• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Portable A/C

B

BroHamBone

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Apr 6, 2013
Messages
2,031
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
I have a 3 year old SPT 8 or 9,000 BTU version. They work, but I wouldn't say "great" compared to window AC units, and they come with a hefty premium.

I paid about $349 for mine. First things I'd take into consideration: Weight. They are heavy as hell. Mine is what I'd call a "cheapo" version that weighs like 50lbs. Trying to get that up multiple sets of stairs was no fun. Depending on the day and how often you run it and whether you can run the water tubing outside it can be a PITA to have to constantly change the drain daily. Not a big deal, but you'd be surprised how fast those 40-50l drains can fill up.

The cooling is great, nothing wrong about it. The main problem I found was the damn exhaust tubing. Without some way to remove that from the area it gets hot and radiates back into the room. So in front of the AC things are chill, but behind them is an inferno. A larger room might not have an issue, but for a smaller room it's very noticeable. The minute you turn it off the cool air is being burned off by the tubing.

Another thing I didn't take into consideration, which really is common sense, is power draw. The wiring in my house is completely crap that it constantly knocks out the power when so much as the bathroom fan comes on. I blame the constructionist and electrician for that though, but if you have a ton of electronics going it might be a problem that you can't foresee until you run it for a few days.
 
Liger88 said:
The cooling is great, nothing wrong about it. The main problem I found was the damn exhaust tubing. Without some way to remove that from the area it gets hot and radiates back into the room. So in front of the AC things are chill, but behind them is an inferno. A larger room might not have an issue, but for a smaller room it's very noticeable. The minute you turn it off the cool air is being burned off by the tubing.
Click to expand...
Yeah, fundamentally an AC unit can only move heat arround, it can't destory heat it and in fact it produces heat.

So if you can't get rid of the exhaust you have a big problem.
 
plugwash said:
Yeah, fundamentally an AC unit can only move heat arround, it can't destory heat it and in fact it produces heat.

So if you can't get rid of the exhaust you have a big problem.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I should be more clear. Even with the exhaust going through a window the tubing that it leaves through heats up to incredible levels. I have heard people run it through the wall, but that's a little excessive for I'd say 99% of people lol.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Skillz said:
Interesting looking unit. If I read it correctly you do not need to worry about dumping a drip pan right? It basically evaporates it into the air that is being exhausted out the exhaust hose? Pretty nifty.
Click to expand...
Kinda: If the area is especially humid, there is a backup drip pan in case the water isn't being evaporated fast enough.
 
I use R8 "pipe/duct" insulation with integrated vapor barrier, on all the exhaust vents from the portable units I have setup in my server room. Works grea.
 
The room my rack is in also has my dryer in it. So I just Y ed off the dryer vent and hooked it up to the exhaust of the ac unit. There is a window in there but it's on the front of the house and my wife would have a fit lol If I hung a AC unit in the window just so my office would stay cooler ..
 
I recently bought this:
http://www.amazon.com/SPT-000BTU-Si...eywords=spt+8000+btu+portable+air+conditioner

I initially bought it from Amazon warehouse, but the unit I received was in terrible condition and missing accessories, so they offered me the new one for 20% off ,

I'd say it works well, I haven't really tested it extensively and it hasn't been terribly hot around here. I will say getting the exhaust tube to stay in was awful, it took me like an hour to force the hose in 2 plastic holes.

The only reason I got it was because currently the window in my room is a sliding casement window, and I don't think my future apartment will allow an air conditioner. Otherwise I definitely would have gotten a window unit.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Dang, great feedback!

I'm Definately going to look into the units more in depth to be prepared for any of the issues shared. The master bed has a huge sliding door and that's it, so window units are outta the question
 
I use two 12,000 BTU portable a/c units to cool a garage after heavily insulating the garage door. I had to go with portable units vs window units since I needed to exhaust through a tube that I put in the garage door.

Portable a/c do not work as good as windows units. You deff want to overshoot the size to make sure you have enough power to cool off the space. If you have a window, use a window unit.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Dangman said:
Kinda: If the area is especially humid, there is a backup drip pan in case the water isn't being evaporated fast enough.
Click to expand...

Yeah I seen that and it said that even that will get sucked back up into the evaporator, but I suppose if it's really humid it will fill up faster than it can evaporate it. How often do you have to empty yours?
 
Skillz said:
Yeah I seen that and it said that even that will get sucked back up into the evaporator, but I suppose if it's really humid it will fill up faster than it can evaporate it. How often do you have to empty yours?
Click to expand...

I only had it a week before I had to return it. In that time, I didn't have to empty it out.

Oh I didn't have to return it for any technical reasons or flaws: My boss just told I couldn't have it anymore in my work area. Since I already had AC at home, I sent it back.
 
Wait! You bought that for your work area at work? Need more details! Haha!

How big of a work area were you trying to cool? Did it keep the area cool? What kind of temps was it before you started using it and what kind of temps did it get down to with you using it?
 
Skillz said:
Wait! You bought that for your work area at work? Need more details! Haha!

How big of a work area were you trying to cool? Did it keep the area cool? What kind of temps was it before you started using it and what kind of temps did it get down to with you using it?
Click to expand...

I didn't take exact measurements but my rough guessing is that the area I was trying to keep cool is roughly 25 feet by 30 feet. It's an open area so there's no walls which did limit the effectiveness of the AC. The warehouse is pretty damn tall so I had the exhaust pipe pointed far upwards. I had the AC set to 65C but combined with the 90C heat in the warehouse at the time, it probably came out to 75 to 80C which was just fine for me :)

While those kinds of ACs work best in a room, the AC was sufficiently powerful enough to keep my area as well as parts of the other work areas around me cool.
 
Cut a hole in the wall and place a window unit in the hole.
 
This should give you an idea of how much power you need.

air_conditioner_btu_calculator.png
 
Sweet. If I were to guess, a window unit is more energy efficient right?

I think the portability may be a factor as well.

It's for my mother in law, she has terrible hot flashes.

Since we are in the military, we will be moving in a few years. The hole in the wall would be perfect if we were staying in this house, but I don't want it to be a "turn off" selling point when the time comes.
 
BroHamBone said:
Sweet. If I were to guess, a window unit is more energy efficient right?

I think the portability may be a factor as well.

It's for my mother in law, she has terrible hot flashes.

Since we are in the military, we will be moving in a few years. The hole in the wall would be perfect if we were staying in this house, but I don't want it to be a "turn off" selling point when the time comes.
Click to expand...

Yeah check out this site: http://homeenergypros.lbl.gov/profiles/blogs/warnings-about-portable-air-conditioners

Yeah the portability is really nice. If you have the room by that window, you can grab you a unit that puts the condensation back into the air (dont have to drain the drip pain) and one that comes with the window attachment.

Check out that 12,000 btu unit I linked you to. You can grab a "like new" one from amazon for $309.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top