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swamp cooler

11K views 22 replies 4 participants last post by  Von 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I've been trying to find a way to cool my shop down. Summer was slow getting here but it's heating up now.

kickin myself for not making room in the shop budget for insulation... and for not putting the lift in 90 degrees from where it's at and not putting another overnead door there and a double driveway... so the budget needed to be about 5 grand bigger for all the butt kickin to be diminished...

Anyway... I tried a window unit. Blocked off the walk in door with some old OSB and vented the unit outside... that was a no go. It wasn't a very big unit anyway.. maybe 5000 BTU, but it worked if my face was pressed up against the vent.

I've been looking for a used swamp cooler but can't find one. Don't want to spend $600 - $1000 for a new one. So I tried making one today.... just a test. Make a small one with crap I have laying around and see how it works.

My wife says "bleh" whenever I mention swamp coolers. She hates them. And she's one of those people that cringes when I say the word "moist". Don't know if it's related... But I'm trailer trash. I grew up in an old trailer house with a swamp cooler and I love them. I'm not about napping but give me a couch parked in front of a swamp cooler on a hot afternoon and I'll be out like a light.

Trailer trash story!
Both of my parents read a lot of sci-fi and I grew up with that, still read a lot of sci-fi. When the old Battlestar Gallactica series premiered on TV my dad was pretty jazzed up to see it. That was way before cable and we lived a few miles outside of town anyway. Dad bought a new antennae and new leads to get the best reception he could. Rushing to get the antennae up before the show started... running the new leads and didn't have time to do a drop or anything.. he got his .380 out of his jacket pocket and shot a hole in the wall behind the TV.
... and then was disappointed in the series. Good premise, crappy execution. the later remake was much better.

Anyway... impromptu swamp cooler.

Started with the frame off the old motorcycle jack. Took the cabinet off of it that I put on there last week. At the old house I had 2 20" box fans mounted in a frame under the carport. I mounted the frame and fans onto the old lift frame.

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Then I stole a panel from one of the rose bushes and zip tied some 1/2" ID nylon hose to it, then zip tied some batting to it too.

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4 pic limit...
 

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#2 · (Edited by Moderator)
I didn't have all the crap laying around.... had to go buy the mat, hose and a pump. I've got a pump I could have tried... but I think it's too much pump.

I put a 20 gallon tote in front of the fans, dropped the pump in, attached the hose and put water in it.

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It works... kinda messy. Splashes water. The water supply is me carrying water in with a gallon jug. It was about 100 degrees in the shop, had a bay door open and it was cooling half the shop down okay. Probably felt like mid 80's in front of it... which pretty comfy to me.

It was a good test though. Now I need to either build a bigger one that isn't so splashy and has a plumbed water supply... or fork over some bucks.

I also have this laying around.
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Planning on using it to move heat from the wood burning stove around but it could be dual purpose with a swamp cooler.

And these came in today.
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Spare front brake drums for the truck... they're getting hard to find so I snatched some up. Stacked them up in the Pile-O-Parts.
 

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#3 ·
Around here, swamp coolers don't work because they just take everything to 100% humidity and you are the one with swamp butt. I remember them from high school because they had them on the sidelines at football games. Then they got a turf field a few years later with ground up bits of tires as the granules that they shake down into the long fake grass to give it some cushion. The black tire granules absorbed all of the sun's heat and made for something like 120 degree temperatures on the football field (when it was in the 80s and 90s). They resolved it by putting in a sprinkler system that "cooled" the turf down, but resulted in 100% humidity on a 90 degree field! It was terrible.

I like the old HVAC fan. I have one just like it and I call it my "yard conditioner" because we take it camping when it gets really hot and it does the trick. I have had to build a block off for the intake because it will stall out and draw too many amps. It would be perfect for something like a swamp cooler.

Keep up the fun work!
 
#4 ·
Oh my, do I remember swamp coolers. Back before central air became popular and available, it was common to see swamp coolers on the roofs of older houses and used like central air. I had an attic fan with louvers mounted in the hall that would really move the air.
 
#5 ·
Where my wife works, they upgraded the production area about 5 years ago and switched from swamp coolers to central cooling. There's 2 big swamp coolers in the back of one of the warehouses... her boss said I could have one. I think payment was the display area floor gets waxed for free.

Besides being the Customer Service manager, part time production manager, part time receptionist, part time HR director, soon to be manager of all GSA contracts, trainer of everyone and writer of all manuals... she also has the cleaning contract out there.

She tested both of them yesterday and said they're both about 4 foot tall. Both need pumps and mats. One of them blows better so she put my name on it. We'll go get it tonight.
 
#6 ·
Bingo! That sounds a lot better than building one!

Tell her to keep up the good work and she might get promoted to more responsibility! :lol:
 
#7 ·
N law said:
Bingo! That sounds a lot better than building one!

Tell her to keep up the good work and she might get promoted to more responsibility! :lol:
Nu-uh! I'm not gonna pick at that scab.

Yeah... there's no telling what kind of POS I'd end up with I tried to build a bigger one.... I'm sure she envisioned something involving a walmart kiddie pool hanging from the ceiling...
 
#8 · (Edited by Moderator)
We picked up the FREE (sort of) swamp cooler last week. I'm guessing it's somewhere around 10k or 12k CFM.. fairly huge.

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The other one had a vent assembly with louvers but this one had a stronger fan.

Got it inside and on the lift.. cleaning and inspecting. It had about 2 inches of dirt and crumbled pad remains in the bottom. Pretty filthy.

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It has the usual rust. A bunch of small pin holes started and one or two pencil sized holes. It's crazy they continue to build these things out of metal. Even galvanized and a coat of good enamel paint, the shells just don't hold up.

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#9 · (Edited by Moderator)
It has some pretty bad crusty rust below the vent, at the seam between the pan and the sidewall.
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And rust from splatter over the belt.
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#10 · (Edited by Moderator)
When I was a kid helping dad get the cooler going every summer, it was usually when the temps were already over 90... mama was getting pissed and it needed to get moving NOW! No time for extensive repairs or makin it pretty. So it was usually scoop the crud out, replace the pump, pads, lines.. whatever it needed. then slop some tar in it and fly.

Shaggy's camper thread has inspired me to try to make an actual repair... maybe even a improvement. Not that my work will be anywhere near as thorough and well thought out as his. That Shaggy kid is something else...

I think I can epoxy patch the little holes but that rusty seam on the front has to go.

I found a Do Not Enter sign in the back of the 93 Z71 when I cleaned it out a while back. Nice, heavy aluminum sheet... I set it aside in case I needed a patch panel for something or other. Nice aluminum.... no wonder my taxes are so high...

hard part is bending that plate into a nice curve to match the pan.

I won't go into all the other methods I tried... except to say they all ended up with me either throwing something, cussing or sprawled across the floor... or any combination of those 3.

Ended up pinning the thing down under an old clothes line pole with the truck parked on it and using a big C clamp and straps to bring a piece of pipe into the game... halfassed brake.. actually got it started bending using my big butt, then grabbed the truck tire and put my feet on the sign to fold it over.
This is the halfway point...
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Still not quite the right curve on it but I think it'll work.

And today I marked where the patch will go and cut out the nasty bits.
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All I had time for today. It's my only day off this week. Spent the morning taking my stinky dog to the vet. 8 year old Australian Sheppard/ Blue Healer mix.

I got him from the Humane Society about 7 years ago for my oldest stepson.... but the dog didn't like him and said he was my dog..
He's been having a real bad dry skin issue going on for a while. And a couple of months ago some kind of infection going on in his ears. STINKS! The doc said it's probably a food allergy. When dogs have allergies they don't get the stuffy nose, watery itchy eyes. They get ear problems... mucus and yuck. It get's infected and grows yeast or mold or something... disgusting.

So... $232 later... he's up to date on Rabies shots. Is now on heartworm prevention meds. Is getting some new drops in his ears every day for a week. And can no longer have table scraps and is stuck eating a salmon based food for a while to see if it's a diet allergy. .... $50 for 33 lbs...

Not counting the food, so far he's $400 in the hole.. plus the $17,000 loss from the burglary last year that he didn't prevent.. just hid under the bed. Worthless SOB, he needs to learn how to mow the yard or something.
 

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#11 · (Edited by Moderator)
Got the patch put on. I had a can of Eastwood seam sealer that I'd bought for replacing the floorboards in the fairlane. Figured it'd go bad before I get around to that so used it on this.
My rivet gun broke about quarter of the way through so used some Tek screws I had laying around.
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Cleaned and scraped and wire brushed the inside of the pan. Then repeated a few times. Sprayed rust reformer on it. Then gave it two coats of bed liner.
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Used the aspen wood based pads. Messy but everything I read indicated they work much better than the synthetic pads like I used on the test cooler. the aspen absorbs the water. And all the pad retainers were missing except for two, need 12.

Used a roll of 24" chicken wire to hold it in. The panels are 16" wide, so the extra wire got rolled up and used as a spacer between pad and wire to help hold it in place... And some BBQ grill pieces... and whatever was laying round.
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Then built a stand for it out of treated 4x4s.
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And I made a vent snout out of 22 ga sheet steel and small aluminum angle iron and more rivets... got another cheap rivet gun.
No pics of the vent in progress
 

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#12 · (Edited by Moderator)
While I was doing all that... I was trying to figure out HOW I was going to get the thing out of the shop... around to the back of the shop.. and raised 6 feet into the air to put it on the stand. I can't believe how heavy those things are. There's nothing to them.

As usual, I just gave up planning and just started doing.

I could roll the cooler out with the dollies under the pallet, no problem. Lay some old paneling and OSB down to get it outside and onto the ground.

And I've got a couple of big trees and a small chain hoist.. just like swapping motors out in the water truck when I was kid.

Same time I started putting all that together Brayden was getting bored of playing GTA and eating frozen pizzas so he helped me out.

The "plan" was to stack pallets and stuff in the back of the truck until it was 6' tall and put the cooler on top of them. Then back the truck (the one with no power steering and the crappy turning radius) Past the tree, the Fairlane and between the flower bed and the shop... without hitting the gas line that goes into the ground by the flower bed.
Didn't have enough pallets. But I have a junk tool box in the yard and another in the back of the Z71. I put both boxes to the back of the bed and stack pallets on them.
Chain hoist in the tree. That involved a ladder in the back of the truck..
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Cooler airborne.
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Loaded up.
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Had it loaded to the side so it would line up with the stand better... then moved it back after clipping the eave on the shop and denting my vent.

It fit!
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#13 · (Edited by Moderator)
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I thought it went pretty smooth. From hanging the hoist to sliding the cooler onto the stand and Brayden getting back to his GTA took 30 minutes.

The stand was level and in the right position under the hole but about 1.5 inches short. Had to shim the cooler up with some old fencing. And I'm guessing that'll be an ongoing thing as the stand settles.
I still need to run the water line and strap everything down/lash it to the shop. We get some pretty good winds through there sometimes.

Thought about going total Shaggy on it... drill the factory rivets out, completely take it apart, sandblast and paint everything, maybe use the old pan as a mold and make a new fiberglass pan.... no. Too ambitious for me.
 

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#14 ·
Nothing like some good southern engineering to get the job done. All in all, looks like a great job. Now hook up that water and try her out. Supposed to hit 100 today.
 
#15 ·
itsmehb said:
Supposed to hit 100 today.
Yeah, every day...

Working this weekend. Off mon-wed. Hoping to get the line run early tomorrow and check everything out, clean up my mess in the shop and then replace the down pipe/catalytic converter and O2 sensors on the GTP. Then maybe get started on the pinion bearings on the rear end of the truck.
... never ends.

I sent my wife a couple of pics while we were doing it. She said OMG! I'm glad I'm not there!
 
#16 ·
I throw in on a warehouse/shop with 6 or 7 other guys where we work on our VWs and other projects. Its a 40' x 60' shop with a lift and a "paint booth." Currently it is not conditioned, but one of the other guy's dad just moved up from Texas and brought all his tools and shop equipment up. One of the items was a swamp cooler. Its a legit plastic housing with a hose connection and the cardboard (I think they are cardboard) fins. Its probably 30"x30". I think its called a porta-cool or something.

Lately the shop has been ungodly hot. We haven't gotten our normal rain that keeps the temperatures down and humidity up, so its been unbearable. Dude brings his dad's swamp cooler over and it does seem to be cooler, if you are RIGHT in front of the outlet, but it doesn't do a thing for the 2,400sf shop. His plans for today are to stop by on his lunch break and check the shop temp and turn the cooler on. Then, when he gets off work, see how low the temp has dropped. I don't have much hope for it to drop the temperature all that much, especially once we return to our regularly scheduled weather.
 
#17 ·
N law said:
His plans for today are to stop by on his lunch break and check the shop temp and turn the cooler on. Then, when he gets off work, see how low the temp has dropped. I don't have much hope for it to drop the temperature all that much, especially once we return to our regularly scheduled weather.
Yeah, that's not going to do much... If you can move it to where you're working it'll help but won't do diddly for the rest of the shop. Maybe if the shop is heavily insulated... nah, not even then.

I've got about 4600 square inches of pad on my cooler and guessing it's in the 10,000 to 12,000 CFM range, and it won't cool my 20x40 shop. Where I put it, it blows on the lift area and I leave one or both of the bay doors open. No insulation so if I close the doors the sun heats it up faster than the cooler than cool it down. And if I leave the doors open when I run it maybe my stuff won't rust up as fast.
In that 10 foot area in front of the cooler, where I was working on the Pontiac exhaust Monday, it's pretty nice. Back at the other end of the lift bay, where I was working on the truck rear end yesterday, it's merely uncomfortable instead of sweltering.

I haven't added up receipts but I think I've got between $350 and $400 in my free swamp cooler. Worth it...
 
#18 ·
Here in Northern Nevada there are alot of swamp coolers. I have a big one on my house. We are sitting at 100 today but with very low humidity, maybe 10%. I bought the cooler about 2000 and it has not rusted one bit in the pan. It was something new then, has an epoxy lined tray. But what is starting to show rust in the pad holders. We have hard water also, so its got white crappy stuff on it I have to brush off every year. I would like to have central air but that would require a complete change out of the heating system too. House was built in 84 but the heating system was old school (cheap). Now if I could get the one in the Trooper working I would be a happy camper.
 
#19 ·
hessmess said:
... I would like to have central air but that would require a complete change out of the heating system too. House was built in 84 but the heating system was old school (cheap). Now if I could get the one in the Trooper working I would be a happy camper.
My old house was all electric and had a heat pump... not the best option in winter, but all electric so few options there... Our "new" house (built 35 years before the old house) has gas and electric and has a gas furnace for the heater and an electric A/C. They share the same air handler and ducts. The A coil for the A/C is underneath the burner for the heater.

A friend at work's son works for a company that makes 4x8 foam panels. Not sure what kind of foam... or what they are intended for... but apparently they're also good for insulation. He's getting a load from his son and going to cover the walls of his shop then have the ceiling sprayed, he said I could have what's left. No idea how many sheets that would be.

yesterday I used my IR temp gun to track the heats on my walls and ceiling. Pretty predictable results, I just wanted to see the numbers.

It was 100-104 degrees yesterday (over 100 it really doesn't matter... hot is hot) Around 2pm the east side of the roof was 120 degrees, west side was 115, the back wall where the cooler is was 110 and both side walls were 105. I was just checking the end of the shop where the lift and cooler are.

We'll see if that deal goes through and how many panels I get. Figure I'll prioritize the ceiling on that end of the shop and then back wall, then both side walls starting on that end... Well, guess I'll skip the north east corner since my wood burning stove is there.
 
#20 ·
I've been toying with spray foaming a project myself using tiger foam. They sell dual propane tank sized setups that mix at the nozzle and let you do it yourself. Check them out: http://tigerfoam.com
 
#21 ·
N law said:
I've been toying with spray foaming a project myself using tiger foam. They sell dual propane tank sized setups that mix at the nozzle and let you do it yourself. Check them out: http://tigerfoam.com
hmmm... 3 of their 600FR kits will do my whole shop. ouch. One will do half the ceiling...
 
#22 ·
Check with a local spray foam company. I've heard you can get it for $2-3/sf from them. I've just wanted to do a little project or two around the house.
 
#23 · (Edited by Moderator)
That swamp cooler doesn't have a spider water distribution system on it. The water line from the pump goes up to a square PVC system that goes around the perimeter and has a plastic tube coming down over each pad panel.
When we were hoisting it up onto the truck we broke one of the plastic tubes off, and water pretty much goes everywhere from that one. I tried cutting a piece of 1 inch PVC conduit, notched at the top, to channel the water down... that worked for a while.

last week I was in the shop pulling the engine, trans and Xfer case out of the old Z71. Keeping the engine. scrapped the trans and Xfer case. they were TOAST. ZERO fluid in the transfer case... that chain was flopping all over the place.
I saved a few other bits and pieces and sold the rest for $400.

In the middle of all that the GFCI trips. Unplugged the cooler and reset, when I plugged the fan back in it tripped again. I went around back with a ladder to take a peek inside and THESE little fellas said "Whoa up there big boy"
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If it'd been yellow jackets I'd have just killt em.
I left the pump on and did this...
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That really didn't work very well... I put some cardboard up around the little fan and that helped.

The next day I left the pump off and plugged the fan in and it worked. Going out in a bit to see if the honey bees are okay with me desplashing that water outlet...
 

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