Swamp Cooler

The swamp cooler in the little house is probably forty years old. I remember it from the days the little house was a workshop. It's much bigger than the swamp cooler in the big house. It should keep this place almost frigid, but something is not working quite right. Sadly I am not of the generation of women who grew up knowing that they could do anything, so fixing it myself is out of the question. But I think I have some idea what the problem is--I think it's the fan belt. If not the fan belt, then the problem is the motor that runs the big barrel fan. I will put motor lubricating oil on my shopping list, and hope I can keep it running through July and most of August. That is the scorcher time in Salt Lake. Every day will be over a hundred degrees, and the nights will only cool into the eighties.

So, here you go Diva. There are two motors that make a swamp cooler work. The swamp part of swamp cooler is the water that's pumped from the bottom of the cooler up to the filters that line the three outside walls of the cooler. This pump sits on the bottom and sucks up water into the tubes that feed it into little troughs in the top of each side of the cooler where it trickles in a steady stream, so that the air being sucked through them is cooled. The other motor runs the big barrel fan that propels the air into the house. A swamp cooler is only effective in a very dry climate. Before my handyman retired, we had a conversation about swamp cooler versus central air-conditioning. He has both in his house, so has the option to use one or the other. He said the only time he ever uses his air-conditioning is when the humidity is above 20%. The rest of the time the swamp cooler is more effective and comfortable. It makes the cool air coming into the house slightly moist and softer seeming.

I know some man is going to read this, and laugh his ass off at my shaky grasp of the workings of a swamp cooler. But that's the best I can do.