Some like 'em cool

Shirl Evans from Dexter Barnes
gives us the run down on caring
for an evaporative cooler over winter.

Most people have turned their airconditioners off around now. So in winter time you should have a pre-season check. That's getting your unit ready for the next summer. Most people leave it until the last minute and then everybody has to wait, because there are lots and lots of evap coolers in Tennant.
Your pre-season consists of completely cleaning out the unit; cleaning out the bottom of the unit - the bowl where the water sits, checking the pumps, checking the belts, checking the bearings and the motor, refilling the pads with wood woollen mesh, there are usually four per unit, and checking or replacing the waterways.
If you have a pre-season done every year, the pads should last you for a full season. With the water problem we have in Tennant Creek, the calcification we get here, a pump usually does two seasons - three if you're lucky. A motor should last a couple of years but you have to be particularly careful with the motor because it is electrical. They're not waterproofed, so the motor is placed in a position where it is away from the water, but if your waterways get clogged up with calcium, then it can squirt the water in different directions. If it inadvertently squirts onto the motor, you're going to blow your motor up. So the waterways have to be checked and cleared all the time. It's really easy to do, you can do it yourself.
You should leave your pump running all winter, don't turn your pump off. Basically the cost of running a pump over the winter season is less than having a light switched on, one light bulb turned on. It keeps the water going through the pads constantly, if you turn your pump off, your pads dry out. When you turn the pump back on, you get a dead fish smell in your house and it takes a long time to get rid of it. It really is disgusting and there is no way you can alleviate that so leave the pump running. It's next to no cost and it's looking after your unit, it's keeping everything working. It's also better for the pads to keep them wet. The wood wool is dry, shaved wood but when it gets really, really dry and brittle and starts falling to bits it ends up going through your machine, clogging things up. You really are better off leaving that water going.
For a pre-season, Dexter Barnes charges $26.00 a pad, that's changing the wood wool and the mesh and cleaning the louvers and then $40.00 for the service.
The worst possible thing people can do to their units is to hose down their pads while they're on the machine. You're going to hose down your motor and blow it up - people do this all the time! It gets hot and they just think 'God it's so hot we'll just go and squirt those pads down', or you'll get the salt build up on the outside of the pads and you can see it and as it gets thicker and thicker, people just put the hose on it - wrong thing to do! Don't do it, if you're going to do that, take the pads off the unit. It's easy to do, put them on the ground and hose them very, very lightly, don't hit them with the hose because you'll make all the wood wool sag to the bottom and again, you're going to have huge problems.
In-line water filters are around but they don't work very well, they haven't been a successful thing, we all wish that they were, but unfortunately they're not.