservoir.

Thanks everyone for your comments. It should be here before the weekend.

Everett

[JPG]

Went to MC summer camp several years ago to 29 Palms CA.

The first Monday our intelligent senior NCO had all the windows closed as we left the barracks for the day. Guess he was afraid it was going to be one of the few days rain reached the ground(remember this is the Mojave desert).

When we returned late that afternoon, and the barracks door was opened, it rained inside! 100% humidity!!!!

Fortunately it did not take long to dissipate.

[ERLover]

Wow a real interesting thread for a WI boy. How much water do they use, and what does that add to your H2O bill?

[ERLover]

Sure wish you could use them in WI, 92* here today and 68 Dew Point, RH about 80%, sure made for a sweaty day in the garage shop, and it is insulated walls, 2 windows, over head door open, and a dry walled insulated ceiling, with shade cover on the roof till about 2 pm and the barn fan just a blowing.

[rjent]

I changed my mind and selected the portable Honeywell CO60PM evaporative cooler that is indoor/outdoor so we can use it on the patio when needed.

Now if I can just persuade my wife that I need to use the 16 x 30 covered patio for my shop overflow..... not likely too frequently, but possible.

It cools up to 850 square feet indoors and sends cool air for up to 12 yards outdoors. It has honeycomb cooling media on three sides and a continuous water supply connection for uninterrupted operation outdoors, plus a 15 gallon reservoir.

Thanks everyone for your comments. It should be here before the weekend.

Everett

Try to set it up to "feed" or draw outside air so it doesn't saturate captured air. They work by cooling air and exchanging the air in a building, not cooling the air IN a building like HVAC does. just something to keep in mind.

ER, they don't use much water, a few gallons a day. Some units actually have a second pump on board to "empty" the "stale" water that it creates (since it evaporates water, what ever minerals and impurities are in the water, it concentrates, so you have to periodically, or continuously "freshen" the water).

FWIW

[everettdavis]

I will have my shop doors open and draw in outside air that will exchange the air inside, so it should not be as much an issue, but I can place it by an open window to draw from and circulate it across the shop as necessary.

The thing that I am trying to cool most in the shop, is me.

A private email from a buddy reading the post commented that the moist air it produces tends to keep down the dust and helps evacuate the finest dust.

Everett

[charlese]

The best swamp cooler I enjoyed was a vertically mounted 6 or 8 paddle fan with water dripping though screened in excelsior outside the fan. The fan was mounted in a huge window in our mess hall in Ft. Sill, OK. Didn't think of it much at the time, but the water must have come from a large re-circulating pump. Didn't even think they made re-circulating pumps in 1953.

The fan was like a large ceiling fan mounted vertically and it rotated fairly slowly, but put out a breeze.