Evaporative Water Coolers - MasterCool Leaking/Accumulating Water In Fan Area

Greetings Gurus!

My system specs:
MasterCool CHC631 6500 CFM Downdraft
1hp motor
15,000 CFM industrial pump (brand new)
12" cellulose media
Always properly maintained and serviced

This one's a 'head-scratcher' and I'm hopeful someone out there has the answer.

A few days ago replaced a dying, barely working pump with a commercial unit rated at 15,000 CFM and 505 GPH @ 1 ft. I also coated the pan with Cooler Coat as a preventative measure since the factory coating had flaked off in a few areas. After re-assembling the unit complete with the new pump, I fired her up and life was good again. (How could it not be with a 6500CFM unit attached to the roof of your garage?! hehe :p)
About an hour later it starts raining inside my garage through the downdraft! Super!! So I shut her down figuring the float leveler had taken a dump and it was overflowing. When I pulled the maintenance panel, I discovered water - lots of water, in the front portion of the unit where the squirrel cage is. One interesting thing to note here is that the presence of the water wasn't due to it overflowing from the holding area. The front postion of the unit is equipped with several factory-drilled holes for the purpose of allowing any water that gets into this portion of the unit to drain away. I troubleshot this for quite a while over the past few days with no solution. One sorta-kinda solution I discovered is that when I turn off the water supply and just run it as a fan the leaking/accumulation stops.
Any ideas as to how the water is accumulating like this? Is it possible the fan is drawing the water out of the pad before it has a chance to soak in? In the meantime I'm stuck in a never ending loop of turning on the water and letting it run until it starts dripping into the garage then shutting off the water supply until the air starts to feel warm then back on with the water. <--- That last statement alone would lead any normal breathing, thinking person to believe this was a problem of overfilling but I am absolutely certain that it isn't. :yes: I sat up on the roof watching it as it filled to be sure the float valve was working properly.

Thanks for reading!

Steve
Chandler, AZ

For one thing, your pump is too big. You need to replace it with the 11,000 Dial brand pump.
Second, it's not really a good thing to undercoat the pan on the models, as I have seen the undercoating peel off. The other bad thing about undercoating, is that water always finds its way between the coating and the pan and sits in there and rusts it. I dont recommend undercoating any cooler for this reason.
I have had water get into my blower area before and managed to cure it by switching the pads around. You have 3 pads that are 12" wide and one that is 3 or 4 inches wide, make sure that the little pad is not on the outside edge. Best to put it somewhere in the middle. Hope this helps.:)

For one thing, your pump is too big. You need to replace it with the 11,000 Dial brand pump.
Ya know, I was kinda sorta thinking the same thing but the new pump I just installed replaced an 11,000 and it just wasn't efficient enough to keep up with the amount of evaporation that takes place during the hottest part of the summer here. You could hear it losing its prime especially when the unit was on high.
Second, it's not really a good thing to undercoat the pan on the models, as I have seen the undercoating peel off. The other bad thing about undercoating, is that water always finds its way between the coating and the pan and sits in there and rusts it. I dont recommend undercoating any cooler for this reason.
I coated the pan under advice of a couple different friends who have done so with excellent results. I'm pretty confident I won't have any problems with it since I prepped the surface properly and made sure the coating media was even and had dried completely. Even if I end up with problems down the road, at this point what's done is done.
I have had water get into my blower area before and managed to cure it by switching the pads around.
Yup! That was the ticket. After posting my question here I continued searching for info and discovered that there is a right way and a wrong way to install the pads due to the angle of the channels within the media. I had them 180 degrees backwards. DOH!!
ou have 3 pads that are 12" wide and one that is 3 or 4 inches wide, make sure that the little pad is not on the outside edge. Best to put it somewhere in the middle. Hope this helps.:)
Indeed I did have the partial pad at the end. Many thanks for the great info and for taking the time to reply!

One more question....
What is the life expectancy of the pads? I can't find anything that discusses when to replace them. Is there a tell-tale sign, symptom etc.?

Thanks again,
Steve

Life expectancy of the pads is usually four to five years, providing you have a bleedoff or dump pump setup for the cooler, otherwise the pads wont last more than a year.

Usually when the back of the pads look like they are turning to concrete, it's time to change them but like I said, I do mine and my customers by the fourth or fifth year.

Life expectancy of the pads is usually four to five years, providing you have a bleedoff or dump pump setup for the cooler, otherwise the pads wont last more than a year.

Usually when the back of the pads look like they are turning to concrete, it's time to change them but like I said, I do mine and my customers by the fourth or fifth year.
Well..... then it's time to change mine. This is the 5th year on the pads and they definitely bear a striking resemblance to mortar or concrete. Damn! There goes another $100.
I assume the media that makes up the pads gets to a point where they just can't absorb water anymore due to the mineral build-up and the sheer number of times they have been wet, dry, wet, dry, etc. I wish someone here locally sold them besides the big box store - and for less too!
I'm still trying to get my head around the fact that Adobe Air stopped making Master Cool. Why does the industry leader that makes hands-down the best product on the market just quit manufacturing them?

Thanks for your help! I really do appreciate it.

Steve

PS: Here's a very funny article written by a reporter at the Las Vegas Sun about his woes of working on his evap. I don't want to give anything away but his description of how he ascends the ladder toward the end of the article was so funny I almost spit Dr. Pepper all over my screen and his reference to "...septic tanks and their loose morals..." had me on the floor!
Enjoy!
Not quite A/C, and one big, hot mess - Las Vegas Sun (http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jul/04/not-quite-c-and-one-big-hot-mess/)

Yeah, I saw that story in the paper last year. He just had another article out about two weeks ago, complaining about his ceiling falling in due to a broken water line to his swamp cooler.
If you read far enough into the story, you will see that he had plastic water line running through the attic to his cooler. Big no no!
Some of the home depots carry 12 inch celdek pad, lowes only carries the eight inch. The 12 inch pad at home depot runs $149.00. I just replaced mine last month.
I too was shocked when Adobe air shut down, they were a large and well established company. I think they screwed up when they started shipping all of their stuff out to be assembled in Mexico, quality went down hill real bad.
My Mastercool has the 2-stage precooler unit mounted to the back of it and the motor it uses was special made just for Adobe air. If the dang thing burns out, I'll be up the creek.:madhell:

Yeah, I saw that story in the paper last year. He just had another article out about two weeks ago, complaining about his ceiling falling in due to a broken water line to his swamp cooler.
If you read far enough into the story, you will see that he had plastic water line running through the attic to his cooler. Big no no!
DOH! That sucks! Yeah, water overhead is NEVER a good idea. But water in and under the slab is no picnic either. I've had 3 slab leaks over the past 10 years. They're no fun.

Some of the home depots carry 12 inch celdek pad, lowes only carries the eight inch. The 12 inch pad at home depot runs $149.00. I just replaced mine last month.
Bought a new set today - $147.00. Yikes! I did manage to get a 10% discount due to the fact that they only had one set in stock and the box was slightly damaged. Luckily no damage to the pads though. The new set comes as a 2 piece set with no partial.
I too was shocked when Adobe air shut down, they were a large and well established company. I think they screwed up when they started shipping all of their stuff out to be assembled in Mexico, quality went down hill real bad.
While talking to the guy at Home Depot (who really seemed to know his way around heating and cooling - I was fairly impressed.) I learned that Adobe/Master Cool didn't go out of business per se, they were bought by Champion, and that's all fine and good..... but for Champion to appropriate a company who's brand name is regarded just as companies such as 3M, Mercedes, Moen, Dom Perignon. etc., and change it is to me just shooting themself in the foot.
My Mastercool has the 2-stage precooler unit mounted to the back of it and the motor it uses was special made just for Adobe air. If the dang thing burns out, I'll be up the creek.:madhell:
Yup! I've got the same motor I think... The label states something to the effect of, "Made specifically for Adobe Air by..." and lists a company in St. Louis. It's a heavy son-of-a-gun I'll tell you that much. I glanced at the motors while at the store today and a direct replacement 1hp motor with the Master Cool brand on it was $250.00! Yeouch!
BTW, I also picked up an 11,000 pump today as well. Amazing how well the pumps work when the pad is new isn't it?! LOL!

So, to close this thread I'll recap the lesson(s) learned:
1. Be sure the pads are installed correctly. There is a right way and a wrong way to install the pads. Installing them backwards allows the water to be easily drawn toward the front of the unit and down into the building.
2. Use a pump which is rated for the size of your unit - too much pump is a bad thing.
3. Know when the pads have reached the end of their life. Eventually they will no longer function due to mineral build-up and the inability to absorb water.

Yeah, I ended up spending a lot more than I had planned but in the end my system is working perfectly and is outfitted with the correctly matched parts - there's a lot to be said for that.

Thanks so much for your time and help with this.

Warmest regards,
Steve

Just want to throw in a couple last words on this thread.
Yes, Champion bought the mastercool name only. Champion is not making anything that Adobe air made, so specialized parts such as body panels, louvers, themostat control units, (etc) can no longer be found.