Melophy Portable Air Conditioner Fan Review

Come summer especially, you may need help getting a cool night’s sleep. In warmer temperatures, those without central air conditioning are scrambling to keep the bedroom tolerable through hot nights. Box fans may remind you of sleeping in college dorms, and they often feel like they’re just circulating hot air. Window air conditioner units are great for extreme heat but they consume a lot of energy and can be a bit pricey. And no matter how many light-blocking curtains or cooling pillows you may use, you can’t always beat the heat and humidity.

In my own effort to sleep cooler, I began using the Melophy Portable Evaporative Air Cooler. I hoped Melophy’s tower would keep my room as cool and refreshing as possible for a comfortable sleep. And while it’s made sleeping in warmer weather somewhat easier, Melophy’s product doesn’t exactly accomplish all it sets out to do.

What is the Melophy Portable Evaporative Air Cooler?

Melophy offers a couple of cooling fans and air conditioners through Amazon, but its $160 Portable Air Cooler is a flagship product, advertised as a three-in-one evaporative air cooler that “blows more powerful air around for a greater cooling range without the huge bill.” Supposedly, the product simultaneously operates as a portable air conditioner, tower fan, and evaporative humidifier that can cool rooms, using a 3-liter water tank and four reusable ice boxes.

Launched in 2022, the cooler seems like an upgrade from the $30 Melophy personal portable air conditioner in size, cooling ability, water tank capacity, and timer and speed settings. Both operate on similar principles: After filling the water tank and including ice or ice boxes, the cooler implements an evaporative cooling process, which moves air through a filter and across the water tank and ice boxes. As the water evaporates, the fan pushes the cool air out of its vents.

But while both models function similarly, the Melophy Evaporative Air Cooler promotes stronger cooling power, convenience, and energy efficiency—as you’d hope it might, for more than six times the price. After testing Melophy’s high-end cooler, I discovered what its product can actually be useful for.

What I like about the Melophy Portable Evaporative Air Cooler

It’s portable and easy enough to use

Whereas other fans, air conditioners, and coolers can be bulky to move, Melophy’s product is portable. I was more than capable of moving the cooler—which weighs just under 10 pounds—into different spots in the bedroom or even room to room—during testing, I slept in my living room to see how the cooler would fare in bigger spaces. Likewise, it’s relatively easy to load the tank, including the reusable ice boxes, and turn the cooler to the desired settings.

It offers good airflow

The Melophy Evaporative Air Cooler provides consistent cool air for as long as the water tank was full and had ice boxes. It also has a fan-only setting, so it’s possible to use that rather than filling the water tank and ice boxes. On that setting, the air flow is powerful, if no cooler than room temperature.

It humidifies the air

This is a big one for me. If you grew up in a tropical climate like I did or have issues with dry air while sleeping, then Melophy’s ability to humidify its air is a major bonus. For as long as the water tank is full, the airflow is consistently moist and creates a pleasantly humid atmosphere. This is a major contrast from other air conditioners and regular fans I’ve had, which have often dried the air and my throat throughout the night. Likewise, those conditioners and fans produced air that’s almost artificial and sterile. Melophy’s airflow felt both natural and comforting.

What I don’t like about the Melophy Evaporative Air Cooler

It doesn’t cool an entire room

After testing Melophy’s air cooler in multiple spaces around my apartment, I found it doesn’t have a strong enough airflow to cool more than the small area around it. Melophy advertises that, because the cooler is a tower and has a larger air vent, it could push cool air out farther. But in my small bedroom, I don’t really feel the airflow unless I place the Melophy very near my bed. And throughout testing, I got up several times in the night to move the cooler closer to me so that I could feel its flow more strongly.

When I tested the cooler in bigger spaces like my living room and kitchen, I felt the reach of the cool air decreased further. Now, rather than serving the area around it, the cooler seemed to only provide enough air to cool just a few inches in front of it.

In an effort to make more of Melophy’s limited power, I tried putting a box fan in front of its air vent. The best case scenario was that the box fan dispersed the cool air across the room faster and more consistently. The worst case was that I was wasting time in the middle of night fiddling with fans to try and get better sleep in the summer heat. Thankfully, the experiment proved to be more towards the former; with the stronger power of the box fan, Melophy’s cool air had more power and distance.

Its cooling doesn’t last all night

Once the water tank emptied—or the ice boxes completely thawed—I felt a marked increase in temperature. On most nights, the cool air lasted for a few hours, probably just enough time to fall and stay asleep. When I woke up multiple times throughout the night to check the temperature and air flow, I noticed little difference in temperature between the cooler setting and the fan setting—at a certain point, the air coming from the fan felt the same as the air in the room. For what it’s worth, I think the Melophy Evaporative Air Cooler provided a good, cool temperature while its tank was full. But once that tank empties—I timed it about six hours from maximum level of water to empty—the feel and temperature of the air is pretty much the same as the rest of the room.

It’s really noisy

On the highest setting, I notice an improvement in airflow—however, the machine is incredibly noisy at that level. Melophy advertises that the cooler’s motor “effectively reduces noise while providing powerful and stable air flow.” I have to disagree: The cooler even makes a good amount of noise when it’s at its lowest setting, and the sound of the water flowing in the tank is pretty noticeable.

It’s more of a fan than an air conditioner

I don’t think this product lives up to its three-in-one ambitions, especially as an air conditioner. Little about its cooling process provides consistent and strong cold air like a window unit or a portable air conditioner. And while sleeping with an air conditioner isn’t always necessary in the summer, it is nice to have a product that can cool an entire room for a long period of time. That’s not a concern on cooler nights when the air temperature might remain pleasant or continue to dip well after sunset, but as summer nights heat up, it may be hard to tell if the Melophy cooler is even plugged in.

Is the Melophy Portable Evaporative Air Cooler worth it?

No, there are better options out there

I won’t decommission my Melophy Evaporative Air Cooler until the seasons change, but I will say I’m actively looking for new electric fans and air conditioners to help me sleep cooler. It’s possible that Melophy is simply attempting to be something—a three-in-one answer to beating the heat—that it’s not. It may work better just being an air cooler for nights that aren’t too warm or smaller rooms with less space for the product to cool. But it’s also hard to justify the product’s price tag when it’s possible to invest the same or a little more money into a window or portable air conditioner.