Guess I'll go in order of what was important to me when buying my first portable A/C unit.
Cooling: My residence has two large picture windows facing east and I'm on the top floor of the building. It gets blazing hot about 30 days a year here in San Francisco, so my place gets like an oven. So good cooling was critical. (If you are curious, without A/C on the hot days it would get a stifling 80 to 85 degrees in my rooms! Alas, that's the price I pay for having an otherwise full water view of the San Francisco bay, Bay Bridge and east bay foothills. The 15' x 10' windows provide a great view, but they act like magnifying glasses (even with blinds that block the heat, and a fully insulated ceiling). The only benefit of the heat in my place, as the old saying goes, "it is a dry heat." I am thankful for that because I HATE humidity.
I have always used window A/C units, about 5000 to 8000 BTU each, one in the living room, one in the bedroom. (My latest units were small 7000 BTU Panasonics. They work great and I simply figured it was time to replace them, being that they are about 2004 units.) Wanting to update I decided to get a portable unit, first for the bedroom, to see how it would perform.
This Haier unit gets the bedroom ice cold and if I leave the BR door open it cools the next room somewhat. How cool is that? Very. (Note: the BR is about 200 SF.)
Dependability: My Haier unit has been left on 24 hours, without incident. And I have had it for 18 months. I last used it about 8 months ago. When it got hot here a couple days ago I plugged it in, it fired right up and again ran 18 hours without incident. I was the coolest cat in town, literally and figuratively.
Set It and Forget It: I like the controls. I set it to the desired temp, the thermostat works perfect, cycling the cooling on and off according to the temp setting.
Features: While mainly concerned about cooling performance, I did want a unit with a remote, temp settings, thermostat (rather than a high, med, low switch), digital display, and fan speeds. This Haier comes with all these features.
Noise: While I did not want a unit that was super noisy, noise emission was not a critical factor. But I was pleasantly surprised that this Haier unit can operate quiet. Yeah, when the fan is set to full blast it is noisy, but hey, it is an A/C unit. If it is making lots of noise, that's because you are running it full blast. As an indication of noise level, if I have it running full blast and I'm in the next room, I don't notice it. I have to walk into the BR to see if it is on.
Keep in mind, however, an added benefit of the noise is that it acts as a white noise machine. You get used to the sound and it pleasantly drowns out City noise, which here in San Francisco there's a lot of. So when you set it on at night, it is like taking an Ambien. It lulls you to sleep. (It is kind of the same effect as falling asleep when on a jet, or on a train. The noise emissions of those travel modes can put you to sleep, so much so that my noise making machine has "train mode" where it sounds like you are in a train sleeping car., with the hum of the engines and clacking of the wheels on the rails.)
Value: I bought my unit on sale for about $270. What a great deal. I wish I had bought two of these units. Oh well, but I will buy another Haier unit because the Company has proven itself.
Portability: The unit is on wheels and actually quite easy to move around. While the footprint is somewhat large, hey, it is an air conditioner not a stereo. I was not expecting this to be the size of a microwave. In any event, it does roll around with little effort, although once you have this placed where you want (and where the tubing can vent hot air outside through a window) you are not going to be moving it much.
Bonus Tip: I am going to experiment with another one of these and run the exhaust hose up the stove hood. That's because I have a computer area next to the kitchen and there's no window nearby, so when trying to figure out a solution I looked at the kitchen hood. I can remove the fan and run the A/C exhaust tube into the circular fan opening that runs to the roof of the building. Yeah it won't look pretty, but I'd rather feel cool than look it.
Instructions: This was easy to unpack and all I made sure to do was remove all the tape and foam around the unit. So I did have to read the instructions to make sure I did not miss anything. Otherwise, you plug it in and turn it on. It is that simple. Matter of fact I turned it on without the exhaust tube connected to a window. The exhaust air was broiling hot. Kind of silly, one end was blowing ice cold air, the other end blowing air hot enough to cook with. But I wanted to try it out because that's what guys do.
Bragging Rights: I enjoyed calling my friends who were suffering in the heat, saying "Wow is it cold today or what. Hold on, I have to put on a coat. Oh wait, that's my A/C unit, never mind." (I then heard the phone click. How rude for them to hang up on me. Was it something I said?)
Bonus Tip: If your place is going to get hot later in the day, turn on your A/C BEFORE it gets hot. These A/C units work a lot better if they don't have to cool down an 80 degree room. I'm a lot more comfortable if I don't wait to turn on the Haier until AFTER it feels like an Easy Bake oven in my place.
Bonus Tip: To give this A/C unit a little extra circulation (to where it blows air into the next room, not a lot, but some) I place a little portable fan on the table next to this unit. I then run the fan on high. This adds about 1/3 more power to blow and circulate the cool air around.
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We have crank-out windows, and never looked at air conditioners much, we never really needed one. After reading many reviews we decided to try this air conditioner for those few nights the heat and humidity made it hard to sleep. It is exactly as represented...cools well and was easy to install. Even if we don't use it alot, the price made it affordable.
Best Deals on Haier CPN10XCJ 10000-BTU Portable Air Conditioner
We needed to replace our Whirlpool portable unit and this was a much better buy. A few dollars more, but no more draining the water. It's quiet enough and cools very well. I'm very pleased with it
Honest reviews on Haier CPN10XCJ 10000-BTU Portable Air Conditioner
I bought this portable air conditioner for my apartment after temperatures in my area reached 100+ degrees because my fan just wasnt cutting it and wow what a wonderful little unit. It is a medium sized air conditioner, kind of heavy but has wheels to move around, comes with the exhaust and a kit to hook it up to a window which can adjust to most window sizes for both horizontally and verticall. It's pretty quiet compared to most air conditioners and even though my room is a decent size with high ceilings it'll make the whole room cool within minutes. It has an adjustable thermostat and also has heating and dehumidifying capabilities and works as a fan also if you dont need the cooling. Great GREAT product, if you're in the market for a portable air conditioner, this is THE ONE.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Haier CPN10XCJ 10000-BTU Portable Air Conditioner
I purchased this 10,000 btu unit after reading over 50 reviews on Amazon and Walmart. I could not go bigger as this unit is 115 volt and plugs into a normal electric outlet while the 12,000 btu unit requires a 20 amp dedicated fuse and outlet. Haier states the unit is for a small room, i.e. 300 sq. ft. area max.
I believe the manufacturer is reading reviews, too. My 2012 version has an unlighted circuit-breaker plug and the bright blue front panel turns itself off after a few seconds. (The light from the LED's bothered people who installed the unit in the bedroom.
One sets the thermostat to the desired temperature and picks the fan speed. There is also a timer function. As other reviewers have mentioned, there are three fan speeds and the unit continues to run whether the compressor is working or not. Since it is dehumidifying when the compressor isn't on, I don't mind the continual fan.
The remote has large buttons and the same functions as the unit.
I would like to mention that the exhaust pipe heats up fairly significantly when it is cooling. So, cold air is coming out the front but the exhaust vent pipe is reducing efficiency. I may insulate the vent piping on principle.
Also, there is a knob on the back that says "closed/open" that does not appear in the instruction manual. I have not tried to go to the manufacturer's site to read up-to-date specifications.
