Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)We ordered this unit from Amazon, Amazon has always been good to us, obviously this products weaknesses do not and should not reflect Amazon. The Unit arrived in a fairly well dented box, upon opening it and initial inspection we noticed a crack near the front in the plastic, we figured OK lets fill it and see if it leaks and just run it considering it had been a heat wave of 100+ for around 10 days straight.
So we filled it up and fired it up and it didn't leak and seemed to work pretty well, especially when we filled it with the ice cold water we we're leaving in our freezer.
After the first week something really strange happened, we turned it on one day and noticed a horrible rancid smell, something like a mix between rotting meat, moldy / damp socks and a soaking wet towel that had been left sealed in a plastic bag for a month or longer.
We drained it and the water was very yellowed. Refilled it and hoped that would help. For about 10 days we kept draining it and putting clean water in it, noticing the water we were draining was yellow and sometimes foamy almost like soap water or a chemical had been released from some of the internals. We hoped we would eventually flush the putrid smell away, at one point we even ran hot/warm water through it for about a 1/2 hour with the plug out and letting it continuously flush and drain hoping that would help, it didn't.
By fluke we noticed it had a cheesy little foam pad in the back which covered barely 1/2 of the intake grid, we we're thinking is this really supposed to filter the incoming air? why not put a foam mesh over the entire intake area in the back if that was the intent. My wife put her nose down by the back and noticed the horrid smell and said THATS IT!, I said great lets pop the top off and get rid of it.
Now comes the reality of how a well engineered, well designed product can virtually be made into worthless junk by scrimping on (probably the least expensive) internal components to save a buck or two per unit.
Upon removal of the cover we realized that it was the aspen mesh (straw of some type) which had already rotted in less than 10 days. Stunk to high heaven. It should be said that we originally attempted to order this unit from Air & Water, and after a ridicules run around we told them we would purchase the unit else-where, this is where Amazon comes in, as I said Amazon has always been good to us so we told Air & Water thanks but no thanks and ordered it from Amazon not realizing the unit was still coming from Air & Water. So knowing we didn't have a very good taste in our mouths (and noses) after dealing with them we almost just threw the entire unit away and wrote it off as a lesson learned and a total loss except for the first 5 or 6 days that the unit worked fairly well (despite the original crack on top mind you)
We would of given unit a rating of 1 star had it not been for the fact that A. Unit worked briefly & B. Being handy people we decided to salvage the unit by replacing the (already rotted) cooling material inside with a cooler pad we bought at our local Wal-mart store.
If you're willing to go through all that you'll end up with a decent little unit that should get 4 or 5 stars if it doesn't come with a crack on top and you don't try to initially purchase it from Air & Water.
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The Convair Arctic Breeze is a super efficient, large space evaporative cooler.
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