Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

To start things off, I'm not usually a real big B+D fan. I know well enough to know that, like most GIANT name brands, the name doesn't actually necessarily indicate who built the unit, but rather who's marketing and supporting it. For all I know, this has 90% of the same guts as an LG unit. (LG is regarded as the leader in portable/window AC units, as well as Frigidaire). The product arrived in the retail box, which looks to be able to serve double duty as a shipping container because it is very sturdy, and it's assembled in such a way that it would just about collapse if it were shipped any way other than "this side up", and it's clearly marked as such on the box in many spots so you shouldn't run into the issue some reviewers talking about where they need to let it stand vertical for 24 hours prior to plugging it in and letting the pump go to work. I'm not exactly stupid, but there's a few things about this product that don't make a whole lot of sense, or are done in a needlessly complicated (cost saving) way. To be fair though, this is my first time dealing with a portable AC unit so maybe they're all like this to one degree or another (get it?!) First, the window vent blocking plate situation... I'm in an older house with small windows, so I had to cut one of the panels so that it would give me the correct length. This is some pretty heavy plastic, and I don't think it's reasonable to expect the typical consumer to even have the means to be able to cut one of these pieces of plastic. A hacksaw worked fine. Then you need to secure each of the telescoping panels (just shallow "C" channels, essentially) into eachother with screws so it becomes one unit.... this is supposed to be a PORTABLE AC unit. If I really did buy this with the intent of moving it from one room to another, I'd be screwed since it's doubtful that each window is exactly the same size, and changing the size of the plate is not exactly a breeze. I expected to see a more well thought out design for the window plate. Luckily, this thing is staying upstairs in my attic-bedroom that easily reaches very warm temps on even a slightly warm day, and the central AC cannot keep up with it. Another gripe is the remote, and overall interface of operating the machine. The top/face of the machine has the love-em-or-hate-em capacitive touch buttons that provide no tactility, but instead a beep. Whatever, it works. Doing anything beyond turning it on and off and up and down requires the remote, which seems to send discreet commands for each incremental increase or decrease in temp, so that the temp displayed on the remote is never "out of sync" with the unit, as long as you change the temp at least once with the remote. It's just an infrared send-only type of signal. The real confusion comes in setting the sleep/wake timer. I read the directions and I can't figure it out. I just operate it manually when I wake up and before I go to bed, which leads me to another gripe The thing is loud! I understand that in order for an AC unit to work, it has to move air, but even with the fan on low (which is useless because it does not push the cool air far enough towards me) the unit makes too much noise to sleep with running. I could probably get around this by moving it to the other side of the room, but I don't want to (just yet) so I just put up with it. Most of the marketing graphics/information on this product's Amazon listing are either glossed over, or just plain incorrect. The picture that shows the exhaust vent is wrong, since it gets connected to an ovular shaped thing, and then goes out the window, and the filter does not slide out, you snap the holder out of the back, and snap the filter out of the holder. Another instance of Marketing Gone Wild. But, it blasts out pretty cool air pretty quickly, and it's working to keep a somewhat large, low-ceiling attic bedroom at a comfortable 74 degrees even when it's hovering around 100 outside, so I have to give it some credit. The "AirSwing" feature is nice- you can position the unit at an angle (in my case, the only way to get it closer to the wall and deal with the unwieldy hot-air hose coming out the back) and pitch the vents so it's still blowing as if it were positioned straight ahead. I suppose in a more open space, it would be helpful to share some of the cool air with your visitors or other house dwellers. So, why buy this instead of a window unit? I can yank out the plate and roll it into a closet at the end of our 2 month summer and let it sit for the other 10 months or so, instead of futzing with big drippy, rusty rectangles and angle brackets or 2x4s screwed into the stucco. We'll see how well the atomization of water goes as far as its ability to dehumidify. The manual promises that emptying moisture from the unit only needs to be done at the end of the season, once, but it also says the sleep timer works. UPDATE After living with this unit for a couple VERY hot weeks, one season after another, I've learned a few things * It's pretty likely that the built in water tank will fill up, causing the unit to stop producing cold air. I remedied this by keeping the included clear plastic tube attached to the back/bottom and elevating the unit onto a sturdy little platform with the casters removed. Now it's free to drip-drop the water it collects down the tube into a sawed off orange juice container, which needs to be emptied every couple days (!!!) Best to put that inside a small trash can just in case you forget to check it and it overflows all over your floor, not that that could ever happen... * Rather than having it vent out a window, it's now venting out of a hole in the wall that was once for the exhaust port of a heater that was mounted to the wall. This enabled me to get it very close to the wall and even cut the collapsible hose down to 1/3 the size... the hose radiates heat, and now there's less of it. Also it's easier for it to discharge warm air since the path is shorter. * Periodically it will apparently draw a large spike of power and trip the breaker. Granted my old home has some pretty skuzzy wiring. It's not done it while I'm there to watch it, only while I'm away, so I come back to an 85 degree, muggy bedroom. The built in GFCI has not yet tripped. * The fact that these single hose units actively discharge cooled air and create negative pressure bothers me and I'm trying to find a not-entirely-inelegant way to provide this thing with a source of fresh outside air, effectively converting it to a dual hose unit... more to come on that But, still running strong after several heaves and hoes into and out of the closet and sitting unused for months and months at a time.