Does it work?

[double bogey]

Our water is loaded with minerals. When the water evaporates the minerals stay behind. And they eat the aluminum on the coil, ruining it. The further west you go, the more minerals are in the water.

There are purpose built evaporative condensers, but usually larger for commercial use. Its definitely more efficient than air cooled. Sometimes as much as 25%. Also water cooled condensers are common, again usually larger capacity. Increased maintenance and water treatment is paramount to prevent scaling and corrosion.


Look at the swamp coolers out west, they get rebuilt and replaced a lot.

[M.E.B.]

I figure shading the unit would be a good idea.

[whitetailfanatic]

if the unit seems to run all the time it probably isnt a unit problem its a house problem,
insulation,ducts, unit size, attic temps,etc.
do you have any attic fans, possibly help?

[TexasLongball]

Ummm, the pics show the condenser with the wording "pre cool the air before it reaches your air conditioner". Air doesn't flow in from the condenser. Maybe I'm missing something?

[Mike Fangman]

I figure shading the unit would be a good idea.

You would think so and I always thought the same. I read an article on this yesterday, that said shading your outside unit, does very little to help with the efficiency of your air conditioning. It actually said in cases , it can actually make it worse, by not letting the outside unit, vent the hot air away from itself. To make shading work, it said you would have to shade the whole side of the house, where it is located, to lower the outside air temp, that the unit is actually pulling in. By just shading the outside a/c housing, it will do little to reduce costs and efficiency.
I have no idea on any of this, just something I read.

[Kooter80]

if the unit seems to run all the time it probably isnt a unit problem its a house problem,
insulation,ducts, unit size, attic temps,etc.
do you have any attic fans, possibly help?

Has spray foam. Stays cool in attic. Would fans help?