Independent Hands-On Test: We Tested the EpiCooler at 31 °C in a Manchester Attic Flat
Attic flat in Manchester-Salford, 64 m², outside temperatures up to 34 °C — how the EpiCooler performed in the bedroom and the converted attic home office.
If you’ve been anywhere near Facebook, Instagram or the usual news sites over the past few weeks, you’ve probably seen the same advert pop up that we did: the EpiCooler.
A white cooling unit styled like a wall-mounted air-con. The manufacturer claims it cools a room from 35 °C down to 17 °C in a short space of time — no drilling, no outdoor unit, no F-Gas servicing. Piles of enthusiastic comments. Adverts on every corner. And at least three readers who wrote in asking whether any of it was true.
So we checked it for ourselves. We ordered a test unit, set it up in a typical attic flat in Manchester-Salford, and ran it for 14 days across two rooms — without giving any benefit of the doubt to the advertising claims. Here’s what we found.
The EpiCooler delivers surprisingly close to what the advertising promises.
For the kind of summer heat you get in a rented flat — especially under the eaves — it’s a good deal more practical than a traditional air-con system. No drilling, no outdoor unit on the façade, no £200 electricity bill. Plug it in, and it cools. The detailed test results, step by step:
Ordering & delivery
First hurdle: how reliable is the manufacturer? The EpiCooler is sold exclusively through the official manufacturer’s website — not on Amazon, not at Currys, not at John Lewis. That makes a lot of readers immediately sceptical (it did us too). More on that further down.
We placed the order on a Monday at 10:14 am. Payment by PayPal or credit card. Order confirmation arrived within 7 minutes. Shipping confirmation with a Parcelforce tracking code: the following morning. Delivered on the Wednesday, so 2 working days after the order.
Packaging: solid. Folding carton with print, neatly bedded in foam inside. In the box:
- The EpiCooler unit itself (just under a kilogram, noticeably lighter than expected)
- A wall-mounting bracket with wall plugs and screws
- A 1.8 m mains cable with a standard 13-amp plug
- English-language instructions (clear enough for the over-70s)
- Quick-start sticker covering the three main touch functions
First impression: it feels like a quality piece of kit, not a cheap plastic add-on. The casing is well finished, no rattles, no obvious gaps in the seams. The touch display is large and easy to read — important for older users especially.
Installation: plug it in, done
This is the single biggest difference compared with a traditional air-con system. For a split unit, we would have needed: a hole through the outside wall, a façade bracket for the outdoor unit, written permission from the managing agent, a certified HVAC engineer, an installation slot (as of May 2026 in Manchester: August at the earliest), an F-Gas servicing agreement under the UK F-Gas Regulations, and around £1,650.
For the EpiCooler, we needed: two holes for wall plugs and a free mains socket. Bracket on the wall, unit hooked in, plug in. We ran a stopwatch — 5 minutes 21 seconds, no installer required.
Test 1: Bedroom under the eaves
Starting point
The most important room for our tester Emma (38). She’s lived in this flat for three years and sleeps badly through most of the summer — the bedroom sits directly below the converted attic loft, faces west, and warms up to over 29 °C during the day. Her usual workaround: two pedestal fans on the highest setting, windows open all night. The result: still restless sleep, awake two or three times a night.
How the test went
EpiCooler mounted on the wall above the bed (bracket supplied), switched on at 9:30 pm and set to 22 °C. After just under 10 minutes the room temperature had noticeably dropped; after 20 minutes the thermometer read 23 °C. It felt distinctly cooler — partly thanks to the simultaneous air circulation.
What surprised us most: the noise level. The manufacturer quotes under 40 dB. We measured from the bed with a dB app: 36 dB. That’s noticeably quieter than a normal fan and certainly quiet enough to sleep through.
First night: slept through from 11:15 pm to 6:45 am. In the morning Emma asked whether we could leave the unit behind or whether she could keep it herself.
29 °C down to 23 °C in 20 minutes, 36 dB measured from the bed. First full night’s sleep in years, according to our tester. The best surprise of the test.
Test 2: Home office in the converted attic loft
Starting point
The honest worst-case. Emma works from home three days a week — in a converted attic loft directly under the roof, no blinds, with a sloped Velux roof window facing west. In summer it’s as warm inside as it is outside. Before our test, she’d spent two weeks working at the dining table because the attic office was unusable.
How the test went
Unit placed on a chest of drawers next to the desk, set to level 2 (medium), switched on at 10:30 am. We wanted to see how it would behave across a full working day — not just as a short cooling sprint.
The result: after 30 minutes the room temperature was down to 24 °C and stayed there — even with the afternoon sun beating in through the roof window. Emma worked through the whole day without having to retreat back to the dining table.
Power consumption over the 8 hours of operation, measured with a standard plug-in energy meter: 0.38 kWh. At current electricity prices that works out at roughly 15p for a full working day. A comparable split air-con system would have used a good ten times that for the same performance.
33 °C down to 24 °C in 30 minutes, steady throughout 8 hours of operation. 15p in electricity for the entire working day. Emma has her attic office back.
Three bonus scenarios we tried on the side
Over the 14-day test we also ran the unit in a few other settings that caught our attention. In short:
Older person’s flat
We tried the unit at Emma’s parents’ place (78 / 76) for three days. The large touch display made operation straightforward. Electricity bill wasn’t a concern.
Caravan on a campsite
Runs off any standard socket on the campsite. Caravan test in the Lake District at 30 °C: 14 m² of living space down to 22 °C in 12 minutes.
Child’s bedroom
The neighbours’ five-year-old, an allergy sufferer, was sleeping badly in the summer heat. Three nights of EpiCooler in his room: first full week of sleeping through since March.
So how does the EpiCooler actually work? — The physics behind it
At this point in the test, we wanted to understand it. How can a portable unit with no compressor and no chemical refrigerant produce the same effect as a fixed split air-con system?
The answer lies in the airflow geometry inside the unit. Unlike a traditional air-conditioner, which runs a compressor with chemical refrigerant between an indoor and outdoor unit, the EpiCooler works with three consecutive cooling chambers in which the warm room air is gradually cooled down.
The advantage of this design: no F-Gas servicing needed (a legal requirement for split systems under the UK F-Gas Regulations), no outdoor unit, considerably lower power consumption. The drawback: a single unit has a limited cooling capacity — for rooms over 30 m² with a south-facing aspect, the manufacturer recommends running two units in parallel.
We put the question to inventor Mark Bennett — 20 years in the air-con industry before he developed the EpiCooler in his Manchester workshop:
A traditional air-conditioner solves the problem with brute force — lots of compressor, lots of power, lots of chemistry. The EpiCooler solves it with geometry. Different architecture, different airflow. The end result is the same — just without the running costs. — Mark Bennett, inventor of the EpiCooler
Power consumption per hour on the medium setting: 0.048 kWh. At current electricity prices (as of May 2026): around 2p per hour. A comparable split air-con system pulls 0.5–0.7 kWh.
What verified buyers are saying
To avoid relying solely on our own impressions, we worked through the verified buyer reviews online in parallel. The picture is strikingly consistent: 1,462 verified reviews, an average of 4.8 out of 5 stars. The handful of negative voices almost all revolve around peak-season delivery times — not the product itself.
Three reviews that struck us as particularly telling:
★★★★★ “I previously had a fixed air-con unit installed for £1,150. My electricity bill in June was £118 lower than the year before. I was sceptical — but the thing does what it says on the tin. Selling my old one on eBay as we speak.”
★★★★★ “Renter, 38 m² flat in Birmingham, landlord has been saying no to air-con for years. I ordered the EpiCooler in April. It just hangs on the wall. Landlord knows about it, has no objection because it isn’t a structural alteration. Best purchase I’ve made in years.”
★★★★★ “I’m 71 and I used to be unable to sleep at 30 °C. My son gave me the EpiCooler for my birthday. First complete summer night sleeping right through in years. For people my age, this is nothing short of a lifesaver.”
⚠ Important: Beware of fakes on Amazon & eBay
During our test we came across at least four products on Amazon, eBay and a few third-party marketplaces being sold under very similar names — “EpiCool”, “EpicCooler”, “Epi-Cooler Pro”, “Ace Cooler”. These products are not made by the original manufacturer, are generally far poorer in build quality (cheap plastic instead of proper finishing), don’t deliver the advertised cooling performance, and offer no 30-day money-back guarantee.
The genuine EpiCooler is available only via the official manufacturer’s website. Bennett deliberately chose not to distribute through Amazon, Currys or John Lewis — more on that in the FAQ below.
Common questions — what we put to the manufacturer
Optimal for rooms up to roughly 25 m². For larger rooms or rooms with a strong south-facing aspect, the manufacturer recommends two units in parallel. In our test, a single unit also worked in 24 m² with a south-facing balcony — it just took a bit longer.
Manufacturer spec: under 40 dB. Our measurement from the bed: 36 dB. That’s quieter than a normal fan and certainly quiet enough to sleep through.
Our measurement: around 2p per hour on the medium setting. Even running it continuously across the whole summer, you’ll come out at £13–£22 per month. A comparable split air-con system pulls £180–£270 per month.
No. There’s no structural alteration, no outdoor unit, no hole through the façade. A wall bracket with two wall plugs — under tenancy rules that’s treated the same as a picture hook. If you want to be on the safe side: stand the unit up instead of mounting it, and you don’t need to fix anything at all.
No. The genuine EpiCooler is sold exclusively via the official manufacturer’s website. There’s a reason for that: several copycats have already appeared on Amazon (see the warning above) — cheap plastic knock-offs with similar names that don’t deliver the cooling performance and don’t come with the 30-day guarantee. Mark Bennett deliberately opted against the high street so he can keep the price steady and stay in direct contact with customers.
30 days, money back. No questions, no explanation, no retention emails. Bennett says the current return rate is under 1%. After our own tests, we believe it.
Test it for 30 days — no one asking questions
MONEY
BACK
If the EpiCooler doesn’t convince you — you get everything back.
30 days to try it out. If it doesn’t do what you expected, simply send it back. No phone calls, no explanation, no retention emails. Full purchase price refunded.
⚠ Currently available with launch discount
On the official manufacturer’s site, the launch promotion is running with 60% off the later list price. The unit currently costs £118 instead of £299. The promotion is time-limited — if you want to try it, don’t leave it too long.