but there are a few weeks each summer where it just can't keep up, and it gets pretty unbearable. I'm talking 80 degrees inside & humid. My wife & kids don't seem too bothered by it, but i'm already not a summer person, so those weeks are hard.

It also requires quite a bit of maintenance, which i find pretty inconvenient (like climbing up on the roof to drain it for winter, get it ready for summer, replace parts, etc.). We've also felt like we don't have much privacy since the swamp cooler requires windows to be constantly open in order for the air to be drawn through the house, and our neighborhood has small yards/close neighbors.

For the last few years, the low cost of running it has made up for the inconvenient maintenance tasks & the hot, humid weeks in the middle of summer. but i've reached a point where i'm starting to dread summer because of it, so we caved and got a/c this year.

I'm curious, though, for anyone who has made the switch from swamp cooler to a/c, did you keep your swamp cooler so you could switch between the two during the summer, or did you get rid of it once you had the a/c?