The evaporative cooler was the subject of numerous U. S. patents in the twentieth century; many of these, starting in 1906,suggested or assumed the use of excelsior (wood wool) pads as the elements to get lots of water in contact with moving air to thereby cool the air. A typical design, as shown in a 1945 patent, includes a water reservoir (usually with level controlled by a float valve), a pump to circulate water over the excelsior pads, and a squirrel-cage fan to draw air through the pads and into the house. This design and material remains dominant in swamp coolers in the American Southwest, where they are also used to increase humidity.

Civilizations throughout the ages have found ingenious ways to combat the heat in their region. An earlier form of air cooling, the windcatcher (Bâd gir), was invented in Persia (Iran) thousands of years ago in the form of wind shafts on the roof, which caught the wind and passed it through water and blew the cooled air into the building.

Nowadays Iranians have changed the windcatcher into an evaporative cooler (Coolere Âbi) and use it widely. There are 9,000,000 evaporative coolers in central Iran, and in just April – May 2006 130,000 evaporative coolers were sold in Iran.

Evaporative cooling was in vogue for aircraft engines in the 1930s, for example with the Beardmore Tornado airship engine. Here the system was used to reduce, or eliminate completely, the radiator which would otherwise create considerable drag. In these systems the water in the engine was kept under pressure with pumps, allowing it to heat to temperatures above 100 Celsius, as the actual boiling point is a function of the pressure. The super-heated water was then sprayed through a nozzle into an open tube, where it rapidly boiled and released its heat. The tubes could be placed under the skin of the aircraft, resulting in a zero-drag cooling system.

However these systems also had serious disadvantages. Since the amount of tubing needed to cool the water was large, the cooling system covered a significant portion of the plane even though it was hidden. This led to all sorts of added complexity and the systems were always terribly unreliable. In addition this large size meant it was very easy for it to be hit by enemy fire, and practically impossible to armor. British and US attempts to use the system turned to ethylene glycol instead. The Germans instead used streamlining and positioning of traditional radiators. Even its most ardent supporters, Heinkel's Günter brothers, eventually gave up on it in 1940.

Evaporative cooling was used in some automobiles, often as aftermarket accessories, until modern vapor-compression air-conditioning became widely available.

Nowadays, evaporative cooling is widely used in China also since 2000. Because of high electricity cost, more people in China start to use evaporative cooling, instead of traditional air conditioning.  When numerous chinese people want to buy evaporative air cooler, China has became the biggest manufacturer of evaporative air cooler. With low producing cost and high efficient working, China made evaporative air coolers are most competitive in international market. Among these manufacturers, Fujian JINGHUI Tech grow fastest, because the company only focus on evaporative cooler products. This company export most coolers to abroad market.