Low noise air cooler

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We also have the bigger Crompton Ozone 55l cooler, which sounds like a aeroplane taking off making it unusable while WFH.

That much noise means the bearings are failing. If there was a way to replace them it would be like new.

3) is water container steel or plastic? I get hard (150-180ppm) water most of the time.

How did you test the hardness ?

A TDS meter is misleading because it tests for presence of all salts. Higher the number more conductive the water is which is meaningless.

Hardness is down to calcium salts only and there are test kits you can get to measure it.

Do you find much scale left on the bottom if you say boil a pot of water to the end ?

Hardness also varies depending on the time of the year. It will be the least during the rainy season and highest in the dry season.

It's very simple. See, how you use fan regulator to control ceiling fan? Same principle here. Only I'm using dimmer instead of a fan regulator.

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I made this extension 6 years ago only for silencing the coolers. Dimmer controls the fan speed. If you go to local shops to buy dimmer they try to sell you fan regulator. Both look same but operate differently.

This has made the fan of my cooler inaudible but hasn't affected cooling a bit.

Interesting. So what speed is the fan running it at then ? when it is quiet vs. louder

If you know how many blades the fan has then fan speed can be determined using a FFT app.

Another thing that will contribute to noise is dust stuck on the fan which should be cleaned if possible.

About the answer from the link, the dude is wrong suggesting lights are resistive load. Most light sources we use like CFL and LED are inductive.

He is saying a dimmer used for resistive light loads won't be suitable. Because its just a potentiometer.

If your dimmer is suitable for CFL & LED which are inductive then it is also suitable for a motor.

Thing is you also said not to use a fan regulator. A fan motor is an inductive load as well. No different to a cooler motor. Why then is a fan regulator not suitable ?

The motor. Whether it uses brushes or is brush-less. This is the determining factor rather than inductive load or not. Because ALL motors are inductive.

A motor with brushes can be regulated with potentiometer but brushless requires a different regulator. The one that works with CFL& LED presumably.

 

[lockhrt999]

Interesting. So what speed is the fan running it at then ? when it is quiet vs. louder

If you know how many blades the fan has then fan speed can be determined using a FFT app.

Another thing that will contribute to noise is dust stuck on the fan which should be cleaned if possible.

Haven't measured the speed but it's less than 1/5th of the lowest speed settings. Now it's packed because summer is over.
Also I thoroughly power wash the cooler once in a fortnight so it's usually clean.

 

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Haven't measured the speed but it's less than 1/5th of the lowest speed settings. Now it's packed because summer is over.

At such a low speed it still cools adequately ?

 

[ibose]

That much noise means the bearings are failing. If there was a way to replace them it would be like new.

It is like that from the beginning. I had checked other similar models before buying. These are all high speed fans and even at the lowest setting it runs at high speed to give high air throw. Impossible to use during Zoom calls at home. The "silent" cooler I bought has a low power fan which runs at slower speed hence it is not noisy. Since it runs slowly, the evaporative cooling is also better.

 

[lockhrt999]

Why then is a fan regulator not suitable ?

Because I have tried that. Cooler didn't even respond. But main reason being, fan regulator supports less wattage so a cooler will blow it.

If your dimmer is suitable for CFL & LED which are inductive

These dimmers don't dim regular CFL or LED. You either need CFL/LED having dimmable ballast or you need to put a DC dimmer between ballast and CFL/LED.

So your regulator is doing something else. What ?

It fixes engineering impotence of cooler companies.

At such a low speed it still cools adequately ?

My cooler has a really big fan. I can make it rotate so slow that I can measure the RPM using my eyes and still feel windy.

 

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These are all high speed fans and even at the lowest setting it runs at high speed to give high air throw. Impossible to use during Zoom calls at home. The "silent" cooler I bought has a low power fan which runs at slower speed hence it is not noisy. Since it runs slowly, the evaporative cooling is also better.

That is the problem, even the lowest setting does not slow the fan much if at all.

i was wondering why to add anything in the first place. Just run at the lowest setting but as you said it does not work.

Is that a design defect ? they have used a cheap regulator that is incapable of low fan speeds requiring an additional peripheral to slow it down.

 

[montsa007]

Thanks for sharing. I kinda need something this for my rental apartment's living room. Did you buy it on that site itself? And how much did it cost you?

I've seen personal coolers in a Pan shop, it was little smaller than the steel boxes we used to get oil in.

 

[asimh99]

what is the best air cooler for a 100 sq ft room .with good ventilation and low noise which don't interrupt online gaming ..and weather 22 to 32 degrees at max in my location?

 

[lockhrt999]

Why not change the default cooler fan regulator with an electronic step type regulator instead ?

I know it's old but I have a bit more info on this now. Cooler don't use regulators like ceiling fans. The speed knob you see on the cooler is effectively just a switch. At high setting, all of the copper windings in the motor get current. At medium, some don't get current. And at low, only a bare minimum number of windings get current. Same mechanism is used in many motors like mixer, chimney. The problem with this method is that the low doesn't get low enough.

weather 22 to 32 degrees at max in my location?

Asking after a year. But why the max temp is low at your location? Do you live near sea?

 

[asimh99]

I know it's old but I have a bit more info on this now. Cooler don't use regulators like ceiling fans. The speed knob you see on the cooler is effectively just a switch. At high setting, all of the copper windings in the motor get current. At medium, some don't get current. And at low, only a bare minimum number of windings get current. Same mechanism is used in many motors like mixer, chimney. The problem with this method is that the low doesn't get low enough.


Asking after a year. But why the max temp is low at your location? Do you live near sea?

 

[lockhrt999]

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Cool.

If you are still looking for a cooler then I'd first suggest to check humidity at the time of the day when you really want to use it. Coolers work best under 30%. And at 60% they stop working.