Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

My wife and I currently live in one of the hottest, driest places in the U.S. -- Las Vegas, NV. Our apartment is mostly shaded and facing away from the direct sun, except for... the HOT room. Our office. "The hot room" faces the south-west side and gets beaten by the direct sun. This little unit is PERFECT for that room. It does a great job of turning the hot room (which is also the room we are in the most) into just another room in the apartment. Now I don't rely on this unit alone to single-handedly take on all 110 degree of Las Vegas heat, but I don't expect it to. It simply does what is intended. It brings the temperature down 10-15 degrees in the room that is generally 10-15 warmer than the rest of the apartment. So, if you live in a region with hot DRY weather (most of California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico), these can supplement your AC, put some moisture in the air and take a nice chunk out of your monthly Air Conditioning bill. If you live on the East coast, the southern states, the Midwest or any place HUMID, DON'T BUY THIS. It wont do a thing and will probably just make the muggy, oppressive heat WORSE. You've been warned... I lived in Miami for 5 years and understand that 90 degrees in Florida is WORSE than 110 degrees in Las Vegas. This is because of the HUMIDITY, not the HEAT. You don't see "swamp coolers" in Florida because they just add humidity to the air, and that would just make matters worse. For those who may still be a little puzzled by these and seem to think they're some kind of portable air conditioner... they're not. This is a smaller, updated version of the traditional "swamp cooler" that has been in use on the U.S. west coast & southwest for decades. These work great... IN DRY CLIMATES ONLY! As a kid growing up in central California, the "swamp cooler" was our ONLY way of keeping cool during the hot, dry summers. Back then, everyone had the BIG, dish washer sized swamp coolers on their roofs or hanging out of their windows. Many people still use them to this day. So how exactly does this mini "swamp cooler" work? Put a fan in a box. Have some little screens (cooler pads) built into the sides of the box. Pump water over the screens. When the fan blows through the wet pads, it creates a nice, cool breeze. Now, Instead of raking out big money to constantly keep the central AC blasting away, this will use the same amount of energy that a regular house fan uses... a mere 60 watts! That's about 1/5 of what an AC of the same size would use! If you have one of these running in the room were you spend most of your time... and turn the thermostat UP in the rooms that aren't being used, you can save yourself some serious money. There are quite a few features on this version that I think are great. Remote control, timer, "swing" (shifts the air in the same manor that an oscillating fan does), as well as an emergency "BEEP!" that sounds when the water level is low. The sf-609 also has an ION air purifier feature (I honestly don't notice it one way or another). After checking out the manufacture's website, I believe the only difference between the SF-608 & SF-609 is that the 608 doesn't have the ION gizmo. The added ice tray on top really is kind of nice too and helps to feed melted ice water over the pads. This will bring the temp down another few degrees, and every little bit helps. Having an automatic ice maker in your fridge will help keep the top tray fed. If you don't have one though, you can away make ice the old fashioned way with empty drink containers. Adding ice really isn't essential though, but it does help a little and can get you closer to AC-like coolness. Another trick I use is to put 2-1 gallon water jugs in the fridge and use them to keep my water nice and frosty. About the only thing I don't like about this unit so far is that it's a little "plasticy" & seems kind of cheaply made. For $100, they could have made it a little more sturdy. But then, that's how it goes these days... It's pretty much (or in this case COMPLETELY) impossible to find products that are built to last. They just don't make 'em like they used to. At any rate though, I'm happy with this purchase. I would recommend this to anyone in a dry climate who spends a lot of time in a small to medium sized bedroom. Stay cool ;) UPDATE: It's a year later and it's still chugging away as I speak ;) One VERY IMPORTANT thing I forgot to mention: CLEAN THE PAD AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH! THIS IS MANDATORY. It's kind of a pain to do and a definite design flaw to have to unscrew everything and put it all back together again every month. But if you don't, it WILL NOT PRODUCE COOL AIR and will just be an oversized fan that recycles warm air. Something else to note is that unless you're using purified water (which can get expensive), you're probably going to want to give it a good scrub with soap & bleach and hit it with "Lime away" every once in a while. They do get funky if you don't keep them clean. So, if you don't have the time, are physically unable or just don't want to bother with it, buy a bigger fan or stick with AC. These DO take a little effort to keep clean. I'm OK with doing a little cleaning project every month and I still absolutely LOVE mine.