Best air coolers 2023: Evaporative fans tried and tested from Princess, JML, Igenix and more

If you want an air cooler with a large enough capacity to fit multiple ice packs and litres and litres of water, without needing a refill, we’re big fans of Black + Decker’s tower air cooler. It’s a free standing machine with a 7l tank capacity and easy to use button controls. It’s pretty light and easy to shift around the house, with casters inside the box, too.

Adding water to the tank can be a bit of a fuss because of the lock pump, which has to be attached to the tank when put back in. We found it easier to fill the tank with water while it was still partially inside the machine, rather than untangling the pump and taking the whole thing out. But it evaporated water through the honeycomb filter well, cooling down our room effectively.

There are two different modes – air cooling or the fan-only mode which can oscillate automatically. There’s no timer or sleep mode on this manual model, but you can pay a little bit extra for the model with a remote (£109, Amazon.co.uk) and you’ll get those features. And while there are two ice packs in the box, they’re so small that you’re probably better off running out to the supermarket and buying a tray of ice cubes yourself.