ARC-12SDH

After extensive research, reading customer reviews, professional reviews and pricing at my local appliance stores, I broke down and bought two of these units, 2 weeks apart. My son and I moved in with the elderly 'rents to look after them. They keep the central AC at 80 and watch TV with wool caps, slippers and lap blankets... yes, in the middle of the Florida summer! To say the least my son and I were sweatin' it out at night. I got only one portable AC (PAC) at first because of some of the negative reviews, large investment on something I wasn't too sure was going to work well for us, problems with the drainage, etc... I didn't want to invest in two, if one didn't work. The room I am cooling is approx. 12x 12. I probably got too much in the BTU department, but I wanted to be sure that it would do the job. It ABSOLUTELY DOES THE JOB AND THEN SOME! I did get the second one. The PAC came in a large box, packaged well. Easy to disassemble, box was taken away by recycling. All good. My brother-in-law set the PAC in my bedroom. I only have a sliding glass door to work with, so he needed to do some modifications and adjustments. All of the parts were in the box and easily assembled. Follow the directions (and pictures) and all should match up well. I went to Home Depot, purchased a 4' x 8' piece of AC insulation board (foam in the middle and covered with silver foil on the outside...cuts easily with a utility knife), a roll of AC duct tape (not duct tape, but the kind that is foil and used for AC duct work), 2 packages of 1" x 1" foam weather stripping, and 3 feet of 1/2" diameter tubing. ($30-$40 all together). The tools that my brother in law used were a drill to make a 1/2 inch hole in the insulation board, a utility knife, and a measuring tape. I'll tell you how he put it together and the reasons for doing it the way he did... after all, he is a clever guy and he saw a design flaw here or there... First, he measured how wide he would need the insulation board to be. Remember, it went into a sliding glass door, which would render the slider useless, once the PAC was installed. (I didn't care, I NEEDED the AC). He cut the insulation board 4" wider than the width of the plastic window kit (comes with the unit, has 2 holes to attach the duct hoses). Of course, the height of this piece has to fit into the door. Next, he decided where he wanted to put the plastic window kit in the insulation board. He centered the plastic window kit vertically and pressed it into the insulation board to leave an imprint in the board. He used the utility knife, followed the straight lines of the impression, to cut out the shape of the plastic window kit. He used the AC duct tape to tape the window kit into the insulation board, front and back. He next taped this, (the piece of insulation board with the plastic window kit taped into it) into place in the door jamb/frame of the slider. All taped in. It doesn't look pretty, or it looks as good as it can for being what it is, but it certainly is functional. He then attached the exhaust hose to one of the round circles (4" hole on the plastic window kit) and put one of the caps (provided) on the other. ***HERE IS WHERE HE THINKS THERE IS A DESIGN FLAW, AND WHY HE DID NOT ATTACH THE SECOND HOSE TO THE SECOND HOLE. The directions and the whole idea of the DUAL HOSE SYSTEM is to blow out the hot exhaust through one of the hoses and then to draw in cool air, from outside, through the other hose. This is the problem with this idea (according to my brother in law): "THE TWO HOSES, WHEN CONNECTED TO THE WINDOW KIT, ARE ONLY 1 1/2"-2 " APART. HE DOESN'T BELIEVE IT'S POSSIBLE TO DRAW IN "COOL" AIR FROM THE OUTSIDE FOR TWO REASONS: IT'S HOT OUTSIDE, HENCE THE NEED OF THE AC AND BECAUSE THE INTAKE IS GOING TO 'SUCK' THE HOT AIR IN FROM THE EXHAUST BECAUSE IT'S TOO CLOSE TO THE INTAKE." So, the intake hose is attached to the unit, but not to the vent hole. It's simply leaning up against the door, out of the way, sucking in the cooled air from inside the room. When I explained what I was doing to the Home Depot guy, he reminded me that once that sliding glass door was opened a few inches, there would be a gap between the two doors... in the middle, if you will. Simple solution was to stuff the foam weather stripping in there! Done. I was concerned about the drainage issues... Florida is HUMID! I read on some reviews that the unit would shut down in the middle of the night because the drip pan was full... Again, my brother in law to the rescue!!! He removed the plug, drilled a hole in the insulation board at the same level or height of the drain. He attached the tubing to the drain on the unit, and threaded it out through the insulation board to the outside. Problem solved! After he installed the unit, I noticed that there were tiny little gaps in the plastic window kit, around the circles... I could see light shining through. I ran a bead of caulk around it. No more light, no air escaping and no ants getting in. I turn the PAC off when I'm not home. Remember, the central AC is set at 80 degrees and the outside temperature, at this time of year, during the day is between 90 and 95. When I return, I turn the PAC on and set it at 74. Within 15 minutes, the room is cooled down to 74. (I have a separate thermometer and wanted to make sure that it was cooling to what I had it set at.) As I type right now, my fingers and toes are cold! I'm comfortable... I might even have to turn it a little warmer! Some reviews mentioned that it is a loud unit.... I don't agree... it is no louder than a window shaker! I would definitely recommend this unit. So far, so good! It's only been three weeks, but I am optimistic that it will continue to work well. (I waited 10 days or so to order one for my son and he, too, is now comfortable in his room. It's about the same size as mine.)

I have been using this for about 2 weeks. I bought this for my master bedroom which is about 23x16 (368 square feet) and has vaulted ceilings. It was to replace a Whynter ARC-12SD which was working great but was going to be moved to my wife's office. Not to make this a review about the ARC-12SD but comparing it to the ARC-131GD reveals the latter's pros and cons. The ARC-12SD has been in use for about 1.5 years and has performed great. It had two downsides. Its first downside may not be a downside depending on the room you place it in. It has a bright blue led display and several other led indicators that could not be turned off. At night, in a bedroom, the led's are quite bright. We taped a credit card over the main display. The card blocked most of the light at night and we could flip it up if we wanted to see it if we wanted. The ARC-131GD has a remote control that contains the display rather than having it on the air conditioner itself. My wife and I both like that. There is a spot on the unit to store the remote but my wife keeps it on the nightstand. The ARC-131GD does have a blue led on the front of the unit but you can turn it off. Again, depending on the room you are putting this in, either may work for you. We only realized the ARC-12SD's second downside when we started to use the ARC-131GD, The ARC-131GD is quieter than the ARC-12SD. The compressor seems to quietly engage in the ARC131GD whereas the compressor on the ARC-12SD seems to be more abrupt and noisier. Although I do remember hearing the ARC-12SD cycling at times (I guess it woke me up), I have not noticed the ARC-131GD cycling at night (I guess it does not wake me up). On paper, the ARC-131GD is ever so slightly better suited for a larger room. The ARC-12SD is rated for 400 square feet while the ARC-131GD is rated for 420 square feet. After reading a few reviews it seemed like the ARC-131GD was slightly more efficient than the ARC-12SD. Believing that the ARC-131GD was more powerful and more efficient lead me to consider the ARC-131GD rather than just getting another ARC-12SD. Price wise, it seems that the ARC131-DG is generally available at a lower price than the ARC-12SD. When the ARC-131GD dropped to a particularly low price, I jumped on it. The first night with the ARC-131GD revealed just how quite it is. Of course you can hear the fan, similar to, but slightly quieter than the ARC-12SD's fan. From a cooling perspective, the ARC-12SD cooled the room faster. Not sure why this is but...every night the ARC-131GD is slower to cool then the ARC-12SD. Both were set to maximum fan speed. During the night, both cooled the room fine. Neither my wife nor I have been uncomfortable. We both notice the room cooling slower with the ARC-131GD as compared to the ARC-12SD. The ARC-12SD does have adjustable vents while the ARC-131GD does not. We used to point the vents on the ARC-12SD as high as they would go, almost vertical. Since hot air rises, it seemed like a good idea to push the cold air towards the ceiling. The ARC-131GD pushes the air out at a more horizontal angle. Maybe if it could push the cold air towards the ceiling, it would do an better job at cooling the overall room faster. This may only be an issue with a room with a vaulted ceiling. Would I buy another ARC-131GD? Based on the price I got it for (much less than the ARC-12SD) I would say yes. How much am I saving in electricity using the ARC-131GD in comparison to the ARC-12SD? If your requirements are for the room to be cooled a bit more quickly than the ARC-12SD may be better choice. If you have to run the ARC-131GD 20 minutes longer a day to get the room to a specific temperature, does its slightly better efficiency pay off? If the ARC-131GD is priced the same as the ARC-12SD, I would get the ARC-12SD. If the ARC-131GD is at an all time low price-wise, I would get the ARC-131GD again. It has its pluses and minus's (both of which depend on where it will be located and your personal preferences). A couple of additional points. The ARC-12SD has an intake and exhaust hose. Both are the same diameter. The ARC-131GD intake hose is the standard size. The exhaust hose is smaller. The connectors are standard as far as connecting to the air conditioner or window vent but the tube connections are different sizes to match the hoses. The tube lengths on the ARC-131GD are about 8 inches shorter than the ARC-12SD. Whereas I could maneuver the ARC-12SD away from the window and point it an any direction I wanted, the limited hose length on the ARC-131SD did not allow for this. I had to place the air conditioner as close to the wall as I could. Although I had standard replacement hoses which were longer, I could not utilize them because of the non-standard exhaust hose connector of the ARC-131GD. My solution, buy 2 more standard connectors. I live in FL. My back yard, which is where the air conditioner cooling intake pulls air in from, is basically a jungle. The air being pulled in is extremely humid. When I hooked up the new air conditioner, I replaced both the intake and exhaust tubes. The intake hose I was replacing was full of a very light coating of mildew. Yuck! Even given those conditions, I never had a problem with the ARC-12SD filling up with water. I have read other reviews of the ARC-131GD and some have reported problems with the unit filling with water. So far (2 weeks) I have not had a problem with the unit filling with water even with the very high humidity.

Works perfectly. Only small complaint is that the valve to drain excess water is in the dumbest place, right at floor level, so that it's virtually impossible to drain it without spilling water on the floor.

An excellent air conditioner and easy to use the remote control. 11,000 BTUs is the perfect strength and the size of the air conditioner is not cumbersome for my apartment.

So far it seems to work well! The summer will be the real test though? As far as removing the hoses as one person complained about, I found all you have to do is firmly grip and rotate the hose coupler and that will push the tabs back, then wiggle it out! Very easy! I don't know why that is not in the instructions? As far as delivery, UPS did a great job, no damage to box at all!!! Update: I stand corrected, it does say in the manual to twist connectors to remove at the bottom of page 15 of the manual! A little hard to find though?

I had left a negative review earlier, but it seems my unit was defective. The replacement unit is mostly good with my main complaint being that the thermostat should be more fine grained. The plus side of a dual hose unit is that it does not create negative air pressure and so can work more efficiently and doesn't draw in the stinky cigarette smell from the apartment hallway. I wish more manufacturers offered dual hose options. The indicator lights on the front are unintuitive poorly labeled and you really need to read the manual to understand what they are trying to tell you.

- There are many unheard of brands of portable ACs that you will see on Amazon, but in my opinion all these are just products that are made in china (nothing wrong with that) and sold in north america by small businesses in the US, that imports these products puts their name on it, and sell it to us! - I think these products that have reps only in the US should not be sold in Canada! - The problem with this is that these small businesses can not support their own product compared to well established brands that have service centers around the globe. Businesses that you don't know even where they are located, and at most they only have a phone number and sometimes only email. - For example, I figured after buying it that I am responsible for paying the shipping fees to the US if it broke I mean, even if it within the warranty period. So paying almost 600 dollars for this unit, plus shipping of around 300 dollars is just not worth the trouble! Now, talking about the AC itself, I can confirm that my window unit of 5000 BTU produced the same if not better amount of cool air. Add to that the portable ACs are known to be noisy. And I read many reviews of water leaking problems, I haven't used mine long enough to confirm this. If you can install a window unit then just go with that, but if that is not possible, and you don't mind spending a couple of hundreds knowing that it may not be worth it, then go ahead and try to find yourself a good one! It is like gambling but who knows it may work for you! My final advice, if you must buy one then at least, buy a well-known brand that has a service center in Canada!