We Tried It: The Chillwell 2.0 Portable Air Cooler

The Chillwell works like most evaporative air coolers, blowing air from a small fan inside the unit through a wet cooling cartridge (a water-soaked, honeycomb-shaped pad included with the unit) and a reservoir of cold water. You can add ice to the tank, too, but I found that doing so created some condensation under the unit and didn’t really make the air blowing on me any cooler. 

It has four fan speeds—low, medium, high, and turbo—plus a cooling control button that blows a light water mist in addition to air when it is switched on. The user manual says you can adjust the direction of airflow by moving the vents up or down, but I was unable to keep the vents on the unit pointed in any direction but straight ahead, no matter how I tried to angle them. This could be a defect in the model we purchased, so we contacted the company for a comment, but it never responded.

The Chillwell also doubles as a night-light, with seven color options. If you require total darkness to sleep, you can also switch off the mode indicator lights.