Hessaire MC18V Portable Evaporative Cooler, Green, 1300 CFM, Cools 500 Square Feet

I don't normally give five stars even for something I think is a great product at a good value. I reserve the fifth star for durability. Previous owners have testified to the durability.First the disclaimer. It is NOT air conditioning. You don't get that for under $200. It is an evaporative cooler. It passes air through a damp media and when the water evaporates it absorbs heat. It's not magic, it's physics. The more water that evaporates the more heat that is absorbed. Since water does not like to evaporate in high humidity situations this cooler loses its effectiveness as the humidity increases. If your normal relative humidity STARTS at 40% don't even think about using this cooler. Also, for the same reason, you don't want to try to use it in a closed room, not even a closet. As the cooler operates the evaporated water adds to the humidity so after a short time the room becomes so humid the cooler quits working. The air coming in the back needs to be 100% new, not recurculated. Back the cooler up to an open window and also turn on some bathroom or kitchen exhaust fans to encourage air to come in the open window. I only use mine outdoors.That's how they work. Here's why this one is so good. An evaporative cooler only needs water, a pump, a fan, cooling media and a switch to control it all. This one has a reservoir large enough that you can get several hours out of a full tank. It has a water pump that keeps the water circulating over the media no matter how much is consumed. The fan serves two purposes. It pulls air into the back through the cooling media and out the front to cooler the user. This fan is plenty large enough to do both. The real key to its success is the size of the media. It follows. The larger the surface area of the media, the more the water evaporates, the more water that evaporates the more air that is cooled. Evaporative coolers need to be big because they need their media to be big. When you see the little one cubic foot miracle coolers being sold they're a joke. The media and fan are far too small to be effective. And finally the controls. A single rotary switch with five positions. Hi/lo wet, hi/lo dry and pump only. Why pump only? For prepping the media before cooling but mostly for maintenance. The nasty thing about evaporative coolers is that when the water evaporates it leaves everything that was in the water behind. If you have very hard water your media could turn into a brick in a single season. Since bricks aren't absorbent they don't make good cooler pads. You can keep the mineral deposits under control by circulating acidic water over the pads periodically either vinegar or Limeaway depending on how bad it is. Drain the water after cleaning. The pump only position allows you to pour in your solution, turn on the pump and walk away. Come back later, drain and refill and you're good for weeks more use. If you have RO water, soft water or filtered water cleaning becomes less of an issue.Two features this cooler has that most don't that I'm utilizing is the float inlet and the analog switch. They give you a garden hose adapter so you can hook a hose to it, turn the water on a bit and the tank fills and stays full with no need for refilling. I did it with 1/4 inch irrigation tubing because it's much smaller and easier to keep out of the way. The switch is unique because it doesn't involve any electronics. You can plug the cooler into a smart plug and turn it on or off with a phone app or voice assistant.The cherry on top is that it's made to last so it's repairable with available replacement parts. Try that with ANY Chinese made products.

Thus is the most powerful evaporative cooler I have ever owned, over ther years, I have bought about 3, but none of them work as efficiently as this one. I bought this one for my business, because we are on the corner, at a certain part of the day,the sun beams down heavily on the building causing the bricks to heat up like a brick I oven. I have two air conditioners running at all times because it is a salon and we have heated equipment running. When it is really hot, when turn off and equipment when we are not using it. This cooler helps cool off any excess hot air in the salon area. I also use fans to circulate the cooler air. It works extremely well, if you turn it off, you notice the difference immediately. Many customers have inquired about the unit, because they can actually feel the cool air from it. If it is extremely humid outside, you will not get the same cooling affect when the humidity is low, but it still makes a difference. The only downside to this unit is, because it is so powerful and I use it on high, it sucks down alot of water quickly. I can't go past 6-8 hours without adding more water. If you work an 8hour day, you definitely have to fill it up every day with about 4 gallons of water. If you use this unit outside in your yard, there is a garden hose attachment on the side of the unit, so you never run out of water. This is by far the best evaporative cooler I have ever bought, and I am looking forward to early Fall and late Spring, where I can just open my windows and turn it on, and not use the air conditioners at all. It is very sturdy, you can put ice directly into the water opening and, there is no spike in my electric bill from using it.

As usual, most of the so called high end stuff I buy that's made overseas is useless. As you can see from the pictures the pump does not appropriately pump water where needed. I had set this up in my garage gym for my afternoon workout, I'm close to Palm Springs so it's dry heat, and water coolers typically work just fine. But not this one! 109 in the garage / gym area, and this did pretty much nothing. I would not recommend this to anyone wanting to stay cool, but if you like to have an expensive fan that masquerades as a cooler, by all means this is for you!

Product essentially met my expectations. I wasn't aware that it was recommended more for outdoor cooling but it works sufficiently enough inside. It's not quiet however but overall for the price point, a good product.

Finally decided to give it a try in my small (6x8 ft)greenhouse. Arizona summers are brutal and outdoor vegetables have never done well for me so I decided to keep the greenhouse going through as long as possible. Our temps have been grazing 100 but with our low humidity this cooler is perfect.Normally when the outside temp reaches above 85 the greenhouse was unusable as even with the door open it would reach 110 and above, let alone when the outside temp are 105-110. Current indoor temps are running not higher than 95 daytime with about 50% humidity with door and window open. That's on low speed. I use about 10 gals water per day max. Perfect!Pic 1 greenhouse panoramaPic 2 tomatoes growingPic 3 greenhouse with cheap insect screen - the cooler is visible on the leftThe pics are already a few weeks old but tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, cilantro, radishes are all doing great. It really is a jungle in there.... I have never had such good growth here in the desert!

I thought this was a misting air conditioner. It is not.