For some wonderful reason, summer has kind of avoided Texas until the last week and then we started getting into the 100+ degree range daily.
I was thinking about getting a portable cooler and wonder if any of you guys have any experience with them.
The most common one I see is a portable version of what we used to call swamp coolers. Evaporative coolers would require no venting of exhaust, but not sure how effective they would be in our part of the world.
The portable a/c units would be OK, but you do have to vent out the hot air and I don't know if I could afford the "correct" size for the garage I work out of, so I would likely go somewhat underpowered if I chose this path.
Or just hold off until September to get back to work on it.

 

I just use a cheap box fan from Walmart to keep the air moving.


On really hot days, I'll work on vehicles from dawn to around noon and then start on it again around 5:30 PM til whenever.

 

When I leave work, we are at 104 or thereabouts and will remain at 100 plus until 7 or so leaving little time to work. Box fan worked OK up until our temps hit this level.
I can cut back on the effort for a while, but honestly enjoy working on the old truck and it is definitely more enjoyable when the sweat is not pouring off your body.

 

Depends on the humidity of your area on a particular day. Swamp coolers do cool the air. But add a lot more humidity. Kind of a trade off. The temp is low but the sweat status is still high. I don't know if a box fan on the other side of the shop from the swamp cooler would help or not. I can tell you those here in Phoenix that have both a swamp cooler and A/C in their house will start out summer with the swamp cooler. Once we get in to our "Monsoon" season the humidity rises. Then folks switch over to the A/C. The A/C sucks water out of the air like you read about. At that point the house feels the coolest of all year.

 

Is a window unit out of the question? Seems the cheapest/easiest way to go.

 

I have a large window unit that I put in the wall. It works great at keeping my 2-car garage cool. 70* or so all day long. Hotter than blazes outside.

 

All of the walls are brick so a little challenging. There is one window in the washer/dryer room which is part of the "garage" area. One could install it there and then "pipe" the cool area from that area into the work area with a fan.

 

Get creative. This guy did.

 

Of course it is up to you in the end but those electric bills are going to rise a good bit trying to cool a garage with a window unit. I think most of Texas east of Midland would be too humid for a swamp cooler to do much. If you have shade and air moving then I would just tough it out. But, I work in my driveway most of the time and from 2pm through sunset it is direct sun. It sucks but I can't get enough done from 7pm on when I really need to keep it running. The worst part is sweat in the eyes and fogging of safety glasses. Other than that, I just try to put it out of my mind and remember that they used to wear wool clothing all the time! Ugh.

 

Mjunk, I bought a 12'X12' camping popup (canopy) at Wally World, made a HUGE difference.
Hillcountry, cut out some sheetrock, brick with a 7" grinder, pop in a 1/4" (overkill) lintel, a lil bit of frame work, rock it in and poof, your done. welllll...... maybe not poof

 

Being in Texas myself, I understand. I cannot justify cooling my 20x60 shop, so we have (7) round fans hanging upside down from the rafters all wired on to a light switch. This keeps the fans out of my floor space. But right now with it so hot I have 3 more fans on the ground I drag around to blow on the workspace I am occupying.

Get some fans, the swamp coolers in our humid state are not that great. Plus they are expensive.