Honeywell Outdoor Portable Evaporative Swamp Cooler & Fan for BBQ Area, Patio, Garage, Backyard with GFCI Cord, Powerful 36 Ft. Airflow with Drink Holders, Gray

I bought a fan exactly like this one 7 or 8 years ago. It's time to replace it and I wanted another one just like it. That's how much I believe in this product.I live in the hot, humid South, so my fan is really put to the test. This fan is easy to use, just put water into the tank at the bottom of the unit and choose your settings. Once a week I remove the top part, empty the water tank and let it rest for at least 6 hours then it's ready to go again.I run my fan more than 6 months a year for 24 hours a day on high speed in serious heat and humidity and the tank of water lasts approximately 8 hours. A light blinks to let you know that it needs more water. You can either take the top off the unit- it is very simple- to fill the tank, or use the drawer in the back of the unit to add water. The fan will continue to blow air after the water runs out, but it doesn't have the cooling ability without the water. This is a great feature because where I live, getting air to circulate is important. This water fan really does cool the air, but it is not an air conditioner. It does not take the place of an a/c, but if you don't actually need a real a/c or if you need some cool air in a certain location, this could be the perfect choice for you.It is somewhat large, but it is not heavy at all (until the tank is filled with water). It is not super quiet, but it's not super loud either. I have it in the bedroom and it does not disturb my sleep in any way. Having a remote control is really convenient, too.I think this is a fantastic machine and I am truly amazed that it has such a long lifespan considering the conditions that it operates under. It far and away overperformed and outlived my expectations!

Attention!!! Needs to be cleaned at least once per month! I use this everyday for at least 5 hours. When you start to get a funny smell I drain, add distilled white vinegar and wash the media once per month. I do this in the bathtub and it is easy to clean. Just allow time for parts to fully dry. I put the media (filter) outside in the sun to "deodorize" to avoid odor. I use dish soap to clean filters. When you do this it avoids a "smell". This was waiting for me when I got home and I must say that this is one of the smartest purchases I've ever done! It works great and keeps my room cool! I followed the directions and added ice and this blows air (with ice) at 64 degrees! Without the ice it still blew around 70 degrees! My AC unit did not turn on the entire time I had this running. Definitely a money saver on my electric bill! I had the ceiling fans running and place this in my living room allowing the air to be evenly distributed throughout my home. Also, the fan is VERY strong! In other words, I run it only on low. The fan really puts out a TON of air! I tried medium and high for fun and it really moves the air. The sleep mode seems to run the fan on medium which is a little strong for me. It is not near as noisy as I anticipated and you get used to the sound very quickly. It isn't so much as a fan humming sound as it is hearing the airflow move. The pictures I included are the unit running solely on room temperature distilled water with no ice. I believe the pictures speak for themselves on how well this unit works. It is a little water "hungry" but I did buy the 53 pint unit. It takes almost 6 gallons of water to fill but the water doesn't need changing for at least a week depending on where you use it. It has a water level gauge on the front to let you see minimum and maximum levels. I only put in three gallons of water. I love how the level meter is "float" controlled by the water in the tank. This gives a more accurate reading since adding ice will add to the water level. I recommend no more than 5 gallons if using ice. It has water that runs over the ice to help melt it and it REALLY cools the air down very quickly. Again, buy this and you'll never regret it!!!! Very happy customer and I am buying 2 more!

I recently moved into a new apartment. Although it did not face the sun, it still got unbearably warm in the afternoon and retained that heat throughout the evening. Fans did surprisingly little to make my nights tolerable and my only other choice – unless I cared to break the building’s rules by sneaking in a portable air conditioner – was to have a window-mounted AC unit installed. For this slice of civility, I would need to pay more than $1,500 over the duration of my lease.For some people, that might be a worthwhile expense. However, it just made me feel like the money in my wallet would evaporate along with the heat. Since a third fan would not likely accomplish what the first two could not, I looked around for swamp coolers. The fact that they function less well in high humidity was dispiriting, but I decided to take the risk and buy this unit. After using it for a month – and because I did not see many reviews from others using it in humid environments like Hawaii – I feel confident writing a review.PROS- Makes temperatures bearable (in certain conditions)- Significantly cheaper than air conditioningTo make sure I could properly assess how well the unit functioned, I bought a humidity and temperature monitor. I used this model (ThermoPro TP55 Digital Hygrometer Indoor Thermometer Humidity Gauge with Jumbo Touchscreen and Backlight Temperature Humidity Monitor) and strongly suggest that anyone considering a swamp cooler buy a humidity monitor for reasons I will discuss below. For the week before my unit arrived, my bedroom’s average temperature was in the upper 80s with humidity hovering around 50%.When I first used the cooler, I placed the thermometer in front of the air outlet and the temperature dropped to 80 ºF and the humidity rose to around 60%. This was more than enough to be able to sleep comfortably and even get under a blanket because it got too cold. Great! What a change from sleeping in the buff.The instructions recommend keeping a window AND door open to let the humidity escape, but I prefer to keep the door semi-closed for a bit of privacy. This traps the moist air and increases the humidity to around 65%. When I wake up in the morning, the air coming from the unit feels only slightly cooler than air blown by a fan. This has been further corroborated by my experience when the ambient humidity (i.e. without the swamp cooler running) is around that figure. In such conditions, the cooler functions as little more than a fan.For this reason, I think it is critical to have realistic expectations of what this unit will do. If your room’s humidity is significantly more than 50%, I would not recommend this product. This also means that you must be okay with not getting value from the unit on days that are unusually humid, which may be the very days you would most want to cool yourself down. Furthermore, it is important to remember that this will NOT cool an entire room. It must face a person or a bed.Of course, this unit has benefits that might outweigh its drawbacks. Hawaii has the nation’s highest electricity prices, which makes operating an AC unit – even sparingly – a painful experience for those on tight budgets. The more you pay for electricity, the more attractive this unit becomes. Since it only requires tap water and does not draw more power than a 100-watt lightbulb, it is also a much more environmentally friendly option than air conditioning.CONS- Loud- Bright lightsEven on the lowest setting, the unit’s fan is both strong and loud. When I run it on low during the day with my windows open, I can just barely make it out over the sound of the nearby freeway. On high, it competes with the loudness of the nighttime freeway itself. At night, this does not particularly bother me since I sleep with ear plugs, but it might bother someone who is a light sleeper or has trouble getting to sleep in anything other than total silence. I wish the unit were a bit quieter, but I feel like I would have to spend twice as much to get a product that does that.The unit’s front has a series of intense blue lights to indicate fan speed, cooling, whether it is on a timer, and oscillation. Unfortunately, this only adds to the swarm of other things in my room the emit light when I am trying to sleep. I wish the manufacturer had included an opaque slide I could put over the lights to block them at night or had positioned there somewhere else so it would not face me while I am in bed.CONSIDERATIONS- Requires daily refilling- Heavy- MaintenanceUsing the unit on its highest setting overnight depletes the water tank. I could get two days of use on medium or low. In either case, however, I end up refilling the unit daily. This does not bother me since my bedroom is only a few steps away from my bathroom, but it is an extra minute or two that one must add to their routine.I separate the tank from the top half containing the fan when I refill the unit. However, filling it up all the way makes the entire thing surprisingly heavy. This may not make the swamp cooler a good fit for the elderly or those with disabilities. Moreover, it is impossible to tilt the unit and wheel it around. The tray that you are supposed to use to fill the unit opens and lets water escape. Whose bright idea was it to not include a latch or something?The instructions recommend performing monthly maintenance on the unit. I have not gotten around to doing that, but when I pour out the old water I do sometimes notice that it is slightly dirty – almost like lightly used mop water. This is because it is pushing air through a curtain of water that captures a lot of dust and other particulates that are floating around. Gross, but if it were not in the water, I would be breathing it in just the same. At any rate, I will update this review when I get around to cleaning the unit, but people considering buying it should be aware that it requires more maintenance than a traditional air conditioner.