Mastercool evaporative cooler - water splashes out the front

[Stephen Tashiro]

A friend has a Mastercool ADA5112 evaporative cooler. Water dripping down from the top of the pads hits the plastic strip at the bottom and splashes out of the front of the cooler. This is not a major problem, but I can't believe that cooler is designed to function that way. (It's enough of a splash to leave a mineral deposits on the outside of the cooler along the bottom front. How to fix it?

I don't see a way to tilt the pads back so the water won't have free path to fall. Adjusting the flow of the pump or getting a smaller pump is another thought, but I hate to use solutions that require sensitive adjustments. They are liable to get disturbed every winter when the cooler is "mothballed".

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Is the cooler level? Could the entire unit be tipped back to prevent this?

[Allan Dozier]

I'm curious where the cooler is located. I have a 20 ft one in our greenhouse to cool things down in the summer. It works surprisingly well for the humid southeast. I bet in the dry air in NM it works great. Anyway, I have a PVC ball valve just downstream of the pad pump and can modulate the volume of water that way. I also have used some aluminum flashing at areas to deflect the water if needed.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

In Missouri evaporative coolers just do not work. They are always splashing and spraying water because the the humidity is too high for enough evaporation to take place. Is there a way to reduce the water supply?

[Myk Rian]

In Missouri evaporative coolers just do not work. They are always splashing and spraying water because the the humidity is too high for enough evaporation to take place. Is there a way to reduce the water supply?

Read the post before yours.

[Stephen Tashiro]

Is the cooler level? Could the entire unit be tipped back to prevent this?

I'm curious where the cooler is located. .

The cooler is on the roof of my friends house. I'd have to climb on the roof again to answer Ken's question. Given that evaporative coolers need something fixed about them at least once per season, when that happens I'll check if it's level.

In Missouri evaporative coolers just do not work. They are always splashing and spraying water because the the humidity is too high for enough evaporation to take place.

In that sense, they don't work in southern New Mexico either!

In a 30 year old house in NM with a cooler on the roof, original ductwork under the cooler will have rusted out. At my friend's house, ductwork in the attic below the cooler has been replaced once. At other houses I've worked on, the ducts were so rusted that they partially collapsed.

It takes very precise adjustment to get an evaporative cooler working correctly. The typical handyman who gets coolers running the summer doesn't worry about whether they are spraying droplets of water into the ducts. I myself note when that happens, but usually don't find a way to fix it.

Is there a way to reduce the water supply?

Put a clamp around the outflow tube on the pump to constrict the rate of flow or use a pump that has a smaller rate of flow.

[Jeff Vandermolen]

Stephen, I had the same issue with my recently acquired Mastercool. Same model, same problem. I’d already tried all the above suggestions with only marginal improvement. I discovered the “fix” and will pass it along.
The issue originates with the uninterrupted flow of water from the distribution tube across the underside of the distribution pipe cover. I installed a “pre-filter” of sorts. Cut a 2”x42 1/2” section of blue poly filter material (sold for the older style evap coolers). Used wood screws with oversized washers to secure it inside the distribution pipe cover between the pipe and the leading edge that faces the intake screen. Works like a charm by slowing the water flow and still allows the water to soak the rigid filter.