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List Price: $849.00
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I purchased this because it has the ability to heat and cool and dehumidify using a heat pump. I plan to use it as a very powerful dehumidifier that I can use to occasionally heat / cool my basement. I got the portable unit so I could unhook it and take it to other homes to help with dehumidifying carpets after steam cleaning and flooding.
I was hoping that the unit could be permanently installed and that I would never have to deal with the hoses again but it turns out that for the functions to work correctly you need to connect the hoses differently.
For each mode there are different ways to hook up the hoses in the back.
a. For air conditioning mode both hoses are attached to the window adapter plate.
b. For fan mode it doesn't matter how the hoses are connected.
c. For dehumidify mode both hoses are removed from the unit and you need to install the provided covers on the window adapter plate.
d. For heating mode you should disconnect the input hose and put the provided cover over the window adapter plate. I think that if the temperature outside doesn't get below 50 degrees that you could leave the input hose attached and that the unit would perform well.
As a result of these hose hookups the efficiencies gained by having 2 hoses only apply to the cooling mode. The heating mode will only use one hose and as a result create negative pressure in your home and pull colder outside air into structure if the home gets drafty it might be a good idea to open the lowest window in an unused room (basement) in the home a little bit to counter-act this pressure.
Where I live the temperatures fluctuate a lot so I can see myself switching the hoses around frequently in the spring and fall.
The hoses that run from the back of the unit to the window are about 5 inches in diameter and with the appropriate 5 to 6 inch adapter you can hook it up to longer pieces of 6 inch flexible HVAC tubing.
Here is where it gets interesting for use as a tool... This is a very powerful unit. When you put the unit in a 70 degree room and put it in Heating mode the exhaust hose pumps out air that is about 42 degrees. And when you put it in that same 70 degree room and turn on Cooling mode the exhaust hose puts out air that is about 140 degrees. If you connect HVAC tubing to the exhaust pipe you suddenly have the ability to focus a huge amount of very hot or very cold air on a specific spot or space.
The heat function does generate some condensation. there is a pump and a small tube to help remove the condensation. This pump works best if the unit is on a completely level surface. This is a great feature that keeps you from having to constantly drain the unit while it is in heating mode.
When it arrived it was obvious that it had been handled roughly, the box was dented on the bottom, one of the casters on the bottom was broken and two screws inside were broken off and rolling around in the base of the unit. I think this was the delivery company's fault and since none of the screws seemed to be in critical locations and I had an extra caster I decided to just let it be and I fixed it on my own. There are stress marks in the plastic on the bottom of the unit but it does not leak. I did not complain or try to contact anyone yet. I simply don't have time to deal with this and I just see this sort of damage as result of having big products shipped. I did have to disassemble the unit to retrieve the broken screws and it looked to me as if everything inside was thoughtfully laid out and connected.
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This is a portable A/C-Dehumidifier-Heater unit. The description says 13,500 BTU. The box it came in says 14,000 BTU in cooling and 11,000 BTU in heating.
It has the much needed double vents so that both air in and air out come from outside. Units that do not have two vents pull hot humid air in through your home's walls causing a lose in efficiency. The ducting and window inserts are sound. They are not airtight, but that can be fixed with insulation foam.
The unit itself has a digital thermostat that is controlled by the display and buttons on top of the unit or by the included remote. All parts feel solid and high quality.
So far it is doing a nice job of keeping my entire 800 sq ft condo at around 77 degrees despite Houston, TX heat and humidity. I will update when I test out its heating capability.
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I'm giving this 4 stars because I'm not impressed with the amount of heat it produces when in that mode. That said, the air conditioning part is the BEST! Once you figure out its thermostat is about 5 degrees above the real temperature in the room, it cools my 20' x 20' bedroom in less than 5 minutes. Waiting for the next electric bill, but I don't think this uses that many kilowatts. Actually, I really don't care being cool in this add-on room is worth any price. Now if only the heater worked better...I'll stick to my present heater that does the job and is inexpensive to run.
Honest reviews on Friedrich PH14B 13500 btu - 115 volt - 9.5 EER ZoneAire series
Great quality! The only thing it doesn't have is a removable condensation bucket. But for the Cooling and heating mode you don't need one. So you only need to hook up a hose for the dehumidifier. Works great cools my 750 sqft apt.
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This is a product I'd love to like. I'm using it as a heat pump in mild Northern California weather, replacing electric baseboard heating. It puts out a good amount of heat and will probably be far more efficient than the baseboards. The second unit I received seems to be off by a few degrees on its thermostat, but I can live with that. It's noisy, but given the amount of air it has to move through a narrow duct in order to transfer heat efficiently, I can't really complain about that.
After one December's usage, it seems to have saved about 250 kWh over the electric baseboard, which means it will pay for itself in a year or less at PGE Tier 3 prices.
It has one of the dumbest user interfaces I've ever encountered -I actually sent one back before realizing I hadn't understood what was happening. Not only will it not heat beyond 77 degrees -it silently deactivates the temperature adjustments once the temperature has reached 77 degrees. Combined with what's either a badly calibrated thermostat, or a design that subjects the thermostat to the local heat in the unit, we've run it up to 77 just to get to 70 in the room.
Incidentally, I've got to praise Amazon's second line customer support. I ran into the problem about 35 days after purchase. An Amazon email droid refused to accept a return, but a really nice human being on the phone understood my problem and arranged an exchange. It was excellent, intelligent and understanding customer service that probably saved Amazon a customer.
