Evaporative Cooler Modules

How They Work

Evaporative coolers, or swamp coolers as they are commonly known, are specially designed to provide cool, moist air in geographic regions that otherwise have a persistently dry and hot climate. These units can be installed either indoors or outdoors and will provide the same consistent performance. When the outside atmosphere exceeds a pre-specified threshold temperature, there is a call for cooling which triggers an internal solenoid and allows water to begin flowing through a manifold, before exiting through nozzles for discharge.

As the water exits the nozzles, the external surface of the Celdek media becomes saturated, all throughout its thickness, which is usually about 12 inches. There is a timing circuit that manages water flow to this media, thereby optimizing moisture content in the media constantly. At the same time that this is going on, there will be a continuous airflow over the Celdek media, causing all moisture to be absorbed.

This cooling process will continue until another pre-set temperature threshold is reached, which is the desired temperature for internal parts of the building, and then it will cease operation until another rise in temperature. There are some significant benefits to this kind of cooling as opposed to standard AC.
In addition to the fact that it takes much less energy, there is no recycling pump used in the operation, so there is far less buildup of bacteria in an evaporating cooler, and the conditioned air delivered ends up being much healthier. There is also very little scaling or particle buildup because there is a constant washdown of the media so that it remains flushed. This elongates the life of the media and reduces the amount of maintenance that is necessary.

In areas of the Southwestern United States such as Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and California; an evaporative cooling unit can be extremely beneficial for homeowners or business owners because it can accomplish cooling and humidifying the air all at the same time. In addition to a standard line of evaporating cooling units, some companies such as Premier Industries Inc. will also build custom modules to meet the needs of specific clients. For example, it may be necessary to build an oversized unit that is capable of maintaining a constant temperature in a warehouse, so that stored goods are not damaged by excessive heat.

What are the Parts of a Swamp Cooler?

It will generally be very beneficial for the owner of an evaporating cooler to understand its operation and to know all the parts involved in that operation. At some point it may become necessary to replace various parts which are subject to more wear and tear, and that’s when a knowledge of the unit will be especially useful.
One of the most important components of any evaporative cooling unit is its motor, which will generally range in size from 1/3 to 1 hp, while using roughly half the voltage of a traditional air conditioning system. For the most part, these motors will work fine right up until the time they die, and if you have basic electrical skills, you’ll be able to change the motor yourself.

The shaft bearings are small metal spheres which permit the driveshaft to spin smoothly, as the motor drives them. The diameter of these bearings is usually 3/4″ or 1″, and you may hear them making a loud squeaking noise when the bearings are going bad. In some cases all that’s necessary is some lubrication, but at other times it will be necessary to replace the bearings. This replacement project calls for disassembling the driveshaft, and unless you’re a skilled do-it-yourselfer, you should probably leave this to a professional.

Another major component of a cooler is its water pump, and this component serves the function of relaying water from a pan into distribution tubing, after which it is conducted onto pads. Evaporation of water from these pads is what causes air cooling to occur, so it will be necessary to keep these pads saturated with water, and that’s the job of the water pump. When a water pump is unable to keep the cooler pads sufficiently saturated, it may be necessary to upgrade to a larger pump.
There are two pulleys required to make an evaporating unit operate efficiently, one being the motor pulley and the other being the blower pulley.

These rarely have any problems, but if either one should need to be replaced, this can be done relatively easily simply by loosening the Allen screws which keep them in place. Make sure that the same sized pulleys are used when you purchase a replacement component.