Customer Reviews for MasterCool 5000 CFM 115-Volt 2-Speed Down-Draft Roof 12 in. Media Evaporative Cooler for 1650 sq. ft. (with Motor)

I wasn't home when the item was delivered. Found a pallet in my driveway with a damaged $1400 MasterCool apparently smashed from a forklift. Install was not difficult. Did it with the help of a friend. The PADS are absolute junk. This unit had been sitting for a long time in a warehouse I assume because the pads are extremely brittle. Impossible to install in the unit without them decaying in your hands. And they cost about $500. Never impressed with the quality and QA of home depot and not going to allow their poor customer Svc reps ruin my day or raise my blood pressure so, I didn't even call and complain. My methodology is to just not buy from them anymore. Anyway, I would not buy this unit again. The pads are poor at holding water and the water simply runs over the top of them and out the screen panel, onto my roof, staining my patio with calcium deposits. Yes, they're installed correctly :-)

Ordered this online to the store and installed the whole new system myself. My main-level is 1,500 sqft and I installed 5 new vents (living room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms, and 1 office), this cooler is more then adequate to cool the entire house. The living room is a solid 75 ft from the cooler and power/coldness is still great. I live in Denver, Colorado and went with this one because it has a higher rebate from the energy company; I am really glad that I went with the higher-end one once I saw it in person and physically compared the quality of components. Love the high and low speed, high is very powerful and cools very quickly. Also can turn on fan and just vent on cooler nights when you don't need the extra coldness from the water. The extra thick 12" media really helps with the efficiency as well. The cooler is not loud but don't install it right above a bedroom as you will hear it rumble when trying to sleep. I have it situated over a bathroom between two bedrooms and you can't hear the fan at all. Has a very clean and professional look to it unlike many swamp coolers. Only issue was that the control box and thermostat in the unit did not work correctly and took a little bit to trouble shoot. Bought a replacement thermostat in Home Depot and replaced the unit which worked and then warrantied the piece and returned the one I bought. Annoying but easy to install. (if your control box is opaque you may have a bad one...) Highly recommend. Key Components to help install this: - DIAL 20 in. x 20 in. Evaporative Cooler Roof Jack - Master Flow 8 in. x 25 ft. Insulated Flexible Duct R6 Silver Jacket + registers, elbows, collars, water-pipe, and we built the plenum ourselves from steel ducting boxes

The unit delivers as promised. Easy to install, all the bells and whistles, with only one draw back... The unit folded the legs from the store bought leg kit. Easily fixed with a quick trip to Home Depot for some angle iron, spray paint and fastening bolts. Unit generally keeps the house 20 degrees cooler then ambient temps. We had the house at 77 degrees on a dry 99 degree day.

I made the decision to install this cooler myself after several bids from contractors that I was not happy with. Free shipping was very attractive and the cooler arrived within 1 week. Home Depot and the contracted shipping company did a very good job informing me when and how the cooler would arrive. Between my online order and a couple trips to my local Home Depot store, I had all the parts required to install the cooler on my roof including ducting, vents, electrical, plumbing, and roof mounting. The cooler itself is very simple in its construction which was more attractive to me than a more full function more expensive unit. All replacement parts are available on the shelf at the store. The only negative about this cooler is the thermostat will wait up to a 4 degree difference from setpoint until it kicks from low to high. But this might be to prevent frequent switching of blower speed. Low speed is very very quiet but high speed is noisy, mostly because of the diffusers and I think any cooler would be noisy on high. Without going to a more expensive variable speed motor model, I believe that this cooler performs very well. I measured 66 deg output temp on an 85 deg day with 35% humidity outside. One other important note was that I was able to completely assemble the cooler and cart it onto my roof in parts. Overall very happy.

This rooftop unit does a great job cooling our home. I had a little help to install it and it went as planned. I especially like the quality thermostat control. I am happy with the purchase and overall this is a very good product.

I have the older version, which has louvered holes covering the media in the front. That was a bad design, sucks in all the Cottonwood tree snow and requires cleaning every month in the summer. New media guard is superior which is a mesh. Overall, this is a good unit. mine was installed in 2002, it's now 2020. My old one has a plastic pan to hold the water and media which is superior to water sitting in a metal pan, replaceable parts. I imagine the new style has this plastic pan as well. Mine has little rust from overflowing, but still holding up well. One caveat with the thick media. When brand new, it really stinks! Do as the manual suggests and soak the pads for a day or so, that will really help with the smell. The new media is different than what it was 20 years ago, that had a horrible smell for the entire first season, sore throat and all. Now, it is nowhere near as noxious as it used to be. Note, this media will NEVER smell as good as Aspen! Next time i need new media, I'll just build a cage out of 1 1/4" PVC pipe and use a bunch of Aspen or blue media. Sure can move air when on high! This cools my 1700sqft mobile home nicely when the humidity is low. I measured 28 degrees differential @10% and below RH. We often get 5% RH days here in Albuquerque, and it puts out COLD air.

Rating provided by a verified purchaser

Rating provided by a verified purchaser

Swamp coolers could compete well with energy hog a/c, but Essex, producer of Mastercool neither engineers nor builds these things right. First, product came damaged, and it seemed to be damage done at factory. Second, casing design makes access to electrical box difficult. You can't just unbolt the lid because there are bolts inside that are hard to reach. So, you have to disassemble more to do simple stuff. Third, big fan known for being noisy unit encased in drum like sheet metal box. I used spray glue to attach closed cell foam sheets to inside off casing to deaden sound, and insulate against summer sun. This could be done cheaply and better at the factory. Fourth, electronics are simple, but could be plug and play. I'm surprised CA tech company hasn't gobbled up this TX based tech midget minded company with flimsy electronics.

I had 2evaporative coolers on my roof they got old and a lot of repair so i bought the master cool 5000 downdraft had it installed it cools my whole house.

Ordered a Mastercool cooler three times because of product damage. Never got a price break for the inconvenience. Third cabinet was also bent. Had to straighten it out before install.

The assembly had a minor flaw, the blower fan section didn't perfectly fit into the cooler base so they forced it to fit and then drilled a new hole to screw in one corner, cosmetically looked bad. Also, this unit has a controller installed and it requires a 3-wire control line installation, sometime I won't do. So, I had to disassemble the entire wiring so it would be compatible with my existing 4 wire setup. The supplied wiring diagrams don't make this task easy because they don't provide the optional wiring configuration that I want to use, bypassing the supplied controller. I have enough experience to rewire the unit but those that don't will need to hire an installer. I liked the way it was easy to disassemble the unit… that allowed me to get it on my roof in pieces w/o hiring someone to haul it up to the roof. I recommend this cooler, it's replacing a 20 year old Mastercool 8".

Unit works well, I had to literally build my own duct work and skirting as non was offered by the store, Don't let the size and weight discourage you from installing yourself, if you're ambitious enough, you can completely disassemble it, take it up in pieces and reassemble in place on the roof. Cools well enough in a dry climate. Uses less than half as much power as my refrigerated air unit does. Thermostat works pretty well. Motor pulley is variable pitch type that allows adjusting the low and high speeds - good feature as with the original setting the blower was fairly loud. You can adjust for a good compromise between air flow and noise. If you can, I would recommend installing a side draft unit on a shady side of your house and venting it through your regular duct work. I did cut a hole in my ducting and vent some air from the cooler into the attic to cool/vent that space also.

Ive had a Master Cool for 12 years. I upgraded the motor to a 1 hp to give it a bit of kick, it has cooled several homes Ive lived in. Now Im moving to another new home I purchased and I plan to buy another. The old one still functions perfectly so it is going into my detached garage and shop for use. While the initial price is high its well worth it seriously I dont have the high AC bills my neighbors do and everyone who comes to my house says its feels really cold. Plus all the stale air isnt locked up in the house its constantly recirculating fresh air and I like that.

the Master Cool has cooled our home much faster than our old swamp cooler. And, it came with a thermostat: added bonus!

exceptional cooler, works great. However it came dented in two places. Credit was given without hassle . Am very satisfied with entire purchase.

The cooler works like a champ. Only problem is that the control panel does not have a backlight or if it does our installer did not know how to hook it up. Keeps us cool in lower humidity and just perfect here in Arizona. It helps to keep our A/C costs down.

The cooler was better than expected. But Home Depot don't stock repair and service parts for this unit. ( pads and covers )

Looks good. Make certain your roof has clearance and structural strength for the unit--its much larger and heavier than the "standard" box unit.