Recommendations for portable air conditioners?

[Elaine]

I was noticing on Amazon.com that the portable air conditioners (that can be wheeled from room to room) have gone down in price. Consumer Reports reviewed them years ago and said they weren't energy efficient. The new units my Danby, Mobile Air and others are combo a/c, humidifiers, and heaters.

Anyone have experience recently and are there any recommendations. My apartment has the under window sleeve for air conditioners and I do have two, but one is as old as the hills and fails to work most of the time. A replacement would involve getting someone in to install it, and re-plaster the wall around the sleeve. I could also use the portable heater in the portable unit.

[SQLit]

The only issue I have with the portable A/C's and coolers is they need to be set up in a certain method so that they work. If you set up this a/co in a bedroom and you have cold air coming out of it. WHERE is the hot air going? Back into your house. Unless you have them vented your playing a squirrel game and only helping the utility. Bite the bullet and get the through the wall one fixed or replaced.

I used a portable for a job on the 4th of July in Phoenix. The unit was out side the room we were working on. I placed plastic over all the doors and then ran the supply hoses into the room. The hoses were hung from the light fixtures blowing down on us. 40K btu held the room at 89 degrees, it was 115 outside. There was a steam header in the room as well.

[Joseph Meehan]

I believe Elaine is talking about a system that either split or ducts air from the outside to past the condenser coils and then ducts it back out.

[Curmudgeon]

The ones I see at Home Depot (Maytag) vent hot air out the window via a flex duct like a dryer. Unit comes with expandable panel to put in double hung window with duct connection in the panel. The system recirculates room air for cooling.

[David Efflandt]

I have had one of those Maytag portable units since early last summer for my upstairs. It is A/C if vented out a window (or dehumidifier if not). The condensate is used to cool the condenser, so all summer it only accumulated a couple ounces of water in its tank (rest went out vent as vapor). That works for me until I have a chance to replace a Whirlpool window shaker that is glued into the wall above a modified window and does NOT have a slide out chassis.

My main floor has a Friedrich through-the-wall that is still going strong after over 30 yrs (which I estimated from its appearance to be from the

70's, but from its serial number might be from 1967).

[Elaine]

"SQLit" opened in news:4Y6pc.4146$Yg.1045@fed1read05:

if you take a look at the diagram here, it seems to move the hot air through a vent in a window adapter:

[Elaine]

How energy efficient is the Maytag portable and does it keep the room cool?

That old Friedrich you have must be VERY energy inefficient! Do you ever have anyone come in to fill it up with Freon?

David Efflandt opened in news:808pc.3717$ [e-mail]: