This post is the seventh in a multi part series on swamp cooler maintenance, repair and replacement. If you haven’t read parts 1 – 6, I recommend you do before continuing.

Winterizing your swamp cooler (continued)

Once you cut the cardboard to size and add the insulation (if you’re using any) you can remove the interior vent cover and insert your homemade cover on top of it. Then just close the cover and leave it there until spring. If you only have one or two central vents in your home, this is a pretty easy solution, but if you have many it might turn into quite a project.

After you’ve sealed off your vents, your swamp cooler winterization is complete! Once you’ve winterized your cooler, the de-winterizing process will be easy for you – just do the same thing in reverse. Take off the cover on the cooler and the vent covers, change the pads if you didn’t do it in the fall, inspect the pan and the body of the cooler and clean up any mess that accumulated over the winter, hook up the water and turn on the valve, let it fill and make sure the float is set correctly, put the sides back on it, and enjoy your AC!

Swamp cooler repair

If you’ve kept up with your swamp cooler maintenance, winterizing and de-winterizing it each year, and you still run into a problem, then it’s probably time for a swamp cooler repair. Fortunately, swamp coolers are very simple compared to refrigerated air systems, so there aren’t really that many different parts to break. One of the most common issues that will stop a swamp cooler in its tracks is a dead pump. If your cooler starts blowing hot air into your house, there’s a good chance the pump went out.

Check back soon for How to do swamp cooler maintenance, when to replace it, and what to replace it with, part 8. In the meantime, check out our page on swamp cooler maintenance.