Consumer Reports rates portable air conditioners very low. You're better off with a window unit, cheaper and more efficient.

I bought this unit last year from QVC. Ended up returning it. The plastic parts that they make look easy to assemble are poorly made, don't fit, and when you call customer service (Haier cust. service) they'll tell you things like put duct tape on it! IF you should take a chance, make sure you cut the box as instructed (mine you had to cut square along the bottom) or you won't be able to get it back in if (when) you sell it to some poor soul on ebay. My advice is to stay away. It's a great idea, and I'd love it if it worked.

If you use a fan and put a bag of ice in front of it you get the same results.

I bought a Sharp Whisper Quite version of these for $350 at Costco.com. It changed my life! Why because I had no idea my other air conditioners were so loud they were causing fights between my wife and I.

I think there is a reason these things are rated low by Consumer Reports. Really word to the wise sound level can drive you crazy.

But if you don't have the money, its better than being hot, lord knows.

I've owned this unit for a while now.

The plastic parts that come with it are garbage as many have said. Also, Due to the positioning of the intake and exhaust ports, putting the panel in a side to side sliding window is a nightmare.
I solved both problems with a trip to home depot and making my own panel out of a sheet of wood and some metal ducting. Cost me about 20 dollars.

So there is some jury rigging and DIY involved in most cases for this unit.

That said, This thing can get a good sized room down to chilling temperatures better than any other AC unit I've used.

Not a bad option for someone who doesn't want a box hanging out of their window.

They have electric sockets where I go camping! How would this cool down a tent in the heat of summer?

@girlbytes: By the engineering design of an air conditioner, it would depend on how well insulated the tent is. The goal for any air conditioner is to (for lack of a better expression) "take the heat" out of the air sucked into it, and blow the cold air towards you, and the warm air out a window, etc. For a tent, if you have bad insulation, the warm air outside will mix with the air conditioned tent pretty quickly. If the insulation isn't that bad, it might be feasible.

But, truth be told, I have no idea how to measure how well your tent is insulated, but nevertheless, I hope those who didn't now know how an air conditioner works :) - for the most part.

Got this the last time around. Made my own plate with the parts provided unit seems like it will be fine hasn't got cold enough to use it yet but I tested and seems to move a lot of cold air

I hope Haier makes better ACs than TVs. I just rescued six Haier LCD's which were being thrown out. Electrolytic capacitors go bad quickly if they are poor quality and are exposed to too much heat. Perhaps you're supposed to buy a Haier AC to cool the TV.

@girlbytes: The unit isn't designed to be exposed to the elements, so this probably would not be a good choice for cooling down a tent. OTOH, I've been tent camping and seen another camper take a small window A/C unit and place it on a couple of milk carton crates stacked behind his tent. Aim the cold air output at the open back window and instant cool.

I've been an appliance repairman for quite a while. I've known the Haier name and it has a very bad rep in the repair circles. Cheap parts and bad engineering. I would often go back to the same machine several times to repair the same things, at least till the customer gets tired of it and buys a better quality appliance. Stay away from Haier. They are just garbage.

Because of my work, I spent more than 2 weeks down at haier in Qingdao China working with the CFO, CIO, and other top dogs. I also spent hours at the factories. Haier is a BIG DOG in china. revenues above 120 billion (yikes). They are still, however, a chinese company. and with most things chinese, the quality just isn't there. the people working on the electronics were not working under the best conditions. the bathrooms were a nightmare (very...um... rustic), the air was hard to breath because of the factory pollution. basically, they have no standards that are legally enforced. I've been around the world and I have seen the conditions at other manufacturers in S. Korea and the US, and I have to say, that China is something else. If it is not a foreign company making things with foreign production standards, don't buy chinese. there is a reason why companies like samsung and apple make good products. they are not chinese.

I have one and it's OK. I've had the unit for two years and have used it frequently, it cools very effectively. Yes it did break and required a tech to come out and replace the compressor. The repair was under warranty and happened as painlessly as possible (considering it's always a pain to schedule a tech.) Keep in mind that portable air conditioner units are not very portable and need to be placed within a few feet of place to exhaust air (like a window or a hole in the wall). Portable AC units are much less efficient then window units; the portable units should only be used when they are the only choice because a window unit won't fit. Make sure you size the AC to fit your room, an over-sized will not properly reduce humidity or run efficiently.

I don't have experience with this model, but I owned a portable AC unit. It ruined my hardwood floors in my living room, because the moisture collected overflowed so many times. It fills up the drain pan in like half an hour. I ended up using it in a bedroom on a dresser where I could drain the water out the window with a hose. Plus, they still need a vent to the outside, so you have a big hose that has to run to the outside through a window.

@darkinc: "Windowless" is a misnomer. These type units STILL need a vent to the outside. The brand I bought had a dryer-vent-type hose about 8 feet long and the unit had to be within that range to work. Also, the moisture needs to drain, and if you can't run a hose somewhere you have to empty the drain pan often, and I mean OFTEN! My hardwood floors got ruined by the overflow before I realized how fast that thing filled up!

You're better off with a window unit unless you absolutely can't use one for some reason.

BEWARE!!!
If you run this in a room without exhausting the hot air outside, your temperature will rise! That's thermodynamics for you.

Once you install it with the window kit, its not exactly portable.

Cool!

I'm game, they're normally >$450. In for 1

I may have had this exact model, but I went through so many free-standing AC units it's hard to recall. What I learned from a lot of experimenting is this:

One pipe units are terrible. They suck the cooled air right out the window along with the hot exhaust.

Dual pipe units like this one (one to suck in outside air, the other to exhaust the hot--this isolates the cool side from the hot side) are better

Sound pollution is the biggest problem for me, as all of the motors are right there in your room with you.

ALL of these units will fill up with condensate and leak out inside your house if you live in a humid area and/or don't religiously empty the collection bin or plumb a drain for the unit (which then makes it a stationary unit).

They have their uses, but the above caveats have me looking into better solutions. Split-system units are high on the list, but central AC is probably the best way to go until someone develops a nice solid state room thermoregulator. ;-)

I'm confused about how this air conditioner/dehumidifier just magically makes water disappear. I'm familiar with a unit like this that's 10-12 years old and there's some serious water it takes out of the air and deposits into a drain pan. Giant, sloshing drain pans of water per day. There is no drain on this unit. Just the act of cooling air creates condensation and a dehumidifier, by definition, removes water from the air. Sooooooo, where does it go?

I'll buy that it somehow evaporates this moisture into the exhaust air in places where 50%-ish humidity is the norm. But the 90%+ that's common around here... there's bound to be a puddle or something soggy somewhere. Obviously, distributing the moisture into the cooled air output would re-humidify.

Not saying it's impossible, I just need a little more empirical data to believe it.

Woot - Would you please offer a unit with two hoses that both cools and heats (heat pump). Then you can use it both summer and winter.

I have one of these except in 10K BTU. It uses the power of a 12K BTU and outputs cold air like a 6K BTU. The output air is 22F cooler than the room air and uses 1000W/9.5A. I do have casement windows but a regular window air conditioner will fit so I replaced this one with 10K BTU Frigidaire. It uses 200W less power and the output air is 33F cooler than the room air.

I have had this unit now for 3 years. Its great to be able to store it in a closet in the winter and take it out when you need it in the summer. I use it to cool the back end of my house that was an add on. It works great and will chill you out. Like any ac unit no matter if it is a window unit or a portable unit you have to deal with the noise. The plastic may be cheap but how often to you rough house with your ac unit. Mine has not broken and is still running. You can’t go wrong for the money.

I didn't purchase a Haier for our systems room at work, but I can certainly vouch for this type of A/C unit. I have the exhaust going into my plant and yes, using duct tape. So nice and cool. The prior portable lasted 5 years. I have no window in the room so it was either do something like this (and make it look reasonably good) or get someone in and pay the big bucks to pipe central air into that room. Portable works for me.

I would have one at home save for those damn casement windows. Shoot!!

I have owned this same unit for almost 3 years now. I bought it from Costco for around $325 then, and we have used it non-stop for two summers. it keeps our downstairs (around 1,100 square feet) FRIGID. All of these negative comments make me think i must have got a winner out of a big batch of losers, or all of these people expect a "central-air experience" from a $300 portable unit.

It beats the hell out of any window unit i've owned in the past

It is a bit heavy and awkward to carry, but luckily that only needs to happen twice a year; once to put it in the house, and once again to put it back in the garage. Also, it has wheels! We roll ours around even with it attached to the window since the hoses flex.

I love this A/C unit, and recommend it all the time. If you're hot, get one.