Buying and Using a Swamp Cooler

Dry Heat, Evaporated Cooling

My first experience with using and buying a Swamp Cooler was when I moved from Florida to New Mexico in the early 1990s. Being born and raised in the south I knew well what an air conditioner was, how to use it and take advantage of it's cooling characteristic. An air conditioner is a foreign concept in New Mexico though. It's hot there but it's a dry heat. If you sat in a windy area the perspiration would dry as quickly as it popped up on your brow. Which, I might ad, is the whole concept behind the cooling effects of a Swamp Cooler.

We would run our Swamp Cooler during the day but never at night. The temps would drop low during the night and having that breeze flowing through the house would mean waking to frigid temperatures in the morning.

To begin with, dealing with the Swamp Cooler was fairly simple. There was a switch on the wall and when I wanted it on, I flipped the switch. When I wanted it off, I flipped the switch back. Like all good home appliances nothing ever runs smoothly for long though.

During our second year in New Mexico my husband took a business trip and left me alone… with the Swamp Cooler. Just my luck, I went to flip the switch one morning and nothing happened. No loud noise, no breeze…NOTHING. Being an independent woman who is tenacious when it comes to solving problems I immediately called my husband. That is when I got my first lesson in the operation and maintenance of the Swamp Cooler.

To my delight, the principle was as easy as simple physics. Good thing I was a Biology major! First he explained to me that dry air absorbs moisture through evaporation. When water evaporates, it absorbs heat. A special type of fan is used to increase the rate of evaporation and make the air cooler as it is pulled through pads that are soaked in water, as well as distributing the cool air through the house.