This is a well designed and well manufactured cooler.
Things that I look for in a cooler
1. Easy to fill
2. Easy to clean
3. Good evaporative surfaces for faster cooling
4. Easy to move
5. Good build quality.
6. No leaks or water drips
7. Complete wetting of the cooling medium (pads)
This cooler satisfies all these parameters.
Pros:
1. This cooler comes with a pipe attachment point and makes it very easy to fill directly with a tap. Currently filling mine at the wash basin tap!
2. This comes with two quick removable side panels which can be washed separately and the back panel can be washed while still attached to the cooler. Honeycomb pads require frequent cleaning as they capture a lot of dirt. It also has a drain plug for when you need deep cleaning.
3. Honeycomb pads offer superior cooling performance because of the large surface area they present for the air to pass over. The fan sucks the air through these pads very effectively and cools the room pretty quickly. Please note that this is only suitable for very dry areas. For coastal areas and areas with lots of humidity, air coolers are not recommended at all. I personally found it very effective in the dry and windy climate of Hyderabad.
4. This cooler comes with 4 heavy duty castor wheels that make it very easy to move around. The cooler is also very light weight which just makes it that much more easier to move. I routinely move it into a washroom to empty it and quickly clean the bottom surface of the water tank.
5. The body of the cooler has excellent build quality. Despite its height, it is relatively sturdy. Although the plastic is a but ductile, it is nevertheless very hard wearing and strong and bound to last long.
6. This cooler never leaks or drops water from its pads. One of the very common issue with some honeycomb based coolers is that the water falls on the pads and starts to drop out from the sides, but this cooler has no such issues as there are inwardly slanted slats that guide the water back onto the pads. Very well designed in this aspect.
7. The usual way the water is poured onto the honeycomb pads is with pipes that have holes. These holes tend to block and get jammed with hard water deposits over time. However this cooler comes with an innovative conical shaped dome that has grooves along which the water evenly falls onto all 3 sides of the cooler. The advantages it offers is that there is no chance of salt deposits blocking any holes because there are no holes! I must say, Symphony has outdone itself with this design idea! Attached image shows the grooves through which water slides onto the pads. This prevents the deposits from blocking water flow and thereby reduces maintenance for us customers
Cons:
1. There is a duplicitous feature called i-Pure which is basically just a bunch of wire meshes on a small part of the side pads. It does nothing other than look like an aesthetic addition and could be completely done away with! Symphony need not have added this to the cooler because the cooler is exceptional even without this dubious feature.
2. To reach the bottom of the water tank requires some gymnastics because of plastic braces that hold the structure together. It would make deep cleaning a little difficult, but is really not a deal as the deep cleaning is rarely done.
3. Could have come with a remote and timer feature as it gets really cold at night and would be a useful feature to stop it on a timer.
4. This cooler is very loud about 75 to 80db but not intolerable. And it is same as all the other coolers. I must not single out this cooler since all air coolers are inherently loud. However it is considerably quieter than some blower based models. The water pump is practically silent. It is the fan that draws air over the pads which causes friction and hence noise. This is something that can't be avoided at all. A small price to pay for effective cooling! The noise will take some getting used to.
Overall this is an excellent cooler for the price. I have Symphony Kaizen model from 2005 that is still working fantastically. So Symphony's build quality need not be doubted. I will recommend this cooler to everyone that is in a dry climate high heat area and wants to save some electricity bill without having to get an AC installed and are OK with some noise.
