Air Cooler Buying Guide: The important and critical factors which need to be considered while buying a new Air Cooler for your residence are as under:
- Whether the air cooler will be placed indoors or outdoors?
- What is the body size of an air cooler? A bigger body size will support bigger cooling pads and this will provide more cooling.
- What is the size of fan and what is the air throw? Bigger the fan size, more will be the air throw and more area the cooler will be able to cool.
- What is the sound level? Prefer the models having low to medium sound.
- Whether the cooler has compatibility with an inverter (for defeating the discomfort in case of a power cut)
- The power consumption of Air cooler. Lower the power consumption, lower will be the electricity bill.
- Whether the cooler has an auto air swing or not? Air swing provides you the comfort of cool air in all the directions of room.
- Is there a Float valve provided? It will be very helpful, especially in case of a window cooler. You can simply connect the permanent water supply to the cooler.
- Type of cooling pads. The wood wool pads provide better air cooling in dry heat whereas honeycomb cooling pads offer better cooling in a humid climate. So check the environment of your location to decide on the right model.
- Service support. Although air coolers can be easily maintained locally, however, it is good to purchase a reliable brand, which can ensure the availability of spares whenever required in future.
- Cost of the cooler compared to equivalent models.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES:
An Air Cooler definitely brings fresh air into the room and the quality of air is much better than its giant brother, which is the Air Conditioner. There are multifarious advantages of using an Air Cooler, which broadly are:
- An Air Cooler pulls in air from outside and through the water evaporation process cools it down in the methodology of convection, unlike the AC, which holds the air in the room repeatedly.
- Since the quality of air supplied is much better in Air Cooler, it becomes an appropriate choice for homes as it protects health.
- They are substantially economical and affordable compared to Air Conditioners and have a more structured and systematic way to lower the air temperature.
- Air Coolers do not make the air dry and thus it is a distinct advantage of people being less intolerant in hot summer temperatures, when they move from the cold to the normal environment outside, in the summers.
However, Air Coolers have distinct disadvantages of which the predominant ones are;
- They are very noisy to start with, as the fan which circulates the air, and the water pump, which circulates water, make some noise when compared to an Air conditioner.
- Though Air Cooler has a definitive and valid technique due to cooling by evaporation, it is limited to a capacity of lowering the room temperature to about 25 degrees centigrade. The reliability of room temperature with air cooler cannot be compared at all with the circulation technique of an AC.
- In areas with high to very high humidity, Air Cooler is not very effective. As air coolers tend to increase moisture in the air, this may lead to inconvenient sultriness.
- If you are living in a polluted area, the air cooler can suck outside dirt or pollution along thus making the inside air also unhealthy.
- Filling up the water tank and regular maintenance, albeit the routine work of cleaning/ changing pads is an irritant and a botheration.
COOLING PADS – TYPES:
Wood Wool and Honeycomb are the two different kinds of cooling pads widely used in Air coolers across the world and across various brands. Both types of pads are effective in providing air cooling through the essential principle of water evaporation. Honeycomb cooling pad, as the name literally suggests has hives that help in retaining water and then cool the hot air faster as it gets pulled through the pads. Wood Wool pads typically are randomly designed structures made with wooden threads made in the form of grass. These wooden threads retain water through adsorption and water evaporates from their surface as the air gets pulled through these pads. As explained earlier, Air coolers with wood wool pads are a better choice for a location with dry heat whereas Air coolers with honeycomb cooling are a better choice in a location with a humid climate.
Amount of cooling, an air cooler can provide, is directly proportional to the size and thickness of the cooling pads. Therefore it is very important to understand the details about cooling pads especially the size and thickness of pads in your air cooler.
While the Honeycomb cooling pads are costlier than their counterpart, the durability and reusability of honeycomb cooling pads is higher, and therefore, the cooler demand lesser maintenance.
SERVICE AND MAINTENANCE:
Servicing an Air Cooler has a very simple step-by-step process of unplugging the cooler and turning off the water, subsequently removing the panels and the cooling pads. One needs to drain out the water from the Air Cooler and brush to clean the inside. In the end, the water tank needs to be scrubbed after soaking it in vinegar. The cooling pads also can be cleaned and disinfected by washing them with a 1:1 solution of water and vinegar.
Time-to-time, we can have maintenance people check for motor damage, water leakage, and damage to cooling pads, and replace them for the proper working in a continuous way.
TIPS FOR BETTER WORKING:
While Air Cooler provides relief in the scorching heat, well into the summer season, it is always prudent to be aware of a few tips for the effective and sustained working of the same, which are as under:
- Saturate the cooling pads every time before using the Air Cooler
- Proper maintenance and cleaning of Air Cooler before use is important for sustainable performance
- Air Cooler has the best working if it is placed from outside the room or in front of a window. The idea is to bring fresh outside air into the room from the cooler and push inside stale air out of the room. The process is called cross-ventilation.
CHOOSING AND BUYING AIR COOLERS- ONLINE:
While buying Air Coolers online, one is really spoilt for choice as there are multiple brands such as Bluestar, Symphony, Bajaj, Havells, Ram Coolers, and a host of features in each category. Be it personal, desert, or tower Air Coolers, you need to do research on the features as mentioned above and look at the specifications listed on the websites such as price, affordability, applicable area (bedroom, small office, large halls or open area) to buy the best air cooler from online or e-commerce sites.
While Symphony leads the list in popularity, Bajaj, Orient, Crompton, Kenstar, Ram Coolers too are in the big league while Maharaja, Hindware follows suit. Be it a portable home cooler or a desert cooler, the best Air Coolers for the home can be chosen from these brands.
