Reviews of Whynter 14,000 BTU Dual Hose Portable Air Conditioner (ARC-14S)

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List Price: $599.99
Sale Price: $501.07
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I got this to supplement the window unit I've been using for years and ended up just completely replacing the window unit.

Very robotic design, it stands around 3ft tall and is in fact rather slim once you take it out of the packaging. Came with all the necessary accessories to get it running immediately. Hooking it up and putting the hot air vent where my window A/C used to be was extremely straightforward.

We usually power it up after my daughter returns from pre-school and set the temperature to around 74F. It usually shuts off at about 2am when the room and outside temps are nice and comfortable. The air is extremely cold around the unit and gets a good sized room down to a nice temp really fast. It seems very quiet during the day with all the other sounds and my daughter has slept like a baby ever since we got it. I does emit a low hum when it's cooling but otherwise the fan sound is not noticeable to me. You can turn it on high for a few minutes but after awhile, that's overkill. It does a great job on a low fan setting once the room is almost at the temp you want it at.

I really like the idea of not having to use central air like in our old apartment. I think over time the utility savings will easily cover the cost of the unit. The best part is I can bring it with us if we ever move.

It's worked excellently for a couple of weeks now and I may just end up getting another for our own room.

Whynter Eco Friendly 14000 BTU Dual Hose Portable Air Conditioner

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This has been a lifesaver during hot summer days. I agree with the negative reviews about it being noisy, but I have it in my bedroom and I got used to it after 2 nights. I sleep through it now. The LED is also very bright, but not so much that it keeps me awake. I took off a star because of the useless window mount. The hoses weren't long enough for it to reach my window, so I went to Home Depot to build a rig. Replacement hoses are EXPENSIVE, so I didn't buy them. The screws are very short and pop right out of the cheap plastic mount, so I'm using tape to hold them in place. I have since moved and now have casement windows, so I'm in the process of building a new mount in which I will screw the hoses directly into a piece of plexiglass which will sit in the window. I've read that this will work fine, so I'm not concerned about it. One of the negative reviews I read about this unit is that it failed to cool the space. It is designed to cool roughly 600 square feet (a small apartment) so it works fine for my place. I also use a fan to push the cool air into the other room. I like the look of the unit, as well as the fact that it can be a fan or a dehumidifier. I bought plastic tubing for the water collection tank, but it has yet to produce a single drop. The vent hose is doing its job.

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I built a bar in my garage that is ~ 600 sqft. Now understand, it has walls and insulation but the exterior is corrugated tin and gets very hot. I started my journey of research to find a unit to make it comfortable. I looked at all sorts of options and spoke to several AC installers. Typically speaking, AC's are rated by the BTU's (12K BTU per 400 sqft) and I knew that 14K was not enough to cool down 600 sqft . I thought I would try it anyway because of the ease. When the unit arrived I took it out of the box, connected a few things, and turned it on (yes it is that easy). Just remember...there are two hoses in the back of the unit (intake and output). The output hose must be ventilated and the input needs to be left disconnected from the window. The intake is what pulls the air from the room, the unit cools the air, the cold air is blown back into the room and the hot air it vented out. That is basically how a unit (any AC unit) works.

Contrary to my thoughts, it works great. It is not real loud (as some say it is). Even in July with 105° Texas heat and 98% humidity this unit will pull the temp down to a comfortable degree. It will take about an hour and a half but it is well worth it.

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UPDATE 7/2/2013

Ok this is the second summer I have had this unit and If you live in Los Angeles you know its been 95 to 105 degrees all week! Havent used this AC since last summer so this week we brought it out and hooked it up and it is still working flawlessly! No problems what so ever same sound level same cold output all the buttons still work and the hoses are still fine. So far for me this unit has been rock solid and I am still very happy with my purchase, if you intend on buying please read my original review below and spend a little time to hook it up correctly.

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I bought this AC after doing some research and the reviews here.

My unit arrived in great condition and after reading some reviewers say the hose attachment did not stay on with the screws provided I went to the hardware store and bough 8 bolts, nuts and lock washers as well as a plastic filler plate to fill the gap that the vent didnt cover. Total price $8.98.

I put everything together with the bolts I bought and threw away the screws that came with it, I can see how they would not be able to hold the hose connector properly they are just some short wood screws that go through connector to the window vent plate, not a very secure way to hold it on but oh well.

I turned the unit on immediately very cold air poured out now it wasnt very hot in the room maybe 75 but you could feel the difference it made. I will give a better review on its full performance after the summer which I feel will be a good test the room I have it in has direct sunlight all day and is the hottest room in the house.

The unit looks well made and is very solid the noise level is not that bad my portable unit is more quite than my window unit that has only 12,000 btu's.

So far I am happy but I will update this as the summer goes into full heat mode.

Do your self a favor and take the vent plate and one of the hose connectors to a hardware store and get the bolts this will save alot of cussing later on. I truly believe those wood screws will not last too long if there is any amount of pressure placed on the plate from the vent hoses.

Oh and one other thing the vents, I am not to sure why they are designed to go just straight up? I am going to make a hood to redirect the air a little more forward but I will try it the way it was designed and report back.

Dean

UPDATE 6/25/2012

Ok so we have neen through a few 90 degree days here and I have to say that there are a few things I have learned about AC efficiency. first insulation is a must a room the is not well insulated will not cool as well as a room that is!

My AC unit is in a room with a sliding glass door that gets full sunlught all day long so it gets pretty hot with the AC running full blast it got cool but not COLD, i mean it was comfortable but i felt it was at the limit of what it could do.

What I did was buy some solar shade screens and placed them in front of the sliding doors not the whole door just the upper half. The AC unit now does an a amazing job of cooling the room! The heat coming in from the window was canceling out the cooling from the AC so it never had a chance to do its thing. it got so cold in there on a 80 degree day I found my kids watching TV with blankets covering them!

So my final thoughts on this purchase are, you must assess the room and the environmental that this AC will be used in and use some common sense if there is a heat source in the room that will cause it to heat up the AC will only go so far to keep the temps down if you can help the unit by minimizing any direct heat to the room the AC will perform at its best.

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When you are buying something this expensive and this heavy, packaging is a big worry.

The product arrived in great shape--as some have said previously, it was packaged in two boxes, so even if the exterior boxed appears a bit beat up, the interior box is in perfect shape. The exterior box was double thickness and the interior box was single thickness. The corners were protected by separate corner laminated cardboard pieces that ran the full length of the box. VERY impressed with the packaging.

We have yet to place the A/C unit in its final resting place, but I suspect everything will meet or exceed our expectations. If not, I will update this review.

A comment on the terrible reviews of this product, most of which claim it not only does not cool, but actually increases the temperature of the room(s) in which it is located: If you do not attach both air ducts to outside air, of course it will heat up the room--it is simply pumping heated air that is supposed to go outside into the room into the interior room. This is a simple problem of thermodynamics: FOR THE UNIT TO WORK, YOU MUST ATTACH BOTH DUCTS TO OUTSIDE AIR WHEN USING IT IN A/C MODE.