Portable air conditioners

[Pickledonions12]

Morning everyone. I'm thinking of buying one of these. Does anyone have any advice and/or specific models they'd recommend?

Thanks 🥰

Can you link it @SwankyPants?

It was this one

amzn.eu/d/0eIDOKJl

I know its quite expensive compared to some but its worth ever penny

Ours came with a long hose a bit like the tumble drier ones. It clips to back of aircon unit and the hot air goes through. The other end goes into a board with a precut hole that fits in a sash-type window. Other kits are available for sealing round a hose - check b&q website. Ours is a 9000 BTU one from Toolstation. House 31 degrees, bedroom 20, lovely. Before I could be bothered to use the window kit, I had the exhaust hose draped down the stairs - God it was hot downstairs then!

you can use the board thing at the top or bottom of the window … also the manuals are on toolstation’s site so you can see the window kit then.

Our unit was working flat out upstairs yesterday.thank goodness we had it. Going to get another unit for downstairs later on this year ready for next summer.

If only there were some in stock anywhere in the world!

There's been some serious ripping off with the prices, units that cost only £200 last month are now going for £700 and even seen same for £1400...

Yeah I bought mine in the winter when prices were lower.

Absolutely! A unit which I was looking at - 7000 btu - was £299 four weeks ago. Its £649 today. Appliances Direct. Fucking rip off

yes...prices will drop again, i got an ex display toshiba unit for £140 a few years ago...prices havent gone up in spain as we need a new one for place over there.

Surely that’s tantamount to profiteering

that’s ‘supply and demand’ for you

Does anyone know what the key things to look for are?

Read the reviews first but also the Btu strength. 4000btu is low and is ok for very small rooms. 12000btu is much more powerful and is good for large rooms.

That’s exactly what happens with the portable ones. The hot air that’s pumped out of the room is replaced by air that comes into the room, because air pressure always equalises. You can’t just extract air. So the hot air pumped out sucks warmer air from outside into the room, because rooms are not sealed.

The split systems avoid this because the heat exchange bit is outside, so both hot and ambient air are outside.

This is exactly right. I've just googled. Therefore I'm assuming that portable aircons are highly inefficient @Tryingtokeepgoing

However if its all I can afford, I'll have to buy the inefficient portable machine!

Oh they’ll still cool the room quite well, assuming they’re appropriately sized. But they are not as efficient as a split system, and they are cheaper. So for occasional use the higher running cost is probably not that much of an issue

Inefficient or not, mine has got the room to 19 c when the rest of the house is 29’and outside is 33 so right now I’m fine with that @Pickledonions12

Yes mine made the bedroom cold that I needed the duvet over me

Sounds blissful 👍

We’ve had one for years. Husband bought it for my menopausal temperatures. It’s fabulous and it’s a lifesaver in hot weather. It’s not the quietist but it’s fine. Just shove the hose out of the window. Never had any issue with it pulling hot air in to the room. You do need to ensure that it’s big enough for the room you want to cool and they are bulky so you need to think about storage. Definitely going down as a best buy.

Yes that’s what we did this week out of desperation . Although technically you don’t feel the true benefit of the unit. They are designed to have a unit per room. Trying to cool the whole of the upstairs floor with one unit plonked on the landing won’t work that efficiently.

Yes lots of people do, the unit stays in one position close to an outside wall and you have a hole in the wall and the hose goes out through the hole which you can then shut off in wintertime to prevent drafts coming through. Similar to a catflap.

Thankyou, I would have 2 if I can ever get my hands on them! But space is unfortunately an issue.

Thank goodness there is a breeze today where I am.