How to Service your Evaporative Air Conditioner – Breezeair

Yearly servicing of your Evaporative air conditioner is very important if you want to keep it running in optimal condition. Usually, an air conditioner service tradesperson will come around and do it for you, but with a bit of knowledge, you can do it too and save some money and maybe even do a better job.

An Evaporative Air conditioner is a very simple appliance but needs regular care and maintenance. It draws in hot air through wet filter pads and in turn, cools the air to be blown throughout your home. They don’t work so well when it is humid, but for the hot dry weather, they are a fantastic cheap source of cool air for your house.

To service your Evaporative air conditioner you will need the following items.

• A water hose and trigger sprayer
• Small Paintbrush
• Screw Driver
• Air Conditioner Remote (If it is wireless)
• Disinfectant in a spray bottle

Safety: Please take care of Working at Heights and wear a harness. Isolate the electricity. Always hold on and have good gripping footwear.

Evaporative Cooler Service Removing Filter Pads:

You first need to remove all the pads off of your unit and take them down to the ground level for washing or replacement.

This is usually done by removing the clips on each side of the evaporative aircon panel. Check out our video below on how to service your Breezair EX evaporative airconditioner in under 15-minutes.

Evaporative Air-conditioner Pads:

Every Evaporative air conditioner will have a different way of removing the filer pad frames. On this Breezair Icon unit, you just use a screwdriver to lever off the clips.

There are two kinds of evaporative filter pads.

• The first is the 12-inch Celdek pad. (You may have a different size) These are made from corrugated paper with a glue binder. It holds its shape well and has good airflow. Newer evaporative coolers use this type of filter pad.
• Aspen Wood wool Filter Pad is another type of cooling pad. Think of wood shavings that have been conditioned for wet water use bound together to make a filter pad. It needs to be fluffed up to stop the pad from restricting airflow.

Evaporative cooler maintenance service:

When all the Filter pad frames are removed and taken down to ground level, you will be able to get good access to start servicing the unit.

This particular Evaporative unit has a blocked drain so the cooling water was getting old and dirty. The drain had to be unblocked before continuing with the service

 

 

Swamp cooler evaporator clean out all dirt:

Use a paintbrush to brush out all loose scale and dirt. A cordless vacuum cleaner is perfect for this task. Once this is done you can use a hose to flush out more dirt down to the drain. You will have to do this a few times to get a clean system. If you have a lot of limescale buildup you may have to use a scrubbing brush or use some lime descaler. Rinse well with water afterward.

Air conditioner Flush out system:

You will have to run the system a few times to have clean water in the base. Usually, do this with the filter pads on to flush the pads as well. Run for 10 minutes then press the drain to empty the reservoir.

How to clean air cooler pads – Breezair Pads:

Take the Evaporate air conditioner pads down to ground level and hose them out. Once dry bring them back up and reinstall.  I like to spray the pads with disinfectant to clean out any bacteria that may be present. Wash it all through well. You will get that disinfectant smell for a day when you first start your system but goes away very quickly.

How often should you change evaporative cooler pads?

I like to change my evaporate cooler pads every 5-8 years depending on use and condition. Breezair pads do not typically get a lot of calcium hard water build-up due to the smart water dump feature.

Box Up Air-conditioner:

After you have finished all the cleaning replace the filter pads and turn on the evaporator air-conditioner. Press dump on your controller a few times during the day. This will dump all the water and flush out any cleaning residue that may have been left. You can run a hose from your drain to your garden, to help reuse the water and grow those grafted trees we did the other month.

Why does my evaporative cooler dump water?

Your evaporative cooler dumps water due to 4 reasons:

• The water level is too high.
• Water PH quality is either high or low.
• Pre-set timer to dump water every 6-12 hours.
• Fault in either the dump valve or the ball float water level.

Usually, the cooler will dump water to keep it fresh. This prevents scale build-up of the cooling pads and odor in the stale water. Dumping of the water lets fresh water come into the cooler and flush out the old dirty water.

If you developed a fault and the dump valve is not sealing you may have to follow our mega Breezair evaporative cooler troubleshooting guide. This will give you an idea of what is wrong and how to fix it.

Winter Service and Power Down

Once winter comes along there are a few basic steps to take. Turn off all power to the unit and drain the unit. Turn off the water supply. If you have a cover now is a good time to put the cover on the unit and box it all up. This stops the heat from escaping through the air-conditioner.

Here is a list of Seeley Breezair and Braemar cooler parts that often fail. The lifespan of these parts is 5-10 years depending on use. I have replaced hundreds of dump valves and Tornado water pumps in my electrical career. It would be nice if they lasted longer but they do a good job in a harsh environment.

Low power consumption evaporative air conditioner

Breezair Icon is one of the lowest power-consumption evaporative air-conditioners in the world. They work extremely well in dry hot parts of the world. Their main design is that the motor and the fan are all made as one unit.

The fan is a dual drum type that is very efficient. The motor is a variable speed which means no V-Belts to break. Also, known as a direct drive inverter. With a Variable Range of 170 to 556 RPM.

The cooling pads are Chillcel™ which should last the life of the cooler if properly serviced. These pads are very good and it is the only parts that have not failed on my Breezair evaporative cooler. But that’s a story for another time.

How often should an evaporative air conditioner be serviced?

You should service your evaporative air conditioner twice every year. Usually at the end of summer and at the beginning of winter, when you don’t think you will use it anymore. This service will clean the pads and drain the water so it doesn’t go moldy.

Keep the mains water to the evaporative aircon turned off when not in use just in case you have a leak in the 24v AC solenoid valve.

How much electricity does an evaporative air conditioner use

Not much compared to a refrigerated air conditioner. As you can see from the graph below you could save nearly $350 dollars in electricity running costs.

These figures take into account running the air con for around 300 hours a year at about 29c kwh. Yes, we all know electricity prices are going up every year.

Depending on the size of the cooler you may only be pulling about 5 amps or less. It’s better to oversize your evaporative cooler so you can run it at a slower speed to save power.

There is a small amount of water waste running cost, but that will only be a few dollars each year.

That’s it enjoy many years of cheap service.