Evapolar review: Your own personal air cooler

Most all of us have moments when we’re just too warm. Whether it’s at your desk at work, while you’re sleeping at night, or any number of other places there are times when you’d love to have your own personal cooling system. Originally launched on Indiegogo, Evapolar wants to be your very own personal air cooler. Keep reading to see how it works in this full review.

Specifications

Evapolar includes the following features and specifications:

• Evaporative Air Cooler
• Functions: Cooling / Humidifying / Cleaning
• Cooling Capacity (BTU): 340-1200 BTU
• dBA Level: 28-40 dB
• Water Tank: 750 ml
• Power Supply: 5V / 2A Mirco USB
• ETL Listed: Yes
• Cooling power: 100-350 W
• Size: 174 x 170 x 170 mm
• Weight (without water): 1.3 kg
• Power consumption: 10 W
• Micro-USB plug 5V 2A; works with power bank
• Sleep Mode
• Change the speed of the airflow
• Choose the color of the water tank light
• Adjust low water alert
• Choose C°/F°
• Won’t cool big rooms; designed for personal use
• Temperature drop depends on your conditions
• Won’t give desired results in climates with humidity higher than 70%
• Won’t cool if the temperature is lower than 65°F

What’s in the Box

• Evapolar
• Micro-USB to USB-A power cable
• USB AC Power Adapter
• Quick Start Guide
• Product Guide

Design

The Evapolar unit is a 6 ¾” rounded cube. The front of the unit includes the vent, through which the internal filter can be seen. The clear plastic removable water reservoir is on the left side, though you can see one end of that reservoir from the front as well. The back includes an air intake as well as the Micro-USB power input. The top includes the multi-function button, which acts as power as well as the display for the entire operation. That display is surrounded by a rotating dial which allows you to navigate the various menus and options as well as adjust the air output of your Evapolar during operation.

The water reservoir has a hinged plastic lid across the entire top for easy filling, plus a notch along the inside that fits into a ridge on the body of the unit itself in order to keep the reservoir aligned properly when putting it back together. The bottom of the reservoir includes a plug that allows the water to escape into the machine itself. My only complaint about the design of the Evapolar is that the water tank is a bit difficult to remove. The sides are smooth, so you kind of have to hold the machine in one hand, and rock the tank back and forth a bit in the other to remove it. If you lift the lid and try to pull it off that way, the cap on the top of the tank will simply come off. It would be nice to have maybe just a small lip or grip of some type near the top of the tank in order to make its removal a bit easier.

The outer casing of the Evapolar unit can be removed in order to get at the replaceable evaporative cooling filter cartridge or to clean out the inside of the machine if necessary. All in all, this is a well-designed machine that doesn’t take up a lot of room and looks good sitting on your desk. Evapolar is available in white, black, and blue.

Ease of Use

At its most basic, you really just have to fill the water reservoir, attach it to the machine, and plug in your Evapolar via either the included USB AC adapter or into an appropriately powered USB port. Evapolar will automatically turn on when plugged in, so you’ll want to be sure to fill the water reservoir first. To turn the device on or off otherwise, simply press and hold the multifunction button on top for a few seconds. The fan will start up, and the water will start to siphon out of the reservoir and into the machine itself. While running, the button — which doubles as the information panel/screen — will display the fan level as segments in a ring surrounding the outer edge of the button. On the inside, you’ll see two temperatures: the incoming air temperature on top, and the outgoing air temperature on the bottom. An animated spinning fan sits at the very bottom of the button in its default state.

The dial surrounding the button will, by default, adjust the fan speed of your Evapolar. It also acts as the control dial for the menus, which are reached by tapping the button on top. The available menu options are: Night Mode (lighting turns off and display lighting dims), Lighting Color (change the color of your lighting from several options), Lighting Brightness (pretty self-explanatory), Measurement Units (choose from Celsius or Fahrenheit), and Notifications, which changes the color of the light when the water level gets too low. Here you can change the color of that alert, or turn that notification off altogether.

Once you’ve picked a lighting color that you like, the measurement unit that you prefer, and your other various settings, you’ll mostly just need to use the dial for its default purpose of adjusting the fan speed.

Performance

Evapolar is your personal air cooler, so it’s definitely not meant to cool large areas. As long as you understand that going in you’ll have the right frame of mind. Evapolar creates its own microclimate in the immediate area in front of the unit. It’s perfect for your desk at work, or even your bedside table while you’re sleeping. The evaporative process cools and humidifies the air, creating a comfortable environment for a few square feet around you.

I’ve been using Evapolar on my desk at work. An unseasonably warm winter combined with my building’s complete and utter inability to keep a comfortable temperature at any time made for a great testing environment. I generally keep a fan running on my desk at all times, but swapped that out for Evapolar (and occasionally ran the two in tandem). Even at its highest fan speed, Evapolar is definitely quieter than my mini tower fan. Its cooling effect is immediately noticeable and was definitely more pronounced than my fan as well.

No matter what temperature of water you add to the reservoir, Evapolar will take a short time to “warm up” and start cooling as the evaporative filter absorbs water from the reservoir. The internal filter cartridge is removable, and it’s suggested that you replace it every 6-8 months, so you don’t need to worry about using tap water versus filtered or even distilled water. The replacement cartridges are $25 and can be purchased from Evapolar or other outlets.

A full reservoir of water should get you about 3-5 hours of cooling depending on the temperature and humidity where you set it up. The water will drain from the reservoir quite a lot more quickly than that though, so if you intend to use Evapolar while you’re sleeping you’ll want to turn it on maybe a half hour before you go to bed, and then refill the reservoir completely just before going to sleep. That will give you a few extra hours of cooling. When the water runs out, Evapolar will continue to run and cool as the evaporative elements will still be saturated. Even when it has dried out completely it will continue to circulate and filter the air, though there will be no additional cooling effect.

Price/Value

Priced at $179 USD along with a recurring charge for replacement cartridges, Evapolar is definitely more expensive than most normal desk fans. The added cooling and air filtering effects are absolutely above and beyond what normal desk fans offer under most circumstances though. If your desk is just uncomfortably warm, or you need a bit of extra cooling while you sleep, Evapolar will definitely be beneficial to you. If you buy in the next few days, you can save a couple of dollars at NewEgg, where Evapolar is only $159 until 4/22/2017.

Wrap Up

Evapolar was brought to life thanks to more than 6,000 backers on Indiegogo that believed in this project. Now that it is available to the public, you should really check it out if you need a personal air cooler of your own.

*We were sent a review sample of Evapolar for the purposes of this review.