Will a swamp cooler ruin a table?

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center pocket

It's just a hobby, but a fun one.
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I am in a bit of a bind. I live in southern AZ and it gets pretty damn hot out here. Got a Diamond Pro Am out in the garage and the door has insulation. It gets so hot in there by afternoon and in the evenings it seems to retain its heat. i thought about buying an a/c but its too expensive and I will only be in this house for another year.

Its so hot that its making me not want to play anymore. I thought about getting a smaller swamp cooler but I have been told that the moisture it puts out will ruin the table. What do you guys think? I think as long as its not blowing on the table and I only run it when I am playing that the table should be ok. I am not getting a swamp cooler so big that it could cool the whole house, just something to cool down a two car garage.
 
I thought about running a swamp cooler in my garage for the same reason. As we speak it's 105 degrees and with the night time temps not dropping very low it's going to stay too hot in the garage for me to play until it's way too late into the evening.

Currently I feel like an idiot having to sneak in an hour of pool by waking up an hour ealier in the morning before work.

I thought about a swamp cooler and I don't think it would be a problem. I'm not a mechanic and I've never seen the outcome of the use of one, but if you aren't in a humid environment I don't think a swamp cooler is going to raise your humidity that much. Sure it's going to go up, but depending on where in AZ you are I think it'll raise it to what other parts of the country consider normal.

It's so arid and dry here in California where I am that I could run a swamp cooler and I'd bet top dollar that when it's like this I couldn't get the rh up to 55%.

I run an AC and it's no competition for the heat pounding on my garage as it's not really well insulated. Good luck, hard to beat the price on swamp coolers and their efficiency, but I understand the concern. I look forward to feedback from some of the guys that have been around for a long time.
 
I laughed about what you said, waking up early to sneak in some pool. Been doing for a year and a half now! What you said about the humidity levels makes sense to me. I mean most normal furniture doesnt fall apart or swell under the use of a swamp cooler, so why would one of the best pool tables ever made get damaged?
 
As long as the air is pretty dry, which Arizona is known for. I lived there 10 years. When the humidity level goes up during the monsoon season, swamp coolers dont do much good. I live in the California high desert now, where the humidity level is consitantly higher than Arizona's dry heat, and swamp coolers make pool tables just play absolute horrible, especially with dirty cloth and dirty billiard balls. My local pool hall has only swamp coolers and the playing conditions just suck during the mid-day.

It will help keep the garage at a more comfortable temperature though and also might help and keeping the cushions from heat damage.
 
cusions can get heat damage??? I guess if it gets hot enough rubber could deform, that would suck. It is monsoon season right now but I am really considering the swamp cooler. Thanks for your input.
 
I would think that during monsoon season it wouldn't be too terribly effective.

They use swamp coolers up @ Sharky's?

I was considering going up there this weekend to play, but I'll wait for the cooler season, haha.
 
not really heat damage, more like dry rotting. Cant really think of the term for it.

Yes, Sharky's has swamp coolers, not bad at night though. Plus its been pretty dry here lately so the swamp coolers are working pretty good. I go there in the late evenings and its not bad. Its a hit or miss during the daytime.
 
A window ac used was the route I chose for my garage, $50 off craigslist for 7.5kw, and just opened up the hole in the side door of the garage where there used to be a doggy door and stuck it right in the door.

That door can't be used now with the ac in it, but we never really used it anyway.

Those portable a/c units with dual hoses are expensive and less effective than window units, portable units with single hoses are the worst and hardly work at all, but the good old fashioned window units are cheap, common, and work well, and you can find really good deals on.
5kw unit would cool it down in the evenings and they can be found near $100 brand new, 10kw unit would keep it cool anytime.

To me a swamp cooler is like asking for a hot dry day to become a hot humid day, as in almost worse than nothing barely better than a good fan at times.
 
table'

If its a newer diamond it will have artimis cushions on it_ best cushion available for pool tables'...have you looked for a used window A/C unit?
I think I have a window unit that you can have for cheep, ju$t your gas to drive here n get it :)
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Is a window unit not a option?
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Rob.M
 
Hmmm....yeah, my two hose portable AC really isn't doing anything. Even after it cools off in the evening the garage stills stays too warm. Even if I open the garage door. All that does is make it hot and full of bugs.

I am in a rental house and I don't have a window in my garage so I couldn't think of a way to do a window unit. Now I'm thinking that it's going to be time to hack up the door.

Doors are replaceable.
 
Have you thought about a portable A/C? The kind you roll into the room then hook up an exhaust hose out side to. They can be found on Craigslist for less than $200 if you keep looking. I recovered a table for a guy that used a 10k btu unit on a double car garage and it cooled it off pretty well. He got some rigid foam and cut it into 4 inch strips to put under the garage door, and left a small space for the exhaust hose to go out. It was the middle of the summer, the outside temp must have been 110+ and the garage was at 80. He would turn it on about an hour before he wanted to play and it would cool everything down for him.
 
thanks Zach for the post. I cant modify anything with the house because the army is letting me stay in it for free. Portable AC would be the way to go but they can get expensive for the better brands (Soleuos Air). I do agree a window ac is the best bang for your buck but there are no windows in my garage.

thanks for the comments everyone.
 
Yeah they can get expensive. You said southern AZ, check Tucson craigslist, there are a few on there for not too bad of a price. Even if they are not the really good brand they will last a year or 2 until you move or get something better.


Tucson CL link
 
laserbrn said:
Hmmm....yeah, my two hose portable AC really isn't doing anything. Even after it cools off in the evening the garage stills stays too warm. Even if I open the garage door. All that does is make it hot and full of bugs.

I am in a rental house and I don't have a window in my garage so I couldn't think of a way to do a window unit. Now I'm thinking that it's going to be time to hack up the door.

Doors are replaceable.
Click to expand...

That's what I figured when I hacked up mine. And really it doesn't look any worse than the doggy door that was in there, I could just turn it back into a larger doggy door but I already picked up a replacement door that was free on craiglist to put in it's place when the a/c needs to come out.

As for the op, if the army is letting you have a free house to stay in you're so freaking lucky... No rent or house payments should leave a little wiggle room for something... Unless you still are paying on a house back home that is. All I got from the army infantry was shin splints.
 
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I drove up to Lancaster today to the middle of freakin' nowhere and picked up a swamp cooler today. COMPELTELY uselss today of course as the humidity had to be 95% so the swamp cooler is completely worthless today.

The AC didn't do a damn thing and there wasn't a scenario that I could see where it was useful. I bought it for $400.00 from Costco and I'm glad I returned it today.

I bought the swamp cooler for $300, stopped by Diamond Jim's Casino and stole $240 off the guys in there and drove back home.

Woke up this morning with an AC that wouldn't cool the garage @ 10:00pm last night, going to sleep tonight with $340.00 and I played pool from 8:00pm-10:00pm without cookin' my ass off.

This thing isn't going to keep a garage cool when it's 108 degrees with humidity in the 90's, but it does a better job during the evening than the AC and I'm sure it will be great during less extreme conditions.
 
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Final quick update. Yesterday I turned my swamp cooler on in the morning and left the garage slightly ventilated. I opened the back walkthrough door and left the garage door open about 3-4 inches.

I didn't hold out much hope for a comfortable garage come the afternoon, but I was able to play ALL day long. @ 3:00pm it was 107 degrees outside and just below 80 degrees in the garage and plenty cold standing in front of the cooler when I got a little on the warm side. I had some friends show up about 4:00pm and we loaded the swamp cooler with ice, the temperature instantly fell to about 75 degrees and we were just comfortable as all hell playing pool.

I'm SO glad I went with a swamp cooler and returned that tiny little AC. It doesn't hold a candle to the cooling power of the swamp cooler.
 
Thanks Lser Burn, I think together we found a solution! I will be looking for a swamp cooler promptly. Craigs list is my first stop.
 
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