Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

My family and I are less than a month away from moving from the generally cool weather of Minnesota to the much hotter climate of Texas. Since we are transitioning from a house to an apartment, I don’t want to fully trust the swiftness of maintenance should our air-conditioner be down for any given time; especially since we’re looking at July and August. This is why I jumped on the Honeywell Portable Air Conditioner; I not only wanted a backup, but a complement to the apartment complex’s cooling system should it prove to be on the weak side. Especially since I can use it for a fan and dehumidifier as well. To me, this unit has several uses. Other people may be interested in this if they own a cabin or have a room or area in a house that just doesn’t seem to cool down. Whatever the reason, the portability of this system is its greatest asset. But, know that the portability also comes with a few foibles. For instance, it’s heavy. Really heavy. When UPS delivered it to my front door, I struggled to move it by myself. Even a sticker on the side of the box said, “Team lift.” Meaning, you need two people to move it. I did manage to get it in my house myself by walking it up one step at a time, but not without much heaving and several pauses. Since I’m a 6’ tall man, I can see others having an even harder time. So consider this when having it shipped; you may need a strong friend or family member to lend you a hand. Unpacking it was pretty simple, and the box is designed so that the bottom separates from the top. That means you don’t have to tip the box to get the unit out, simply lift the top and the sides will slide away. This, of course, comes after cutting the straps holding it together. Thankfully there aren’t too many parts to assemble, but I struggled a bit getting the 2 half pieces of the Window Bracket Panel Adapter together. The snaps take some muscling to click into place. The rest of it was pretty easy; mostly twisting the hose and removing the remaining packing tape and plastic. I was a little thrown when I found a random screw on my floor. When examining the unit, I noticed that several other screws were not tight. The assembler halfheartedly screwed them in, which isn’t the level of quality I’ve come to expect from Honeywell. That said, it was simple enough for me to correct the issue by grabbing a screwdriver and finishing the job. The good thing was that I didn’t notice any other defects, so the most important parts of this unit are properly intact. One thing I worried about was how well this would work on a vertical sliding window. The product photos show a nice, horizontal double-hung. Thankfully the plastic window bracket was tall enough to fit the entire length of my sliding window; however it doesn’t look as neat as it would at the bottom of a double-hung. That, and because the length requires extending the inner piece of the bracket to reach, there are some gaps on the edges. I wouldn’t use this on a window without a screen; otherwise you can expect bugs to sneak through. Another thing to consider is that this will not work with crank out windows since they move outward rather than slide. Now, with everything hooked up and attached, I pushed the unit over to the wall only to realize the hose in the back doesn’t allow it to butt against the flat surface. (Duh.) But upon reading the instructions, I learned that you are supposed to keep the unit a minimum of 20’ from the wall, which sports an even greater distance. I could see this being an issue in smaller rooms, especially bedrooms -- so, depending on your window placement, this unit is required to stick out quite a bit and will take up a fair amount of floor space. In larger rooms, this is less of a problem. In smaller, you might want to consider a window unit instead. I turned on the unit and received the expected buzzing sound associated with air conditioners. It did seem kinda loud. My main house unit is central air, so all I hear with that is the fan. Past window units I’ve used were mostly hanging on the outside of the house, so that accounts for less noise coming inside. But because this is a portable solution, you get the entire unit inside the house and thus you get all the noise that comes with it. Personally, I find the noise kinda soothing. Plus, when just the fan is running (not the AC), the buzzing goes away. But I could see some people finding this off-putting. The remote takes two AAA batteries, not included (really? $500 isn’t expensive enough to provide us with some batteries?). The remote works and operates the unit well enough, but feels big and bulky compared to modern remote designs. That, and, I somewhat expected the arrows on the remote to adjust the angle of the air vent (the part in the front that sets the direction of the blowing air). You can move this manually, up and down, but I’d have liked it to be controlled remotely. Say, if you are sitting on the couch and want it pointing more at you than the ceiling and don’t want to get up. Yes, I know, that’s lazy talk. But if you are half asleep in bed it might be nice to switch the angle without fully waking up and getting out of bed to do so. As it is, the arrows only adjust the temperature setting . . . but I suppose that’s good enough. There are three fan speeds; low, medium and high. You can put it into sleep mode so it shuts off after a preset time within 1-24 hours. The temperature displayed on the unit by default is the current room temperature, but will show the set temperature when adjusted. I know some of what I said about this unit sounds negative, but I just want to help everyone make a well informed decision. Because, ultimately, these are nitpicking comments compared with how well this unit works. It does work well. It cools quickly and fills the room more evenly than I would have guessed. While this isn’t a unit to cool an entire house with, it does cover a fairly wide area. And standing in front of the vent with sweat pouring off your forehead may produce a happy and satisfactory, “Aaaaah.” The manual says to clean the unit using a soft dry rag. I’m guessing a damp cloth would suffice as long as you aren’t too rough with it. You will also want to clean the filter about every 2 weeks (depending on use). To do so, simply remove the filter from the back of the unit and wash it under water. Be sure to dry before putting back. Overall, this is a good solution for my situation. Keep in mind the unit is very heavy and takes up more floor space than you may expect. Also be sure you have a sliding window or the window bracket won’t work, which means there would be no good way to vent out the heat it produces.