In article cguje.11188$gp.5660@fed1read03,
SteveB wrote:
Ahhhhhhhhh. Living in the desert ............. it's 105 today.
My swamp cooler was making odd noises, so I checked it. The pump was
wearing out and making wierd noises.
Went to Homer's and got another. While there, I encountered a water dumper
that exchanges the water after eight hours of running time.
I believe that this cooler uses softened water, because at the beginning of
each season, it looks like Carlsbad Caverns inside.
That sounds quite unlike softened water to me. Lots of mineral
in it.
This exchanger touts
that it will make everything run better, and keep the deposits down. It
also claims that it will save water, which I find hard to believe, since it
dumps all the water after eight hours of use.
Long story short, I got one, and am going to try it on one of my swampers.
I have two. Anyone have any experience with these?
They are spendy, coming in at $48 per.
Advice and anecdotes appreciated. Puhleeeeeze, only desert rats that know
what a swamp cooler is need reply.
Well ... I am not currently a desert rat, but I remember them
from when I was growing up in South Texas. They would really freeze you
out of a house there. Back then, IIRC, they were operated as total-loss
devices -- no pumps to recirculate the water, just a continuous feed
from the fresh water supply through pipes with small holes lined up over
the filter mattes.
Here (near Washington DC), the humidity is so high that I don't
see a chance for them to do any good. I strongly suspect that the
refrigeration A/C units in this area probably *extract* more water from
the air over a season than a total-loss swamp cooler would consume over
the same period. :-)
I'm not giving either advice or anecdotes, but some guesswork.
1) Without that exchanger, as the season goes on, the concentration
of minerals will build up and up, as the water evaporates (which
is what does the cooling), leaving the minerals behind.
2) The higher concentration of minerals will probably accumulate on
the filter mattes, closing the pores and reducing the airflow, so
reducing the cooling capability, and costing you more to run it.
3) The increased mineral accumulation on the mattes *might* increase
the amount of water sprinkled to the outside (instead of
properly soaking into the mattes), and thus actually increase the
water used compared to dumping the water once every eight hours.
Note -- these are not from experience with the product, just
guesses as to what the benefits might be.
So -- please let us know what differences you experience over a
cooling season between the two. Is there any way to measure the water
consumed by each?
Enjoy,
DoN.
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