The GF has a family friend staying in an un-airconed room and wants to get her a portable unit to use.
Any suggested units up to about $600
Thanks
Is There An Ozb'er Go-To For Portable Aircons ?
scottb721 on 25/01/2021 - 12:00
Comments
Just let your friend shack up in your air-conditioned room on the hot nights.
Portables are crap. Probably better off with DC pedestal fan and a spray bottle.
Or a bucket of ice in front of a fan.
Bought one a couple of years back, it's now sitting abandoned in the corner of my shed, a POS.
Noisy, costs a fortune to run, and only good for small rooms.
Looked into getting one of these for my office while working frm home, but then saw you still had to mount an exhaust at the window for it - Might as well just get a regular air con.
You can 'cheat' and leave the room door slightly ajar, stick the exhaust out the door.
Means some cold air will escape through the gap and the immediate vicinity of the door is warmer for the exhaust heat.
there is a reason so many ~$400 units are listed on marketplace for $100-$150 a year or two later…
get a 2nd handie.. run it for a few weeks, then resell it…
IF you have ducted heating in your house and have a portable aircon unit…a little hack I've done a few times.
1) Open up a ground vent.
2) Put some cloth/old clothes into the opening of the ducted vent to prevent unwanted entry by your cat.
3) Push out the vent. Unscrew/De-nail if required.
3.1) If it's a long drop, attach wire or rope to pull it up later. Or climb under the house.
4) Connect your exhaust to the ground vent.
5) En-bloody-joy.
insulate the exhaust hose will help a bit as well. I use big bubble wraps to wrap around the hose.
I would say no.
I had one when I was in a rental with no AC. I bought it 2nd hand and also eventually on sold it. All the bits mentioned are true that they are loud, low cooling capacity, and require venting the warm air out the window. I have no actual data on how much it cost to run. However, I can certainly say that during the hot nights back then, they were enough to ease the temps and make it comfortable enough to sleep. And the venting bits worked reasonably well with the window I had.
If I had the pressing need to cool a room now and couldn't install a split type, I would probably consider going this route again - only if I couldn't use a plain window type AC which would fix most of the issues with a portable.
Polocool units are pretty good imho.
I'm with landril. Polocool by Nobocool are probably the best ones I have used, with the PC-58AP/C rated the highest BTU, and I think the 53 is slightly less cooling capacity…
As with all portable AC's, they are all noisy and unfortunately because they extract very outside, negative air pressure brings in hot air from outside, and other rooms get hotter as a result.
I was looking at air conditioners last night as well. The cheapest one from a reputable store is click branded from Bunnings for $299 can’t say anything about quality or reliability though. Otherwise Kogan’s smarthome one has more capacity and is smart but need to wait until it’s on sale.
Window boxes are better in almost all ways but don’t look nice from the outside.
Dual hose portables are more efficient as less (hot) air will seep in from the outside but there are none that I could see available in Australia due to energy related legislation restrictions but that was rectified in March 2019 and there are none yet available and might take some time for them to get here.
Bought a Bunnings Click a couple of weeks ago. It was faulty out of the box.
Was it the noise?
It had an error on the display and wouldn't turn on. I'd probably risk it again if I lived closer to a Bunnings … but I bought a polo instead and it just works even it is relatively loud.
A while ago Choice recommended Delonghi units. I had one, it was kinda decent, but yeah loud!
Honestly if you can fit an older style window box air conditioner in the window it would do a hell of a lot more than the one you are thinking of getting.
https://www.thegoodguys.com.au/dimplex-c26kw-h24kw-reverse-w…
I use the Olimpia Splendid Piu Eco 12 in a bedroom. I would guess it's about 60% as effective as proper air con split system. Main thing is taking away Sydney humidity. I am a medium sleeper and I can sleep with it on.
I had one previously.
I would recommend against getting one of these.
It is loud.
The cooling capacity is low.
You will have to vent the hot air outside which means you have to have the window partially open and block the opening the vent is not taking up.