Top 6 Best Evaporative Coolers (under $500)

Do you want to maintain a cool indoor or a semi-outdoor environment in the midst of hot weather outside? If yes, then some of the best evaporative coolers would be a great help. An evaporative cooler, which is also known as a swamp cooler, is a device that uses the water’s natural cooling properties and a breeze to remove latent heat from your indoor space.

While nearly any evaporative cooler on the market can provide basic performance as far as cooling is concerned, quality, esthetic design and efficiency vary from one cooler to another. You say that you want the best of all. Well, say no more!

This article will review the top 6 best evaporative coolers currently on the market. So, stay tuned here for the next couple of minutes to discover what makes them stand out and which one fits your need the most.

How Do Evaporative Coolers Work?

An evaporative cooler runs to cool air using water-soaked pads. The fan fitted in the cooler absorbs hot air into the cooling unit, pushing it through many different water-soaked pads.

The high temperature of the air make the water in the pads to evaporate. This removes latent heat from the hot air sent in by the fan. Then, the fan blows out the cooled air to bring down the temperature of external environment.

The Best Evaporative Coolers Top 3

After extensive research and mass testing of the evaporative coolers currently on sale globally, we’ve managed to identify the best three. In our tests and research, we focused on various factors affecting the value of an evaporative cooler. These factors include efficiency, application range, ease of use/set up and the strength of the construction material.

Now, without much ado, let’s have a look at our best three picks and why we zeroed our list to them.

1. SereneLife 10,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner – best overall

Based on the wide range of user reviews we’ve analyzed and our own experiences with various evaporative coolers, we’ve identified SereneLife 10,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner as the overall best evaporative cooler.

Featuring a sleek and lightweight body design weighing just 65 pounds, this cooler is not only highly portable but an alluring system to enhance your interior’s beauty.

For enhanced portability, this sleek cooling unit is also fitted with rolling wheels and a carrying handle. Besides, it has a compact body which makes it easy to use in your bedroom, living room, office space or even garage.

The unit gives you three operation modes to choose from. You can set it to function as a cooler, a humidifier or a three-setting fan. The inbuilt humidifier saves you the cost of buying a humidifier separately to make your place free from allergens. The automatic swing mode and the moving wind vent work together to ensure that air your space has excellent air circulation.

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Tired of a noisy cooler? Then Serenelife got you covered because it gives you an option to choose a low-noise function for quiet operation.

When it comes to the installation of Serenelife, it should be a hassle-free process no matter how unconventionally your home is set up. The installation plate makes this possible. With the installation kit, you can easily hook up the cooler to a wall.

Another awesome feature that we noticed about this evaporative cooler is the remote control. With the remote control, you can easily interact with the cooler without having to come into physical contact with it. Whether you want to adjust the speed of the fan or activate the humidifier, simply use the necessary remote-control feature and the unit will respond promptly and correctly.

2. Honeywell Portable Evaporative Cooler – best price

If you are looking for a budget but high-quality unit for evaporative cooling of your immediate area, you can’t go wrong with Honeywell Evaporative Cooler. It features a compact, slim design which helps it to fit even in areas where space is limited.

However, don’t underestimate it for the small size because it’s capable of creating that cool lake breeze that you badly need in your home or office during a hot season. Better still, its lightweight design makes it easily portable.

This budget cooler has clean curves as well as a lean silhouette, both of which improve the unit’s setting. Besides, the two features make the unit compatible with nearly all home decors. Better still, oscillating louvers in the tower design of the unit facilitate even distribution of airflow in your entire bedroom.

The low water alarm alerts you whenever the water level in the unit needs to be increased for easy maintenance of the system. The evaporative cooler also has an easily washable dust filler as well as a dust-trapping honeycomb cooling media for even easier maintenance.

 Additionally, this Honeywell cooler also features a digital control panel and a remote-control, making its operation a breeze. Apart from being a cooler, it also has humidifier and fan functionalities.

3. AMEIKO Portable Air Conditioner – best for office desk

Just like the above two evaporators, this mini evaporative cooler also functions as a fan and an air conditioner. It has settings to switch from one of the operation modes to another.

From our analysis, AMEIKO Portable Air Conditioner is the best evaporative cooler for office desk use, thanks to its compact-size design. It is just 8.9-inch and comes with a handle for improved portability. It can also deliver good results in your bedroom or medium-size living room.

For even better cooling results, this air cooler has a tank that works pretty well with ice or ice water. With either of the two forms of water, the unit will cool your space faster, improving the comfort of your room in the midst of the hot summer weather. The water tank has a capacity of 400ml, enabling the unit to run for a long time before requiring a refill.

Besides cooling your place, this beautifully designed min evaporative cooler also features seven soft lights which create a soothing mood when you want to fall asleep. Better still, it boasts a noiseless operation to help you enjoy uninterrupted sleep.  

When it comes to energy consumption, this cooling unit truly deserves a five-star rating because it’s made of highly energy-efficient components. The amount of energy that it consumes is nearly the same as that of a light bulb.

Why Buy an Evaporative Cooler?

While you can opt to install a fan or an air conditioner to get rid of the uncomfortable hot air in your indoor or semi-outdoor space, using an evaporative cooler which comes with additional benefits other than cooling the hot air.

It’s green

First, unlike an air conditioner that uses chemical refrigerants in its operation, an evaporative cooler doesn’t need chemicals to absorb heat from the air. Instead, the cooler does the job using water and a fan.

So, considering chemical refrigerants are harmful to the environment and might cause skin irritation, using an evaporative cooler is one of the ways to prevent environmental pollution. Also, it is a more skin-friendly option.

No need to call for installation service

Installing the cooler is much easier as compared to the installation of an air conditioner. This is partially because the cooler doesn’t need an exhaust hose in its operation. In other words, it is ventless. This makes evaporative coolers more portable than the traditional air conditioners.

It’s energy conserving

Another thing that might make you prefer an evaporative cooler to an air conditioner is power efficiency. The former uses far less amount of power in its operation as compared to the latter. Generally, the cooler doesn’t run anything else apart from the fan to absorb heat from the air and emit cooler air to cool the surroundings.

On the other hand, an air conditioner uses a compressor to compress refrigerant which later pushes across a heat exchanger to absorb suck in heat from the air. Then, it runs the fan that emits cold air to the surrounding. This process is more power-intensive than the operation of an evaporative cooler. So, an evaporative cooler helps you keep your place cool without blowing up your electricity bill. It’s less costly than a fan or an air con.

Another advantage of an evaporative cooler over a fan or an air con is silent operation. Most coolers are less noisy than fans or air cons while in operation.

However, evaporative coolers are normally not as powerful as air cons or fans. As such, they might not be the best for cooling vast spaces.

We Also Reviewed

Other evaporative coolers that we’ve reviewed and found out that could also be worth your consideration include: 

4. OEM TOOLS 23972 Variable Speed Evaporative Cooler – best for outdoor or large space 

This is our best pick for outdoor or large space cooling. With a dry weight of 165 lbs. and measuring 61. 0″ by 31. 8″ by 73. 2″, this unit is relatively portable as compared to other options within its caliber. Its large casters improve its portability even further.

The cooling pads are of high performance, enabling the cooler to create a cool atmosphere outdoors or in a large space quickly and efficiently. In fact, it can work sufficiently good in an area that is as large as 4, 800 square feet at as speed of 18, 800 CFM. It’s 0.5 HP fan is also to thank for the great performance.

Better still, the pads are made of durable material for years of great value.

It has an input voltage of 220V, runs on AC, 1-Phase, thus power efficient. It has a 47. 5-gallon capacity for easy maintenance and to save on refiling time. 

5. Zicooler Portable Air Conditioner

This is another evaporative cooler that attracted lots of positive user reviews and so, it’s worth a mention here. It is an easy-to-use-and-install cooler that comes with a remote control feature for effortless operation. The unit is also easily portable as it weighs about 9.3kg.

Featuring ABS construction, this Zicooler cooling unit is high-temperature-resistant. Besides, it has a strong resistance to impacts.

This air conditioner which doubles up as an evaporative cooler is equipped with leafless fans that utilize permanent magnet brushless motor instead of fast-spinning blades for seamless airflow without putting your kids and pets at injury risk.

The cooler runs of air multiplier technology, thus producing a soft, natural and persistent cool breeze. Use the remote control to choose among the ten airflow settings or switch the timer off/on effortlessly. Don’t worry about those annoying air-con or fan noises. This unit features a silent design with 25-decibel working noise for your peace of mind.

6. COMFYHOME 2-in-1

If you are looking for a good evaporative cooling unit with a modern design to complement other contemporarily designed items in your home or office, you can’t go wrong with COMFYHOME 2-in-1. As its name suggests, this unit has two optional functionalities. It is an evaporative cooler with an inbuilt tower fan.

Standing 32-inch tall, COMFYHOME 2-in-1 boasts the most recent evaporative cooling technology that allows simultaneous heat absorption by water and ice. As such, it cools an area in record time. It has a capacity of one gallon.

The remote control and the easy-to-touch controls make this cooler very easy to operate.

This cooler prides a signature look, and is compact-size for improved usage versatility. As such, it can be used even in places where space is of concern, for instance, an overcrowded dormitory room.

No more bladed fan accidents if you opt to choose COMFYHOME 2-in-1 instead of traditional cooling units, thanks to its bladeless design.

Parting shot

An evaporative is a great choice when it comes to keeping your energy bill in check. Besides, it’s a heathy option because it doesn’t use chemicals like the traditional air conditioners. It is also a very portable air-cooling option. However, it may not be the best option when you want to cool a very vast indoor or outdoor space. If you want the best evaporative cooler, one of the above options could be your best deal.