Product Recommendation - [Air Cooler]

In this post, we are providing at glance the products we consider to be some of the best offerings in the market in their respective categories. The products mentioned below have been put to rigorous tests, compared against the competing products from multiple brands, and have been analysed on various aspects pertaining to their intended use. For a comprehensive post on Air Coolers, you may read our detailed guide - https://shoppinaire.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-complete-guide-to-buying-air-cooler.html

Personal Air Coolers
For Indian residents:- Best Choice 1, Best Choice 2, My Preferred Choice, Best Choice 3, Best Choice 4, Best Choice 5, Best Choice 6, Best Choice 7, Best Choice 8, Best Choice 9, Best Choice 10, Best Choice 11, Best Choice 12, Best Choice 13 and Best Choice 14

Desert/Window Air Coolers
For Indian residents:- Best Choice 1, My Preferred Choice, Best Choice 2, Best Choice 3, Best Choice 4, Best Choice 5, Best Choice 6, Best Choice 7, Best Choice 8, Best Choice 9, Best Choice 10, Best Choice 11, Best Choice 12, Best Choice 13, Best Choice 14, Best Choice 15 and Best Choice 16

Tower Air Coolers
For Indian residents:- Best Choice 1, My Preferred Choice, Best Choice 2, Best Choice 3, Best Choice 4, Best Choice 5, Best Choice 6, Best Choice 7, Best Choice 8, Best Choice 9, Best Choice 10, Best Choice 11 and Best Choice 12

Note: In our constant endeavour to assist you in making an informed buying decision, we test the new launches of the products on multiple parameters, and if they stand tall in our analysis we periodically add them to the below mentioned list of our recommended products. So, if you plan to make the purchase at a later time, you may visit the links once again at the very time of buying to ensure that the purchase turns out to be a very fruitful one.

Recapitulating on the most crucial aspects of buying a air cooler -

FORM FACTOR

• Personal Air Coolers

As the name suggests, personal air coolers are mobile air cooling appliances that can effectively cool areas up to 200 square feet and can be moved to any location within one’s house as per requirement. Due to the relatively smaller area personal air coolers can cater to, they are best suited for bedrooms and/or medium sized living rooms. Castor wheels are attached to the bottom of the frame of the air cooler which help to increase the maneuverability quotient of personal air coolers and thus make them very versatile devices ready for being put to use right out of the box. Due to their compact form factor, personal air coolers are offered in water tank capacities up to 40 litres which can easily provide moisture to the cooling pads for about 8–9 hours.

• Desert/Window Air Coolers

This category of air coolers is very popular among buyers for the fact that its cooling prowess is not limited to just one bedroom or a small living room, but to areas in excess of 550 square feet. Therefore, just one desert air cooler is sufficient enough to adequately cool a major section of one’s home. Their massive storage tank, capable of holding up to 100 litres of water can provide efficient cooling for the entire day. Desert air coolers are also known by the name ‘Window air coolers’ for their place of installation being a window, just like that of window air conditioners. Unlike personal air coolers, desert air coolers need to be installed by a skilled technician filling the gaps and crevices by a suitable material created as a result of removal of glass pane from the window and installation of the air cooler in its place.

• Tower Air Coolers

Tower air coolers are by and large quite similar to personal air coolers both in terms of maneuverability as well as the effective area they can efficiently cool, but with the added benefit of an even smaller and a more aesthetically pleasing form factor as compared to personal air coolers. Since tower air coolers are more tall than wide, they take even lesser space on ground than personal air coolers making them an ideal choice for homes where space is a little constrained. 

 

IMPORTANT POINTS TO CONSIDER

• Power rating. For most homes, an air cooler with power rating between 130 - 230 W would make for an ideal choice. Power rating lesser than 130 W would result in relatively less cooling, and greater than 230 W would ensure excellent cooling, but would entail higher energy consumption which would result in higher than expected electricity bills. Therefore, power rating between the mentioned range would ensure a perfect balance between effective cooling and energy efficiency.

• Types of cooling pads. Primarily, cooling pads of air coolers can be made from two materials - Cellulose or Wood shavings/synthetic fibre. 

• Cellulose cooling pads - The cooling pads that make use of cellulose have an appearance as that of honeycomb and are appropriately named so. Such cooling pads are quite effective in providing the necessary chillness in the room, and also rank quite high in terms of durability, requiring replacement only once in two seasons. A great benefit of honeycomb cooling pads arises from the fact that apart from providing potent cooling, they also tend to dampen vibrations arising out of the air cooler when it is in use, thereby reducing noise. On the flip side, these tend to be slightly pricey and typically cost thrice as the ones made out of wood wool. However, these are costly in nature, typically thrice as costly as the second type of cooling pads called ‘aspen/wood wool cooling pads’.

• Wood wool - Cooling pads made out of wood wool have an appearance as that of dried grass and have a texture as that of wood shavings. These cooling pads are relatively less efficient and durable than the honeycomb ones and generally require replacement every season, but carry a huge plus point of being quite economical. As a result, air coolers that make use of wood wool cooling pads are relatively less pricey as well.

COST CUTTING TECHNIQUES

• Low-grade overheating electric motor. The electric motor rotates at high RPMs to power the blower/fan that throws cool moistened air into the surroundings. This makes the electric motor one of the most crucial components of the air cooler and therefore accounts to almost 30 per cent of the entire cost of the product. Hence, it is one of the favourite areas of some manufacturers to cut costs and increase their profit margins. Some manufacturers resort to using a below-par electric motor that is not powerful enough to keep the fan rotating at high speeds for long periods of time. After only a few minutes of use, these electric motors tend to get extremely hot. As you might be aware that metals expand on heating, which causes the copper windings in the motor to initially distort and then finally melt, thereby leaving the air cooler unit out of operation. Cost of repairing the motor might range from a few hundred bucks to more than a thousand bucks and this process is recurring.

• Inefficient cooling pads. Cooling performance of an air cooler is a result of the material used in manufacturing the cooling pads as well as their thickness. As a rule of thumb, cooling pads having thickness greater than 85 mm are most effective in sufficiently cooling the space. Thicker cooling pads also last longer than their thinner counterparts and require less frequent replacement. However, thicker cooling pads are a little costly, so in order to cut production costs and to reduce the overall cost of the product so as to lure innocent customers, some manufacturers resort to using thinner, poorly fabricated cooling pads, the cooling prowess of which is inadequate, which often results in leaving the users feeling uncomfortable and uneasy despite the air cooler being in operation for a long time.

For an extensive buying guide on Air Coolers, head over to our detailed post - https://shoppinaire.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-complete-guide-to-buying-air-cooler.html