FAQ

On this page you will find answers to actual questions (only) asked by customers and potential customers. You too can ask a question and get an answer sent to your personal email, and posted here as well.

(Yes, that’s me over there. Thought you might want to see who’s behind all this.)

Yes, the Roadrunner Comfort has significant improvements over competitive units.

– Active Temperature Control. No other controller for existing swamp coolers has this. My controller incorporates a bluetooth-connected sensor clipped to the air vent to monitor incoming air temperature. It uses a proprietary algorithm to determine how much water to put on the pads (how long to run the pump) to maintain the incoming air temperature at your set temp. Other controllers just turn the cooler on and off.

– Saves Water. Compared to a conventional thermostat or manual control, the Roadrunner Comfort uses less water. The amount is not dramatic, but it is significant.

– Ease of use. Thanks to the large, bright color touchscreen and user-centered design, everyday operation and setting turn-on and turn-off times could not be easier.

– A “Max Cool” mode runs the pump and fan continuously, for maximum cooling (like for when you come home from vacation to a hot house). You can also accomplish the same thing at any time using the Manual mode.

– If you have Wifi, the unit will check overnight each night for updates, keeping you up to date with the latest features and improvements at no cost to you. It also sets the clock automatically for your scheduled turn-on and off times.

– Here in Albuquerque, local service and support. 30– NOW 60-day no hassle returns, two-year warranty. Satisfaction unconditionally guaranteed

The main benefit (and reason I designed it) is Active Temperature Control™, which is a significant advance in cooler performance. It means your cooler can run more or less continuously without over-chilling. A constant, comfortable breeze is not possible with other cooler controllers except for certain high-end systems that require replacement of the whole cooling system. NOTE that the cooler fan does NOT run continuously when outdoor temperatures are cooler than indoors. For an explanation of why, please see What Is Active Temperature Control.

Absolutely, while the default setting is Fahrenheit, a “units” control on the Setup screen toggles between Fahrenheit and Celsius.

UPDATE: It turns out that our current production controller does not have enough power to supply both the high-performance processor needed for Matter as well as the high-capacity relays needed for controlling a swamp cooler. We expect to remedy this in 2025.

We expect to become “smart home” compatible, if by that you mean compatible with the emerging smart-home standard Matter. We’ve been watching the development tools for this standard emerge, planning to incorporate Matter into our product as soon as the tools mature sufficiently for us to assimilate the new tech (ie. figure it all out). We want to provide a good smart home appliance, but not without proven security, reliability, and user-friendliness. We plan to offer it is a free upgrade when it becomes available.