WhynterPortable Air Conditioner 14,000 BTU with Dual Hose Dehumidifier & Cooling Fan for 500 Sq Ft Rooms, Includes AC Unit Window Kit, ARC-14S (9,500 SACC)

First of all this air conditioner changed our lives!When I first was in the market for a portable air conditioner I was very careful to research, research, and research. Yes I was slightly uneasy about ordering an air conditioner online, but called Amazon directly and asked about my options if after I purchased it and it didn't work well for us about the return policy's. Amazon ensured that if it didn't work out then I would be able to return it in its original packaging and because of its size they would have a shipping company come pick it up which I thought for a return they would try to make it as hard as possible to return. So Amazon is a win win in my eyes. My only issue was that this is listed as a Prime eligible product and with my limited Prime knowledge I assumed I would receive it in 2 days which I didn't. I took about 5 so that was a little disappointing. I am very glad I purchased this earlier than the summer or we would have been in trouble just in waiting in a hot house on this thing.Back to the unit…So set up was easy. I allowed for it to sit in an upright position overnight only because I was unsure how the shipping company handled it and wanted to be sure I did everything in my power to continue its longevity. (This is also listed in the directions) The hose connections were easy enough and because I have a taller horizontal sliding window I had an opening that I had to fill with particle board which wasn’t too hard to do. After I set it up I plugged it in and let it sit. The set up pamphlet does recommend buying a special filter to put into one of the hoses which honestly I haven’t done because I haven’t made an honest attempt to find them which I am sure you could at a Home Depot or Lowes. From what I have heard you can also buy insulation tape to cover the hose that produces a lot of heat, but this hasn’t been a problem for us.The Cooling…The cooling is pretty amazing. After reading several reviews I second guessed my decision about purchasing it because it seems like people have great success or great failure. However on our end this AC has cooled our lower level 2 story house amazingly!! Our house is less than 15 years old so it is insulated pretty good, but because our house is North facing we get most of our heat in the back of our house. This cooler sits in the front and cools a vaulted ceiling living room, kitchen and small dinning, hallway, and half way cools the master bedroom on the same floor. All of this area is about 1200 sqft give or take. I originally purchased this to cool the living room, kitchen, and dinning room, which is all open floor plan about 420-450 swft btw, but it cooled even more than I expected. To keep track of the temperature I tried looking on my thermostat for my Heater and it was almost always higher than what it really was I am guessing because it wasn’t cooler in other places in my house. It even kept us cool in 100+ degree weather. It was about 109 outside and the cooler kept it about low to mid 70 in the living, dining, and kitchen. As a side note we purchased a Frigidaire 5,000 BTU 115V Window-Mounted Mini-Compact Air Conditioner that cools a room upstairs and we usually leave the door open just in case it will help with the over all vaulted ceiling space. The Frigidaire is rated for a small room of 250 sqft so I don’t think it is helping too much with the living space, but so you have the full facts to make an informed decision I just wanted to add that in there. This unit is also great and I plan on writing a separate review for this one. However the sum up on the cooling factor for the Whynter is awesome!! We have owned it since the end of May so I can’t speak for its longevity so only time will tell. It is totally worth purchasing for sure!Con’sHonestly these con’s don’t really matter to me because the AC works so well, but I will add them in case they matter to you. As for the noise, yes it is loud. My house usually isn’t pitch quite so it doesn’t really bother me, but if you think about it there is an AC in your house! Central air conditioners are put outside for a reason. THEY ARE LOUD! So to me this doesn’t really stop me from using it. My dish washer is very loud, but you don’t see me scrubbing dishes by hand so I don’t have to hear the noise. Same goes with any other loud appliance in my house. Maybe if it was loud and didn’t cool my house I’d have a problem.The vent on the AC is nothing to be impressed with. I have read that the vent shoots the air straight up. I don’t seem to have that problem. Yes there aren’t very many ways you can control where the air goes, but you can direct it up and down. If you don’t want it shooting straight up you can move it down a notch and it isn’t. Not sure if people thought this would prevent max air flow, but we don’t seem to have a problem.Now the remote is another problem. I have read that if you use the remote you have to keep using the remote because if you switch to the buttons on the unit the remote doesn’t know what the unit knows. This is very true and annoying. However because of where I have the unit positioned behind my couch the remote can’t find the signal to the unit because it is blocked so we pretty much don’t use the remote. Again, not an issue for me because the unit works so well and the only reason I have to push a button is to turn the unit on or off. Not an issue.As for draining due to the dehumidifier. We live in a dry state with low humidity so this hasn’t been a problem. No sure how I would drain it if I needed to, but I have found plenty of YouTube videos on this unit so I am not concerned about it at this point.Portability. Now this is a portable unit per say, but it isn’t really practical to roll around the house for us. I initially thought we could use it for our open floor plan area by day and in our master by night, but to move this, then refit for a different sized window and then do it all over again and again every morning and night it would be a pain in the butt. However if we leave our master bed room door open it cools down enough to be comfortable instead of otherwise sweating as we did before. This AC really did above and beyond what I expected!Now would I recommend this to others?? Heck yes!! It does a great job cooling and we turn it on early in the day so that it keeps the house cool and we don’t have to worry about being uncomfortable. I am able to cook and this AC still can keep the house cooler and us comfortable. We are able to cook/bake for short amounts of time and still be comfortable in 90+ degree weather, but in the 100+ degree weather we found cooking is not an option if we want to stay comfortable and not sweat. We also have blackout curtains and blinds that help to insulate the heat which makes a huge difference so for those that this AC is not working for I would question placement of the unit as well as how insulated your house is not just in between the walls but for window coverings too. We found that using brown colored vertical blinds blocks out the heat way better than the white ones did. I also suggest another unit portable or window-mounted unit to help work together with this unit. If you want a cooler house and don’t want to foot out the bill for central air you should think about other ways to keep it cool because even 2 of these units would be cheaper than central air for us! Hopefully you find your solution because this was it along with the Frigidaire 5,000 BTU 115V Window-Mounted Mini-Compact Air Conditioner for us!!! Good luck and sorry for the unorganized review!

My 39 year old central air chose July in north Texas to give up the ghost. It's hot in Texas! I needed something NOW! This unit arrived slower than I would have liked, but good things are worth the wait.First thing: at 73 pounds, this thing is HEAVY. I'm a smart, fairly strong 60 year old lady, so a heavy duty wagon and those handy dandy plastic straps on the box helped me get it up and down a few steps, and inside my toasty warm house. With all the packing material and accessories, that BIG box weighed close to 100 pounds! The box was about the size of a medium sized stand up freezer.Unboxing was stunningly easy. The unit and accessories were packed vary well in a double box. Cut the plastic binding straps, and the top box lifted neatly off the inner box. The inner box lifted up off the accessories box and the Styrofoam protection for the unit. The actual air conditioner was covered with Styrofoam on top, and double padded in the box bottom. Box corners were reinforced with heavy duty corner pieces. Getting the unit out of the box was astonishingly easy. I really never had to lift the whole thing once I had gotten it to my kitchen for unboxing. Very well conceived and executed shipping containment. Everything arrived undamaged.Assembly: In theory, it is easy. The video on Amazon made it look like a breeze. In practice; not so much. The window adapter came with 3 identical sized pieces. Apparently this thing is intended to fit an enormous window. Mine are just average size. I couldn't use anything except the one piece with the two pre cut holes for the hoses. I'll have to take one of the extra pieces to a home improvement store and get some kind person to cut it in thirds. In the mean time, I used the cardboard box flaps from the accessories box to fill in the gaps.The two hoses that came with the unit are HEAVY DUTY plastic. These things are probably indestructible! Attaching the connector pieces for the hoses to the unit and the window panel was straightforward. The tabs on them line up and click into place with minimal effort. Attaching the hoses to the connectors, well now..... let's just say they are held into the connectors with a wish and a prayer. Inside the connectors, there are what look to be raised plastic threads. You'd think a simple press and twist, and viola, held in place. You'd be wrong! Any attempt at making these hefty hoses "click", screw, or even stay in place is folly. I wrestled with them for quite a long, very sweaty, while to no avail. I finally got them stuck in place. They are currently held in place with desperate hopes and dreams, soon to be duct tape.After futzing with the hoses for WAY too long, I finally had a tenuous connection achieved. Not daring to move anything, I gently turned on the unit, and yes, raised the vent to the open position (in that order). Oh the glory! This air conditioner is a HOSS! I set the temperature to 70°, fan on high. The compressor kicked in and instantly I am in LOVE! This baby has been pumping out a magnificently strong stream of frigid air non-stop since then. I've been enjoying it continuously for 8 days.My home was built in 1900, so sturdy thick walls with wood floors. It has all new double pained windows. All the rooms interconnect, as houses from those days did, before air-conditioning was even a dream. Every room has windows. Around 1450 square feet with 10 foot ceilings throughout. This one unit cools my southwestern corner bedroom thoroughly. I use a couple of tower fans to move the air out into the house and it manages to cool about half the house to around 74° at night. It's been around 100° every day this past week. I am impressed!The unit face, just below and anterior to the vent, gets cold enough, so I notice a light film of condensation developing atop it after about 8 hours. Otherwise, everything seems dry. I had read that condensation can sometimes be an issue with the unit. So far, I haven't noticed anything more than the superficial film of moisture.The control panel is intuitive and easy to use. The unit comes with a remote which I will likely never use. I suppose a remote is a nice feature but why? The controls on the AC are easy to access and work great. This unit also comes with a nice cover for storage when the AC is not in use. The cover has a pocket on it for storing the instructions and window adapter. The window adapter also comes with 2 round covers to snap into the outlet holes should one wish to leave the adapter in place when the unit is not in use. Thoughtful, though redundant.The AC is relatively quiet on high. It is a steady stream of sound blocking white noise. Because I only have the one unit working like a Trojan, I honestly can't tell you what it sounds like when the compressor kicks on and off regulating temperature. I am impressed enough with this unit to have ordered a second one. I'll update my review as time passes.

I have about a 650 sq ft duplex and whoever split the house into the duplex messed up the hvac so my central air does not do well. It's moderately cold but doesn't blow hard so in the dead of summer when it's in the upper 90s and 100 degrees, it gets to 80, leaving my a/c to just run non stop. I used a window unit the last 2 summers and it didn't cut it.This year I decided to buy this and it's been amazing! It doesn't cool off my bedroom or the back half but does a great job cooling my living room and kitchen (prob about 400ish sq ft). It's currently 100 degrees outside, my central a/c is turned off to save on electricity, and this unit is set to 73. My indoor thermostat says it's 74 in here and it feels so much more comfortable.Sound wise - comparable to a window unit, just slightly louder than my central a/c.It is heavy but has wheels on it so moves easily in my house. Install was fairly easy. The only issue I had was I had to cut the plastic to fit my window and I didn't have the tool for it but I figured it out.It is hard to empty the water reservoir. There's a hole in the back to empty but no bowl fits under the hole well enough to empty it into. My partner got a plastic tube to fit around it. He didn't get any water out of it when he tried to empty it. I haven't emptied it in probably 6wks. You have to tip it a bit to get the water out.It's a bit of an eye sore but I don't care, I'd rather that then die in an 80 degree house all summer.