Vector Climate · Portacool · MovinCool · OceanAire — which cooling line fits your application?
How To Use This Guide
If a heat advisory has just landed in your jurisdiction and you are trying to decide which portable cooling line to deploy, this guide is built to take you from “we need cooling” to “we know which unit to quote” in under five minutes.
The decision tree has two structural questions and one application question:
- Evaporative cooling or refrigerant cooling? — the climate and the space type decide this
- Within your class — which brand fits the application? — capacity, ducting, mobility, and duty cycle decide this
- What is the application? — warehouse · event · server room · production line · healthcare · construction
If you are already past those three questions and just want a comparison matrix, jump to the Decision Matrix section.
Step 1 · Evaporative or Refrigerant?
This is the most important decision in portable cooling, and the one most buyers get wrong by skipping straight to capacity comparison.
Evaporative cooling uses the physics of water evaporation: a fan pulls warm air through a wet cooling pad, water evaporates into the airstream, and the air leaving the unit is cooler than the air entering it. No compressor. No refrigerant. No ducted exhaust. No condensate to manage. The drop you get depends on the dryness of the incoming air — drier air drops further.
Refrigerant cooling is true air conditioning: a compressor cycles refrigerant through a closed loop, hot air goes out an exhaust duct (or via a water-cooled condenser), and the cooled air comes back into the room. Predictable cooling regardless of humidity. Removes water from the air. Requires exhaust path or water cooling.
The fastest way to decide:
| Question | If YES → | If NO → |
|---|---|---|
| Is the space OPEN to outside air or otherwise well-ventilated? (warehouse with rolltop doors, event tent, loading bay, manufacturing floor) | Evaporative is a strong fit | Refrigerant — the closed space concentrates heat too quickly for evaporative to keep up |
| Will the unit run somewhere with a water source available? | Evaporative works | Refrigerant — evaporative needs water |
| Does the space need humidity REMOVED (server room, electronics manufacturing, library)? | Refrigerant | Evaporative — it ADDS humidity |
| Is the customer in dry-prairie climate (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, interior BC)? | Evaporative delivers its largest temperature drops here | Refrigerant — coastal BC and southern Ontario midsummer are humid; evaporative drop is smaller |
| Does the application require a specific predictable temperature (server room at 20°C, healthcare at 22°C)? | Refrigerant | Evaporative — output varies with inlet conditions |
Short version: Open spaces + dry climates + people-cooling-and-process-cooling → Evaporative (Vector or Portacool). Closed spaces + humidity-sensitive + precise-temperature applications → Refrigerant (MovinCool or OceanAire).
Step 2 · Within Evaporative — Vector Climate or Portacool?
Vector Climate — the smart-controls, all-in-one platform
Engineered by Cleva Technologies. Vector centres on integration: water management, fan control, mobility, and aesthetics in a single connected unit.
- Vector — flagship mid-class · 9,000 CFM · 15-gallon reservoir · 2,000 sq ft coverage
- Spartan — heavy-industrial · 12,500 CFM · 60-gallon reservoir · 2,500-3,000 sq ft · fits 16-inch ducting · MERV-rated filtration · forklift-slot chassis
- Aero / AeroPro — event/venue grade · 3,600 CFM (Aero Pro) · under 58 dB · 1,200-1,600 sq ft
Choose Vector when: the buyer wants the polished modern look (events, hospitality, premium retail), smart-water-management, or the integrated-platform approach.
Portacool — the industry workhorse
Thirty-plus years engineering evaporative coolers. Field-proven durability, parts availability, and serviceability.
- Apex 1200 — entry-class industrial
- Apex 2000 — mid-class industrial · the most common deployment
- Apex 4000 — large industrial · warehouse and hangar bay scale
- Hurricane and Jetstream Series — high-airflow specialty units for spot-cooling
Choose Portacool when: proven workhorse, deepest parts ecosystem, field-serviceability priority.
Many Cantherm customers run mixed fleets — Vector Aero for guest-facing event tents, Portacool Apex 2000s for back-of-house production.
Step 3 · Within Refrigerant — MovinCool or OceanAire?
MovinCool — portable spot cooling, DENSO engineering
Brand of DENSO Corporation. The Climate Pro family has led portable spot cooling since 1982.
- Climate Pro K Series — six models · offices, computer rooms, server rooms, healthcare, commercial · quiet continuous-duty
- Climate Pro X Series — three models · industrial, warehouse, manufacturing · field-serviceable
- Climate Pro D Series — two models · heat pump · year-round cooling AND heating
Choose MovinCool when: spot cooling targeted at specific zones — workstation, server cabinet, production line, single piece of heat-generating equipment.
OceanAire — water-cooled commercial portable A/C, up to 30-ton
Area cooling at commercial scale. Up to 30 tons of cooling capacity in a single portable unit. OWC and PWC water-cooled series plus air-cooled OPAC line.
Choose OceanAire when: the cooling load is large, the deployment is commercial-scale, and the duration is days to weeks. Data centre emergency cooling, hospital temporary annexes, large-event covered venues, manufacturing-line conditioning, disaster response.
Decision Matrix
| Application | First Choice | Second Choice |
|---|---|---|
| Open warehouse with rolltop doors | Portacool Apex 2000 or 4000 | Vector Spartan |
| Tented outdoor event | Vector Aero or AeroPro | Portacool Hurricane |
| Aircraft hangar | Portacool Apex 4000 | Vector Spartan with ducting |
| Manufacturing floor with process heat | MovinCool Climate Pro X | Vector Spartan if humidity tolerable |
| Server room / data centre | MovinCool Climate Pro K | OceanAire (if scaled) |
| Welding bay / workstation spot cooling | Portacool Hurricane or MovinCool K | Vector Aero |
| Outdoor patio / hospitality | Vector (flagship) | Portacool Hurricane |
| Construction site temporary cooling | Portacool Apex 1200 or 2000 | Vector Spartan |
| Healthcare emergency cooling | MovinCool Climate Pro K | OceanAire 12-ton |
| Year-round cooling + heating | MovinCool Climate Pro D | OceanAire (split deployment) |
| Disaster response / emergency | OceanAire + Portacool Apex | MovinCool Climate Pro X |
| Greenhouse / agricultural | Portacool Apex family | Vector Spartan |
By Climate
Manitoba / Saskatchewan / Alberta interior (dry continental): Evaporative cooling delivers its largest temperature drops. Refrigerant cooling still preferred for closed-space applications (server rooms, healthcare).
Coastal British Columbia: Humid summer days reduce evaporative cooling drop. Refrigerant preferred for most indoor applications.
Southern Ontario midsummer: Mixed humidity. Refrigerant more predictable for consistent temperature.
Atlantic Canada: Humid coastal. Refrigerant generally preferred indoor. Evaporative viable for outdoor events and well-ventilated industrial spaces.
The Cantherm Advantage
Cantherm has been carrying portable cooling and heating equipment since 1993, with deep distributor relationships across all four brand lines:
- One Canadian point of contact for the full four-brand portfolio
- Truck delivery across western and central Canada from Winnipeg warehouse
- Application engineering — we’ll talk through your space, heat load, climate, and duty cycle BEFORE you buy
- Service and parts — we stock spares for workhorse lines and coordinate factory service for engineered lines
If you are sizing a deployment for the summer heat window, the right move is to call before you spec the unit. A five-minute conversation can save a wrong-unit purchase.
Ready to size your deployment?
Try the Cooling Calculator to size your application, or call direct for application engineering on a specific deployment.
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Call direct: 800.661.WARM (9276)