Portable Air Conditioners

Reviews

For our 25th wedding anniversary we spent a week on the south shore of Kauai (Hawaii). Even in November the temperature and humidity gave me second thoughts when we first saw our condo. Great location, great amenities, no A/C. I can take humidity during the day, but at night I love to sleep in a cool and dry environment. I was curious to note that in the bedroom closet there was a Sharp air conditioner unit; I was of course familiar with conventional a/c and window a/c, but not this type. Okay, even without a manual it didn't take long to figure out how to turn the thing on, adjust the louvers (motorized), set the temperature, and so forth. All I can say is, WOW! After 30 minutes the bedroom was as frosty as I wanted, and dry! The device was very quiet and the exhaust hose connecting to a wall vent was hot to the touch, demonstrating all the heat extracted from the room. We had 6 wonderful days (and nights) in that unit, thanks in part to the portable a/c machine. I have no familiarity with the reliability of the unit or what it did with the condensate (we must have taken gallons of water out of the air) but it worked beautifully for us. Highly recommended.

The box says that this is recommended for rooms 360 to 410 square feet. My room is less than 380 square feet and has low ceilings. This unit did not cool down my room at all. It was only 83 degrees outside, I ran the unit for 3 hours and the inside did not get any cooler than 81 degrees. I let the unit run as the outside temperature cooled to 79 degrees and inside remained at 81 degrees. If you have a small room, this is probably one of the best portable air conditions you can buy. The only other thing I really don't like about this unit is that all of the control is with the remote control. If the remote control is lost or breaks, all you can do is turn on the unit and it goes into default mode. If the unit remains plugged in, it goes to the last setting you used. If the unit gets unplugged, it goes to cool mode with the temperature set at 69 degrees. You cannot change that without the remote control. There is a place to hang the remote control on the backside of the unit. The unit is fairly light and compact for a portable air conditioner. There are a few that are smaller and a few that are lighter. It is the quietest one I have heard. However, the 36 dB that they claim is when the fan is on low. When on "Maga cool", the unit is pretty loud. Not so loud that you have to jack up the sound on your TV, but loud enough that it could bother you if you were a light sleeper. The installation kit is well made and sturdy. It can go into windows up to 48" wide (double hung) or tall (slider). Some other units only have kits for up to 38". Unless you have something unique about your window, you can install this in about 30 minutes. This unit won't work on one of my windows because the hose hits a shutter frame. Or course, you can always construct your own adapter to make it work on just about any type of window. But, if you go through all that effort, you may just want to get a window model. I have read reviews where some people claim that this unit had no trouble cooling a 400 square foot room in 100 degree weather. There a lot of factors about a room that will determine how effect the air conditiner will be, such as is there a ceiling above the room, or another floor, how much sun is there on the room, how high are the ceilings, etc. But, the air that comes out of the unit is cool, but not extremely cold. I don't see how it can cool a room that large. One problem with all of the portable airconiditioners is that they have a hose to exhaust the hot air out a window. These hoses are never insulated, so they radiate some of the heat back into the room. The longer the hose, the more inefficient your cooling will be. And, the room gets hot on the backside of the unit, because of this. For a room above 360 square feet, you probably need to get a unit that is at least 12,000 BTU, unless conditions are perfect in your room.

(3 stars for quiet design, 2 more stars if it will remove condensation via the vent hose and not require a bucket or water draining during AC operation) (3/29/07 update: Ran the Sharp for 3+ hours and the unit expelled most of the condensate out the vent hose as the internal tank only had 2-3 ounces of water collected.) Picked up the Sharp CV-P10MC 10,000BTU @ Costco recently however the weather has not been warm enough here in the NW to thoroughly test the unit out yet. The unit is indeed very quiet however I'm concerned that it may require regular draining of collected condensed water during AC operation as my short 30 minute test collected 4-5 ounces of water. (I have a Windchaser portable AC unit that never seems to collect more a few drops and never stopped because it needed draining or required draining) Sharps manual states it removes up to 60 pints of water a day in Dehumidification mode only, which requires regular draining of the internal collection tank (4-5pint capacity) or the attachment of an external bucket for longer uninterrupted operation. In AC mode, Sharp's website and manual states: "Bucketless Design. No water tank to empty. The built in condensate disposal system sends the water out of the exhaust hose. " "This air conditioner evaporates water condensed during cooling operation within the unit through the exhaust air outlet. Although water flowing sound way be heard, this is normal." I assume the Sharp AC unit will not require and external water collection bucket or internal water tank draining when run in AC mode only. My Windchaser portable AC unit (purchased last year)never once needed any condensate water drained during the whole season. The Windchaser manual states that it removes the condensed water through the air vent hose via an evaporation process that also cools the internal compressor unit. I assume this is the same type of process Sharp is referring to in its manual however the proof is in real life use. To anyone who has used the Sharp portable AC unit last season; Please report back and let us know if it removes condensate water via the vent hose in AC mode and DOES NOT require you to stop the unit to drain water on a regular basis or require an external water collection bucket. Thanks!

After getting bit with a 25% restocking fee from another retailer on the Soleus MAC12K, I decided to give the Sharp CV-P10LC Portable Air Condtioner from Costco a try. First off, the manual was pretty well written and detailed. The instructions were clear. It took a while to install the window venting kit because it was a bit more complex than the competition's. It was a marked improvement over the other venting kits that I've seen. There were foam insulation to plug the gaps from the window and fits almost perfectly. Also, you would have to remove the screen from your window for the installation. It was close to 100 degrees today and when the unit first turned on, I can feel that it was starting to cool the room. One key feature is the horizontal louvers can be set to automatically move up and down to distribute the air to cool the room. One press of a button and it can be set in the desired position, particularly useful if your bed is close to the ground as other units cannot adjust the vertical air flow but just sweeps the air side to side. Another plus is that it's not as noisy as the other models that I've tried (Sharp claims 36DB in low fan mode). You don't have to turn the volume up to watch tv. One thing that is missing is that the remote does not display the current room temperature. This item would get 5 stars if it were cheaper. But even at $489.99 it's well worth it.