Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is gonna be an in-depth review... buckle your seat belts. In summary... some idiot re-designed this device into one that looks more advanced but cannot perform its functions well. These "evaporative coolers" work by passing wind over a wet filter. The water is spread over the porous/fibrous surface and evaporates which causes the air to be colder. The evaporation dries out the filter, causing it to wick more water up to be evaporated. SCIENTIFICALLY SPEAKING - the amount of cooling is the direct result of how much water you manage to evaporate. If the device evaporates away a pint in 3 hours, it is cooling more than a device which can only manage to evaporate away half of a pint of water in that same time. Observation 1: The filter in the original Arctic Air was made of paper. Paper has a HUGE surface area (get out your microscope and look at all the fibers) and thus serves as a great surface with which to evaporate water away. It also soaks up water READILY and thus serves as an excellent wick to resupply water. The (minor) problem? It isn't durable and can't be washed very easily. The ULTRA switched to a felt filter. It is very durable and can be easily cleaned without damaging it... but it doesn't have NEARLY the surface area of the paper filter, so it can't evaporate water away very quickly. It also performs terribly as a wick, unable to soak water back into itself... OBSERVATION 2: Because their new felt filter cannot wick properly like paper... they had to abandon the old water reservoir system and move it to the top of the "Ultra". In the original, you fill a large reservoir on the side of the unit, and that water fills the base of the unit, allowing the filter to wick water up automatically. The "Ultra" has a new system... you put the water in a TINY reservoir on the top of the unit and then an electric sprayer mists water down into the wind created by the fan... WTF? It's like they completely forgot the concept here. Okay, maybe the mister works for re-wetting the felt filter... NOPE, IT DOES NOT... the mist dampens the filter a bit in the center, but leaves most of the filter to dry out. Do you own an "Ultra"? Wet the filter and install it. Come back an hour later and feel it... it's dry. Your reservoir is still full of water, but it isn't being used to keep the felt filter wet. Read the instructions, they know this, that's why they tell you to manually wet the filter. Observation 3: Remember how I started this review? Mentioning that the volume of water evaporated can be used to measure how much cooling has occurred? The tiny reservoir... that should be all you need to know. On a normal day the original Arctic can go through a pint of water in a couple hours. THAT'S GOOD! IT MEANS IT'S WORKING! This "Ultra" has half the reservoir size and lasts 8-10 hours with ease! Observation 4: The mister is literally spraying mist at you when you turn this thing on. If you did not want to have mist sprayed at you or over the desired area... well... now you do. Hold your hand in front of that "cool air" and it will be dripping wet in 30 seconds or less... that's excessive and a FAKE representation of cooling that isn't actually happening This thing really sucks. The "Ultra" I mean. The original is great and I still depend on mine (I have pet rats which must be kept outside, and so a cooling unit is essential whenever it isn't winter). This isn't a matter of a defective unit, either... I tried to reach out for troubleshooting (to the number on the box, not some Amazon seller) and the company didn't even want to try! They were like "Yeah well if you bought it on Amazon you didn't buy it from us." "I'm not asking for a refund, I'm trying to determine if this is defective or bad design... your insert says STOP! CALL US!" "Yeah, that's just because we don't want them returned to retail stores." FFS If you can get the original ARCTIC AIR (not the ultra) then I highly recommend it! I have two, with backup filters! Just make sure you soak the filter in vinegar to clean it! Running water over it will damage the paper, it will slowly turn to pulp and then air won't pass through properly... LOOK the paper filters are delicate but they WORK! 5 times better than the felt! ALMOST FORGOT: Testing these SIDE-BY-SIDE in South Florida, the original cleaves off 7-9 degrees for 3-4 hours... the "Ultra" limps in and mildly persuades 3-5 degrees off the temp FOR ONLY HALF AN HOUR OR SO before losing its wetness and struggling to drop the temp by a single degree. This thing sits there, filter not wet, reservoir full, and does jack. I HATE THIS DEVICE MORE THAN ANY DEVICE IVE EVER HATED.