Honeywell300 CFM Indoor Portable Evaporative Cooler, Fan & Humidifier with Detachable Tank, Carbon Dust Filter & Remote Control, Silver/Gray

This unit has changed our life. This unit is ideal for dry climates, such as Colorado. It arrived quickly, and we have used it everyday in our apartment! The unit is on castors, which makes it easy to move from room to room. It is also light enough that it is easily lifted.A full tank of water on high will last about 7-8 hours, which is perfect to fill up right before bed! A full tank on the low setting lasts even longer. I was worried the alarm wasn't working, but it does! And WHOA you can't miss it! I do wish the "cool" feature had an auto shutoff for after the alarm, but the alarm is loud enough that you can't ignore it (which means you won't be burning out the motor!)As with any swamp cooler or evaporative cooler, there is a little finesse you need to get the best results. The instructions say have one window open, but I suggest two, to keep your home from getting muggy. I put the unit near an open window, and across the apartment, I open another window with a box fan (on low) to pull the air through the house. Be warned, that method is exhaust the humidity, not to cool the entire house. This particular unit really only cools the room that it is in, like a bedroom. Our you have an open format home, it will cool the space around it, but not an an entire home.It's also important to know that if you are running this during a humid or rainy day, it's not going to be effective...however, I love that I can turn off the "cool" element to this unit and simply use it as a huge fan. That feature is HUGELY important.My only complaint is the water gauge. Occasionally ours gets stuck, so I have to give it a good thunk to see if it is actually full or empty. Still not an excuse to lose a star, but important enough the mention here.

I do have central A/C but it's very expensive to run, so this works for me on all but the hottest of days. I like that it doesn't require a hose hook-up, so I can wheel it around anywhere, even outside. There's a drawer in the back that slides open to pour the water in. Adding a couple gallons once per day is about my average. There's a water "gauge" near the bottom, but I've learned not to trust it as the float gets stuck occasionally. When the water gets low it will beep a few times as a reminder. If no water is forthcoming, no problem, it will continue in Fan mode and no immediate action is required on my end.It has a powerful fan even on Low, and will swing the airflow with internal louvers if a guest demands that you share. It works best with cross-ventilation, or two open windows, but sometimes it's SO hot outside I'd rather not.They won't cool your house or even your room much, but operate much like a fan, just with cooler than normal air. And on hot days, that feels great.Tip: If you're considering one, be sure to check the Amazon Warehouse, where I picked this up for less than half price. Many are perfectly fine but returned because I think some buyers may expect more of a portable air conditioner, or their ambient humidity is too high to receive any benefit. Mine varies but is usually around 40-50%. On days when it drops to 30%, I can really feel the difference in efficiency.UPDATE: 8/13/2017: Still loving it. In fact, I came here to order another one but I guess the middle of summer isn't the best time to find a good deal in the Warehouse.

I recently moved into a new apartment. Although it did not face the sun, it still got unbearably warm in the afternoon and retained that heat throughout the evening. Fans did surprisingly little to make my nights tolerable and my only other choice – unless I cared to break the building’s rules by sneaking in a portable air conditioner – was to have a window-mounted AC unit installed. For this slice of civility, I would need to pay more than $1,500 over the duration of my lease.For some people, that might be a worthwhile expense. However, it just made me feel like the money in my wallet would evaporate along with the heat. Since a third fan would not likely accomplish what the first two could not, I looked around for swamp coolers. The fact that they function less well in high humidity was dispiriting, but I decided to take the risk and buy this unit. After using it for a month – and because I did not see many reviews from others using it in humid environments like Hawaii – I feel confident writing a review.PROS- Makes temperatures bearable (in certain conditions)- Significantly cheaper than air conditioningTo make sure I could properly assess how well the unit functioned, I bought a humidity and temperature monitor. I used this model (ThermoPro TP55 Digital Hygrometer Indoor Thermometer Humidity Gauge with Jumbo Touchscreen and Backlight Temperature Humidity Monitor) and strongly suggest that anyone considering a swamp cooler buy a humidity monitor for reasons I will discuss below. For the week before my unit arrived, my bedroom’s average temperature was in the upper 80s with humidity hovering around 50%.When I first used the cooler, I placed the thermometer in front of the air outlet and the temperature dropped to 80 ºF and the humidity rose to around 60%. This was more than enough to be able to sleep comfortably and even get under a blanket because it got too cold. Great! What a change from sleeping in the buff.The instructions recommend keeping a window AND door open to let the humidity escape, but I prefer to keep the door semi-closed for a bit of privacy. This traps the moist air and increases the humidity to around 65%. When I wake up in the morning, the air coming from the unit feels only slightly cooler than air blown by a fan. This has been further corroborated by my experience when the ambient humidity (i.e. without the swamp cooler running) is around that figure. In such conditions, the cooler functions as little more than a fan.For this reason, I think it is critical to have realistic expectations of what this unit will do. If your room’s humidity is significantly more than 50%, I would not recommend this product. This also means that you must be okay with not getting value from the unit on days that are unusually humid, which may be the very days you would most want to cool yourself down. Furthermore, it is important to remember that this will NOT cool an entire room. It must face a person or a bed.Of course, this unit has benefits that might outweigh its drawbacks. Hawaii has the nation’s highest electricity prices, which makes operating an AC unit – even sparingly – a painful experience for those on tight budgets. The more you pay for electricity, the more attractive this unit becomes. Since it only requires tap water and does not draw more power than a 100-watt lightbulb, it is also a much more environmentally friendly option than air conditioning.CONS- Loud- Bright lightsEven on the lowest setting, the unit’s fan is both strong and loud. When I run it on low during the day with my windows open, I can just barely make it out over the sound of the nearby freeway. On high, it competes with the loudness of the nighttime freeway itself. At night, this does not particularly bother me since I sleep with ear plugs, but it might bother someone who is a light sleeper or has trouble getting to sleep in anything other than total silence. I wish the unit were a bit quieter, but I feel like I would have to spend twice as much to get a product that does that.The unit’s front has a series of intense blue lights to indicate fan speed, cooling, whether it is on a timer, and oscillation. Unfortunately, this only adds to the swarm of other things in my room the emit light when I am trying to sleep. I wish the manufacturer had included an opaque slide I could put over the lights to block them at night or had positioned there somewhere else so it would not face me while I am in bed.CONSIDERATIONS- Requires daily refilling- Heavy- MaintenanceUsing the unit on its highest setting overnight depletes the water tank. I could get two days of use on medium or low. In either case, however, I end up refilling the unit daily. This does not bother me since my bedroom is only a few steps away from my bathroom, but it is an extra minute or two that one must add to their routine.I separate the tank from the top half containing the fan when I refill the unit. However, filling it up all the way makes the entire thing surprisingly heavy. This may not make the swamp cooler a good fit for the elderly or those with disabilities. Moreover, it is impossible to tilt the unit and wheel it around. The tray that you are supposed to use to fill the unit opens and lets water escape. Whose bright idea was it to not include a latch or something?The instructions recommend performing monthly maintenance on the unit. I have not gotten around to doing that, but when I pour out the old water I do sometimes notice that it is slightly dirty – almost like lightly used mop water. This is because it is pushing air through a curtain of water that captures a lot of dust and other particulates that are floating around. Gross, but if it were not in the water, I would be breathing it in just the same. At any rate, I will update this review when I get around to cleaning the unit, but people considering buying it should be aware that it requires more maintenance than a traditional air conditioner.