Things to Consider Before Buying an Air Cooler

The Air Cooler Guide: Everything You Need to Know About Air Coolers This Summer

With global warming, temperatures have skewed towards extremes. Spring season has shrunk to a few days, if that. Summer is almost upon us, and we can feel the rising temperature every day. In a matter of weeks, the temperature will be unbearable, demanding air conditioning. These days ACs are the preferred choice of people, but the old-school conventional air coolers still hold a very special place in almost every household in Pakistan.

If you are planning to buy one, make sure to consider the following before buying an air cooler.

Types of Air Coolers

There are different types of air coolers depending upon the utility and requirements. Let’s find out.

1. Personal Coolers

Personal coolers are small and portable and therefore ideal for a small room. These mini coolers have enough cooling capacity to cool down a small room with 2-3 people. However, they work best for one or two persons sitting closeby.

Personal coolers are affordable, easy to maintain, consume less electricity, and humidify dry air. Thanks to their highly efficient blower that usually consumes less electricity than a fan, they won’t let you feel the heat while staying light on your pocket.

2. Tower Coolers

Tower coolers are compact tower-shaped coolers with high efficiency. Most tower coolers use superior water-flowing technology to ensure higher cooling. Geepas, Dawlance, and Haier usually make such coolers. A water gauge is also standard in many tower coolers from reputed brands. These are usually more advanced and sometimes can be operated with remote controls.

These come in various sizes and water capacities, depending upon your requirements. Big-sized tower coolers can cool down halls and big rooms easily.

3. Window Coolers

Window coolers are often called “Lahori Coolers”. They are perhaps the most common type of air coolers in Pakistan.

Window coolers are box-shaped coolers with honeycomb or wood wool cooling pads. These coolers are considered the most efficient and energy-saving. The air is cooled down in no time. However, these require periodic maintenance and are more prone to damage.

4. Desert Coolers

Desert coolers are best suited for areas having high temperatures and low humidity. These use specialized honeycomb pads that are super-efficient in evaporating and cooling down the air. These can cool down areas twice as much as window coolers. The main reason for the excellent air throw of this type of cooler is the use of fans instead of blowers.

Desert vs. Window Air Cooler: Which is Better?

These are the most common types of air coolers found in Pakistan. If you wonder which is better, conventional window coolers or desert coolers, let’s evaluate the pros and cons of each below.

Desert Air Coolers	Window Air Coolers
High initial cost	Low initial cost
Honeycomb-shaped cooling pads	These mostly use wood shavings
Less periodic maintenance	High maintenance
Expensive parts	Cheaper parts
Highly efficient	Medium efficiency
Durable plastic build	Poor build quality
Complex to fix	Easy to fix

Window coolers, mainly Lahori coolers are everywhere. This is largely because they cost less, and it’s easier and cheaper to maintain them. Usually, the price of desert coolers in Pakistan is twice as much as regular window coolers.

Honeycomb vs. Wood Wool: Which is Better?

What distinguishes one air cooler from the other is its cooling pads. Desert coolers and many advanced air coolers use honeycomb-shaped cooling pads. These are specifically made to quickly bring down temperature. These pads don’t wear off that easily and hence require less maintenance.

However, when you have to clean them, the debris stuck in the honeycomb won’t come off that easily. Getting the cooling pads off the room cooler is itself a challenge since they’re tightly screwed to a plastic frame with the help of nuts and bolts. The price of air coolers in Pakistan having a honeycomb cooling pad is usually higher.

The use of wood wool in “Desi Lahori Coolers” is also an effective and time-tested material to cool down temperature. The water evaporates perfectly, creating a reasonably humid environment. However, due to poor build quality, with so much water around, metal sheets may begin to rust. It’s very difficult to use similar cooling pads for two consecutive summer seasons. It’s pertinent to mention that these are inexpensive and easy to remove and replace.

What are the pros and cons of an air cooler?

While much cheaper than air conditioners and hence affordable, air coolers are still not for everyone. Nonetheless, they have their benefits other than their cost. Let’s take a look at them first.

Advantages of Air cooler:

As mentioned earlier, air coolers are cheap. You can get them for Rs.7,000 to Rs.25,000. On the other hand, a 1-Ton AC would cost you anywhere from Rs.60,000 to Rs.70,000.
Air coolers consume less electricity as compared to the ACs.
Air coolers are eco-friendly and do not heat up the environment like the ACs.
Portability is one of the best features of room coolers. You can move the room cooler to anywhere you want.

Disadvantages of Air cooler:

You shouldn’t get an air cooler if you live in a humid climate. These coolers add to humidity, hence making it hard to breathe in an already humid climate.
Air coolers are not totally maintenance-free. In case of window coolers, the cooling pads need to be replaced once every year. Cooling pads in desert coolers may last for a few years, but they are quite expensive to replace.
Air coolers are noisy and may disturb your sleep.
Maintaining water levels can be a hassle.

What to take away from this blog?

Air coolers are affordable and reliable machines that can lower high temperatures in a matter of minutes. Their low running cost and price make them an ideal air-cooling product in Pakistan. If you’ve decided to get one, there is a huge variety available in the market and you might get confused. Gathering information in advance about air coolers is therefore very important.

Find some used and new air coolers in Pakistan in OLX classifieds. Let us know in the comments section which type of air cooler you prefer and why?

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