This is very true. I have a house with hot water baseboard heat and casement windows so I opted for a portable A/C unit. An 11,000 BTU unit couldn't cool my 300 sq ft bedroom on an 85 degree day. I even called the company and they replaced the unit to no avail. They just don't cool like window units.

Good Post. Your reviews on portables are pretty helpful. I think split systems do better than portables.

Thank you for this info. I've been thinking of purchasing one of the portables for my elderly mom' home. She's got those serious burlar bars up on all of her windows. It gets so hot in her house, that folk don't want to visit long during the summer months (She's go central air, but won't use it). I will take into consideration the two hose unit. You would be suprised just how many people don't know that indoor portables exist. She didn't.

Window one's pull in the air from outside and cool it as it's passed into the room. Portable ones take the air from the room and cool it before blowing it back out.

Think again also before you purchase a 1,000 BTU GE window A/C. I have a medium size room that it will not cool with out installing a fan that is able to blow incoming air away from the thermal sensor. The reason is that the blower motor is woefully inadequate for the unit. RW

Just when I was wondering if I should continue my online subscription, Consumer Reports saves me several hundred dollars. A local store is promoting a portable air conditioner at a great price and today is the last day of the sale. So I checked CR and found this article (which isn't available to the general public yet) that puts the brakes on my impulse buy. Thank you CR!

I rent my apartment. I've been using a Sharp 9500 BTU portable A/C unit since last summer. Temperatures here run up to 102 degrees.

I had originally purchased the CR-recommended Haier window unit but ran into the following problems: (1) it was so loud nothing could be done in the apartment -- work, music, TV, conversations sleeping, thinking; and (2) the vinyl window frames and placement of windows meant I couldn't install it permanently (screws, supports) in the window frame. Back it went.

The Sharp was three times as expensive and will only cool the bedroom, it is not as powerful as the window unit of similar BTU. However, it is far, far quieter, and the snap-in window connection was easy to install. I cut a length of wooden dowel and dropped it into the window track as a security measure. If I can find (and afford) another larger portable unit for the front room, I'll buy it.

Why wait until June, when ac prices are at their peak, to publish this report? Where I am it is hot well in advance and I am in desperate need of a portable unit. This is like publishing ratings on hd tv's the day of the Super Bowl.

I cannot wait to see the reviews. I wish this was more timely and was published in April or May.

If an air conditioner is portable, then it can move from one place to another using casters. Portable air conditioners can be very large, however, the wheels on portable air conditioners make them easy to move.

hi marxist moderator why did you decide not to post my question?

The bedroom I want to cool has no windows, only a sliding glass door to the outside. What do I do??

Ditto the comment about a recommended model being too loud. It seems like CR labs are installing these in unrealistic (damped) frames. Our entire wall resonates from the vibration of the compressor for 3 out of 4 brands. And several brands make a loud thump every time the compressor kicks in that sounds like somebody trying to break through your door. They should put sensitive accelerometers on these things and report the numbers so we can tell which ones won't make our houses buzz and which ones thunk instead of soft-starting.

And the blower motors are ridiculously loud, too. I think the fan sound problem is caused by using a common shaft for the outside and inside fans. You can make a virtually silent fan but it has to be big and spin slowly, not compact and spin like a race car engine. The window models all just really poorly engineered. It's not that portables cost three times too much, it's that window models are cheap garbage in a race to the bottom caused by price competition.

So we're looking to get a portable despite the price because they're so much more quiet.

I recently purchased a portable 2009 commercial cool 10k BTU by Haier and am extremely pleased with this unit. It's not quiet but it's not extremely loud either. It's a single line hose and although I did struggle a little getting it to fit snuggly in the window after applying duct tape (I do not plan on moving it until after the summer) the hose is secure and the unit is working exceptionally well. I live in a two story house and the unit was purchased to help cool a 450 sq. ft. upstairs bedroom. The bedroom is over the carport on the west side of the house, which means by late afternoon, the room is like an oven. This unit coupled with the central air system seems to be the best solution for our needs we've found.

I live in a hi-rise in Chicago where we can have either heat or a/c. The board refuses to turn the a/c on until June and we swelter through 80 and 90 degree weather every year. Since window units don't fit in our windows, four years ago I purchased a Soleus portable airconditioner which vents the hot air out of the window. I don't know how I lived without it. It cools all of my 11 x 10 bedroom and half of my living room/kitchen area. It provides me with an area I can go to cool off when I start to get overheated. It is a bit loud but I can sleep or watch tv comfortably. The biggest thing for me is that it does a really good job of taking the humidity out of the air. Plus when the a/c in the building goes out which it does at least once each summer, I am not sweating it. It keeps me sane.

I agree sending out the test information in mid-June is too late. I can't even line up any on-site estimates now for at least 2 weeks - what's it going to be like in mid June? Probably a 3-4 week wait until estimates are done and the a/c unit is installed - and then summer is half over. CR should try to think of the timeline their subscribers are facing with "seasonal" purchases - especially when delivery and installation delays during peak sales periods are common. On that subject, I wish the auto issue was already out in the late fall or early winter at the latest.

In response to the person with the room that only has a sliding glass door - it seems your only solution is to have a through the wall unit (a hole cut in your wall to fit either a sleeve unit or a standard window a/c unit).

The portable air conditioners need to vent outside so that is not an option for you. You can of course use a dehumidifier and position a fan from an airconditioned area to blow the cool air into that room as well.

PW Owensboro
I purchased a Sharp Portable for my bonus room. My central air
just wasn't cutting it.It runs very quietly and keeps the room
nice and cool. It was very pricey but worth the cost. I highly
recommed this option if you can't use a window unit. The Sharp is a good unit. 1 year and counting.

I would also like to chime in on the delay. We already had freak early heat wave here, and almost bought something to keep ourself sane, but waited for your delayed review. None of our windows on our rental will accommodate even the smallest window unit, so we need a portable unit. June is much too late.

I am contemplating purchasing a portable ac unit for a 300 square foot room that is being used as a massage studio. There are no windows and the studio is upstairs. How big of a unit will I need (BTU's) and will it work? There will also be fans installed.

I have a portable AC and I like it. The only problem is it needs cleaning. I have removed the slide out filter and cleaned it but dirt has gone past that to another filter that would require removing screws and taking off the entire back. I know better than to try that. 3 years ago after calling everywhere I finally found someone who would slide out my window AC and clean it. Everyone else would only use a brush or such and not really clean it. Taking it out and cleaning it with a chemical and hosing it out worked. That needs to be done again and the company that did it last time doesn't want to do it again. So now that the portable needs similar service, I don't know what to do about either. I can't buy a new AC every year. I can not trust Sears anymore. I don't know what happened but they either do a lousy job or won't do nay job at all. I have a lot of problems because I am disabled and I also have no one to help me or give advice. I live 10 miles southeast of Los Angeles, Can anyone please help me? Thank you.

I have a single hose 11000btu portable. It really is a lousy piece of junk.... Think about it people, if it is pushing hot air out, it is displacing air in your house. So therefore the 95 degree air outside will seep in in any room thats not air tight to replace the displaced air. I wish I would have never bought this unit. The more I run it, the hotter the rest of the house gets.....

Check out Toyotomi's recent models.
Japanese made, very good recommendations.

You may wish to check out Japanese portable air conditioners.

The Portable I bought ,which the refrigeration capability is different with the mark. Has not the regulation of certification about the capability confirming?

I have bought a 13000 BTU Danby portable air conditioner recently. It cools off about 500 t0 600 square feet. It has 2 hoses and it cool the room so well that we need to shut it off periodically.

We have a portable unit as well as our son. We have been happy with it. Ours is a 10,000 btu and runs constantly as we use it in a very large area of about 1000 sf. It helps keep the rooms bearable. We are contimplating a second one for the bedroom area. Also, someone spoke to a sliding glass door. There are adapters for them available. They run about $50 on line.

My mother's apartment has a portable air conditioner installed through a patio door. The installer made up a full-length strip that fits floor to ceiling in the door track, with two vent holes for the ducts. Works fine and still allows the door to be used (but not locked. Good think she's on a high balcony)

Portable AC's don't blow out cold air, they're crap in a nutshell. I bought the Sharp 10,000 BTU's had it on for 4 hours and the room was not cool once not at all. It blew out warm air when I had the temp set at 64 degrees. I wasted 500 bucks, I'm throwing the goddarn thing out I don't even want to look at it. I'd rather be hot and look at nothing than be hot and look at a piece of crap that does nothing. Real disappointed trust me and that's why they say money is worth nothing anymore. Damn thing sucks!

We have used the same 14,000 BTU portable to cool a 400sq. ft. room for the last 4 years. It works great (temps here can reach 105 degrees). We keep it on low and the noise level isn't too bad, we can watch TV at a normal level and it's still cool. After summer just roll it into the closet.

It's still working. True it wasn't the cheapest but four+ years and convenience. I think we got our moneys worth.

Some manufacturers offer a "sliding door kit" which can be used for rooms without windows.

One of the things I don't like about window air conditioners is that you have to remove the window screen.

I'm becoming more and more disenchanted with Consumer Reports as the years go on.

The previous report to this from CR said to buy a dual hose unit if you bought a portable unit. I bought a Royal Sovereign unit with 2 hoses. It was 10,000 btu and my studio apartment was calculated for 15,000 btu, and this unit was way too strong for the entire apartment, I had to keep the thermostat in check at all times. It was in fact extremely effective.

One of my frustrations with CR for many years now is the limited # of makes/models/brands they review. Yeah there are a lot of brands and models, but gosh, you're Consumer Reports, I place ALL my trust in you guys.

From my experience and what I read, single hose units simply don't work and so much so that they should be removed from the market.

I Love my Royal Soverign ARP-1000 ES Portable UNIT. It keeps me cool. But 90 degrees + is a bit much for any single unit. I have a window AC also but will be buying another Royal Soverign in the near future. The two together is a Poor mans central air system plus I don't tie up the windows like I do with the window AC.

I would NEVER buy a Toyotomi again. Bought a portable air and within one year it broke 5 times (motor, motor shroud 2, evaporator fan, remote, temp sensor). Broke the 6th time (shroud again) after 2 month after warranty and they (Shilac, USA Distributer) gave me attitude. The Toyotomi distributer Shilac's office manager Deborah in Torrance, California is rude, arrogant and makes the customer feel as though it's their fault that their product breaks. I paid "MORE" for a Japanese name for their quality and their integrity, but Toyotomi really falls short. I have read reviews in Japan and they do have a bad reputation for quality control and the usage of inferior parts which breaks or bends (example using cheap plastic parts rather than metal parts).

Very disappointed.

Why even have this section? You only filter out the truth. When an unit is horrible or manufacturer doesn't provide professional service, you don't post it.

That's why I don't trust Consumer Reports. You're biased.

This article goes right to the heart of the subject with details that are relevant and vital in anyone’s decision making process. If only everything on the web was this concise and well written. Steel Carport

I bought a Haier 7,000 btu portable AC last summer for a 244 sq. foot bedroom . Although the air blowing into the room is quite cold, the room never cooled off lower than 74 degrees. I thought it was due to it's location in a room on the south side of the house that gets the sun all day. However, this year I moved it to my room, on the northwest side and today, with the temp a humid almost-90 degrees, it barely got lower than 76 degrees after running for several hours.

My question is why it blows out nice cool air, but the room doesn't cool?

I purchased LG 9000 BTU unit to cool my bedroom at night and my office by day since my central air is on the fritz. It is a single hose unit and works pretty well. My beef with it is the hose that is supposed to be connected to a plastic piece that snaps into panel that holds it in place so the hot air blows out the window. It came apart the first time and everytime I try to set it up. Not fun when it's 80 - 90 degrees. Once it's finally hooked up and I turn it on...it's wonderful however, I'm seriously considering returning it for this reason only.

Al D,

What size rooms for that LG 9000 BTU unit?

Best regards,
True Disbeliever

It has been literally unbearable here in connecticut for awhile now and my problem is that I have a sliding window which requires plexiglass and other nonsence to put a regular ac in the window but today I found a Haier 11,00 btu commercial portable ac for a pretty decent price for me and I was wondering if it will do the trick for me in a fairly small apt with a living rm./dining rm cmbo, small kitchen and bedroom with bath and how much of a pain will it be to install and are they worth the money and do they work well?

I appreciate the research and I too was thinking about a portable. Guess I will save my money. Does anyone know about the portable swamp coolers??

I recently purchased a single-hose portable unit. I've run it a few hours and I am starting to think the design of any single-hose A/C is broken. They take some of the air in the room and blow it outside. Since this creates lower pressure in the room, outside air is sucked back in through various cracks and crevices in the building. So, if it's 90 degrees outside and you turn one of these units on, you're pulling 90 degree air into the rest of the building. You may succeed in cooling the one room, but it seems extremely inefficient. Maybe worth some more research CR?

We have a portable A/C unit which we only use when hurricanes knock out power (sometimes for weeks). We can run this portable A/C using a small generator. It's purpose is just to cool down our bedroom, and it does an adequate job. So, we give it high marks for temporary-only use.