Need to hit up the collective brain here on the forum. Many of y'all won't have an opinion, and I've heard a few opinions already. The Mrs and I are contemplating a move within the Denver area and one of the options that we are seeing is some houses with swamp coolers. I have never lived with one, so, I want to get some opinions.

Denver does seem dry enough...at least usually...in the hot months, that they might be effective. I've always been a central AC and whole house fan guy, but if I'm missing something, let me know.

I have to get others opinions because it's no longer season for cooling systems and we can't really get a feel for how the system works.

Question:
Given a dry and warm climate (Denver in the summer), should we consider swamp coolers as a viable alternative to central AC?

Choices:
Central AC is modern and best at keeping a house cool.
They're both probably OK, just different.
Evaporative coolers are the way to go if it stays dry enough.
You're not asking the right questions (explain in replies, please)

 

Swamp coolers are great.....for cooling a warehouse.

For a house, central a/c all day and twice on Sundays. Who wants to introduce a ton of humidity into their house. It does all sorts of strange things to wood, how doors close, wood floors......etc.

I dealt with swamp coolers when I lived in central New Mexico. As long as the humidity is low they are fine. Once it goes up,cooling goes down. You are just dumping moist air in on already moist air which does nothing.

Maintenance sucks. You get to clean alkali out of the pan, coat with sealer to take care of the leaks, change filter pads on a regular basis. There is a float valve that shuts off the water flow to the pan which is then distributed by a pump to wet the pads. Both of those seem to quit at the most inopportune time, like in the middle of the day at 95 degrees and above.

No thermostatic control, either on or off. Usually turn off at night.

I never had any issue with mold developing, just alkali dust when cleaning or changing the pads.

Personally I would prefer A/C, the real thing anymore.

I live 40 miles north of Denver. Swamp coolers work great here and cost about 50 cents a day to cool your house down. AC works great also but will cost about $4 a day.

There are a couple of days a year that are so humid that swamp coolers usually don't work so good.

So Either solutions is good for this area.

Swamp coolers PITA. Drain the swamp and get Central AC.

When I lived in the high desert plains in Midland, TX, we had swamp coolers for our warehouse, but our offices had regular AC. Every home or apartment I was in had regular AC.

We had really hard water in Midland even after building the 7' diameter water pipeline to New Mexico. The water was so hard neither regular filters nor water softeners worked but reverse osmosis did work. We fed our swamp air cooler with reverse osmosis water because the maintenance would've been a nightmare with the hard water.

I've had houses and/or cabins in Colorado with neither, just a swamp cooler, and just an A/C. Depending upon how well the house is constructed and insulated, you can probably get by with any of them, but given the choice - an A/C is far superior, IMO, and IME. Keep in mind, though, all of my Colorado residential experience has been at elevations between 6000-8000ft. I go down to the cities plenty, but I'm always living in the foothills or higher, and it's definitely a solid 5* or more cooler up there.

I have 2 porta cool movable ones in my barn, great for when your cleaning, and help keep the horses cooler in the summer. However, for a house I would go with an A/C.

I grew up in a house with a swamp cooler only- not central AC. IMO there is no real comparison... Central AC beats it hands down. The only real nice thing about it is the amount of air moved- it is much more than a central AC unit. Once the humidity gets above like 60% or so the swamp cooler becomes totally worthless.

quote:

Originally posted by 2012BOSS302:
Swamp coolers PITA. Drain the swamp and get Central AC.

^^This.^^
I live in Arizona where it's dry enough for a swamp cooler to work really well...until it doesn't.
Temps we deal with are way above what Denver deals with but any raised dew point means you are screwed.
Dry AC air + fans = comfort without cranking the AC down to monthly megabuck levels.

Your guns will thank you too.

A swamp cooler also provides a giant size hole through the wall or roof to the outside for you to cover or seal as best you can for the winter. In Denver that can be less than optimal.

quote:

Originally posted by qxsoup:
I grew up in a house with a swamp cooler only- not central AC. IMO there is no real comparison... Central AC beats it hands down. The only real nice thing about it is the amount of air moved- it is much more than a central AC unit. Once the humidity gets above like 60% or so the swamp cooler becomes totally worthless.

Dewpoint temperature, not humidity, is your controlling factor. Relative humidity will go up and down during a 24 hour period. Dewpoint temp is an actual measure of the water in the atmosphere. Once the dewpoint temp reaches about 55 degrees, switch to AC. Below 55, the swamp cooler will work well.
 

I can't stand swamp coolers & I live in the desert. Even when you feel cool you get that clammy feeling all over. Kind of like the cold sweats. No thanks.

We had a swamp cooler in Carlsbad, NM decades ago. Ours was in a bedroom window and it did a good job except on the rare humid day. Every spring we removed the used straw pads, cleaned everything up, and put in new pads. This was a very cheap way of staying cool. If we hadn't relocated we would have put the swamp cooler on the roof and put in a little ductwork to better control cool air distribution.

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:
I dealt with swamp coolers when I lived in central New Mexico. As long as the humidity is low they are fine. Once it goes up,cooling goes down. You are just dumping moist air in on already moist air which does nothing.

[edited for brevity]

Agreed. The swamp cooler may take a slight edge off the heat, but central A/C makes you comfortable.

Thanks for all the replies so far. I'm not willing to rule them out, however, I don't think I'm willing to buy a house with one when I can't see how effective it is.

I have both swamp and a/c in my house. The early, warm, dry months in late spring, I use the swamp. When the rains come(July), it is the a/c. Then in early/mid fall, back to the swamp.....win/win

It hate swamp coolers with a passion, and I have used them in the desert. AC all the way.

I think your responses are pretty much unanimous. Get A/C.

LOL. Yeah.

The Mrs. and I are looking at moving within the city and a number of the older houses have swamp coolers. I'm pretty convinced, but she gets a vote too. Thankfully, running this poll to my "invisible friends" was her idea, so I'll happily share the results.