We know all about the benefits of evaporative coolers and how great they are, but here’s how you can maintain your wonderful cooling investment to keep it working as efficiently and as long as possible.
- Regular servicing
- Evaporative coolers need to be serviced regularly to keep the unit working efficiently and effectively.
- Servicing also keeps the air inside your home clean and fresh.
- Lots of dust is blown around in Canberra’s dry weather, which becomes clogged in the wafers and can even be blown throughout your house if it isn’t cleaned out! Imagine not dusting your home for a year – that’s exactly how much dust can become clogged in your poor evaporative cooler wafers. An evaporative cooler service will clean out this dust (as well as any other nasties) and keep the air inside your home fresh and healthy.
- Ideally you should have your unit serviced at the beginning of each season around mid-late spring, as this will ensure you get the best start to summer cooling.
- Replace the water wafers every 3-6 years
- The wafers in your evaporative cooler are the pads which line the outside of the box. The water soaks these pads, and the fan draws in air through them, which is what gives you a cooling effect!
- Water eventually causes the wafers to deteriorate, as does the dust and other things which are blown in and clog together to block the wafers. Even with regular servicing to clean them, wafers should be replaced every 4-8 years, depending on the type installed.
- How often exactly will depend on the type of pads, water hardness and salinity level, as well as how often it has been serviced.
- Prepare for Winter
- At the end of the season, you should prepare your evaporative cooler for winter to prevent any frozen and burst pipes over the winter and as part of your recommended seasonal maintenance.
- The most important preparation is to turn off the water supply to the unit. After that, you should drain it if possible. This depends on the type of unit and your installation, but near the water supply you should have another tap which you can turn on after the water is isolated which will drain any remaining water from the pipe and unit.
We include isolation and drain down valves with every evaporative cooler we install because we know what can happen without them! Canberra winters can be freezing, and as water freezes it expands, which is bad news if it is in your pipes! Water from burst water lines can easily get into your roofing space, which means expensive damage to insulation, lights and even the gyprock. Even worse is that your insurance may not cover the repairs as the evaporative cooler was not installed in accordance with regulations.
