Swamp cooler help

Im starting my suspension install tomorrow and Oklahoma heat hasn’t let up. I borrowed my bosses swamp cooler or evap cooler if u prefer. I filled it with water and opened my side garage door bc I’ve read they need fresh air intake. It was 98 degrees today and it didn’t feel like the cooler helped at all. What am I doing wrong? It’s this unit:

 

if you have high humidity where you live Evap coolers don't seem to help much. Other than that you want to make sure the pump is running and that the water is running through the Filter Element. And other basic checks like making sure the fan is blowing, no obstructions etc...

 

This, some evap coolers have separate switches for the fan and for the water pump, so make sure both are running. Besides that, if it's humid then yea I won't make much of a difference

In Arizona they work pretty damn good because of how dry it is. Southern California as well.

 

Swamp coolers need fresh air and a place to exhaust.

 

What's the current humidity? I think it needs to be pretty low (under 60%?) for these things to work well.

 

Ya, I've used these for 30 yrs. here in southern NM...work great in dry and arid climates, get the humidity pushing 30% and you can feel the difference. That model is good for 650 sq ft...how big is your garage and is it insulted? Cold air falls, try a couple box fans to circulate the cooler air around the shop.

 

Thanks all. It’s a 3 car garage so it’s prolly not going to be 100 percent effective. The fan and pump are all running and water is circulating. I’ve heard adding ice may help.
Today was 98with 34% humidity.

@Hobbs what do u mean exhaust? I have a window on the opposite side of my garage side door. Do I need to open it? The air coming out of the unit feels cool but only if u are directly in front of it.

 

Yes. When you introduce conditioned air (evaporative cooler) into a space, it needs a place to vent/exhaust. When I run my whole house cooler I leave 3-4 windows open a few inches to allow the conditioned air a place to exit. There is a formula to calc how much air in to exhaust opening area. I don't think it's that critical, but the air does need to escape. Google it.

 

Thanks man, I’ll give that a try tomorrow.

 

Good luck and stay cool!