Honeywell 500 CFM Indoor Portable Evaporative Cooler with Fan & Humidifier, Carbon Dust Filter & Remote Control, CL25AE

This actually works very well. I've had it for maybe a couple weeks now and so far it seems to be doing a good job. However, you really need to understand how to operate it properly to get the best results. Here are some notes to take into consideration: 1. It works best in the low humidity, but it's going to gradually increase the humidity in the room as it runs. 2. It's not going to cool the room like an air conditioner would, but if you have ice around it will cool similar to an a/c while it's using the ice. It actually gets to the point where you need to shut it down from getting the room too cool, but not when it's running only on water. 3. The water basin holds a lot of water. I've been using a 6 gallon plastic water bottle and a battery operated water pump. It makes it super easy to fill. If not, you'll need to have maybe a 2 gallon container to fill it. 4. One of the things I don't like is that you can get a slight odor in the air. I don't believe this is from the actual unit, but from the water when it adds humidity to the air. I'm going to try one of those aromatherapy diffusers, but it doesn't arrive until today. Hopefully this will help keep the air smelling fresh. 5. The unit will work with or without the window open. I do both because you get the fresh air from outside circulating. However, it will add humidity to the air faster with the window closed, which can sometimes make the room more comfortable if it's typically dry. All-in-all, it works great. There's just a learning curve to understanding what it will and won't do, plus how to set it up. Would recommend for sure. :-)

Positives - 22.0L is the actual usable capacity - water pump rate control ( control humidity/cooling level ) - removable and washable prefilter and pad - works as an air filter as well (can trap viruses) - 1.26L per hour on low/min fan speed and max water flow rate - pad wicking humidification ( no hard water white dust ) - fan and motor noise is 43dB on low fan speed ( 49dB max) one meter away - separate ice loading compartment on top of the unit - infrared controllable ( therefore, wifi controllable/programmable with a separate 3rd party infrared/wifi unit ) - infrared sensor is sensitive (good angle, distance ranges & may not need to be direct) - casters/wheels can be replaced by 3" after market standard office chair casters (no brakes) Negatives - no factory warranty in Canada unless bought from Canadian Tire - power on to standby only not to the last setting ( won't resume to last setting after power outage ) - low fan speed is too powerful ( consuming 140 watts and generating 43 dB of motor/fan noise one meter away ) - may be too noise for small bedrooms - depth and width of the unit made it bulky ( more height instead would be better ) - no humidity/temp sensor (no auto mode based on conditions) - "sleep mode" means the fan set to high for 1h then med for another 1h then continue on low - water holding compartment is not sealed ( water will spill when moving the unit full of water )

Terrible product!! Design is flawed as water filling door is located lower than max fill line. This makes it so that the product can not be filled according to directions. The cooler also leaked water through the seams creating a huge mess. Overall cheaply made with flawed design. Do not buy this product.

Attention!!! Needs to be cleaned at least once per month! I use this everyday for at least 5 hours. When you start to get a funny smell I drain, add distilled white vinegar and wash the media once per month. I do this in the bathtub and it is easy to clean. Just allow time for parts to fully dry. I put the media (filter) outside in the sun to "deodorize" to avoid odor. I use dish soap to clean filters. When you do this it avoids a "smell". This was waiting for me when I got home and I must say that this is one of the smartest purchases I've ever done! It works great and keeps my room cool! I followed the directions and added ice and this blows air (with ice) at 64 degrees! Without the ice it still blew around 70 degrees! My AC unit did not turn on the entire time I had this running. Definitely a money saver on my electric bill! I had the ceiling fans running and place this in my living room allowing the air to be evenly distributed throughout my home. Also, the fan is VERY strong! In other words, I run it only on low. The fan really puts out a TON of air! I tried medium and high for fun and it really moves the air. The sleep mode seems to run the fan on medium which is a little strong for me. It is not near as noisy as I anticipated and you get used to the sound very quickly. It isn't so much as a fan humming sound as it is hearing the airflow move. The pictures I included are the unit running solely on room temperature distilled water with no ice. I believe the pictures speak for themselves on how well this unit works. It is a little water "hungry" but I did buy the 53 pint unit. It takes almost 6 gallons of water to fill but the water doesn't need changing for at least a week depending on where you use it. It has a water level gauge on the front to let you see minimum and maximum levels. I only put in three gallons of water. I love how the level meter is "float" controlled by the water in the tank. This gives a more accurate reading since adding ice will add to the water level. I recommend no more than 5 gallons if using ice. It has water that runs over the ice to help melt it and it REALLY cools the air down very quickly. Again, buy this and you'll never regret it!!!! Very happy customer and I am buying 2 more!

Update Year 3. My girlfriend asked on a hot day, why aren't you using the swamp cooler. So I cleaned it off and filled it up. Oh yeah the pump doesn't work. It probably stopped working the first year which is why I didn't use it since then. At first I was pleased that it had stopped dumping water out of the back, but this was only because the pump was failing. So I ordered a replacement pump. No refunds on the pump. Honeywell must know what junk this thing is. I took off the back and thought well, I'll also fix the depth indicator (this had never been installed. Impossible to get to. I want to just throw the whole thing out (and never buy another Honeywell anything ever again). But I can't cancel the pump I ordered yesterday that won't arrive for for another 10 days. (They claim it was already shipped. I ordered it 6 pm Saturday, it's 3:30 pm Sunday) Update: 1 Year. It leaks out of the soaker frame in the back-all over the floor. Can only be used outside. No reason this suddenly started happening. It's not an easy fix. The low fill door and missing water level gauge has been a huge annoyance. It would have been so easy to put a large funnel on the top for filling. There are inexplicable button combinations that disable speed. Default On is fan, not cooling. Bottomline? This unit just seems badly designed in many wrong ways. Update: One month. Cleaning. There doesn't seem to be anyway, other than through the fill door to get my hand, and a sponge to the bottom of the tank. There seems to be no instructions for cleaning it out. TIP: before buying any evaporative cooler Google how to clean it first. Honeywell only seems to have marketing happy talk. General instructions for this type of cooler are not useful because there's no way to get inside this model. I've only run reverse osmosis water, and ran maybe 12 gallons through in the past month, last weekend after I filled it up I noticed gunk floating around in the water. So it needs cleaning out on a regular basis. Not a big deal-- if you can gain access. Old review: I just received this and got it working. What I immediately noticed: Instead of one useless user manual, there are two. There's also a Honeywell video, don't bother: You already know what a swamp cooler does. You can read the buttons on the top of the machine. That's all the video covers. A complete waste of time. What is the capacity of this? I think it's about 6 gallons, but I couldn't find anything in the manuals or the website that cover this. The water level window seems pretty useless (that's because the indicator needle is sitting loose on the bottom of the tank. ) I put in at least three gallons and it doesn't even register at the Minimum. It takes a lot of water, but the water intake door is just OK at best. They could've easily designed a huge funnel as the side panel to raise the point you add water, and so you could add water as fast as you can pour. ) It cools by adding water to the air, that water evaporates which requires heat, so the air cools. If you use this in a closed room, the humidity will rise to the saturation point and no more cooling will occur. I'm using this in Los Angeles where humidity levels are 45% to 60%, though the first day I used this the report was 84%. It's worked pretty good across this range. The output fan is strong, the output temperature is about 10 degrees F below the temperature of the intake air. It sits next to an open door, so it's not recirculating room air. This should give you an idea of how well this will work. It sits near where I work on my computer, at low the air flow is pretty high, so if you need a swamp cooler for just one person in one basic position, then this unit is probably too large 500 CFM, half would probably do it. I remain annoyed about the fill method and it arriving with a broken fill level indicator. (Using the levered needle is pretty stupid design. The fill level window is very low on the unit. There's a float right next to this stupid fill level window. So why even use a float and a lever if the level window is so low on the unit???? With a float or levered indicator needle it would be dead simple to show the level right at the top of the unit where it could be easily read. Also the ice compartment at the top. It would not be at all difficult to add a little flap and make this the fill point-it's huge compared to the stupid little flap on the side. Anyone at Honeywell paying attention????)