"dmc" wrote in message ...
In article
,
wrote:
My wife wants to buy this
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4250313/Trail/searchtextAIR.htm
to cool our toddlers room.It's a relatively small double room about 12
feet by ten feet.

Will it be any more effective than a fan?

Well I'm not sure, but I have brought one of these :-

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?...&doy=14m5#spec

Maplin L35AK


And I certainly felt cooler while it was blowing air using just the water.
I'd assume the air would be further cooled by the addition of the ice packs.

In fact my one was in use in the store where the staff were using it behind
the till
point so I guessed it must work, and I got a used discount too
..
So ended up paying £35, so I considered it a worth while buy.


Is some ways, yes. I'm assuming from the minimal description that this is
an evaporative cooler - while they do work they have serious
disadvantages...

The cool the air buy blowing it over a damp surface - this causes the
water to
evaporate which obviously has the side effect of raising the humidity of
the
air...this isn't great.

I'm not sure what the Maplin one is but it does seem to work.
I assume that blowing warm air over cold water that the this warms
the water and cools the air, which is what I want.


I wouldn't buy one myself. YMMV.

I'd like to give it a good test on a hot day and measure humidity and temp.