Why is my Evaporative Cooler not cooling?
A troubleshooting guide to common Evaporative Cooler issues & potential solutions.
Is your Evaporative Cooler on, but cool air is not coming out?
Evaporative Coolers (also known as Swamp Coolers and Evaporative Air Conditioners or just Evaps) are a very efficient way to cool your whole house. But if you are not familiar with how they operate, you may not be getting the desired result.
If you have turned your Evaporative Cooler on but it’s not cooling, here are some things you can try at home before lodging a service call….
Its running in fan-only mode
A handy feature of Evaporative Coolers is the ability to turn into a huge fan by running in fan-only mode. In order to cool, you need to turn both the Fan AND Water Pump on.
For Brivis Evaporative Coolers, you need to have the 3 water droplets on, which is done by pressing the “M” button. Key 1 turns on the fan, then Key 2 turns the pump on. You can download the Brivis user guide here or for other brands, refer to your manufacturer’s user guide.
There is a start-up delay
The Evaporative Cooler needs to pre-wet the pads before cool air is expected from the duct outlets. This usually takes about 5 minute’s.
Some models have an additional delay time to open the damper which can extend the process to 8 minutes.
Its a humid day
Evaporative Coolers work by water evaporation. For this reason, they are only suitable for dry climates, which is why they are a popular choice of cooler in Victoria. However, we do occasionally get humid days. And when the air is humid, the water cannot evaporate.
If you want to keep using your Evap on a humid day, your best bet is to turn the water pump off, turn the fan up high and use it as a fan-only. If moisture is building up on the floor, ensure the outlet vents are directing air flow across the ceiling and not towards the floor.
Another option is to install a split system in your living room to keep cool on those occasional humid days and give your Evap the day off.
Not enough doors or windows open
While you can concentrate your cooling to certain areas of the house by closing doors and windows in the area you don’t want to cool, you still need to ensure you have enough open for the cooler to work properly.
No air coming out in certain rooms
As Evaporative Cooling doesn’t use zoning, chances are one of your ducts has disconnected from the outlet in the ceiling.
Low airflow is coming out of the outlets
The fan speed for Evaporative Coolers is adjustable, so turn up the fan speed
It was working, but now its not
Evaps can run in both Auto and Manual mode. While you cannot set a target temperature for cooling (you can only do this with refrigerated cooling), you are able to adjust the cooling level, lets think of this as a scale from a bit cool to maximum cool. When running on Auto Mode, the pump will turn itself off once it achieves whatever cooling level you have selected.
You can either turn it up or change it to Manual mode, so it wont do this.
Interested in installing a split system for those humid days?
Modern wall split systems are a lot more affordable and energy efficient than you might think!
Have a chat with one of our qualified staff members on 1300 146 525 or fill out our enquiry form.