Are there portable ac units available immediately anywhere?

[DreadedInn]

Hi, my 93 year old MIL has been struggling with the heat in her flat. I have been looking for a cheap (around £150-200) portable ac unit my husband could take there and set up this week.
Obviously they are mainly out of stock but I am wondering if anyone has found a “secret stash” perhaps in a shop I wouldn’t normally think of?
Thanks

If you can't get hold of an Aircon unit, a decent dehumidifier can also help. A big part of what makes the heat so uncomfortable is the humidity so removing the moisture from the air can help. If you can get one of those units that cool an area down by spraying cold water into the air (I think they're called swamp coolers?) then that combined with a dehumidifier could help

Facebook marketplace. Quite a few on there in your pricerange. Just make sure you see it working before you hand over any money

The cheap ones don't work. 900 btu minimum else it's just a waste of time. You'll need a tasker or two to lift it if she's up any stairs. They weigh min 20kg and are bulky. And you have to wait 24 hours to start using it.

But yeah they're hard to come by right now. Lidls did a 'national launch' where there was less than three units per store?! Hundreds queued for hours for nothing.

We managed to get one for 399 a week or so ago. But that same unit was on at 700 a day later. Then sold out.

I hope you find something soon. X

Has she got a balcony? I have just bought a rectangle parasol from Amazon that clamps onto the railings of my balcony. They also sell awnings that you can clamp in place on the balcony.

I’m pretty sure you can rent one from HSS

Try tool station I got one from there in 2 days

Hi Argos has a 6.6 litre air cooler that I just ordered hope it helps

Pretty sure I saw some in Lidl last week, obviously might not be there now.

Can she try to keep fan in one place ie her bedroom. I just set up camp in mine and it was bearable .

I got one of these from lidl the other day. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it works. Only £15 so could get a few?

www.lidl.co.uk/p/tronic-portable-air-cooler/p10050884

We bought this a few years ago, looks like it’s £400. It’s very effective AEG 9000 BTU

A chap in front of us in home bargains brought one for £199, no idea if any good or not.

DH needed one for a specific purpose next week. Except he went to sort in the middle of the heatwave and found the delivery dates are all months away.

He found one for rental but is paying through the nose for it.

My point being if you are desperate, that's probably your way to go. You can hire ahead of time for certain dates in the future.

In your circumstances, that's what I'd do. And then look around for a unit to buy long term.

12000 btu is far to much for an average size room

Where do you live OP? I've got two portable a/c units that I haven't got around to putting on eBay. £100 ish each.

You could try ebay.

Can't help with air con

But we have found the picnic ice packs useful to hold and cool use then back in the freezer. We also froze a hot water bottle to take to bed and it cooled us all night just don't ever use it for hot water again.

Hi. I saw one of those daewoo cooler fans in b&m bargains yesterday: admittedly I’m Scotland so not as impacted by severe heat up here

We bought an Amazon Garvee one this year, it’s fine for a room and did bring the temp down upstairs despite it being a big area. However the hose and sealing the window is a faff and I’d be worried about that with an elderly relative, the hose can get a little warm.

We had this one…

https://www.amazon.co.uk/9000-BTU-Portable-Air-Conditioner/dp/B0GQFFML9M

My room doesn’t have the air con unit and I find two fans at different ends of the rooms helps, nothing really helps in 35+ but I’d rather moving air than stagnant air.

My DM has also been looking with no luck, not helped by our general preferred option having discontinued their product range and imminently launching a new one but general supply will take time.

Much like when cold, heating the person rather than the room is most effective, using ice packs/frozen bottles of water and having them in your lap or close to your body (but not directly on skin) is also pretty effective at cooling the person.

A fan blowing onto a bowl of iced defrosting water is quite effective.

My sister just bought one for her tiny house. It's the ones that you put water and blue ice blocks from the freezer in each day. She had one just like it when she lived in Spain and her central a/c broke. She says it works really well.
She found it on an Ebay store, they had them on Amazon too.

Don't agree with this, we have 2 - one is 7000 Btu and one is 10,000. We put the higher one in our bedroom and smaller one in kids bedroom and the smaller one reduced the temp from 31 to 22 within a few hours, whereas the bigger one took a lot longer. I'm assuming its partly because of the bedroom location, but we couldn't believe how effective it was/is.

Edited to add that rooms are a very similar size and not small, about 5x4m.

Fair enough, that's good to hear. I've heard people saying they break easily and stuff. But yeah there must be some decent ones that were reasonable priced somewhere. You'd be lucky to find one right now though sadly!

If you do get one OP they are a bit of a faff to set up. You need windows and doors closed apart from the one you are using for the vent pipe.