IgenixIG9703 Portable Air Cooler with Remote Control and LED Display, 3 Fan Speeds with Oscillation Function, 7 Hour Timer and 6 Litre Water Tank for Home or Office Use, White

Working from home means a bit more flexibility...but no office air conditioning. This evaporative cooler cools my office (4m x 3.5m) quite well, does not take up much space (shorter than my desk and a footprint the size of a biscuit tin), and is pretty quiet. Take a look at the photo- the "indoor" reading on the thermometer on top is the temperature on top (24.5degC) and the "outdoor" reading is the air exiting the front (21.5degC)- 3degC cooling as it passes through is pretty good and it does cool my whole office down by quite a bit more than this over time (exact performance will vary with temperature, humidity, if the window is open etc). If you need a quicker fix, sitting in front of it can actually make you feel cold. Obviously it is not an airconditioner, so it won't make your room as cold, as quickly as one would- but this is around £300 cheaper than a small model, only uses 55W and does not need a pipe out the window.It comes with ice packs to make the water tank cooler, but I have not needed them yet (and, to be honest, I doubt they will help much, as this cools by evaporating water, which takes a lot more heat that that needed to warm up the water a few extra degrees), and the 6L tank means it is not too heavy to move around, even when full (although you may want to empty it when carrying it upstairs!). It has a range of fancy functions to simulate a natural breeze, turn itself off after a few hours etc, but the fan and the cooling work well, and that is what I really care about.The only fault I have is with the instructions, which read a bit like they were written by a non-first language English speaker, and obscure a couple of important points- nowhere does it state that you need to have the humidification function turned on for it to work as an evaporate cooler, and that the button labelled "mode" in the instructions with 3 dots "..." on the remote turns this on/off (as well as the 3 drips button on the main device)Also make sure you don't remove the water tank when the power is on. Again the instructions are not clear and suggest it is possible to remove it 1/3 of the way while on. After a couple of messes, I think turning it off and waiting two minutes is a better plan (no further issues)

This is a fantastic air cooler if used correctlyThere is nowhere in the instuctions that states that you have to have the humidification feature on/activated to actually make this unit a proper evaporative coolerIf you follow the instructions the humidification feature is hardly mentioned but it MUST be used with the humidification button/feature switched on to have this unit work correctlyI had to speak to the manufacturer about this to make sure I was using it correctly and they confirmed that the humidification button/feature has to be switched to ON to have the honeycomb filter become wet and so make it into a proper evaporative cooler otherwise it just operates as a glorified fanOnce used correcly, with the two ice blocks included, it performs really very well and is so much better than a normal fan. I used it with the two ice blocks as well as ice in the water tank and this really did cool the air coming out of itThe Amazon listing does not mention that this unit comes with a very handy remote control which controls all the controls on the unitAlso the instructions do not mention that when you run low on water there is a beep that sounds to remind you to top up the water tank with water and/or iceI believe that the negative comments about this unit may well be based on it not being used correctly and the instructions are not much help eitherIt is a very well made cooler and for the price it represents excellent value for moneyIt is not that noisy and it sounds solid and reliableIf you register the cooler online with Igenix the unit is guaranteed for 2 years which is excellent and Igenix is based in the UK which is a bonus, unlike some other coolersI have marked it down to four stars because of the useless instruction manual that is included with the unit otherwise I would have given it 5 starsEDIT: There is one other feature that is not mentioned in the poor instructions:.... The 2 included ice packs fit securely on the inside of the water tank rather than just having them floating about. Open the top of the water tank and place the ice packs either side of the opening and they clip in perfectly. Just make sure the bit that protrudes from the top of the ice packs is uppermost