Fort he past couple of years, we’ve been talking about air coolers and how they’re one of the most popular appliances during the summer time. But, just how effective are air coolers against the summer heat? Akari took us up to the challenge and had one of their air coolers tested out.
Akari has a number of air coolers in their line-up — from portable ones to the home use models, all the way to the more heavy-duty type. The one that we got is for home and office use, the Akari Rechargeable Air Cooler with Purifier (ARFC-12C) which retails for around Php10,995. This is a large-size air cooler with a 12-inch fan and a 9-liter capacity water tank.
Its actually not that heavy for its size and can be easily moved around thanks to the four trolley wheels. To operate, just fill up the water tank at the back (has a 9L capacity), plug it into your wall outlet and power it on. You can hit the Speed buttons to increase/decrease the fan speed or use the included remote control for easy operation.
The air cooler comes with a built-in battery that can last around 3 hours on heavy use and up to 12 hours when set to low speed. When all other functions (fan, LED light, swing) are turned on, the battery life decreases to between 2.5 hours (high fan speed) to 8 hours (low fan speed).
You’ll need to activate the Cooler mode in order for the evaporative cooling function to work. Noise level increases at this point because aside from the fan noise, water is now pumped to the cooler grill. This process cools the air that is blown by the fan, lowering the temperature within range.
There’s an air ionizer that is added to the evaporative cooler that cleans impurities, dirt, dust, and other contaminants from the air drawn into the unit before it is cooled and discharged by the fan.
The water-level indicator tells you it’s time to refill the water tank. The cooler will also set off an alarm if you switch on the Cooler mode and there’s not enough water in the tank to pump.
So here’s the part where we tested and observed the cooling function of the Akari Air Cooler.
In our first run, we added tap water into the water tank and turned on the Cooler mode. It took a few minutes before we noticed that the discharge air from the fan is no longer hot just like what we experienced with a regular electric fan. The room temperature stayed at 32-degrees and it’s no longer uncomfortable.
In our second run, we placed chilled water into the water tank and activated the Cooler mode. It was during this time that we observed the temperature sensor in the Cooler dropped a few degrees to about 28-29°C. We moved the Air Cooler out back in the lanai to see if it works as effectively and it certainly does.
In our observation, the Air Cooler is most effective in areas where there’s partial or full exposure to the summer heat, like a terrace or a lanai. In there, you’d see how the 35°C to 39°C summer heat is cooled down to 32°C or even further down to 28°C when you’re using chilled water.
In the indoors like the living room or the bedroom, the evaporative cooling effect is not noticeably obs as you’re merely decreasing the temperature of the discharged air from 32°C to 28°C. It’s still way better than an electric fan but also nowhere near the comfort that is offered by an air conditioner (21-23°C). And, since the air cooler has a built-in battery, you can practically bring it anywhere in the house or even the outdoors where no wall outlet is in sight.
Is it worth it? Well, it depends on your intended use. For our purpose, we’re better off with a 28°C air discharge so we find using the air cooler more in the living room. It is certainly better than your regular electric fan, even in the evenings. But it’s not replacement to the air conditioner. That’s for sure.
Air cooler from AKARI sucks. Ours have built-in battery that lasts for less than an hour and not what was promised for some couple of hours. Second, you will be having some hard time cleaning it up. Dust will build up eventually and that’s the start of your dilemma why you even spent 10k+. :)