Hessaire MC61M 5,300 CFM 3-Speed Portable Evaporative Cooler

My AC for my home went out and needs to be replaced. Even when it worked it only worked on the main level and not in the basement. I started out looking for AC units that do not need to be vented for my basement and purchased some 2 in 1 breezewell units. The first one I got worked pretty well. When my main AC went out I thought well maybe as a temporary fix I oould buy a few more. I had bought a 2 in 1Breezewell and a 3N1 Breezewell. The 3N1 was smaller and I was a little disapointed but, I have had no problems with it. The 2n1 unit seemed to be working well and so I thought I would buy one more. The day after I bought the 3rd one the second 2n1 unit quit blowing air after 5 days. Nothing I could do would fix it. I did all the troubleshooting suggestions that came with it. I reached out to the seller with no success and then the third one arrived I thought ok the other one going out must be a fluke so I hooked up the third one relieved that it was working. Until the next day when the third one quit blowing air. Now I was furious. It was hot and I had spent too much money of these units. I contacted Amazon who by the way are the best cutomer service people I have ever worked with. They got me a refund and I was able to order something else.Not trusting the reviews on Amazon I went out to Google and searched for the best AC that did not need to be vented and this little baby popped up on a Bob Vila website on top evaporated coolers. It did not look that great. It did not have the bells and whistles that Breezwell had but, after reading reviews I was convinced enough to give it a try. I live in UT which is a dry climate and the reviews from California and Nevada who have similar hot dry climates were very convinving. When I got it there was nothing to really put together but to attach the wheels on the bottom of the unit and add water. When we turned it on we could tell how powerful it was. It takes 4 gallons of water. But, when you turn the fan on with the pump, the air coming out was very cold. Almost like a refrigerated unit. It cools the entire room down to the point I have to turn it down because it gets too cold. That is without adding ice or anything like what my breezewell was recommending. You can put ice in it but you do not need to. Maybe I will try that on the hotter months. This AC is strong and has strong fan that blows the air out. I do not mind the sounds. I am pretty sure it is a little quieter than the Breezewell that bills itself as a quiet unit.I compared the force of the fan with my working breezewell and this one is stronger, ,colder and I am happy with it. I finally found a unit that really works.So what are the negatives? You have to watch the water level and you will need to fill it up about every 4 hours if you run it all the time. You have to do this with all evaporated coolers from what I can see but, this one uses 4 gallons of water. I will sometimes turn off the pump and put it on fan only to conserve water. There is a way to hook it up to a hose to avoid to having fill it up with water as often. It is still pretty cool without the pump because it is a strong fan. On warmer days you will be glad for the water to cool down the air. Read the directions that come with it and you will be fine.I highly recommend this unit if you live in a dry climate.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:I've only owned this for a few hours, and I feel compelled to leave a positive review. Most of the negative reviews here seem to be from folks who weren't 100% certain what swamp cooler is or how it works. I can understand their disappointment.The reality is, I've spent a lot of time wondering how it could possibly be so difficult to make a product that blew a fan through a moist filter to cool the air. I made home made versions when I was a kid, though I was probably risking electrocution. A swamp cooler will not work in a humid climate. An "portable" swamp cooler like this one that doesn't vent will also have limited functionality indoors even in a well vented area unless you're in a large room.I live in Phoenix, and I have a very good air conditioner in my home. The room where I spend most of my time usually has at least one computer and sometimes as many as three computers running. It gets warm in there, and I don't feel like cooling the whole house just to keep that one room comfortable. Since I only need a couple of degees, I figured I would give the ol' swamp cooler a try.My first purchase was one of those tiny desktop ones, and it didn't do anything except spray water in my face. My second attempt was a larger, floor-sized model. Since the price goes up pretty quickly, I decided to go with a budget option that was on sale. It leaked out of the box and made a massive mess, but for the brief moment that it was running, it did make a noticeable difference in the room temp. I didn't want to deal with that kind of mess again, so my third option was this Hessaire model. After talking with a couple of HVAC guys, it seems to be a consensus that Hessaire makes the best evaporative coolers. I read through a couple dozen of the negative reviews, as there area lot of them on here. Most of them were from folks who were purchasing this item for conditions where it would not function optimally. As I said before, I totally get that frustration. The room I need to cool isn't very large, and that's my biggest complaint with this item. It's too big for the room I want to cool. It works too well, and I'll explain why in a bit. I'm looking to cool a room that is less than 200 square feet by a couple of degrees. I had realistic expectations going in. I knew that I didn't have any place to legitimately vent this, but the other unit did just well enough to convince me that this would work since I only needed a couple of degrees out of it. My one window in this room faces the sun during the time of day I need to use it the most (part of the reason why it gets so warm), so I didn't figure a swamp cooler would be able to keep up with that kind of direct radiant heat in June/July when the sun is most direct. I did try it, and it was no good. I experimented with a few different placements, and the one that works best is to have it near the doorway with a second fan blowout out over the top of it. When I first turned it on, the room had a relative humidity of 22% and an ambient air temp of 82 degrees. Earlier, I mentioned that it worked too weel. On my first attempt, I ran it for five minutes on "high". The air coming out of the front at that humidity was 71 degrees. Within five minutes, it had cooled the ambient room temp to 78 degrees. The problem was that it also increased the relative humidity to 65%. At 65% relative humidity, the air coming out of the front was the same 78 degrees as the ambient room temp.So I know not to use the "high" setting. I had to let the room air out a bit before trying it again. On the second attempt, the relative humidity had gotten down to 40%. I ran it on "low" for about five minutes. It didn't have the same dramatic effect. At 40% humidity, the air coming out of the front was 76 degrees. After five minutes, the relative humidity had only increased to 50%, and the ambient air temp had only degreased to 80. But that was actually comfortable for me with the fan blowing in my direction. So then I turned it to "fan only", and it continued to blow cool air for a good 30 minutes. The room remained comfortable for the remainder of the day.I can't wait to see how it performs tomorrow when I have it turned off all night and the relative humidity drops back into the 20s. The reality, though, is that monsoon is just around the corner, and once monsoon hits, I'll typically be starting with 40% to 50% humidity.There are some negatives. It seems that everyone likes to make these types of units with tanks that are hard to fill. I have a large humidifier as well, and those tanks are removable. A removable tank would make this thing awesome. As it is, it's easier to fill than the last one I bought. It has a side door to pour in water. I use a bucket and a funnel, but since I don't have a bucket anywhere near that large, it takes 3-4 buckets to fill it. It looks like I'll only have to fill it every 3-4 days, though. It is bulky. I really do wish they had a smaller size. The dripping water is actually really loud. It's much louder than the fan. I would definitely not leave this unattended. I also like the fact that there is no remote control. Why does everything need to come with a remote control? As long as you have a good understanding of what a portable swamp cooler is and know that you need one, this is probably the best one you're going to find. Of course, Hessaire makes larger models. Much, much larger models. But given the fact that this one is too big for my room, I would only buy one of the larger models if you have a very large area to cool. Or if you're going to use it outdoors.

This is a terrific cooling fan, far better and more effective than I had hoped. Very simple to set up, with excellent instructions. It seems like it will have excellent durability, as well.I only deduct one star because it's a little tedious to keep refilling the reservoir throughout the day. It goes through a tank in about 4 hours. Attaching a hose would be pretty questionable inside the house, though of course it would solve the problem outdoors.We are using it as an assist to our central a/c during a pretty serious heatwave. With outdoor temps of 112F to 117F, the a/c just can't keep up. But this cooler is taking the 86 degree air inside, and cooling it down to an almost comfortable 78 -80 in a large room. It is not the recommended set-up, but it is working for us in this heat emergency.