The Definitive Guide

best-portable-air-conditioner-whynterJust like anybody else, you’re probably tired of reading through promotional articles everywhere trying to get your attention to buy a specific portable air conditioner, described as the one and only best available product on the market that can satisfy each of your requirements.

Yeah, right. As if you’re not aware that every single product claims to be the best.

Should you trust them?

Because they had someone make awesome testimonials about their products?

Or should you rather reconsider and simply follow a different approach in identifying which portable air conditioner should deserve your interest?

It’s been really a frustration for me to perform a lot of searching on the best product just to end up unhappy. After so long number of disappointments, I really got to a point where I was tired of these advertisements that doesn’t deliver what’s promised. The good thing though, I realized that all these so-called persuasions won’t always be true. Therefore, I arrived to a conclusion that one portable air conditioner may be excellent to me but terrible to a friend. This means that as a buyer, you should get adequate information on more than a single product before making a decision. This has been the most essential lesson for me in finding out which truly is the best portable air conditioner.

How to install PACs?

Does it need draining of water?

Does it vent hot air?

What are the electrical requirements?

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How To Find The Best Portable Air Conditioner

I’m not saying that you have to consume all of my evaluations on the 10 portable air conditioner units. Although, you can use the following criteria, for which I based my reviews, in creating your very own list of best product options.

Below are some of the most essential factors you may want to look into when conducting your search.

  • Price
  • Portability
  • Durability
  • Dimensions/ sizes
  • Weight
  • Warranty
  • Cooling Capacity

For myself, the most important aspects are price, portability, cooling capacity and customer satisfaction rate.

1. In terms of product costs, people do likely settle with whatever cheap portable air conditioner they can set their eyes upon without considering any further analysis. With a friendly intent would I like to tell you that this should not be the case. A lot of portable air conditioners available has actually a real value close to 0.

A higher-priced model usually has a higher quality motor, which operates quieter and able to stand longer periods of use. Personally, I won’t settle for something that is too expensive or too cheap when buying an air conditioner unit.

2. When it comes to the level of portability it offers in order to be considered as one of the best air conditioners, you have to be really careful. This is something that will turn out to be a very important factor in the long run.

Many of the models may be considered portable if it doesn’t require any wall installation. There exists a problem however where some of them are just too heavy and cumbersome to move from one place to another. It would be better to get those with wheels and built-in handles.

There are also those that are designed as a lightweight air conditioner units that can be mounted in a window. Personally, I will choose a unit that can simply fit in a variety of spaces, and can be move and lifted with ease.

3. Since your main purpose is to have portable air conditioning, the cooling capacity is another important aspect to check out. One function of portable air conditioners is to vent out hot air away from the room where the unit is typically placed within a few feet of a vent or window – venting system.

High-end portable room air conditioner usually use 2-hose system where the compressor is vented separately to achieve a more cooling effect. The room temperature can tell how well a small air conditioner works. Expect that the efficiency of the unit is affected by several scenarios like a room with extremely high temperature or high humidity levels.

Room size will be another consideration. Personally, I’ll have to measure my room size and compute with regards to BTU measurements in order to find the unit that fits my needs. BTU (British Thermal Unit) measures the heating or cooling capacity of a portable air conditioner and heater.

The bigger the room size, the higher BTU will be necessary. For an average of 325 sq. ft. room, you’ll need an air conditioner unit that has a cooling power of 10,000 BTUs.

How to compute: You can use a figure of 20-30 BTUs per square foot. Note that this doesn’t take into account the insulation, climate, or way of living you have.

Example:

For a 1000 sq. ft. room area

1000 X 20 BTUs = 20000 BTUs               or

1000 X 30 BTUs = 30000 BTUs

Result: You’ll be needing 20000-30000 BTUs for a room area of 1000 sq. ft.

 

4. The customer satisfaction rate should also be another concern. This has always been an important factor when considering any purchase of products like what we’re doing now, looking for the best portable air conditioner.

Amazon reviews will be a very helpful resource to look into – made by real people, real customers – in order to gain a better understanding of the units. This will be very valuable to your decision making. Looking into what others have to say about their experience on the unit is something you shouldn’t miss.

The star rating is important but won’t tell you everything. As you perform your customer satisfaction analysis, also consider reading some of the reviews and experiences left by others.

It’s a good thing to make decisions based on 5-star reviews but keep in mind that 5 stars doesn’t necessarily indicate that it’s the perfect unit. A good example – if you’re only looking at ratings, Frigidaire would seem to be the best option. But will it particularly fit your needs like how it was able to fit others?

Limiting yourself to reliance on ratings only is not the best approach. But certainly is one of the best when combined with the other criteria. If you look at the exact numbers of ratings and reviews, one product may have a 100% 5-star rating, but upon looking closer, you’ll find out that it came from a few number of customers.

On the other hand, another product may only have a 4-star rating but from hundreds of customers. In this view, it may make you feel that the 5-star rated product is the best but is not actually necessarily true for it has only a handful of reviews.

That being said, which product do you think is the best option? The 5-star rated product or the 4-star rated product? Personally, I’m much more confident with the unit with a larger number of good ratings.

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