Portable Air Cooler Fan

The Benross Portable Water Air Cooler does well for the job it's supposed to do. The first question anyone is going to ask is, "how cold does this get?" Well, it's first necessary to note that this is not your typical air conditioner. It's not going to blow freezing temperatures at you nor is it going to decrease the temperature in a room drastically. It's only going to blow air as cold as the water you put into it. The way it works is quite simple. You put water into the tank at the bottom of the unit. A piece of cloth rotates itself through the water (thus absorbing the water) and up towards the top (similar to a vertical conveyor belt). At the top, there is a fan that takes in air from the back of the unit, through the cloth/water, and out the front. The purpose of the water is to help cool the air before getting blown out the front. The colder the water, the colder the air will be. Two small containers are provided to fill with water, freeze, and put into the water tank to help cool the water. It can be tough to remove the containers so it's highly recommended to attach a string and leave it hanging outside so that you can easily lift them out of the tank for reuse. There is also a small ice tray at the top to fill with ice, which also assists with cooling the air before hitting the fan. It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to not only fill the ice tray with ice but also to put lots of ice cubes into the water tank. Remember, the colder the water, the better this will work! This air cooler also has an on-off setting, optional one-hour timer, four fan settings (think null, low, medium, high), cooler control (haven't used this, but I assume it controls the rotation of the cloth that transports water from the tank to the top), and sweeper control (the fan can blow left to right or in one direction). There is a stopper/drain at the bottom that can drain all the water from the tank. I did have two very minor negatives when I first received this. The first is a very slight "new plastic" smell when you first turn it on. The second is that mine had an unfortunate rattle, which I quickly fixed by putting a small amount of pressure on the top. I later used duct tape to stop the rattle (as can be seen in the picture); straightforward fix, no big deal. Overall, the Benross portable air cooler does what it's supposed to do, and it does it well. It's only going to be as cold as the water you put into it; otherwise, it's just your average fan. In its low setting, it's pretty quiet, and the high setting, it's pretty loud. Nothing that much different to an average household fan regarding sound.

I though that I would give this a go as I didn't want the expense or running costs of an AC unit. Having read up on these type of evaporative coolers I wasn't expecting it to be as powerful as an AC unit, however it fell way below even those modest expectations. I filled the machine with a combination of water and ice - and added cubes in the holder at the back of the machine. When I switched the machine on it provided a decent enough breeze, but I couldn't detect any cooling effect. I switched off the cooling function (which is actually a roll of material that dips into the water and then rolls upwards to allow the water to evaporate) and the air felt the same temperature. I then took a digital infra-red thermometer and measured the temperature of the air coming-out of the machine. It was the same as the ambient temperature. When I switched the cooling function back on I got the same reading. I even left the machine on for 15-20 minutes to see if it needed some time for the cooling function to take full effect. There was no change in the temperature of the air. When I emailed the suppliers to tell them this they responded with the following message: hi no this is correct , the principle is that the cool air created by the ice and water will blow through but in real hot heat it wont be the same as an air conditioning unit . I have returned the unit for a refund.

In the hot weather an ordinary fan will circulate the air, but really only feels cool when it blows directly on you. The hotter the air temperature, the faster the fan generally needs to be. These water evaporative coolers pump out cooler than ambient air, so don't need to be turned up so high, and will to a degree cool the room in general. This Benross unit takes 7 liters of water through a small spring-loaded flap on the side. As the water evaporates it cools the surrounding air, which is blown through the front vent. There's a small fold-out flap on the back to add ice to make it even cooler, and also two small 1/2 litre water bottles you can freeze and put in the water reservoir to cool it even further. I found this Benross unit very light and portable (although when full will add a bit more weight of around 7kg of water). There's an on/off/timer switch which allows the unit to be on all the time or anything up to an hour. Two switches on the top turn the evaporative cooling on/off and the oscillation of the fan on/off. A final rotary switch controls the overall fan speed. There are a few good and bad points. Good; It's a pretty good fan in its own right, which is fairly quiet and pretty powerful. You can angle the louvres up and down and the oscillation means you've got good control of where the air blows. The cooling effect is noticeable, but not overwhelming. Gets much better when using the ice. You can use this without water or ice and it's still pretty good. Bad; The flap to pour the water in is quite small and being sprung-loaded, awkward to keep open when getting all that water in there. It's only a matter of time before it'll snap shut mid-way, and I'll be left with a big puddle! They supply a couple of 1/2 litre bottles, that you fill to a line, freeze, then insert through the flap into the reservoir. When frozen the bottles swell up ~just~ enough to make it a very tight fit. A cord can be attached to a hook on the lid so you can retrieve the bottle when it's finished. This worked twice, but now I've got a bottle bobbing around inside where the cord came off. My fault, but I feel the design could have been a little more 'foolproof'. The timer is for an hour. Seeing as it should be able to last for around 14 hours on a full tank (and you're not supposed to run with the cooler mode turned on and no water) it would have been nice for a bit of a wider time range. Maybe it's for safety, they don't specify. In all it's great of taking the edge off a hot room, and certainly has been welcome in the recent 30C+ weather we've had this summer. It's not perfect, hence 4 stars, although it is cheap.

So you want a portable air conditioner? So do I .... but this evaporative air cooler is not that! If you are looking for air conditioning from this appliance you are looking in the wrong place! I think those who posted negative reviews for this item expected more than it could ever deliver for this money. Within its limits, it is very good. I bought it to replace an ageing air cooler of this type, and I am entirely satisfied with its performance. Physics #101. Air conditioners, like refrigerators, compress a gas mechanically, thus heating it. This heat is vented to the exterior through a duct and a vent. The gas is allowed to expand again, a process which requires heat, heat taken from the air as it is blown over a heat exchanger, thus cooling, and drying, the room. Evaporative coolers work in the opposite way. They evaporate water by blowing the air over a wetted filament. The evaporation requires heat which is taken from the air, which, now cooler and wetter, is vented into the room. Air conditioning will cool the room faster and more thoroughly. An evaporative cooler is "second best", but at a fraction of the purchase price and running costs. That is why it cannot, ever, compete with a "proper" portable air conditioner. However, the hotter and dryer the weather is, the better this system will perform, because the evaporation will be more efficient. So what about THIS cooler? It is a compact design, finished in a harmless dove grey. It is not noisy, indeed it is quiet enough for my wife's approval, and she complains very readily about noise. But it is not silent! It works, and works well, doing everything it should and all that can reasonably be expected. I am entirely happy with my purchase and recommend it unreservedly .... .... However, if it is air conditioning you are looking for, save up and pay up! The cheapest air conditioner will cost five times as much and require some installation.

I didn't know quite what to expect from this cooler, I knew it wouldn't be as efficient as a Air conditioning unit but I did hope it could reduce my bedroom from nearly 30c down to around a more comfortable 22c, sadly it didn't even get close. Because of the way Evaporation coolers work they are great in hot DRY countries but here in the UK where our humidity levels are much higher they are next to useless at cooling a room. In an attempt to find out how efficient this cooler was I decided to do a few tests. I placed an accurate thermometer ( used for measuring Air con temperatures cars ) on the front grill of the cooler and another about three feet away. The inside temperature of the modest sized room was 28c with a Humidity level of about 55. As recommended I made sure the window was open and then I turned the fan of the machine onto its top speed with the cooler turned off and as expected the temp of both thermometers remained the same. I then added 3 litres of cold tap water and then, with the fan again on top speed I turned on the cooler I left the room and closed the door. After about 45 minutes I returned the temperature of the thermometer on the grill had dropped by 1 degree however the room thermometer was the same. finally I added ice and again left the room, I returned about 30 minutes later to find that although the thermometer on the grill had dropped almost 2 degrees the one three feet away remained the same in fact the only difference was the humidity which had risen from 55 to 67 which was starting to make the room feel muggy. In conclusion if you want to use this as a personal fan only cooler it works pretty well but if you want it to cool a room down forget it , although it looks attractive with a low price and power consumption it simply doesn't work as a room cooler I also found it quite noisy compared to a normal desk fan. I can't understand the 5 star reviews, either there outside humidity is a lot lower than mine (around the 40 to 50 mark) or they are right in front of it when its on. To be fair I don't think any Evaporative cooler would do much better our humidity levels in this country are generally too high to make it run efficiently . So in my opinion if you want to keep your bedroom cool this summer a proper AC might be your only answer.

When it’s clean and full of ice it runs like a dream.can fault that part. The fact that it’s hard to clean is the only proble for me. It hold water and takes ice in the bottom and so after a while gets a bit dirty in the tray.. I had to bust open the access hatch so I can get my hand in and spray it out. Plus it seems to have a cloth that pull the water up so not sure how long that will last before needing changing/cleaning

This was a fantastic buy! You can use this as a fan only, or put cold water/ice in the back part and have icy cold air instead. There is also a side pocket where you can put a bottle of frozen water (bottles provided). The machine is very light so easy to move around when empty. There is a plug at the bottom to empty the water if you need to. I work from home and this fan has really made life so much more comfortable, it is the best buy I have made in a long time!

I do not usually write reviews but I need to warn potential buyers because this product is very poor. I bought this for my daughter's bedroom because it faces the sun and has a large glass area and becomes like a greenhouse in the summer. She has to study in there and I thought the cooler would take the edge off the heat. I did not expect it to be anything like an air conditioning unit but after running it for some time there was no difference at all. When you put ice in the back it is fair to say the blower is cooler than a regular fan - but it lasts no more than ten to fifteen minutes and is then back to normal. The only way you would get even a small result from this product would be to keep topping up the ice every 30 minutes or so - and the actual amount of ice it takes is very small. It is impractical to keep doing this - especially through the night.

Très beau il fonctionne bien