What is this air-madillo thing?

The air-madillo is a high quality rigid media for evaporative cooling. It is available in a variety of configurations to fit your needs.

If you know what evaporative cooling is and are looking for pads, then the best is for you to head straight to our shop and check out our products.

But if you don’t know what evaporative cooling is and why it needs a media, you might want to read this first:

Evaporative cooling

Evaporative cooling is the method used by nature to cool air. When hot air passes through water, a small fraction of the water is evaporated and this cools down the air in the process. Basically, it is how our body cools itself through sweat.

The equipments used for cooling air in this way are commonly called “swamp coolers”. If you want to know more about them and an anecdote of Ben Franklin’s experience with evaporative cooling, we recommend this article.

So, evaporative cooling requires blowing air through something wet. This “something wet” is what is called the cooling media. There are basically two types of evaporative cooling media:

  • Flexible media, which consists of pads made of straw (aspen pads). This is the cheapest option but is not very efficient and lasts a year at most.
  • Rigid media, made of multiple sheets of corrugated paper which is specially treated to resist deterioration. This type of media can last several years and provides higher cooling efficiency than aspen pads. It can also have special features and configurations for different applications. For example, it may include a special coating on one side which makes it easier to be cleaned and adds longevity.

Air-madillo configurations

The air-madillo is available in three categories or configurations

Tough Air-madillo

Designed for durability and ease of maintenance.
Application: Custom installations in farms, greenhouses, shop floors, etc.

Chill Air-madillo

Designed for comfort and convenience.
Application: Most residential cooling equipments.

Boss Air-madillo

Designed for high efficiency in a slim profile.
Application: Specialized cooling equipments.