Evaporative Cooler in Waco, TX

[MINIz guy]

I'm in a rental for 8 months in Waco, TX, and want to figure out a way to cool down the garage (11x30) when working on my cars. Will a evaporative cooler work in my environment? RH is between 50-70% here and ambient will be around 85F. The Hessaire chart says it should work, but what are some real-life experiences?

 

[ratflinger]

Marginally at best. I grew up in the panhandle where RH was about 30% - evap cooling worked okay, at best, there. I'd get a window AC at HD or Lowes, you'll like it much better and can probably sell it when you leave.

 

[MINIz guy]

Marginally at best. I grew up in the panhandle where RH was about 30% - evap cooling worked okay, at best, there. I'd get a window AC at HD or Lowes, you'll like it much better and can probably sell it when you leave.

Dang, but at least saved my money there. I don't have windows in this apartment garage otherwise a window AC would be the easy button. I'm guessing the portable AC units would be even worse than the evaporative cooler?

 

[FredWanaker]

we had a wall "swamp cooler" in Riverside CA. Cooled about 1/2 the house. The bad news is that the humidity damages everything - the stucco crumbled in that room if one went to hang a painting, and things rusted. The other side of the house things were fine. Have to maintain the water too because Legionairres lives in coolers if the water is not kept properly clean and sterile. Bugs like moisquitos like it too for the same reasons they are called swamp coolers. If it is undersized it will make things worse. I'd go with a portable AC unit. They have an inlet and outlet hose. You can put on a door with a hole in it, run the exhaust out, and replace the door when you leave. Or if the garage has vents, you can remove a vent and exhaust there, then put the vent back when you leave. They come in many sizes. example https://www.amazon.com/dp/B091CHK173/?tag=atomicindus08-20 KEEP IN MIND THAT AC COOLING WILL CAUSE WATER that needs to be drained away.

 

[fitter30]

Window unit on a 4 wheel dolly and plastic sheeting 3-4 layers with a 2x4 holding in to the floor, 1x2 screwed to the door holding the other end of the sheeting. Breeze box fan to blow the air around.

 

[txvwnut]

I ran a swamp cooler in my shop for a while. Worked really well in the spring but not so much in the summer when the humidity levels are up. Now I just run fans mounted up close to ceiling and they work surprisingly well.

 

[MINIz guy]

Hmm, fans are an easy button so I can try that. I really don't want to be messing around with setups since I'll be moving again in January. The less new things I accumulate, the better!

 

[ching0n]

I wouldn't use in any place above 40% RH