Swamp Coolers

[bee-vac]

Am I the only one that has an interest in swamp coolers? I was lucky enough to save the one that I grew up with. It was my grandmothers, and when the windows were being upgraded, it was taken down with no plans on putting it back up. I brought it home, and with the help of my friend Dave, we sanded it down, patched up the leaks, replaced all that was needed, and then painted. I'm happy to say that this old swamp cooler was saved from the trash, and has been cooling us off for about 3 years now. I try to keep an eye out for the early ones, but they don't show up very often at all.

 

[bee-vac]

Before restoration

This is an old picture with it in the background...

 

[bee-vac]

And here it is now

I went with blue

 

[bee-vac]

Face

It's interesting, this is a single speed, but to change the amount of air it blows, the knob is turned, and a baffle is tilted as to block the flow of air. The two switches are for the blower, and pump.

 

[bvac6]

Coolers

The Holiday Inn I worked at had two MASSIVE swamp coolers (paired with gas forced heating as well) that serviced the kitchen and ballroom areas. Unfortunately, they went out of use when new, more modern HVAC units were installed around them. They languished in the elements before the owner finally had them removed and scrapped.

 

[kenkart]

We never

saw them in the South, with the humidity here they are next to useless, the humidity here is 70 to 90 percent with 90 to over 100 degrees in July and August, not always that severe , but its not uncommon!

 

[tolivac]

Swamp cooler-Also called "Desert Coolers" remember one of those on the roof of our house on Holloman AFB in New Mexico-near Albequerkie,New Mexico.Worked well in the summer-You filled it with water in the spring-when the summer was over-drained and cleaned the thing out for the winter.My Dad wasgood at doing all of that.Of course in the South or even the East Coast of the US the swamp coolers would be useless.They are great in dry climates.

 

[paulg]

Question:

Would the term "swamp cooler" apply to a commercial device on top of a buildling that pumped water down wooden slats? With air rushing past those slats, the air was cooled... somewhat..
If so, I worked at a bank years and years ago that had such a cooling system. They also had a standard refrigeration airconditioner too. (The building was a combination of three buildings fused together).
What was amazing was that on hot days, the cool-humid air in the building was amazingly comfortable.

 

[dustin]

I have never seen such a thing! Cool! It would be pretty useless for us in Michigan too- our main problem in the summer is humidity. Not very often do we have hot, dry days. Usually very warm and humid, so traditional air conditioners are needed. At this point I'm just waiting for all of this nasty snow to melt!

 

[tolivac]

The "wood slat" coolers were usually cooling towers to cool refrigeration chiller units-these are high capacity units that chill water-the water removes the heat from the spaces-then the chiller's condenser coils were cooled by the water injected cooling tower unit on the buildings roof.The large "wood" units were called "cooling towers"Now these units may be made from cedar wood-that wood is most resistant to moisture-and has natural oils in it to kill bacteria that can grow in cooling tower water sumps at the base of the cooler.This is what contributed to the "Legionairtes Disease" that happened several years ago.Now cooler tower sumps are injected with bacteriacides to kill them.Uusually done by an automatic injector pump.And those sumps would be cleaned before and after the cooling season.And many of the coolers made today are made from aluminum or even plastic-fiberglass materials.When you are close to one of these units running-its amazing the amount of heat that is dumpted-stand over the discharge of the unit and you are sweating within a couple minutes!

 

[bee-vac]

As my luck would have it...

Shortly after I posted this thread, my motor bearings seized up... Haha, oh well, replacing a motor is an easy fix. At least this didn't happen during the heat of summer. It's too bad that it's so uncommon to find early models of these swamp coolers, but I do keep an eye out for them. Rounded corners on these units will usually date these to earlier models. Something tells me this one dates to the mid 1960's.

 

[kenkart]

Re Question..

The device on the roof you describe is not a swamp cooler, But rather a water tower, Air Conditioning uses to use water instead of the now common condenser or outdoor unit, the water condenser worked like this, when the ac compressor was running, the water circulated around the condenser coild, thus absorbing the heat from the freon, then the hot water was pumped to the roof, and sprayed over the wooden slats, thus cooling the water, it was then pumped back to the condenser in the basement, this system was very efficient, but much more complex, thus they went away in the 1960s, maintenence on them was expensive, and as some of the water evaporates, water must be added along and along, water costs rose so now about all you see is the regular fan condensers...the water ones are much more efficient and produce ice cold air because water is a much better medium to absorb heat!The antique mall in my hometown is in the building that was Shields Hardware for many years, they were a Carrier dealer, and their is still one of these units being used today! it was installed in the early 50s and has a cast iron compressor and uses I think Freon 502.." maybe 500??" in any event, if you stand in front of it, its so cold it will make your teeth hurt!!

 

[paulg]

Similar stories

That water tower I dealt with is described by y'all very well. I so believe the air-conditioner for the building was a Carrier unit as well.
The building was a fused series of building about 100 years old but the place was remodeled to state-of-the-art in about 1953. This all jives.
I do remember being tasked to run to the roof and occasionally dump an entire bottle of bleach in the water tower to stop it from becoming.. icky.
Old as it was, it did work well but the repairman was there all the time..
(And for you appliance fans, the kitchen appliances in the lunchroom were A.J. Lindeman and Hoverson and the fridge was a Philco)

 

[davetranter]

Dumb question from across the 'pond'

Why are these devices called 'Swamp Coolers', if a swamp is the one place they won't work??? :-S

All best

Dave T

 

[bee-vac]

Dave

My understanding is that the reason these are referred to as "Swamp Coolers" is due to the moist scent these will give off at times. The correct name would be Evaporative coolers, as this describes the actual way these function. Desert coolers are another name given to these as well. The information plate located on the fan housing in the last picture reads; "The Dearborn Air Cooler". So I guess depending on what area you are in, will determine the name for these.

 

[davetranter]

Thanks, Bee-Vac

I thought that may be the case having seen the photograph (Reply#10). I would imagine that the water tank/sump would resemble a swamp by the end of the season, too. Were/are there problems with mosquitos, etc. breeding in the water??

Thanks for the info.

All best

Dave T

 

[bee-vac]

Dave

Well the water in the pan will at times become dirty, especially if the surrounding area is dusty. Mosquitos will breed in the water if left to stagnate during the off season. But as mentioned in reply 6, the water should be drained and water supply shut off at the start of the cold season. Ideally the aspine pads should be replaced every season as well. During the summer, I have it connected to an automatic timer. I can't tell you how good it feels to be in bed still and for this cooler to kick on at 10:30 in the morning before it gets hot out!

 

[countryford]

We currently don't have one, but we are going to get one for our house. We will be getting one that is large enough to do the whole house. The house was built in 1949 and orignally was built with a swamp cooler.

I had a trailer that had a swamp cooler. One thing I learned to help keep the musty smell out is to pour a little fabric softner into the pan of water. Gives the place a nice scent.

 

[bee-vac]

Countryford

That's neat! Would have been neat to see what it looked like. How did you come to find that the house was originally built with one? Was it a roof mount?