Eric Rosenstock has had his CrossFit gym near downtown Dallas for more than a decade now. CrossFit Deep Ellum serves many of Dallas’ first responders and civil servants along with many others looking to stay in rugged shape. The 10,000 square foot facility centers around a large 6,000 square foot open area that houses the majority of the training equipment and serves as the main workout space for class participants. For years, the converted warehouse space (with 15-foot ceilings) had an overhead exhaust fan built into a skylight in the ceiling. That massive fan helped vent some of the Texas heat and proved helpful up until 2017 when leaks and roof issues resulted in removing the fan/skylight combo.
Right away, Eric knew he needed a new way to combat the heat for the middle and back areas of the gym. Texas heat can reach unbearable highs and concerns move quickly beyond comfort to physical safety, especially considering the challenging workouts for which CrossFit is known. While the building has a popular industrial ceiling fan, Eric found it did nothing to reduce the temperature or improve comfort in extreme heat. He believed the back of the gym was just too stuffy for his patrons. At first, he relied on multiple floor fans, but they were loudly distracting and didn’t move enough air. Plus, the air they did push around was hot and didn’t provide much relief.
Having rented portable evaporative coolers for summertime outside competitions, he remembered they were very helpful for providing cooling in brutal heat. A bit of research led him to the Portacool Cyclone 160 at Home Depot.
“I needed to affect the ambient air to achieve cooler air, so I found the Portacool product and gave it a try,” Eric said. “I haven’t looked back since.”
He set up the Cyclone at back of the gym (leaving the front doors open for ambient air source) in early summer 2017 and he says, it made a BIG difference in creating a comfortable gym environment.
“Our members use the cooling almost as a reward for their hard work,” Eric said. “Many push through hard, hard workouts and then just crawl over and plop down in front of the Portacool to chill out and recover. And many others make it a priority to get the prime spot in front of the cooler for their classes.”
The folks directly in front of the cooler aren’t the only ones to enjoy cooling. Eric says the whole gym is more comfortable thanks to the quieter and stronger breezes he achieves with Portacool. In fact, he’s considering getting another Portacool evaporative cooler to push cool air from the front to even better circulate cool air.
