Belt based evaporative coolers - do they still exist?
Years ago I had a evaporative cooler (I use partly as cooling, partly as air filtration and partly as humidification) and I've never seen it's like. All the ones I had since have been fixed bucket (so hell to clean and a pain to fill), with a cheap water pump to a trickle filter (some easier to clean the filters, but the pumps always die after time) and cheap louvres for aiming (which the kids break)...
But the one I had years ago was perfect engineering: instead of a pump, it had a nylon mesh/weave/carpet bit that was in a loop and on a pulley. one end dipped into the removable water tank (just a bucket really) and the other end had a simple gear that turned so the whole loop acted like a conveyor belt that slowly dipped the mesh into the water and out again in a loop. The whole belt and mesh were removable for cleaning, it had no pump to go wrong and it was a very solid cooling system for years.
The problem is I'd love to see these belt based evaporative coolers become a norm, but I've never seen one since. Is there some term I need to search for, or are they really being withheld (I imagine a non replaceable pump with a <1.5 year life is a more profitable strategy). As an engineer it annoys me to see such blatant avoidance of an elegant and effective design.
Re: Belt based evaporative coolers - do they still exist?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
KBarad
Years ago I had a evaporative cooler (I use partly as cooling, partly as air filtration and partly as humidification) and I've never seen it's like. All the ones I had since have been fixed bucket (so hell to clean and a pain to fill), with a cheap water pump to a trickle filter (some easier to clean the filters, but the pumps always die after time) and cheap louvres for aiming (which the kids break)...
But the one I had years ago was perfect engineering: instead of a pump, it had a nylon mesh/weave/carpet bit that was in a loop and on a pulley. one end dipped into the removable water tank (just a bucket really) and the other end had a simple gear that turned so the whole loop acted like a conveyor belt that
tunnel rush slowly dipped the mesh into the water and out again in a loop. The whole belt and mesh were removable for cleaning, it had no pump to go wrong and it was a very solid cooling system for years.
The problem is I'd love to see these belt based evaporative coolers become a norm, but I've never seen one since. Is there some term I need to search for, or are they really being withheld (I imagine a non replaceable pump with a <1.5 year life is a more profitable strategy). As an engineer it annoys me to see such blatant avoidance of an elegant and effective design.
Belt-based evaporative coolers are still on the market but may not be as popular or widely advertised as direct-drive types. So it's hard to find a place to buy it.
