Portable air conditioner question

[Happy-7-farm]

I'm thinking of buying an 8000 btu portable AC unit and wanted to know if anyone had any experience with one. Likes and dislikes. Is it really easy to move from room to room if the need arises.

Thanks, Happy

[VERN in IL]

Originally Posted by Happy-7-farm

I'm thinking of buying an 8000 btu portable AC unit and wanted to know if anyone had any experience with one. Likes and dislikes. Is it really easy to move from room to room if the need arises.

Thanks, Happy

I recommend the units that have TWO hoses, an exhaust and intake hose, they work better.

[Fair Light]

I didn't like mine...It was a pain to fit the exhaust hose to the other windows of different sizes..Of coarse I will admit I didn't have much wall space as the house was just 600 sq feet...and pretty full....the thing was always in the way..Also I didn't think it cooled like I thought it should...might be better for a single room..but then I would get a window unit...

[Limon]

I had one and thought it was a waste of money. The water condensed from the air collected in a tank; the unit shut down when the tank got full. That tank could fill up in a couple hours. No way to keep the house cool unless you were there to keep constantly emptying out the tank.

On top of that, it came with a window fitting for the hose to attach to. Trying to remove that fitting, adjust for another window, get it in there air-tight, etc was a real pain.

[Bandit]

I have never used a portable one , But .
I bought a like new 10,000 BTU Kenmore window unit at a pawn shop yesterday for $ 140 , and We are Very Pleased with it . ( Note- We didn't get the remote control with it , He had it last Sept. but couldn't find it . )
10,000 BTU Room Air Conditioner ENERGY STAR®- Kenmore-Appliances-Air Conditioners-Window Air Conditioners

Bandit

[Shrek]

For the price of one portable air conditioner you can buy three 5000 btu window units, have some money left over and both the portable or window model cool about the same area.

Portable take up floor space and have cords and hoses to trip over while window units , power connections, exhaust and condensate disposal are all out of the way .

5000 btu window units weigh only about 40 pounds, are more compact than portables , take up no floor space when in use and are easier to store during winter ( 3 window units can be stored in the space it takes to store a portable)

A portable takes more electricity to cool a 10 by 12 room than a 5000 window unit.

If you plant a few tomato plants where the window unit condensation drips, you dont have to worry about watering.

[blooba]

Everything above is true and good advice.

A window unit cools the air already inside and transfers the heat to the air that outside. So basically a sealed system.

Most portable units cool the air inside and transfers the heat to the already cooled air from inside and blows it outside. So yes an 8k btu unit cools the same area as a 5k window unit and runs longer to make up for the cooled air being blown outside.
A 8k portable unit costs $300
a 5k window unit is around $100

If you dont have a window accessible or whatever I have seen quite a few people cut a hole in the wall frame it out for an a/c. It is more secure that way also.

[CountryWannabe]

I have one and I hate it. It **IS** easy to move around. Having said that - as others have said it is very difficult to refit the exhaust into a new window. Mine not only fills the water tank up in a couple of hours - it also leaks water onto the floor even when it isn't full. The hose carrying hot exhaust air is not insulated so it radiates the heat back into the room.

I would never get another one.

Mary

[DryHeat]

Well, I'll present a more favorable vote, myself. We live in a desert SW area so have a two-part hot season... very dry May-June then more humid monsoon season into September. A central evaporative cooler ("swamp cooler") works OK, not great, but OK, while it's dry, as a central system. We use a portable unit for our bedroom if it's just running too hot for us generally as a "respite" room and for sleeping. Several years ago, I bought two 10K btu units advertised on Craigslist, Everstar brand, for $400 total. A year later, I spotted an identical one at a struggling thrift store, missing the venting hoses (but not needed, of course, for us) for $75 as backup #2. One of them died last year, circuit breaker cuts off after a couple minutes, and it really doesn't seem worth mucking with to fix unless maybe I wind up with another dead one to combine components from.

Anyway, I just now, like an hour ago, set a unit back up for the rest of the summer. It's been 100F+ here for about 40 days now and we're sick of it 85+ everywhere in the house, or more. Our windows are a sliding glass type that don't take window models easily and the most obvious location in the bedroom would stick out right into the bed area; IF we had a different window setup I'd've gone with a window unit for the reasons discussed above. The portable units are mostly less efficient (like, 8-10K btu to do a 5-6K btu window unit's job, roughly) because of the exhaust tubing running some distance to a window or vent hole heating the room's air along its distance. I try to limit that effect by wrapping the vent tube with old sleeping bags and blankets to insulate it so more of the heat goes out the window; I think that helps some. I've jury-rigged the exit vent at the window with duct tape and towel wrapping, too, since I never did get the "adjustable" plastic fitting to work very well and stay in place for long. I keep a 5-gal plastic bucket next to the unit so I can empty the smallish internal condensation container into it several times before running it out to the containerized veggies. During the monsoon humidity, I've estimated 10-12 quarts of condensed water a day gets accumulated.

IF you have a place for a window unit with a minimum of retrofitting needed, sure, one would be better. For a portable needed maybe three months out of the year, I'm satisfied with using one, especially having limited the initial startup costs without getting a lemon, apparently, on the used market.

[Happy-7-farm]

Thanks for all the input. I think youve changed my mind and I'll go with a window unit.

[Macybaby]

I really like mine.

Had three window units and this works much better, though we only bought it this spring. I can move it from the kitchen to the bedroom as needed, and it cools the room much better than the window unit.

I can leave the screens in, so don't have bugs sneaking past the window unit. And if it's going to rain hard, I can remove and shut the window. I remember way too many times having water come in around the window units.

DH made an adjustable wooden insert, the plastic one that came with it didn't fit well in our windows. This is much quieter than the window units. I could never sleep with the bedroom unit running. I put this unit right outside the bedroom door using the hall window, and it cools it down nicely without blowing right on me which the window unit did.

Over all, I'm way happier with this unit than with running the window units. The bad part is we had installed two windows specifically to house window AC units, so now we've got these two odd windows (one in the bedroom, one in the den).

We'll see how this unit works over the years, but it was nice not having to haul the AC units out of the shop to install them, and I sure won't miss having to take them back out before winter. Being SD, we don't need to use an AC all that often, and this fits the bill way better than disabling a few windows from June through October. BTW- the house came with a hole in the wall, what a mess! If you go that route, be very careful to build the opening correctly. There was a lot of wet and mold inside the wall, totally unseen from inside or outside.