Initial swamp cooler turn-on

[KenK]

After cleaning up the swamp cooler, lubricating, changing pads, removing last year's calcium, etc. for a new season how do you clean the dust and dirt out of the blower that shows up when the cooler is started up the first several times? I use an old A/C filter I hold against the inside-the- house grill to collect most of the dirt. The front grill doesn't come off, that I can figure out, to allow vacuuming it inside. I'm not sure where the dirt comes from - the new pads or it collects during the winter.

How do you handle this annoyance?

Also softening hard well water. I usually use one of those white blocks in the water pan. This year I may try an in-line water filter/softener. Ever try one of these?

TIA

[KenK]

jamesgang wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I probably used the wrong word. "Water Supply Line Scale Eliminator" "For evaporative coolers".

I suspect I'll stick to the white block. They last all summer - this 'filter' says to change every three months. Too expensive!

[KenK]

KenK wrote in news:XnsA2FD44400B9A5invalidcom@130.133.4.11:

I tried the blower before I put the sides (and pads) on the cooler this year. Same dust and dirt. So it accumulates during the winter. My vacuum not strong enough to suck up the dirt through the blower blades with the cooler sides off.

[Retired]

Don't you cover your swamper during the winter, with the canvas cover made for them ??

[-Aaron]

In my early days of using a swamp cooler (40s-50s) we had no recirculator. So we just ran a hose down to water the yard. There was little scale left on the louvers each season and those coolers lasted for years.

When recirculators came into use the coolers would rot out much faster. But even so they were still relatively cheap to repair or replace.

My last experience with a cooler was with what we called a piggy-back. It was a cooler built on top of an AC unit so that when the humidity was low you could get the same house temperature with 20% of the electric bill. But you didn't have to suffer when the humidity was high. (With today's better efficiency AC units and insulated houses the electric savings may not be as great.)

The dust smell when turning on the cooler for the first time each season in my house was from the dust that had settled in the ducts over the winter. Though the gas furnace use the same duct system, the blower was much slower. So when the big cooler fired up it blew out the ducts. You could actually see the stuff come out of the registers. It only lasted for a few minutes though. Those were great days.. ;)

[The Daring Dufas]

I have worked on a number of swamp coolers but they're not common here in high humidity Alabamastan unless they're installed in a business or restaurant kitchen. As with all units which have a squirrel cage blower, the only way to really get it clean is to remove the blower, most will slide out, and get after it with a brush and water hose. I've had to pull a lot of them out of HVAC air handlers and clean the blades because the dirt build up will make the blower much less efficient at moving air. It is a pain in the buttocks to clean them. ^_^

TDD

[Stormin Mormon]

NYS has few swampers. The one I've seen was the one I helped take apart, and haul away. The squirrel cage blowers can be lot of work to clean. One I did in middle of winter, trying to wash it all out with a garden hose, standing in snow. No fun. Summer time, I'd probably have used a pressure washer.

[gregz]

I guess yearly maintenance is a good idea. I had one in a desert apartment. I did some maintenance on it one time, otherwise it served me well for 5 years. I'm not even sure I turned off the water in the winter. I didn't see any maintenance being done in the army barracks I was at.

Greg

[KenK]

Oren wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I live in the desert too. I've several times seen 115 here, rarely even higher. 110+ is normal in summer. We have a monsoon season that begins in mid-summer and lasts until fall. High humidity and thunder storms, rarely (thank God!) hurricanes or tropical storms. Yet I continue to use my cooler all summer. The humidity doesn't bother me as much as the expense of A/Cing. My A/C rarely gets used. Lucky I've not married or I'd no longer be and would be paying alimony instead of A/C electric and repair bills.

I've replaced many cooler motors - at around $60 if I remember, vastly less than a month's A/C electricity. At 79, hiring someone's labor to replace it costs more than the motor. I keep a spare on hand, just like a spare water pump, blower belt, and entry water valve and float.

You pretty much have to replace the pads every year, some do so more often. And while one is at it, might as well lube the blower and scrape out the crud.

To each his own.