Swamp cooler VS Fantastic fan August 23, 2005, 10:18:00 pm Yahoo Message Number: 57203Have 1992 MB. Swamp cooler pump is bad $40.00 for new pump. Thinking of putting in Fan Tastic fan model 5000RBT.$180.00 I see in past posts this has been done. My ?s has this been a good change for you. Does it feel as cool as the swamp cooler on you. It looks like the Fan Tastic uses less AMPS. How about the noise level less than swamp cooler? I live in Cal. do most of my camping in the West. When I used the swamp cooler I didnt notice any cooling in the rig. Any other info would be appreciated THANKS BILL
Re: [Life With A Lazy Daze RV] Swamp cooler VS Fantastic fan Reply #1 – August 23, 2005, 10:35:27 pm Yahoo Message Number: 57205At 02:17 AM 8/24/2005 +0000, you wrote:QuoteThinking of putting in Fan Tastic fan model 5000RBT.$180.00 I see in past posts this has been done. My ?s has this been a good change for you. Does it feel as cool as the swamp cooler on you. It looks like the Fan Tastic uses less AMPS. How about the noise level less than swamp cooler? I live in Cal. do most of my camping in the West. When I used the swamp cooler I didnt notice any cooling in the rig. Any other info would be appreciated Our old rig had a swamp cooler which we swore by, both for cooling and for ventilation (both positive and negative). Our new one has a Fantastic Fan, which is equally good (or better) at ventilation but doesn't offer the cooling feature. Since we rarely use hookups, the roof a/c is of little use, but since we also rarely camp in high summer where it gets really hot, we don't mind too much. The noise level seems about the same to me, having used both methods. If your swamp cooler isn't actually cooling, you may need to do some troubleshooting. When we first got ours, we cleaned the unit thoroughly and had to do some fixing to be sure the water was reaching the cooler.I can't remember exactly what it was, but it was not difficult or expensive. If you have an older Recair model, another company has bought the parts line and you can shop for replacement items online now. Swamp coolers don't feel like "real" a/c, but work more on an evaporative principle. They will surely cool you down in a low-humidity heat, such as we get in most of the West, but they are useless back East during the heat and humidity of summer. Our swamp cooler made a noticeable difference on hot days, and I do miss that feature.Sonsie
Re: Swamp cooler VS Fantastic fan Reply #2 – August 24, 2005, 01:43:26 am Yahoo Message Number: 57208Quotelive in Cal. do most of my camping in the West. When I used the swamp cooler I didnt notice any cooling in the rig. Any other info would be appreciated Sounds like the swamp cooler wasn't working. You did turn on the water valve, right? And, the pump was on? You won't get any water flowing to the pickup tray otherwise. Ours cools significantly, whereas the FF does not cool at all - all this assuming a VERY dry environment. This summer in SoCal has NOT been dry, so even with some cooling effect the performance of ours was not great.Since we do most of our trips in cooler weather and locales, our cooler has seen little use. If this is true of you too, then you might not want to keep it. If you boondock in the desert, though, and don't want the disconnection from the outside an air conditioner forces, the evaporative cooler is very handy. The FF is definitely quieter and more efficient at moving air than the cooler, if those are your priorities.Steve
Re: [Life With A Lazy Daze RV] Swamp cooler VS Fantastic fan Reply #3 – August 24, 2005, 10:34:33 am Yahoo Message Number: 57214QuoteWhen I used the swamp cooler I didnt notice any cooling in the rig. As others have said, you might want to have your swamp cooler checked out -- sounds like it's not working properly. My mother has an evap cooler on her house that she uses in Phoenix until the dew point gets up to over 50% at which point, it becomes ineffective, and she switches to A/C.Linda Hylton2004 Red 23.5' TKFrom Chickahominy Reservoir West of Burns on US-20 See where we are: http://map.datastormusers.com/user2.cfm?user=1167
Re: Swamp cooler VS Fantastic fan Reply #4 – August 24, 2005, 10:47:15 am Yahoo Message Number: 57215Quotelive in Cal. do most of my camping in the West. When I used the swamp cooler I didnt notice any cooling in the rig. Any other info would be appreciated It could be that you didnt have a window open or door. We have a swamp cooler at home and in order for that to work is by allowing the air to flow thru the house and exit out a window that is open (hopefully on the other end of the house or whatever room your going to be in) so it can draw the air out and cool. When we totally close the house off with nothing to draw the air it doesnt do a thing to cool and just feels kinda muggy inside. Unfortunatly the swamp cooler in Mz. Daisy sprung a leak in the lines underneath the cabinets and it looks like the refer and the stove has to be taken out in order to replace the lines. When we were able to use the swamp cooler in her it worked great and I sure miss having that in working order, but I dont think I want to spend the money to get that fixed since it looks like alot of labor involved. Well I hope all this makes sense and thats all you needed to do. I know alot of people arent familiar with how a swamp cooler works.Martha 1987 Mz. Daisy Quartz Hill, Ca
Re: [Life With A Lazy Daze RV] Re: Swamp cooler VS Fantastic fan Reply #5 – August 24, 2005, 12:40:41 pm Yahoo Message Number: 57223Good advice. Swamp coolers depend upon the free flow of air. You need to have windows open at least to the same size as the intake on the swamp cooler. If you throttle that flow down, don't expect much cooling from a swamp cooler. And it goes without saying that they only work in low humidity conditions. That's why LD has used swamp coolers all these years, as much of their use was in the deserts of California.Dick
Re: Swamp cooler VS Fantastic fan Reply #6 – August 24, 2005, 01:16:46 pm Yahoo Message Number: 57226Quotefeels kinda muggy inside. Unfortunatly the swamp cooler in Mz. Daisy sprung a leak in the lines underneath the cabinets and it looks like the refer and the stove has to be taken out in order to replace the lines. When we were able to use the swamp cooler in her it worked great and I sure miss having that in working order, but I dont think I want to spend the money to get that fixed since it looks like alot of labor involved. Well I hope all this makes sense and thats all you needed to That would be a shame, but it is also very rare that copper tubing would rupture, and this is a relatively low pressure system. It would be most likely to occur if the tubing had been improperly bent passing around a corner, or has been damaged where it is exposed. Much more likely would be leakage at a fitting, with the water flowing along the outside of the tubing and then dripping to the floor remotely. Those should only be at the petcock valve where you turn on the water flow, or up at the cooler itself. Either should be reasonably accessible.Steve
Swamp cooler VS Fantastic fan Reply #7 – August 24, 2005, 10:32:14 am Yahoo Message Number: 57213QuoteIf you boondock in the desert, though, and don't want the disconnection from the outside an air conditioner forces, the evaporative cooler is very handy. Steve, I'm curious as to how much water an evap cooler goes through. While I can see it being great for boondocking because it runs on 12-volt power, I wonder how quickly one would go through their 50-gallons of fresh water?Linda Hylton2004 Red 23.5' TKFrom Chickahominy Reservoir West of Burns on US-20 See where we are: http://map.datastormusers.com/user2.cfm?user=1167
[Life With A Lazy Daze RV] Re: Swamp cooler VS Fantastic fan Reply #8 – August 24, 2005, 10:51:57 am Yahoo Message Number: 57216Quote Steve, I'm curious as to how much water an evap cooler goes through. While I can see it being great for boondocking because it runs on 12-volt power, I Quotewonder how quickly one would go through their 50-gallons of fresh water?Linda Hylton Linda: This is not Steve, but I can answer your question because we regularly use the swamp cooler.In desert use, meaning more than 12 hours per day on high power, we have yet to notice any drop in water capacity, even in boondocking for several days. When we start with the cooler dry, I do notice that it takes about 18 cycles of the float to fill the reservoir, which holds about 6 ounces. And I notice that in the driest weather, it hits a float cycle about every 10 seconds. This amounts to 2 ounces a minute, or about a gallon an hour, theroetically. Again, we've never noticed the water usage.You should be aware of one other factor, and that is, it can't drop the outside air temperature more than about 15 to 20 degrees. This means it is not enough in our sometime 105 degree days, even if parked in the shade. If in the sun, it is even less effective and frequently we have to run the generator and air conditioner.Hope this helps.Gus Weber
[Life With A Lazy Daze RV] Re: Swamp cooler VS Fantastic fan Reply #9 – August 24, 2005, 01:05:04 pm Yahoo Message Number: 57225QuoteSteve, I'm curious as to how much water an evap cooler goes through. While QuoteI can see it being great for boondocking because it runs on 12-volt power, I Quotewonder how quickly one would go through their 50-gallons of fresh water? Our '83 uses the Recair, so usage may be different with newer models/brands. We don't use ours enough to have that data, but I can tell you if you use it while driving, so much sloshes out you'll drain the tank quickly. Normally, I'd be more concerned with electicity usage, particularly at higher fan speeds. It uses about 2.5 times what our FF does, and higher speeds are more effective at cooling than lower. Although we have solar panels flat on the roof, we usually camp Fall to Spring, so even in warm weather the incidence of solar energy in Winter is at a shallow angle and provides about 1/2 the charging it does in summer.Steve
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