Top 10 Best Portable Ac Units 2022 Pick By Experts

To start things off, I’m not usually a real big B+D fan. I know well enough to know that, like most GIANT name brands, the name doesn’t actually necessarily indicate who built the unit, but rather who’s marketing and supporting it. For all I know, this has 90% of the same guts as an LG unit. (LG is regarded as the leader in portable/window AC units, as well as Frigidaire).The product arrived in the retail box, which looks to be able to serve double duty as a shipping container because it is very sturdy, and it’s assembled in such a way that it would just about collapse if it were shipped any way other than “this side up”, and it’s clearly marked as such on the box in many spots so you shouldn’t run into the issue some reviewers talking about where they need to let it stand vertical for 24 hours prior to plugging it in and letting the pump go to work.I’m not exactly stupid, but there’s a few things about this product that don’t make a whole lot of sense, or are done in a needlessly complicated (cost saving) way. To be fair though, this is my first time dealing with a portable AC unit so maybe they’re all like this to one degree or another (get it?!)First, the window vent blocking plate situation… I’m in an older house with small windows, so I had to cut one of the panels so that it would give me the correct length. This is some pretty heavy plastic, and I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect the typical consumer to even have the means to be able to cut one of these pieces of plastic. A hacksaw worked fine. Then you need to secure each of the telescoping panels (just shallow “C” channels, essentially) into eachother with screws so it becomes one unit…. this is supposed to be a PORTABLE AC unit. If I really did buy this with the intent of moving it from one room to another, I’d be screwed since it’s doubtful that each window is exactly the same size, and changing the size of the plate is not exactly a breeze. I expected to see a more well thought out design for the window plate. Luckily, this thing is staying upstairs in my attic-bedroom that easily reaches very warm temps on even a slightly warm day, and the central AC cannot keep up with it.Another gripe is the remote, and overall interface of operating the machine. The top/face of the machine has the love-em-or-hate-em capacitive touch buttons that provide no tactility, but instead a beep. Whatever, it works. Doing anything beyond turning it on and off and up and down requires the remote, which seems to send discreet commands for each incremental increase or decrease in temp, so that the temp displayed on the remote is never “out of sync” with the unit, as long as you change the temp at least once with the remote. It’s just an infrared send-only type of signal. The real confusion comes in setting the sleep/wake timer. I read the directions and I can’t figure it out. I just operate it manually when I wake up and before I go to bed, which leads me to another gripeThe thing is loud! I understand that in order for an AC unit to work, it has to move air, but even with the fan on low (which is useless because it does not push the cool air far enough towards me) the unit makes too much noise to sleep with running. I could probably get around this by moving it to the other side of the room, but I don’t want to (just yet) so I just put up with it.Most of the marketing graphics/information on this product’s Amazon listing are either glossed over, or just plain incorrect. The picture that shows the exhaust vent is wrong, since it gets connected to an ovular shaped thing, and then goes out the window, and the filter does not slide out, you snap the holder out of the back, and snap the filter out of the holder. Another instance of Marketing Gone Wild.But, it blasts out pretty cool air pretty quickly, and it’s working to keep a somewhat large, low-ceiling attic bedroom at a comfortable 74 degrees even when it’s hovering around 100 outside, so I have to give it some credit. The “AirSwing” feature is nice- you can position the unit at an angle (in my case, the only way to get it closer to the wall and deal with the unwieldy hot-air hose coming out the back) and pitch the vents so it’s still blowing as if it were positioned straight ahead. I suppose in a more open space, it would be helpful to share some of the cool air with your visitors or other house dwellers.So, why buy this instead of a window unit? I can yank out the plate and roll it into a closet at the end of our 2 month summer and let it sit for the other 10 months or so, instead of futzing with big drippy, rusty rectangles and angle brackets or 2x4s screwed into the stucco.We’ll see how well the atomization of water goes as far as its ability to dehumidify. The manual promises that emptying moisture from the unit only needs to be done at the end of the season, once, but it also says the sleep timer works.UPDATEAfter living with this unit for a couple VERY hot weeks, one season after another, I’ve learned a few things* It’s pretty likely that the built in water tank will fill up, causing the unit to stop producing cold air. I remedied this by keeping the included clear plastic tube attached to the back/bottom and elevating the unit onto a sturdy little platform with the casters removed. Now it’s free to drip-drop the water it collects down the tube into a sawed off orange juice container, which needs to be emptied every couple days (!!!) Best to put that inside a small trash can just in case you forget to check it and it overflows all over your floor, not that that could ever happen…* Rather than having it vent out a window, it’s now venting out of a hole in the wall that was once for the exhaust port of a heater that was mounted to the wall. This enabled me to get it very close to the wall and even cut the collapsible hose down to 1/3 the size… the hose radiates heat, and now there’s less of it. Also it’s easier for it to discharge warm air since the path is shorter.* Periodically it will apparently draw a large spike of power and trip the breaker. Granted my old home has some pretty skuzzy wiring. It’s not done it while I’m there to watch it, only while I’m away, so I come back to an 85 degree, muggy bedroom. The built in GFCI has not yet tripped.* The fact that these single hose units actively discharge cooled air and create negative pressure bothers me and I’m trying to find a not-entirely-inelegant way to provide this thing with a source of fresh outside air, effectively converting it to a dual hose unit… more to come on thatBut, still running strong after several heaves and hoes into and out of the closet and sitting unused for months and months at a time.

SUMMARY (final update 8/17/22):I recommend the DREO TwinCool DR-HAC001 instead. You WILL thank me later. With the DREO TwinCool DR-HAC001, I can now turn off my other Whynter ARC-14S even on 90 degree days, unless it’s around 100 degrees! It’s so cold on 90 degree days I have to turn it down or off in the mornings and evenings!Anyways, I purchased 3 of these Whynter ARC-14S units, so read my review carefully as I have more experience than most reviewers. My first purchased in 2017 was good, and lasted me until 2022 when the fan started making a grinding noise.My second purchased in 2021 immediately started tripping the same circuit when I first tried it where my first unit wasn’t having much problems. After tripping the circuit, it goes into this mode where the compressor runs for 2.5 minutes with cold air, followed by the compressor off for 7 mins and blowing warm 75 degree+ air. I had to swap my first unit back, which immediately began cooling the room. The second unit doesn’t blow cool air all the time. It mostly does better on less hot days, but struggles on hot high 90s days, especially if humidity is over 60%. In the evenings, sometimes even when the temperature outside goes down below 70 degrees, it was still struggling to keep the inside air under 77 degrees due to it blowing warm/hot air, so then I have to shut it off completely and use a fan to blow air from the outside. When it’s working well, the compressor appears to be on most of the time. When the compressor turns off, sometimes it blows 70 degree air for about 7 mins before the compressor kicks back in. On some hot and humid days, it blows 75 degree warm air for 7 minutes while the compressor is off, basically warming up the place. However, I keep this 2nd unit in my bedroom to help me sleep at night on warm nights so I’ve learned to deal with it.My third unit purchased in July 2022 showed the same symptoms as the second unit. However, it runs the compressor for 3.5 minutes and then blows hot 84 degree+ air for 10 mins. To be fair, it starts blowing 70 degree air after the compressor turns off and starts warming up to mid 80s after a few minutes. This obviously causes the place to warm up and ambient temperature to go as high as 80 degrees (while the outside can sometimes be only 85 degrees, or sometimes even cooler). Although, for one day, like a miracle, it kept the ambient temperature around 75 when the outside was 100 degrees. I noticed the compressor wasn’t going on and off in that mode support claims is normal for that single day. But that was only for 1 day. After that, it couldn’t keep our place cool, even if the outside air was only 80 degrees because it goes into the mode of 3.5 mins compressor on and 10 mins compressor off blowing hot air. See images I posted. As a workaround after thinking about this Whynter unit somehow detecting the ambient temperature or environment and behaving a certain way, I decided to loop a hose from the vent to the back where the air intake starts. I was hoping to trick the AC into running the compressor longer. This seems to mostly work. Sometimes when doing this, the compressor stays on for 10 mins, and then hot air for 10 mins with compressor off. To resolve this manually, I set a 10 min timer to turn on the AC for 10 mins with the compressor running cold air, and then turn it off manually for 10 mins. Rinse and repeat. Yeah, yeah I know this is annoying, but it seems to work better than only 3.5 mins of compressor on.Anyways, I couldn’t live like this because that’s still 10 mins of no AC, and manually having to dink around, so I returned this 3rd Whynter ARC-14S for a refund. Amazon sent UPS to pick it up. The shipping boxes were destroyed so I had to go to Home Depot to buy a 24x24x46 box, along with a sturdy chalkboard, which I had Home Depot cut into 23×23 to place at the bottom. That cost me about $29 total. I cannot, in good conscience, recommend this Whynter ARC-14S to anyone because 2 of the 3 I purchased blows warm or hot air intermittently, especially on warmer days when you need it most! I’ve changed the stars down from 5 (for my first unit) to 1 (for the warm/hot air my second and third units blow, heating up my place).I purchased the DREO TwinCool DR-HAC001 ( Item B09L15X5MD ), which is a dual hose system inside a single hose, to replace a Whynter ARC-S14 I returned to Amazon. OOOOMMMMMGGGG. It’s like night and day, like going from an abusive relationship to a loving, mutual-respect, healthy relationship. I can cook food on the stove and turn on the lights now during 100 degree days!!! With the Whynter ARC-14S, I had to turn off all the lights, sit in the dark and heat because the Whynters (plural, two of them) couldn’t cool the temps down, and only eat cold, easy to make food. The DREO TwinCool DR-HAC001 screams quality. It’s like a Mercedes vs a Ford. It doesn’t go into a mode of compressor on/off blowing hot air like the Whynter ARC-14S. It’s constantly blowing cold air like those A/Cs you find in good hotels. In fact, the DREO TwinCool DR-HAC001 kept us so cold in the mornings and it evenings (even as it’s 84 degrees at midnight right now), I had to turn it off or from 60 to 70 degrees. Today, the outside temp is 98 and it kept us around 74 degrees all day (as opposed to the Whynter that usually struggles in the evening, raising our room temperature to 76 and as high as 80 sometimes). In the evenings during hot (and sometimes only barely warm) days, the Whynter ARC-14S almost always goes into this 3.5 min compressor mode on, 10 min compressor mode off, blowing hot 80+ degrees air. But, not the DREO TwinCool DR-HAC001 as it blows cold air non-stop. My only regret is I didn’t find the DREO TwinCool DR-HAC001 sooner. It comes with a bar code to extend warranty to 30 months, with free shipping for repairs, etc. I haven’t scanned it yet though. I’d recommend the DREO TwinCool DR-HAC001 over the Whynter ARC-14S any day.All those years and hours of sitting in the dark and heat, like primitive hunter-gatherers around the fireplace that I can never get back, while TWO Whynter ARC-14S units were running full blast, wasting electricity, where only this single DREO TwinCool DR-HAC001 is able to do the job much, much, MUCH better, makes me sad-happy. Sad for a wasted, suffering for nothing life all these years, and happy these insane days and nights are finally over.Having one Whynter ARC-14S off most of the time should save a lot of electricity, more than switching to Geico, and pay for itself in no time.DETAILS:I’ve had this unit for THREE+ years as of July, 2020 (purchased March 15, 2017). It’s the best portable A/C unit I’ve owned. I’ve owned 2 other units in the $300 range to compare. I like that it’s a two hose system so it’s a little more efficient. I did notice however, because of the way it sucks air in one and out the other, it’ll allow insects and spiders into the home. How I solved that was we bought some “Earthwise Reusable Mesh Produce Bags” from the local grocery store and simply put it around the outside of the hose (before plugging it into the circular holder piece), kinda like you would wear a sock. That solved the problem. No more spiders and stuff the second year around.UPDATE 7/22/2020: This unit has finally started to show it’s age. This is the first year it’s not kept us cool. 95 degrees outside and it’s 80 degrees with this thing running full blast. Before, it was keeping us at least 5-7 degrees cooler. Going to see if I can troubleshoot it….UPDATE 7/26/2020: I purchased a second unit (for lack of any good 2 hose units on the market at the time). The second unit looks identical to the old one, with the old hose system fitting it perfectly. To my surprise the new unit runs the compressor for about 2 mins and 30 seconds, and then shuts off, and runs at room temp air for about 7 mins before running the compressor again for 2 mins and 30 seconds and then shutting off again. Reading the reviews, this appears to be “normal”. However, my old unit I purchased more than 3 years prior didn’t behave this way.Differences:The exhaust on the old unit is really hot, meaning it’s doing it’s job. In fact, it’s so hot the exhaust can burn you. Instead feeling room temp air after 2 mins and 30 seconds, I still feel cool air. The exhaust on the new system is on the higher warm side. The air is cold for 2 mins and 30 seconds, and then the compressor turns off and all I feel is room temp air for 7 mins.My room thermometer kept going up with the new unit, going to 82 degrees (100 degrees outside). I switched back to the old unit, and within 5 mins (the compressor is still running or whatever is happening, the cool air is still blowing), and the temp is now down to 79 degrees. Within a few mins, the old unit cooled down the entire place because it isn’t spending 7 mins doing jack squat. I know this because when it’s turned off, there’s ZERO AIR FLOW on the exhaust hose.While I recommended this unit years ago, now I cannot, without any good conscience, recommend anyone buying this unit because it will not cool you on a hot day.UPDATE 9/16/2020:Originally when I replaced the old unit with the new one, the new one tripped my circuit breakers within a few minutes. I didn’t think much about it, but I put the old unit back (and it worked w/o tripping breakers), and moved the new unit into the bedroom. I noticed after 1+ day of not using it, the new unit started behaving much better where it could actually cool the room. I’m not sure why.However, fast forward to almost 2 months later, and my old unit started tripping the circuit breakers multiple times a day (originally starting when it was close to 100 degrees outside and now even when it’s only 80 degrees… or in other words it’s getting worse) where it had been sitting and working for 3+ years without issues. This is with minimal power draw from anything else, perhaps 2-3 lights on only. THEN… the new unit (which worked without tripping anything for almost 2 months) started tripping the circuit breakers on a totally different circuit. AFTER the new unit tripped the breaker, I noticed it’s back to that 2 mins and 30 seconds cold air, followed by 7 minutes of warmer than room temperature air. I DIDN’T THINK ABOUT IT THEN, BUT I THINK TRIPPING THE CIRCUIT SOMEHOW “BROKE” THE NEW UNIT just like it did the first time I used it on the old unit’s circuit. It’s been a few days now and the new unit is still “broken”. Worse, the old unit is now tripping the circuit even with EVERYTHING ELSE turned off (in sometimes as little as 15 mins after I reset the breaker), so we’re like basically SITTING IN THE FRIGGEN DARK as evening comes and it’ll trip the circuit. I’m not sure if something electrical in my house is broken, or if it’s the AC units themselves. I’ve since disconnected both ACs and turned everything on and nothing’s been tripped, so definitely the ACs are contributing.Note: It’s loud as heck, but you get used to it. It’s like a louder version of white noise at the office.UPDATE July 12, 2022: My first unit purchased 2017 finally starting to show its age with just cool (not cold) air coming out, and grinding noise when turned on for a few weeks now. Today it got so bad I turned it off and the grinding noise continued 30+ seconds until the entire fan unit came to a standstill.The second unit purchased 2 years prior is still doing great, very cold air, with no problems or electrical tripping of the circuit in our bedroom. I suspect now the reason it had trouble initially was the first circuit couldn’t provide the unit enough electricity, manifesting in it only working for 2 mins and 30 seconds, and then the compressor turns off and all I feel is warm, humid air for 7 mins.Also, in case I forget to note, this second unit turns itself off (most of the time) when the room gets cold. It’ll turn itself on when the room gets too warm beyond what I set the temperature. The first unit just kept blowing the fan regardless of setting. Good for when I need to keep the place cool while I leave for a few days.Update: early July, 2022: I’ll be purchasing a 3rd unit to replace the 5 year old 1st unit.Update: July 20, 2022: 3rd unit arrived. Upon turning it on, the compressor kicked in and it was cold for a few minutes…. until it tripped the circuit. After tripping the circuit, it went into the mode of turning on the compressor for 3 minutes and 30 seconds, and then blowing a funky smelling nasty humid, slightly warm air for a good 9+ minutes or more before turning on the compressor for 3 minutes and 30 seconds again. As a result, it did not cool the room as many have complained about. My 2nd unit ran for 2 minutes and 30 seconds with the compressor while in this mode. Anyways, I think my suspicions are confirmed. If it trips the circuit, it goes into this mode where after the compressor runs for a few minutes and turns off, warm 80 degree F air gets blown out of the vent and heats up the place for 10+ minutes. Anyways, I tested a different circuit using a heavy duty extension cable (not the weak type, but commercial type meant to handle the juice), and it did not trip that circuit. If I unplug the power cable to the 3rd unit for a few minutes, it still kept it’s 3 minutes and 30 seconds cycle, and in fact after starting it “for the first time” after plugging in the power, the compressor didn’t come on. I left it unplugged overnight. After doing that, it was able to run the compressor upon powering it on for a few minutes before the compressor turned off. I suspect this mode has to do with not having enough juice from the outlet.Having said that, the picture showing the 1250 Watts at 10.8 A is the 1st unit I bought in 2017. It rarely tripped the circuit just by running, although did a few times during 100 degree days, but does so especially if we use lights and devices on that same circuit.The picture showing the 1300 Watts at 11.6A is the 3rd unit. I don’t have an image of the 2nd unit because it’s currently against the corner of a wall and I don’t want to go through the trouble of getting to the backside. But as you can see, this is the typical problem with Amazon allowing sellers to simply switch products or update them. They get to keep the reviews and Q/A, which may no longer be valid to match their current products. Some sellers go as far as switching products entirely so reviews are completely bogus. Keep this in mind when you’re reading reviews from 5+ years ago. Most likely they are no longer valid. Even my 2nd unit I purchased a year prior was running the compressor for 2.5 minutes while this 3rd unit runs if for 3.5 minutes. I’ll update the review once I can get the 3rd unit to run the compressor continuously.Update: July 25, 2022. No go. 3rd unit still doing 3.5 mins AC compressor cold air (ice cold like my 2nd unit), but then 10+ minutes of room and then very warm air (mid 80s F air) and chemical smell. 2nd unit in comparison does 2.5 mins AC compressor cold air followed by close to 10 mins low 70s F air. Not good at all for this 3rd unit. See images. I have it now on a dedicated outlet and it’s not tripping the outlet.Update August 15, 2022: I’ve decided to return the 3rd unit before my 30 days is expired. I bought a different brand dual hose AC and will update here with that one in a few days. I didn’t have the original boxes so I had to buy a 24x24x46 shipping box from Home Depot, along with a strong quarter inch chalkboard was support for the bottom. I had Home Depot cut it into 23×23 for me. I secured the unit with light, hard foam from other stuff I’ve purchased over the years and taped the foam to the fridge sides of AC unit to secure it against all sides of the shipping box. I also put a 2 inch thick soft but sturdy foam between the chalkboard and the wheels that coincidentally is exactly the size footprint of the AC unit.Amazon is supposedly sending UPS to pick it up but CS said they can’t send anyone to pack it up for me (guessing due to size), so I had to pack it myself.Anyways, good news and bad news. Good news, this unit was able to keep the temp around 75 degrees F for most of the day when it was 101 degrees outside. I had to turn the unit on all night before and woke up to 69 degrees temps. The compressor appeared to be on most of the time, and not giving me 85 degree warm air. Very strange this intermittent working issue. The bad news is we had 3 days in a row of 100 degrees so as the night temps remained around 70 degrees F outside all night, the ACs struggled and kept doing the 3.5 min cold + 10 min warm mode. The second and third days, the morning was fine, but both ACs went back to the warm air mode, usually in the late afternoons. It seems when there’s higher humidity outside, they struggle more too.What’s really bad is even after the days were only 85 degrees, the ACs sometimes go into this mode, much sooner than later afternoon. The 3rd unit also did the warm air mode some nights, all night despite outside air being 60 degrees, so I had to just turn it off completely and open the windows instead to blow outside air in.I notice when it’s cold, the unit works better (unless it’s not working at all….), with the compressor not going off. However, sometimes the compressor goes off and the Whynter blows hot air, even when outside temps are in the mid 70s at night, so no exact rhyme or reason. I also noticed once the room temp goes above 76 or 77 degrees F, the 3rd AND 2nd units start going into this 2-3 min compressor cold mode and then 10 minutes of compressor off mode. The 2nd unit blows slightly cooler air during compressor off mode. The irony is these units work well when the temp outside and inside is generally cold, but not so well when hot, exactly the opposite of what you need! It’s like a broken phone or car that works when you don’t need it, but doesn’t work when you absolutely need it to.I read something in the manual about depending on the room temp so I did a test be looping cold air from the AC back to the air filter suction area (see images). This appeared to help the 3rd unit keep the compressor on for 10 mins before blowing hot air for 10 more minutes. So I had to use a timer countdown to manually leave the AC on for 10 mins, and then shut it off manually for 10 mins so the AC unit would hopefully start the compressor again, and keep repeating this non-sense. Very annoying, I know. Otherwise it’s 3.5 mins compressor followed by 10 mins warn air. I timed all this down to the second so I’m not making this up. If you open the air filter, you’ll see something behind it. I’m guessing that’s the temp sensor. I’m guessing it you can loop cold air back to that exact spot, you can trick the compressor to stay on longer. But, the hot exhaust is next to it so it’ll suck hot air in, which is a poor design and is the cause of this problem I’m guessing. But, this is a pathetic workaround so I decided to return the unit. Inconsistent results was very frustrating. I bought a DREO TwinCool DR-HAC001 to try.I had emailed Whynter support. They are completely useless, use canned responses and didn’t answer my questions. This is also a factor for returning the 3rd unit. I will not buy this AC again, or anything from Whynter. As for my second unit, I’ll see if looping back cold air directly to the temp sensor helps. So far it keeps us cool at night in the bedroom, which is a good thing. But it’ll go into the slightly warm air mode too, just not as bad as the third unit.I’ll update the DREO TwinCool DR-HAC001 unit in a few days.

This portable AC unit is an absolute BEAST. I am extremely happy with it!Pros:1. The main reason for buying an AC, how well does it cool, you ask? Absolutely fantastic! It easily puts out 30-35F colder output air than the ambient temp of the air in the room. Even outputting air lower than 32F, with no problem. The lowest I have seen it output was 27F when the room was at 61F and it has never frozen up on me. When the room is 90F it will easily output 60F, sometimes even lower temp air. All temps checked with a calibrated infrared thermometer. This is fantastic performance! With temps at 96F outside, it will easily keep my 375sqft upstairs room with vaulted ceilings at 75F, and that is WITH a computer system, including three monitors, and a server that all total around 750 watts, trying to make its job difficult! Great performance! That is the whole reason I bought this unit, since this upper story room gets really hot in the summer, even when the computers are not running, and that is where I have to work from home. To get this performance, I insulated the exhaust tube well, so heat does not radiate from it back into the room. It will not work as well if you don’t do that. I doubt it could keep the room at 75F when it is 96F outside if the exhaust tube is not well insulated.On days that I know it is supposed to reach above 90F I turn on the AC early in the morning (8AM usually) at its lowest 61F setting, so it will get as cold as possible before the heat of the day, and basically let it run all day continuously, while I work, for it to keep it at 75F.If I don’t turn it on early enough, it does struggle keeping it at 75F when it is 96F outside. But if I do as I explain above, starting it early, it will slowly creep up as the day gets really hot. But so far I have never had it go above 75F when I start it early in the morning, even when it is 96 outside (the hottest I have had to deal with, so far, since I bought the unit in July 31, 2021. I live in Orange County California for reference. And keep in mind this is with 750 watts of computer equipment heating the room all day as well.In comparison, I used to have a Soleus Air 14,000BTU unit with two hoses a few years ago. I thought it was decent, but not amazing. So when it broke I didn’t bother replacing it. Well working from home because of COVID changed that, and I am so glad I bought this Whynter!! It is WAY better than my old unit.2. Good noise levels for a portable AC. Quieter than the Soleus Air. On the highest fan setting, it is about as loud as a large box fan on medium settings. The fan is what makes the most noise on this unit. The compressor is quieter than the fan on its highest setting, so it doesn’t really sound that much louder when the compressor is on. On the lower fan settings the compressor is louder than the fan. BUT there are some cons with the noise when it cycles if you are using this unit in your bedroom as you are sleeping. See the cons section below for more info on this.3. I actually love that the air is blown upwards! Unlike a lot of reviews on here, who really dislike that. I have vaulted ceilings on the upper floors, and having the air blow up, will actually keep the room cooler and more even. It might take it longer to cool down a room on initial start-up, but it will keep the temps more even, and won’t have to cycle as much when the air is blown up. Since hot air rises, the only way to cool the air efficiently above the height of the unit, is to blow the air up. My earlier Soleus Air could only blow the air horizontally, and it would be nice and cool down low, but at head level standing up it would be significantly warmer, and the room was never evenly cooled well. None of those problems with the upwards air from the Whynter. It keeps the whole room much more cool overall.If you need the cool air blown directly at you, use a fan. I do agree with other reviewers that it would be nice if the unit itself could have the output adjusted more. But I prefer it blowing up, so it is a non issue for me.4. I like the looks a lot more than any other unit I have looked at.Cons:1. I loved the AC’s performance so much in my office that I bought another one for the bedroom. It is actually cheaper to run these than running my central air that is cooling the whole house, and instead just cool the rooms I am in. I hardly use my central AC anymore, and my electricity bill is much lower as a result. However in the bedroom, which is also around 375sqft, and vaulted ceilings, I ran into a problem that I didn’t run into in my office, because it runs pretty much continuously in my office. When the temp in the bedroom reaches the AC temp settings, the unit shuts the compressor off, and runs the fan on the lowest setting for a while, and then shuts off the fan completely. This is terrible because the difference in noise levels is quite drastic when it comes back on, and it will wake you if you are using this at night while sleeping. But this is not even the worst. The worst is that it cycles the fan on and off, even when the temp is not high enough to trigger the compressor. And it does this a lot! Supposedly it does this to “sample the room temp” to see if it needs to turn on the compressor. I really dislike this, as the noise from off to the fan on is a big enough difference, like I said above, to wake people from sleeping. So even when the temp is low enough, it still cycles the fan on and off, a LOT!2. This next bit is also mainly at night when trying to sleep. When it is hot enough, but not so hot that it needs to run continuously, it also cycles a lot when it reaches the set temp! And it is not that the unit is oversized for my needs. That is just how it is with this unit. Like I said it will keep a room at 75F on a day that is 96F, but it has to run pretty much continuously to do that, and you have to start it early, so it has a head start. Clearly it is not oversized for daytime use and the temps outside are above 80. The issue at night, when the temps outside are cooler: Say the temp outside at night is 75, and you have your temp set at 70F for sleeping (and by the way, the thermostat in the unit is very accurate! It matches my infrared thermometer reading exactly when it turns off. If it turns off when set to 70F, it really is 70F at that point! Impressive). When it reaches 70F it will shut off. But then it turns back on again at 71F! Only one degree warmer. This is too narrow of a working band. It should really be 2-3F in my opinion. Also, in my opinion, a perfect way to program this would be that if you have it set to 70, it would actually cool to 65, and then stop, and turn on again when it reaches 75. That would be perfect! I would rather be too cold than too hot. With such a narrow working band, this AC is oversized for a 375sqft room with vaulted ceilings and the temp outside is less than 80. With a wider working band of 2-3F, even when the temps are less than 80 outside, I think it would cycle longer, with less wear and tear on the compressor, and let people sleep better without the constant 5 minute cycling.That said, I would rather have too narrow of a working band, than too wide. A 5F band would be terrible too, as when you set your unit at 75 during the day, it would reach 80 before it would turn on again. That is too hot, and uncomfortable. Too wide of a working band also causes issues when your significant other is more sensitive to the cold. With a 5F working band, if you set it to 70, so that it won’t go above 75, 70 might make people sensitive to cold feel too cold, while 75 might be borderline too hot for someone sensitive to the heat, like I am. Too wide is worse than too narrow, in my opinion.Anyway, the point of this long winded section, is that the ideal solution would be for the working band to be user adjustable! If you want it 1F, you can have that, and deal with the shorter cycles, but even temps. If you want it 5F you can have that, and have much longer cycles (probably better for the compressor), but deal with the wild temp swings. 1F cycles too much for my liking, and honestly it is my fear that it will wear out the compressor, more than just my comfort that makes me cringe when it starts cycling so often. But when combined with the issues I mentioned in Con #1, that it is very loud when it cycles, it is just too much to bear when trying to sleep. During the night when I set the unit much colder than during the day, I would be fine with a wider working band to keep the loud cycles down. On cool days or at night, I would set it to 5F wide and set the temp to 65 so it would never get above 70 for night. And on a cool day I would set it for 70 so it would never get above 75. During a hotter day, I would want a more narrow working band. The current 1F working band is fine! I can set it at 74, and it will never get above 75. And since a hotter day will take it longer to lower it one degree to 74 from 75.But if the working band had to be set and not be adjustable, I would rather it was set to 2F, or at most 3F, rather than the 1F it is set at from the factory. That would work better on cooler days or at night, with a bit less cycling, even though the temp swings would be greater. And it would be okay on hot days as well, when it will probably run continuously, anyway.So I have resorted to two options:Option A: Setting the unit to 61 when sleeping, so it won’t cycle for a long while since it is set so low, and when it finally reaches 61 and starts to cycle every 5 minutes, it wakes me up, and I shut it off completely. Then I can sleep in peace until I get too hot at around 74F when sleeping, at which point the heat wakes me up. I am more sensitive to the heat when sleeping. That usually takes about 2-4 hours depending on how hot it is outside, and so when it wakes me up I turn it on again. It usually will cool from 74 to 61 in a couple hours, at which point the cycling wakes me up again, so I shut it off. And then I am usually good until I need to get up. This usually results in being woken up 2-4 times during the night, depending on how hot it is outside. Not that bad, as I usually get up at least once a night, anyway, to get a drink and go to the bathroom, etc. So when the AC wakes me up, I take care of things then. And I am good at falling right back asleep.Option B: If it is really hot, I start the AC about 2 hours before I go to bed. By the time I am ready to go to bed, it is usually at 61F, or at most around 63F. Then I can turn it off and fall asleep in nice cool comfort. But because it is a warmer night, and because I started it earlier, it will warm up earlier in the night, etc., and as a result I usually get woken up more in the night from being too hot, and I need to start the AC an extra time during the night. So this option results in the AC waking me up more times a night than Option A. Still not really a big deal, and the comfort of falling asleep in nice cool temps is worth it sometimes.But I really wish I could set the working band. This would solve this problem entirely. At night I would set the working band for 5F and set the temp to 68F. That way it would go up to 73F (not too hot to wake me up), and turn on, but take longer to get down to 68F. And cycle maybe every 20-30 minutes instead of every 5 minutes as it does now if I set it at 73F. Then during the day, when I don’t care about being woken up, I could change the band to 1F or 2F, and be more comfortable with less drastic temp swings. It would be perfect!3. The remote is pretty bad. My Soleus Air had basically the same functions on the remote, but what was nice about it was that it worked from really far away, and at wide angles. The Whynter remote has to be quite close, and you have to point it directly at it, and not to the side by much. Otherwise it won’t work at all. Second, the Soleus Air remote was a two way remote. The unit could communicate back to the remote. That way if you changed settings on the unit itself, it would also update on the remote. The Whynter remote is one way only. From the remote only. If you change any settings on the unit, it will not update the remote. This can cause issues. If you have set the fan speed, the timers, or whatever on the unit, and then change the temp on the remote, all those settings are overwritten by whatever the remote was last set at for those settings. In other words, say you had turned down the fan on the unit, but had the fan on the highest on the remote last time you touched it. If you then use the remote to change the temp settings alone, the fan will kick up to high as well, even though you didn’t want that, because that is what the remote has set in its memory. The Soleus Air communicates the settings on the unit to the remote first, and then the remote would send the temp change, so that no settings are overwritten. And vice versa. Nice feature the Soleus had.Also, in the 21st century it should be able to be controlled over WiFi from your iPhone or Apple watch! From anywhere. Even from outside your house. And the remote could work over WiFi as well. Then there would be no range or angle issues. Having an app would make it really easy to change the working band as described above as well, and enable all kinds of useful features. Like elaborate programmed timed behaviors. Like automatically setting it to 61 for two hours, and then turning it off for 3 hours, and then on again for 2 hours. That would also solve my sleeping issue, without needing to change the working band.Anyway, despite these cons, this AC is still wonderful for me. All I really care about is that is can cool really well, even on extremely hot days, and this unit definitely does this very well! Better than any other Portable AC that I have had, or seen others have. Others might not be able to deal with the cycling when trying to sleep, or not willing to resort to the options that I have resorted to. In which case, this Whynter might not be for you, despite how good it is! But if you are using it in a room other than the bedroom, it is absolutely fantastic for most people, I would think!

The A/C works great. Really cools the area nicely. I did need to cut the brace that goes in the window and it took a second for me to figure out what the pieces were for. You will still need to have caulk or some way to seal the window piece. Water does come in after rain (I live in South Texas where it barely rains – so not big deal for me). I cut out a cardboard piece to go between the window sill and the window brace. The part that comes with the unit is maybe about 1/4″ thick and my window sill is about 1″ thick. We also have scorpions, snakes and such – so I’m not taking any chances in my kid’s room. The drain cord could be longer, it will not reach the window and the height would cause backwash anyway. We have a little bucket that we have to dump a couple times a day and a little fishing bobber rigged to easily see the height of the water. You may need to dump more depending on your humidity level (it’s dry here). The sleep option just dims the light a little, not a major amenity. I do stress that the system does cool quickly. I really cannot gauge the loudness – I feel it’s loud, but we like quiet and it’s a startle when it kicks on and off (we’ll probably get used to it over time).

UPDATE: After three days of amazing cool air, it’s now warm. Not happy. :(I read some great reviews of this unit and was so excited to purchase this. I love the sleek look, the vertical swivel device to move the air around, that was great. So far I’m only on low and it’s very comfortable. However, I do have a major MAJOR critique and bothersome aspect of this AC. The LIGHTS, I don’t think to have the temp on all the time is needed. I tried ignoring it at 1 am but at 2:30 am I had to unplug the device as the light is so bright! ugh! THE LIGHT is on all the time. But after having it on a timer, and in the middle of the night it lights up my entire room. I have now added tape to cover the LIGHT! If you are a dark/night sleeper this will bug you! Have it with an option to turn off the light and have the air going.!

The unit was much heavier than expected for it’s capacity. But easy to move around due to casters on the bottom. The connection to the window for heat exhaust was nothing to write home about, but works. I’d like it if the hot air tube was more insulated. WiFi was easy enough to setup. The app could use a lot of work though. Not great on poor eyesight folks and seems a bit buggy on my iPhone. Love the remote control ability both with the included remote, and via the app. The noise level was very acceptable. Cooling ability was fair, I wouldn’t call it fantastic but plenty good for what I needed it for. Do wish the water evac could also be pushed out the window, but that’s not an included option. The only true negative though was the company REQUIRES an Amazon review to get the 1 year warranty. Boooo Hisssss. Lose one star for that bad business practice.

We have a 1000 sq/ft master bedroom and bathroom combo. We had a smaller portable AC that just couldn’t keep up so we splurged for this one.Our home HVAC was out so we needed something that would last a couple weeks. We didn’t care about noise, energy level or anything else. Just a big AC unit that could cool our space and this delivered.I am close to 3 stars on this one as I feel there is an opportunity to send better plastic window panels. Our older unit came with far better options on this, and the enclosed materials didn’t fully fit our window. We had to cobble something together so the vent could go out our window.Don’t get me wrong, the AC unit itself is amazing. iT’s powerful and cools well. I think Black and Decker got too cheap with the window panels that made the whole unit far less helpful.

I bought this 8500 btu unit to cool my garage which is about 360 sq ft. The unit is not powerful enough to do the job efficiently. I am in Texas and my garage gets sunlight but has somewhat weather sealed doors. I exhausted the AC out of a vent I installed on the garage door itself. My garage is likely not that well insulated and I have some heat producing devices in there, so I do not think it is an issue with the AC, just that I needed to buy a higher BTU unit. The AC unit is very portable and easy to use. I have only had it a few weeks and doubt that it will last for the long haul but for the price it seemed worth the gamble. There are no listed energy efficiency ratings or power ratings on the advertisement. In my Tesla solar app, my power usage goes up by 1 Kw when I turn the unit on. I am keeping the unit even though it cannot cool the space like a larger unit. I did not intend for the garage to be a living space and will plan to use the AC occasionally while working on hobbies.

We were reading through all the reviews of various portable a/c units out there. Which are many! We even visited local stores however this is the one we decided to try since the price point was great and it had good reviews. Of course every product has positive and negative reviews so you are always rolling the dice on purchasing online. So here is my review since others helped me decide on this purchase. Because I hope it helps someone else decide if this unit is for them.COOLING ASPECT:We are happy that we decided to get this portable a/c. We opted for the 8,500 btu since we have a larger bedroom which we were trying to cool down this ridiculous hot summer. We used this a/c in both our rooms to test the cooking area. Our larger bedroom this a/c made it cool, but not ice cold… BUT our master bedroom is 450+ sq ft. But it made it bearable and we were able to sleep with ease. And not wake up in a hot sweaty mess.We then tried our smaller bedroom which is about 300 sq ft give or take and this a/c cooled it down amazingly! We did have to keep doors closed. Which I think is no a brainer when using an a/c to cool down a room.NOISE:Like any a/c you expect some decent noise. Our window unit is loud so we figured if it’s that loud we can deal with it because a cool room trumps reasonable noise in our family. Surprisingly it wasn’t too loud. We don’t mind the noise and doesn’t interfere with us trying to go to bed.SET-UP:The manual is very basic. However it’s so easy to put together and set up. It was super easy and self explanatory. ***WE DID WAIT TO START THE A/C AS ITS RECOMMENDED TO WAIT AT LEAST 24 hrs *** This is something I think that should not be overlooked because it can cause issues on any a/c unit. This helps all the oils of Freon etc to settle away from the coils that might been traveling all over the unit due to shipping. TRUST ME I so wanted to use the a/c since it was over 102 F when it arrived. But patience…. I felt like a child at a candy shop being told just look don’t eat. Lol! But we waited full day so probably over 36 hrs for us to start it up.CUSTOMER SERVICE:Originally when I saw the manual I thought how am I going to set this up. But once the item was completely out of the box it made sense why the manual is so simple. There is customer service number listed on the back of the manual if you have questions. I did contact once to ask about the use of product and the customer service is on point! They are so responsive and friendly. They helped me figure out everything. Most companies lack customer service and this company is surprisingly communicative and wanting to help.OVERALL:This portable a/c does it’s job. It cools rooms within ten recommended sq ft. If you are trying to cool a larger area then you can’t expect an ice cooled room and that’s not the units fault. It’s not super noisy and our son is a light sleeper and he slept well through the noise when in his room. It’s easy to assemble. Customer service is great. The price is the best price point I’ve seen while searching for something comparable for months.

It’s heavy so if you live upstairs then have someone help you carry it. I was worried about buying it from all the water tank reviews and they were right. I was this close to returning it since the “E4/5” symbol kept showing up no matter how much I emptied the machine. Turns out that if you unplug/replug it and put the machine on “dry” mode it fixes the problem for the most part. It cools well and is worth it if you’re willing to just unplug and replug every so often. This helped out during the heatwave so I say cooling-wise, it’s worth it for a little work.

Works and cools. Purchased through Amazon warehouse as condition “used -very good-small cosmetic imperfection on bottom or back of item. Item will come in original packaging. Packaging will be damaged. However when the item was received it was in original packaging with large hole in the side of the box… never opened or used however the side of the plastic unit is cracked and pushed in. In order to use this a/c unit, the side had to pried out of the inside of the unit. Unit still works but definitely is discouraging. Very dissatisfied with Amazons description of unit. The weight of the item is to heavy for us to transport to a UPS store to return it but “BEWARE” of Amazon’s warehouse items.

Got this unit while my AC ducts were being replaced over a 3 day period. It did the job well. Although a little noisy, it cooled our bedroom down to 72 degrees so we could sleep comfy at night even though it was 85 degrees outside our Florida Home. I will keep it in case our AC goes down or even to cool the garage down when i am working in there.

I have a 425 sq ft studio on a high floor that can be 35 degrees warmer than outside temperatures. If temperatures are even in the mid 50s-70s, it can get to the high 80s in my room, which sucks especially if I’m cooking. A fan was okay for sleeping and sitting in one place, but I couldn’t be comfortable having people over or doing anything in my place if it was a relatively mild day.I caved and purchased this portable A/C and I’m so glad I did. Installation was easy enough (it did take a little finessing,) but I was able to get it running within 45 minutes. When I turned it on my thermostat said 85 degrees. After a few hours it was down to 78. A couple days later now and I can regulate the temperature to be what I want as the A/C has been able to get my place down to 69 or cooler. It’s had a little help because the weather has cooled off, but without the A/C my apartment would probably get up to 76 degrees and be a bit too warm for me to comfortably sleep in.The A/C is definitely a little loud but to me it’s just white noise – nothing totally extreme. This did what I wanted it to do and it’s been able to really cool down my apartment. I’m happy!

I want to start by saying this AC unit will cool down a small 15′ x 20′ x 8′ room in just a couple minutes of cutting it on. It moves some super cold air around the room really effectively. Installation was pretty easy other than having to shave off a few inches on the window adapter with a dremel tool (all I had).Now the bad… It’s annoyingly loud! This unit senses the room temp and will cut itself to fan, then all the way off if it thinks the room is cold enough. This means as your sleeping the loud unit will get quieter and then silent for about 5-10 mins before it ROARS to life. It kicks on the compressor with the fan and will wake me up fairly often. Also there is a noise when the AC is on that almost sounds like quickly spraying a pressure washer at metal? I think it’s the evaporator coil getting rid of condensation (no leaks yet so it must work well) but it’s also quite loud and can cut through the loud compressor to make a uniquely annoying sound.The remote control is nice and works anywhere that can see the front of the unit, I wish it had a back-lit screen to see at night but it works so it’s fine.If you have a large room that this can sit far enough away to mitigate noise, then this AC could work wonders for you. If your in a small room (especially one you sleep in) you might wanna look for something quieter. I would but I’m unable to return my unit so I gotta make do