swamp cooler question

[48pan]

Tied of buying a new swamp cooler every couple of years becaue of rust. Last one I painted inside with rustolem. No help. This time I'm thinking about coating the inside with henery roofing tar.
My question is will you smell it after a while.
Or what can I use to keeping it from rusting through.
Thanks

[verson22]

Tarred them for years when i was a kid -- no smell! The house I'm in now has one of those plastic or fiberglass round ones-- no rust or sun damage 6 years in El Paso, Tx.

[truck]

What is a swamp cooler?

[BikerJim44]

Truck,
A Swamp cooler is a lang nme for Evaporative cooler. It is a device that has a water hlding unit i the bottomof it that fills with water. There is apump that pump water up and into troughs on three sides of the cooler then the water gravity feeds down into pads usually made of some kind of a straw or composite fiber. There is a large fan inside the cooler that spins and blows air out the front or in some cases they are set up on a central air like system and this helps cool much like refrigerated air however it is not nearly as effective as A/C especially when it one lives in a high humidity area. The fan or blower should be able to move 5-6 times the volume of the air in the room or rooms that it is designed to cool. Spidey.

[BikerJim44]

Pan,
They do make a special coating for the water pan that is non-corrosive and hard water won't effect it. I think it does need to be recoated about once a year though. If you have a lot of calachi (sp?) in your water or other minerals it is very hard on the pan. As Verson said you could tar it too and it should work well. He living in El Paso and myself only about 180 miles North of him in the Roswell, NM area we use a lot of those around here. They also now make a plastic insert for the tub as well that can be replaced yearly or as needed. They are rather inexpensive. The best thing to do is treat your system peridiocally with the special treatment they sell at most hardware stores which I believe is very diluted muriatic acid which neutralizes some or most of the minerals in the water and also helps keep the lines clean for circulation and is good for the pads as well. Be sure to use it as it indicates on the bottle or you will smell it. Good luck, Spidey.

[truck]

Thanks Spidey.

[48pan]

Thank you gentleman. As some of you know in the dry desert, swamp coolers work pretty good.
Thanks again and:
Keep it safe out there!

[FSG]

I've had 2 Breezair Units on my roof for near on 10 years, a yearly clean and the only problem I've had is a blown remote control.
They're brilliant in the desert dry heat, in Brisbane (Sub Tropical) there's prolly 10 days in a year when it too humid to use, then I just turn the water off and run the fan. 
An Australian Product they're also available in the US.  Most of the frame, covers, control, etc, is plastic.  Worth a look.

http://www.breezair.us/

[verson22]

The other thing I do is run PVC from the drain out to my trees , I drain almost daily it keeps the cooler pretty clean and is PC these days.

[BikerJim44]

I did get a most wonderful surprise the other day. My shop is metal and while I have been working furiously to insulate and sheath the interior walls for the last year and a half as time and money allow I have fought the heat and cold war for about five years and much to no avail. Two or three fans and my portable swamp cooler which is basically a swamp, non cooler. LOL
One of my customers is an HVAC man and in the driveway he comes the other day with a complete A/C-heating system, Trane at that, for the shop. All I have to do is a few services on his and his helpers bikes to get this installed in the shop. Not a bad trade out and believe me, it will make life so much better in the shop. Spidey.