Question:
The local Price Club sells a portable air condition for
CAN$800 (~US$600). It is rated at 7200 BTU and can be
used as a de-humidifier or a regular fan. It has a
exhaust duct to be connected to a window and a water
container for condensation.
I am interested in getting one since we don't use it
that often and we don't like the look of an air conditioner
permanently attached to a window.
Does anyone have real experiences with these units? So
far I haven't seen anyone from this thread that actually
bought a portable air conditioner
Answer:
We bought the one that they sale in the Damark catalog for $900.
Our one-bedroom condo only has a through-wall air conditioner
that has a bit of trouble reaching the bedroom when it gets
fairly hot.
Unfortunately, I wasn't impressed with the unit, and ultimately
returned it. It was incredibly loud when the compressor was going
(which was all the time, since the Damark unit doesn't have a
thermostat), and thus wasn't really a workable solution at night.
That said, it did cool the room fairly well (the room being about
9 x 13 or so). It had a rather large plastic jug to hold the
condensed water. If you kept the unit running all night long, the
jug was about 1/2 full in the morning, which wasn't really quite
too much of a chore to keep emptying.
It also had a standard-sized duct to exhaust the hot air. Because
we were just interested in cooling the room, and stuck the duct
to exhaust into the hallway, and closed the door the best we could.
This worked fairly well. The heat coming out of the duct was
pretty amazing. Kind of like a space heater!
