I did extensive research before purchasing my portable air conditioner. Thanks to some reviewers I learned that having a dual hose is key, as a double and contrary pressure inside one hose could create problems in the future (the AC pulls air from outside and releases air from the room, it's a double process get a dual hose). So I searched for a dual hose as a pre-requisite and the only one I found on Amazon was this 13,000 btu Soleus. Even though the room I needed it for was a relatively small bedroom, I went for this item. And I'm so happy I did!
The machine is really big, really huge, and extremely heavy. But pretty good looking, with a great design. Packaging was large and bulk, and it traveled a long way to where I am. The side panels were a bit damaged from shipping and handling and I hoped it wouldn't be a problem, so far not a problem.
There is nothing portable about it. Besides its heavy weight, once you install the window kit, the last thing you want is to keep moving it around and compromise a good installation.
I did not receive one of the accessories, the sliding panel, and the instructional dvd and manual showed that this was necessary for installing the AC on my window, but we figured it out in the end with what we had. My window is a horizontal sliding window. I adapted two of the panels I had (one with two exhaust hose openings and one with no openings) to one end of the window, mending the two to cover the entire vertical length. Attaching the exhaust hoses was really easy, all I had to do was make sure that the window kit was well screwed in my window, to hold, and then stretch the hoses and attach them to the AC unit.
When I plugged it in and turned it on it sounded like I had a plane's engine right inside my room. It was so loud! Later I grew used to it and now it doesn't bother me anymore, in fact, it helps, because it simply eliminates any other noises you might have from outside.
The first night after about three hours the AC mode simply shut off and it went into fan mode. A red light was on, indicating that the condensate holding tank was full. I couldn't believe this, since it had been on for only three hours! So I fit a small tray from my toaster oven under the drain plug and discarded all the water that came out of it.
The second night, we figured we should just leave the drain plug open and the toaster oven tray under it. We woke up to a flooded room, as the tray is barely enough to hold so much water.
Since the drain plug is so near the floor, the only solution was to put the AC on top of a low coffee table, which in fact, shortened the length of the exhaust hoses, optimizing the overall cooling capacity, as one of the hoses gets pretty warm and the longer the hose, the harder the AC will have to work to cool the air around it.
Now we have it all set. Our AC sits on top of a coffee table, with a bucket behind it and the tiny hose that came with it attached to the drain plug. The drain plug is always open, and the water that comes out of the unit simply fills the bucket to about 1/3, it is so much water! But the AC mode never shuts off anymore, and you get some healthy humidifying from having a bucket full of water in the bedroom and the hoses are less stretched, ensuring better cooling.
So far, so good! The AC does an excellent job of cooling the room and I absolutely love it!
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I purchased this unit in July 2008 and I have had nothing but problems with it. The Soleus support line is always busy, and when you do get someone, they look for an answer and never call back. My front panel to control the unit does not work, and I have tried to get Soleus to replace the panel, with no luck. I have to use the remote control to use the A/C. Around 2 years of service, and the unit started leaking water. It appears the drain line for the unit is not placed far enough back, and so the water pan just drips out of the unit, right onto the floor. You can pay to have the unit shipped back and repaired they said, but the minimum charge is $150 plus shipping charges. Don't waste your money!
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This thing does not evaporate well, still have to empty the tray every other day. But it does not flood your floor it shuts off when full.
As for heating this unit is completely useless. A $50 ceramic unit will heat better than this heat pump.
Don't bother buying if your temp outside goes below 40 this unit will not heat to keep even 65. (This was heating a room around 250 sq ft)
Overpriced air conditioner.
Honest reviews on Soleus Air PH4-13R-01 13,000 BTU Evaporative Portable Air
I actually purchased Soleus Air PH4-13R-01 13,000 BTU Evaporative Portable Air Conditioner, 13,000 BTU Heater, Dehumidifier and Fan locally as the ones sold on Amazon are getting poor reviews, but mine shoots out 61°F cold air 24/7 and never leaks or needs to be drained although we are having the most humid summer I can ever remember. A favorite 2012 purchase which I would have purchased on Amazon were it not for all the bad reviews there.
UPDATE OCT 21, 2012 This A/C ran 24/7 up until about a week ago when it finally cooled off and never once did it leak or need to be drained. I am extremely happy with my Soleus Air PH4-13R-01!
UPDATE JUNE 30, 2013 It was very humid here and I ran this 24hours straight more for the humidity than for the heat at 61°F and it did not leak once. I have it set up to exhaust to the outside and intake inside air as my home is loose. Also I like having it set up next to the entry way window as that way I can use floor fans to direct the air up to 30feet into the room(s) I want. This weighs 80lbs so you really don't want to be moving it all the time. I am very thrilled with this portable A/C, dehumidifier, heater, and fan. I have used it as a heater during the winter too and that was great.
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The heat pump for our house is probably a bit too old and under-sized for our house. For the last seven years or so I have placed a very small window AC unit in our (2nd story) master bedroom to help cool the house in the summer. Thinking that the window unit was making the house look a bit trashy we decided to replace it with this unit.
Overall, we are quite pleased with the unit, but it takes up quite a bit of space in the bedroom. Sometimes I think the window unit was easier in that sense certainly cheaper / took less indoor space.
A word about capacity the previous unit was only 8000 BTU this unit claims to be larger in capacity and it may very well be but it certainly seems to take a bit longer to cool the room / upper floor of the house. (this seems typical of this type read up online) BUT it isn't nearly as noisy as the old unit was. There is a small rattle that is solved by placing a small pillow on the left side of the unit annoying, but workable.
The remote is probably a cool feature, but we simply set to temp and move on. We never touch it. I'm curious how the heater will work in the winter.
Relatively easy to install took about an hour the unit is quite heavy over 100 lbs easily takes some effort to move.
Don't turn on for 24 hours after you've moved the unit especially if turned on it's side. I let the unit sit in our bedroom for a few days as we had to set it at an angle to transport.
CONS this unit is expensive, takes up a lot of room INSIDE of the house, might take a bit longer to cool than a window unit.
PROS easy to install, remote nice feature, works pretty well.
