Port-a-cool? Anyone use one in their shop?

[IntegrityShirts]

Just wondering mainly because they cool by running water over mesh and blowing air over it, thereby generating cold MOIST air.

[Screened Gear]

Not sure on that unit. Any cooler that uses evaporation to cool will only work if the humidity is less than 50 percent. Any more and your just making more humidity. They also only cool down 20 degrees in the perfect conditions.

[balloonguy]

I am in FL. We had a big one for a while. It did not help much at all. It did cause all sorts of trouble with emulsion and drying though.

[Prosperi-Tees]

85-90 degrees and under 40-50% humidity is probably its max effectiveness after that the only thing that will work is air conditioning.

[Screened Gear]

85-90 degrees and under 40-50% humidity is probably its max effectiveness after that the only thing that will work is air conditioning.

The temperature really has nothing to do with it. Evaporating water cools about 20 degrees. You need a humidity low enough to allow enough evaporating to happen quickly. Its 100 to 115 here and low humidity. I get exactly 20 degrees out of my over-sized commercial unit. The key is to buy them big and run them slow. This allows time for evaporation and makes the pads stay soaked with water. If you run it too fast the water will evaporate in the pads faster then it can be replenished leaving dry spots.

[dirkdiggler]

messy and a waste of time, I hated ours, didn't work.

[cbjamel]

In a dry area like western colorado its great and cheaper to run then a/c. But on humid days they aren't the best but then don't run the water just fan.

Shane

[tancehughes]

We bought one about two months ago. Here in louisiana it was a mistake. I'll sell my to someone if they're interested in it, it's like brand new. Blows a ton of air.

We just found a screaming deal on a carrier rooftop ac unit and are hooking that up here instead. 25 tons of cold air coming into our shop!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Prosperi-Tees]

Which model do you have Tance?

[tancehughes]

Jetstream 7500 CFM


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Gilligan]

We bought one about two months ago. Here in louisiana it was a mistake. I'll sell my to someone if they're interested in it, it's like brand new. Blows a ton of air.

We just found a screaming deal on a carrier rooftop ac unit and are hooking that up here instead. 25 tons of cold air coming into our shop!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I love ya my brother, but I have to do it.  "I told you so".  Next time listen to ya boy! You know I'm looking out for you!

[mk162]

we have the big 48" here...works great...kitson can verify that.

also, you want dry spots.  You don't want so much water that is 100% soaked on the back.

[tancehughes]

Yeah well lesson learned Gil


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Inkworks]

We have central air in the shop and a portable swamp cooler pointed at the press operators. The A/C dehumidifies so the swamp cooler can keep doing it's job and not make it too humid in the shop.

It doesn't fully keep up if we have two flashes going on a large run, but we haven't broken 90F yet.

[alan802]

The owner keeps asking me if I want to buy some of these port a cools and every summer I have to tell her they won't work in our humid shop but one of our embroidery customers runs a screen print shop and says that his works great.  So I guess I at least need to go check it out but I've heard from way too many guys I trust that they don't work well when it's humid.  I'd love to AC the shop but I've been told every time I bring it up that it ain't happening, it's too expensive.  I think with the right tonnage and the air socks it could be done around 15K, plus the added monthly costs but wow what a difference it would make on those 10 hour days in August when we've been suffering through 2 months of 100 degree heat.  If we had an AC production area I could have my pick of good screen printers in town and I'd likely get a significant increase in production from the guys I do have.