If your humidity is high, a swamp cooler won’t help you much anyway. That’s why it never worked well for me either. Get a cheap fridge of freezer off of craigslist.
It’s not technically a “swamp cooler” in that sense. You immerse the fermenter in water and cool the water down with frozen water bottles. I’d say the humididty in any homebrew “swamp cooler” is going to be pretty high - close to 100% 
depending on electric costs where you live it can become extremely expensive to use cheap/free appliances. The lack of efficiency is often what lands them on the free pile in the first place. but it is convenient to not have to change out ice packs.
I literally had beer raining in my kitchen, had to boil outside after that.
Just keep in mind that the ice that you make (or buy) comes with a price as well.
agreed, just saying that free fridges can come with problems.
I once formed a cloud in my shop. I added ventilation shortly thereafter.
if freezing 8 or 10 water bottles breaks the bank you shouldn’t even be drinking alcohol.
Energy is energy. Making ice isn’t sneaking by.
Don’t brew beer then because it is extremely energy intensive. Honestly, I don’t know why this would even become an issue to debate. You want to make great beer, control the fermentation temp. I can honestly say I have never noticed a huge fluctuation in my energy bills by freezing a few water bottles.
True, but I’m guessing most folks treat it as a hidden cost wrapped up in what they’re already doing.
And if you use a decent chest freezer (10 years old or less), not too oversized, insulated top and only run it when you actually need it, you won’t see much of an increase on your bill either.
okay not to extend this debate any further but that is what I was talking about with freebie fridges. they are rarely decent or effiecient. I just wanted to get a warning out there to anyone considering grabbing the free fridge off the street corner. 
I see a lot of people build fermentation chambers out of foam board and then use a computer fan to circulate the air. I’m sure you can build one of these for $50 or so, but I’ve also seen many 5-7 cubic foot chest freezers go with $100 or less. I’m not talking about junk freezers either. I bought a like new, 12 foot one, for $100. Of course you still need a controller, but in the end you’ll have great temperature control and you won’t be filling up your food freezer with bottles of water.
If you have the space, using bottles filled with water is actually a way to save energy in your freezer. The added mass of the frozen water buffers thermal swings and makes you freezer work more efficiently. Of course, filling it with food will do the same thing.
Filling your freezer with bottles of water to freeze them and then switching them out everyday with your fermenter is NOT a way to stabilize your freezer.
While I agree that a chest freezer is the best option for a fermentation freezer I fail to see why someone would be so adamantly opposed to using a few frozen water bottles, unless it just gives him a chance to argue.
I’m glad you agree.
No time for a debate - I gotta go - I have two 5 gallon buckets in swamp coolers in my basement and I have to swap out my frozen water bottles before my water gets up to 70… I have it going well on day 4 for a Red Ale. Nice controlled temperatures, but we had a spike in temperature today. Thankfully my 20 gallons of pilsner are cooling nicely in my lager chest (1987 Montgomery Wards special) at 46F. Does someone have a problem with my carbon footprint?
All you gotta do is read the posts!