Chillmax Air Go - Portable, take-anywhere personal cooler

Product Information

The ambient humidity in the room where I did the test was about 44%RH. The Chillmax sent that up to over 70%RH. It is this elevation of the humidity of the cooled air which really brings into question whether the Chillmax is worth the investment. The calculation for this is complex (you should see how long my Excel formula for it is). It is non-linear, and the increase in ‘feels like’ is greater at higher temperatures. It also contains an element of opinion/perception, which is why there’s no point using numbers above about 60ºC. But the ‘Heat Index’ is what forecasters use. Incidentally, the official health designations for the colours are: yellow – caution; amber – extreme caution; orange – danger; and red – extreme danger. Vulnerable people need to take these into consideration before going out in hot weather. Chillmax Air turns cold water, via a special filter, into a finer mist of cool, refreshing air circulated by a fan with three speed settings. It humidifies while it cools your personal breathing space so you can stay cool and breathe moist, humid air wherever you need it. The HUGE difference between Chillmax Air Go and a fan is that a fan simply moves air around so the moving air you get is the same temperature as the room! Why push warm, dry air around when you can cool it down and humidify it first? Like a standard, bulky air-con unit, Chillmax Air Go actually takes the air in your room, or outside, and through evaporation, lowers its temperature. This way you get cooler air, but it’s also been humidified, so no more dry, burning sinuses when you’re trying to sleep. With Chillmax Air Go you’ll get measurably cooler air coming right into your personal space that isn’t dry! Portable design, just charge the fan and take it anywhere

Until August 2021, the answer in relation to the ChillMax was no. However, I saw an advert (as shouty as usual) for the InstaChill tonight. Unlike the ChillMax, which is the size of a small table top radio, the InstaChill is the size of a bedside cabinet. And you can certainly get larger evaporative coolers from other manufacturers. The working principle is identical, except that the larger the surface area of water, and the greater the airflow over that water, then the greater will be the possible drop in temperature at the front end (and the more moisture being pumped out to increase the humidity). However, cooling effectiveness is influenced greatly by the RH of the air going in. Someone found this article on the search term “jml chillmax air for pc cooling”. No. Blowing damp air into your PC would be dangerous, potentially expensive, and would only gain you 4ºC at best. These are the data for relative humidity recorded at the same time as the temperature measurement, above (the red line is where I moved the logger). The humidity went up dramatically – a jump of about 30%RH. The secret is Hydro-Chill Technology, which uses our advanced evaporative air-cooling filter and our enhanced cool-mist chamber, to pull in warm, dry air and instantly transform it into cool refreshing air! The filter is resistant to mould and mildew and can be put in the dishwasher to clean and sterilise it for years of use. Another example. If the air temperature is 35ºC, at 50%RH it will feel like 41ºC, but send the humidity up to 80%RH and it’ll feel like 57ºC – even though the thermometer still reads 35ºC.It does cool the air by a few degrees, so in that sense it works. However, it also sends the humidity up, and in most cases that actually makes you feel hotter and more uncomfortable. In that sense, it doesn’t work. At lower temperatures the Chillmax will produce a slight net cooling effect. But if the air temperature is above about 30ºC (and 50%RH) – which isn’t excessively hot or humid to start with, though it is around the point where you would start thinking about cooling things down – it’ll actually make you feel warmer. And if it is already humid outside, you’ll feel hotter still. Now, some people might be thinking that a 4ºC is better than nothing at all. And they’d be right if it was just a matter of temperature. But there’s more to it than that. I mentioned that the exhaust from the Chillmax felt ‘softer’. I knew what it was, but my data logger shows it in numbers. Chillmax Air gives you the best features of both fans and air conditioning in one, compact unit that's also a night light. Unlike fans that just move warm air around your room, or air conditioning units that cost the earth, make a lot of noise and use ozone-destroying chemical coolants to cool the air but leave it dry, Chillmax Air sprays a fine mist that is then sent through the special filter and so only uses evaporation and water to operate! Only the air being directed at you is cooler. Once that slightly cooler air has passed through warmer air, it’ll be close to ambient again. The device cannot cool down a room. It’s far too small for that.

There are many, many more. And in every case, the relationship with humidity is the key. If it is already humid, evaporative coolers do not work and actually make things worse.

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The special, antimicrobial filter in Chillmax Air is designed to hold water without allowing the bacteria and mould that it contains to develop and grow, it’s even dishwasher-safe so you can regularly clean it and use it time after time. The large capacity water reservoir, combined with the filter, means that Chillmax Air holds a lot of water, so you can rely on Chillmax Air to run for up to ten hours, that’s a whole night’s sleep, or an entire working day in a hot stuffy office, breathing in cool, humid air!

Chillmax Air uses a super-quiet fan set within its sound-protective casing so the noise you hear is minimal, and with three settings you can have the perfect amount of cool, moist air with the least amount of noise. Reusable, antimicrobial filter, runs up to 10 hours per fill However, this is where the problems come in for the Chillmax and similar devices. If it’s 35ºC and 40%RH, it’ll feel like 37ºC. Cool the air to 31ºC but send the humidity up to 80%RH, and it’ll feel like 41ºC. So it’s actually hotter in terms of comfort. Do the same comparison when the surrounding temperature is 38ºC, and the ‘feels like’ goes from 43ºC to over 50ºC! For the following locations next day delivery may take up to two working days: Aberdeen (AB 30-35, 41-54), Northern Highlands (AB 36-38, 55-56), FK (17-21), HS (1-8), IV (All), KW (0-14), PH (15-32, 34-48), Eire (Republic of Ireland) (EI (ZZ75) (All)), Glasgow (G 83), Guernsey (GY 9), Oban (HS 9, KA 28, PA 20-99, PH 33, 49-99), Isle of Man (IM (All)), Arran (KA 27), Orkney Shetland (KW 15-99, ZE (All)) and Cornwall (TR 21-25). As an example, if the air temperature is 30ºC and 50%RH, it will feel like 31ºC, but if the humidity goes up to 80%RH, then it will feel like 38ºC – even though the thermometer still tells you it’s 30ºC.

I fired up my trusty data logger and left it in front of my desk fan for 30 minutes for the control data. Then I powered up the Chillmax and moved the logger in front of it for the same period of time. This is what it recorded (the red line is where I moved it). Chillmax Air gives you the best features of both fans and air conditioning in one, compact unit that’s also a night light. Unlike fans that just move warm air around your room, or air conditioning units that cost the earth, make a lot of noise and use ozone-destroying chemical coolants to cool the air but leave it dry, Chillmax Air sprays a fine mist that is then sent through the special filter and so only uses evaporation and water to operate! Chillmax Air gives you the best features of both fans and air conditioning in one, compact unit that's also a night light. Unlike fans that just move warm air around your room, or air conditioning units that cost the earth, make a lot of noise and use ozone-destroying chemical coolants to cool the air but leave it dry, Chillmax Air sprays a fine mist that is then sent through the special filter and so only uses evaporation and water to operate! Adjustable three-speed whisper-quiet fan