PC 2000 DLX
I bought this cooler around four years ago and have used it significantly to give an accurate review of the item.
First of all, Bajaj somehow is not the leader in the air cooler segment. Bajaj coolers are bought by people just for the sake of it and due to the brand name Bajaj. As for stores that stock them, there are just regular retailers who keep this model to fill up empty space in their stores. I haven’t seen Bajaj coolers being sold at big electronics stores like Croma. I too trusted the Bajaj brand name and the fact that a compact cooler would suffice for one person. Symphony wasn’t available in most stores in NCR.
The foremost thing to consider when one uses a cooler is the cooling efficiency. This one’s cooling efficiency is poor. There are desert coolers that literally giving you the feeling of natural ‘coolness’ like you feel during a rainy season. However this one simply serves the purpose of a good table fan. After a few hours of running this device actually blows hot air even if there is sufficient water in the unit.
Coming to even cooling and air circulation, I would again rate it poor because the air just blows from the top and even with the swing function active, it really doesn’t give a good circulation of air. This is meant to be a portable room cooler. So ideally the manufacturer should give details of how the device is to be positioned and how to manage cross ventilation. If you don’t ensure ventilation, this cooler becomes a heater within a few hours and your room would feel like an oven. Even with windows in two directions of my room, the moisture somehow remains inside the room owing to which I have had to keep table fans near the windows to ensure fresh air comes in. It makes no sense to use a portable cooler at all if this is the case. I might as well set up one of those local coolers outside the window. When the device is so small, the manufacturer should ensure better air circulation because if someone has to sleep on a cot, air doesn’t reach that height unless it is placed on a table.
Power consumption: Considering the size of this unit, it consumes 150W per hour which is quite higher than similar models of other brands such as Symphony. I hence rate that factor also low for the unit.
Water tank and indicator: The device does not have a high water capacity. Water gets exhausted within one night of usage and you have to refill it. The maintenance and durability of the unit is poor because the indicator is not very clear. I can’t understand whether the water tank is full or empty. Often water over flows when you fill it through a hose pipe and things get messy. The hole for filling water is so tiny that one ends up with a lot of spillage while attempting to refill the tank. There is no door or something given to enable easier refilling of the unit. They have a small chamber at the top for keeping ice. But that is a very tiny compartment not even insulated and can barely hold a dozen odd ice cubes. These ice cubes melt so quickly that this feature is hardly of any use. If more foam was used on the sides as well rather than only the back, perhaps the unit could have cooled more effectively. But that is not the case in this product.
Looks: It looks ok sort of but not classy or anything. Similar models from Usha and Symphony look far better. There is of course a night lamp, which may be of use to some people and of no use to others.
Cleaning and maintenance: Cleaning and getting rid of salt sediments is fairly easy because the back cover can be removed by removing two screws with plastic handles. You don’t need a screw driver to unscrew it.
I don’t know about the after sales service. We can only get it serviced at Bajaj service centres which are not too many in NCR. I however never had the need to repair it as it has at least been functional all this while.
Overall, I would say this is a very bad choice for a cooler. At the time I bought it, it was expensive for the size and efficiency in comparison to other local models. The product has been just remaining at a corner and can only function as a table fan when we have guests in the house.