Here's an unboxing in review of the Arctic Air Pure Chill 2.0.
Bottom Line: The XL is Better than the 2.0 smaller, and worthwhile as a personal cooling unit if the air is blowing directly on you. Doesn't add too much humidity. Costs $2.22 less than running a 5 ton 16 seer HVAC Central Unit for a 5 hr period, and $0.69 less than running a single windo unit for the same 5 hr period. (See bottom below links for entire comp chat & calculations)
💯 USE A DRIP TRAY 100%. 💯
The video is fairly detailed in its entire coverage. I did have a little bit of trouble getting the filter cartridge out originally, that's in the middle, but bottom line is that for 40 bucks it's a nice personal air conditioning unit that you can actually direct flow on to you personally and it makes it pretty good difference.
As far as chilling a whole room down though, I don't recommend it at all. Nice supplemental, could be useful if you're trying to just cool yourself and not an entire space to save money, situations like that.
I found this 2.0, as well as the Arctic Air Pure Chill XL which was definitely a better unit, at ‪@Walmart‬.
The XL was $79.88 at Walmart here locally in Texas, and used a squirrel cage motor rather than the computer fan motor. I would buy the XL version again before this small one. It worked very well to cool me off in my office as the air was blowing directly on to me.
Arctic Air Pure Chill XL Evaporative Air Cooling Tower, As Seen On TV www.walmart.com/ip/892842500
Arctic Air Pure Chill 2.0 Powerful Personal Air Cooler, As Seen On TV www.walmart.com/ip/525608766
FYI COST COMPARISON VIA Bing Chat: "Therefore, running an Arctic Air XL portable fan cooler for five hours costs $2.22 less than running a 5 ton 16 SEER central air conditioner and $0.69 less than running a single window unit for the same period of time."
Entire Chat Cost Comparison & Calculations via Bing Chat:
According to the product description on Amazon1, the Arctic Air XL portable fan cooler has a power rating of 42 watts. This means it uses 0.042 kWh of electricity per hour. If you run it for five hours, it will consume 0.042 kWh x 5 h = 0.21 kWh of electricity.
To compare this with the other units, we can use the formula:
Energy consumption difference (kWh) = Energy consumption of AC unit (kWh) - Energy consumption of Arctic Air XL (kWh)
For the 5 ton 16 SEER central AC unit, the energy consumption difference is:
18.75 kWh - 0.21 kWh = 18.54 kWh
For the single window AC unit, the energy consumption difference is:
6 kWh - 0.21 kWh = 5.79 kWh
As you can see, running an Arctic Air XL portable fan cooler for five hours uses much less energy than running either a central or a window AC unit for the same period of time. The difference in energy consumption is 18.54 kWh for the central AC unit and 5.79 kWh for the window AC unit.
To calculate the cost difference, you need to multiply the energy consumption difference by the electricity rate in your area. For example, if you pay $0.12 per kWh, the cost difference of running the Arctic Air XL for five hours is:
Cost difference of central AC = 18.54 kWh x $0.12/kWh = $2.22 Cost difference of window AC = 5.79 kWh x $0.12/kWh = $0.69
Therefore, running an Arctic Air XL portable fan cooler for five hours costs $2.22 less than running a 5 ton 16 SEER central air conditioner and $0.69 less than running a single window unit for the same period of time.
I hope this helps you compare the energy and cost savings of using an Arctic Air XL portable fan cooler instead of an AC unit. However, you should also consider that the cooling effect of an Arctic Air XL may not be as strong or as consistent as an AC unit, especially in hot and humid conditions2. You may also need to refill the water tank frequently to maintain the evaporative cooling function3.