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You Ready To Fire Up your Swamp Cooler?

April 28, 2008 | By Kelley Koehler | Filed Under Repair Renovate Maintain 

It’s heating up in Tucson!  I’ve seen lots of people on their roofs this weekend getting their swamp coolers ready for the season.  I have a friend who claims to not know how to service his swamp cooler, to get it ready to use.  I think they just are trying to get me to go over there and do it for them, but how will they ever learn if they don’t figure it out themselves?

But let’s review the basic concepts.

Hopefully, you winterized the unit properly (or had it winterized properly, if you weren’t feeling so handy).  It should have been completely drained and cleaned, pads removed, motors oiled, unplugged, water turned off and water line emptied, possibly the pan rust-scrubbed and coated, and kept covered over the winter.  If you didn’t do those things, you may fire the evap cooler up and find water dripping out the bottom of the holes rusted through the water pan.  In which case, just get off the roof and call your home warranty person or a cooler repair person.

You’ll need to turn the water back on, make sure there are no holes in the supply line.  You’ll need to install fresh cooler pads as well.  If you winterized everything properly, setting up the cooler for the summer season should be a snap.  Remove cover, turn on water, install pads, plug in pump and motor, and voila.

If you’ve got a MasterCool, you can download their user manuals at the MasterCool site, which should help you figure stuff out and do some basic troubleshooting. 

Don’t know if you’ve got a MasterCool?  Does your evaporative cooler draw in air from one side or from 3 or more?  If it’s pulling air in from only one side, chances are, it’s a MasterCool.  MasterCool pads and operation are a bit different from the traditional evaporative coolers.

If you’ve got the regular non-MasterCool type of swamp cooler, best bet is to go down to your friendly Ace Hardware and ask for help, if you get stuck.  Don’t forget to measure the size of the unit so you know what size pads to purchase.  Otherwise, you’ll be making lots of trips on and off the roof and back and forth to Ace.  Trust me on that one.

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