AC vs. Evaporative Cooler.

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I live in a desert climate in Southern California. My house currently has a central AC unit that is about 18 years old and not very effective at cooling anymore. An AC tech said I should seriously consider just buying a new unit.

I am thinking of going with a new AC system, or a central Evaporative Cooler (aka swamp cooler).

My research shows that a swamp cooler is less expensive to purchase and operate, and does a decent job cooling an entire home in hot dry climates. But, does it cool down enough, or will I regret not buying an AC? I have no experience with swamp coolers. Temperatures will be in the mid 90's to low 100's and very dry for a few months here.

Anyone here use a central swamp cooler unit, and can give feedback on their effectiveness, and other pros and cons?
 
18 years old is not necessarily done. I have one in a rental that is 38 years old. A few parts over the years but works fine. Maybe it just needs some maintenance?
 
Swamp coolers are gross, they're pretty much a giant humidifier. I would consider one for a warehouse or garage, but not a house.

As far as effectiveness, as soon as the humidity gets above 20% they are useless.
 
Mainly you use them where there is a lot of air exchange, as in commercial kitchens. Most doughnut houses have them. Air is cooled but then you don't get that cool because your body uses evaporation to cool itself and the humid air slows that.
 
We had a whole house swamp cooler growing up in western Colorado. I remember it worked great to cool the house. Remember you're going to have to go up on the roof to clean it and change the evaporation pads out every once in a while. I think they're great if the climate's dry enough to use one.
 
I live east of Redding Calif and have a swamp cooler is all I use for cooling. The Aspen type pads are higher maintenance than the Master Cool pads. but you can double up the Aspen pads which work better than any other type pads. Doubling the pads gets me up to a 20* drop in temps from the ambient temps when the humidity is low. The secret with a swamp cooler is they work be air flow so a window at the opposite end of the house has to be open . Adjust the air flow by seeing if a tissue paper just starts to slide down the screen when the cooler is running. An air conditioner works better. It is 95* now and the inside thermometer reads 78.
 
I live east of Redding Calif and have a swamp cooler is all I use for cooling. The Aspen type pads are higher maintenance than the Master Cool pads. but you can double up the Aspen pads which work better than any other type pads. Doubling the pads gets me up to a 20* drop in temps from the ambient temps when the humidity is low. The secret with a swamp cooler is they work be air flow so a window at the opposite end of the house has to be open . Adjust the air flow by seeing if a tissue paper just starts to slide down the screen when the cooler is running. An air conditioner works better. It is 95* now and the inside thermometer reads 78.
 
Originally Posted By: 3for3
I live in a desert climate in Southern California. My house currently has a central AC unit that is about 18 years old and not very effective at cooling anymore. An AC tech said I should seriously consider just buying a new unit.

I am thinking of going with a new AC system, or a central Evaporative Cooler (aka swamp cooler).

My research shows that a swamp cooler is less expensive to purchase and operate, and does a decent job cooling an entire home in hot dry climates. But, does it cool down enough, or will I regret not buying an AC? I have no experience with swamp coolers. Temperatures will be in the mid 90's to low 100's and very dry for a few months here.

Anyone here use a central swamp cooler unit, and can give feedback on their effectiveness, and other pros and cons?

Here in Phoenix we have the 3+ month monsoon (mid June to end of Sept), where humidity often gets too high for evap to work. Do you have the same in the SoCal desert? If so, you will need an A/C for that time. Generally once the dew point gets above 55 degrees evap is less effective, and can actually make it more miserable in the home. And yes, you need to keep on top of maintenance with an evap.
 
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Im in Apple valley. Almost every one uses swamp coolers.got mine running right now but it's getting too cold so I'll turn it off in a minute.

The electrical cost between a swamp cooler and as is hundreds a month!
 
Originally Posted By: mehullica
Look into a good whole house fan. Use one here on cooler nights, & in 100 degree days it says comfortable

When you bring night air your house will turn into a mildew and mold disaster..just ask me how I know.
 
Originally Posted By: Al

When you bring night air your house will turn into a mildew and mold disaster..just ask me how I know.


When the relative humidity is in the teens or less (it's 8% here right now) mold caused by night air is not a problem. This ain't Pa. (I lived in western Pa for 48 years).

We have a cooler that I haven't put water in for years. Run the fan in the early morning to pull cool air in for the day. We do fine with 2 window AC units that run in the evening. You can feel the humidity in the air when you walk inside and the swamper is running, and as said, during the summer monsoon season they pretty much don't work.
 
My experience here in Bisbee, Az. is confined to our 700 sq ft bungalow which started out with a swamp cooler. They are nasty IMHO as they are always pumping moisture into the house. And we've had a few leakage problems, mostly due to my mother in laws lack of maintenance. They also tear up electrify AND water.
We switched over to 2 small high seer window A/Cs and the house is cooler, drier and cheaper to keep it that way. The electric bill is about the same, but the water bill is back to minimum charge. Also, the A/C units take little in the way of upkeep.
If you stay on top of the occasional sales, they're not bad to purchase either. As a matter of fact I have one in reserve that I purchased during a sales event at Lowes.
 
OP, I see right now in your location it's 61% RH and dewpoint of 56deg. A cooler would do nothing at those levels. Best for you to check average RH & dewpoint for the hot months and see if it makes sense.
 
Great feedback from you all, thank you.

It is sounding like a new AC system is the way to go. It does get hot and humid here at times, and I would like to have a system that cools the house no matter what the humidity levels are outside. Plus the required swamp cooler maintenance mentioned, does not sound good to me. I don't want to be on the roof several times a year changing filters and dealing with water levels, leaks...

AC for the win, year round usage no worries.

The AC tech that came out to service the AC unit said it wasn't really worth putting any money into the old unit. He recommended I shop around for a new one.
 
We had an evaporative cooler for years, I still go over to my moms to work on it all the time. They need lots of maintenance, but it isn't hard. Once it gets humid they are worthless. At my moms they have A/C and evap cooler, in mid June they start up the A/C. Last summer the A/C went out so we fired up the cooler until an A/C guy could come out, it got humid out and we had to turn the cooler off, it was making it worse.

I'd cough up the cash and buy a new A/C. Much easier and worth the money, unless you can handle being uncomfortable with the evap cooler.
 
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
We had an evaporative cooler for years, I still go over to my moms to work on it all the time. They need lots of maintenance, but it isn't hard. Once it gets humid they are worthless. At my moms they have A/C and evap cooler, in mid June they start up the A/C. Last summer the A/C went out so we fired up the cooler until an A/C guy could come out, it got humid out and we had to turn the cooler off, it was making it worse.

I'd cough up the cash and buy a new A/C. Much easier and worth the money, unless you can handle being uncomfortable with the evap cooler.


They're the worst. The water is constantly evaporating so the entire thing fills up with calcium deposits, the float (picture a float inside a toilet tank) always gets clogged and you're pumping that disgusting humid air inside your house so you have to keep a window open to let all the positive air pressure escape.

I'm with Nick, cough up the $$ for a new A/C or nurse the old one along.
 
You might look into multi-zone mini split AC systems. I like the idea of them: only cool where you need it and no wasted energy cooling ductwork.
 
My ex-grandparents-in-law had a swamp cooler in their ranch house in Tucson, AZ, 30 years ago. I visited them in June and never got comfortable. The swamp cooler can lower interior temps by 20 degrees compared to outside . . . but when outside is 107 F., even bone-dry, that's not going to work very well.
 
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