portable aircon unit?

[Jen27]

Hi

its about 35 degrees in this house today, (hotter than outside!). baby is due in a few days so I think its a good idea to buy a portable aircon unit. We will use it in our room first (as baby sleeping in basinet in there) then we will use in babys room.

They seem quite expensive, and we don't want to go buying one that is useless. any reccomendations? where to buy and the price? any to avoid, that you have found not good enough???

we are looking for one that is quiet to use

thanks

[ControlFreak]

I have one - and to be honest it was a huge waste of money - I think from memory it was about $700 (from Bing Lee - no idea of the brand) and it never actually cooled down the bedroom we had it in. You basically had to sit directly in front of it to feel the cool air. Also it had to work too hard when it was really hot and would freeze up and stop.

Are you renting or in your own place? R/C aircon was the best thing we ever put in our house and less exxy than I thought.

ETA: BTW noone I have spoken to who has one rates them very highly...

[aussienic]

We have a cheaper version from Bunnings.. Was $399 and it is a 12,000btu. At the moment Dh is using it in the bedroom for his day sleeps after night shift and is finding it fine./. In the real hot days of summer it doesn't do a great deal but it takes the humidity out..

[Kirley64]

By portable air con do you mean the old style 'bonair' units that you constantly have to put water into? or the air con units that sit in the windows?

The bon air units only give out one blast of air in the direction its basically pointing in. My parents have two of the other air con units as they are renting.. however they don't move them around as they have them mounted in their windows and got a special size glass mounted around it so they are permanant. Do research on them because you can get all different sizes and if you have a medium to large room there is no point in buying a small one as it will do nothing. just waste power and money. they have a small one in their bedroom because it is a really small house and the largest possible in their living areas. for that one they had to get a special power point in as it uses more power than the regular points give out... shop around and so some research on them (i know you don't have long - but its worth the money and the effort)

[shellbell3]

We bought one of the ones where the tube sits out the window, think it cost bout $600 or so, sorry can't remember exact now.
We live double story so gets very hot upstairs, it will cool the room we have it in. I usually turn it on couple hours before bed and shut the door, once DD is in bed I set it to bout 22 degrees but cause I leave her door open partly I think the temp thing may not be exact.
We couldn't do without it. It does make some noise but not overally bad, no probs with sleep or anything. We went to Harvey Norman and asked them what the quieter ones where and what we'd need for the size room we had.

[maz]

We bought one from the reject shop last year for $400 cause our evaporative was shiat!!!

I would have died without it..its the same one shell discribed..tube out the door...have to watch the water flow thing cause it turns of when its full but my god....I love it.

[Mummy2Lilly]

Hi there,

Shellbell3 can you tell me if the one you have is any good. We have been looking at these in bunnings lately and been wanting to know if they are any good or not.. Dont want to to waste my money. If you could tell me about yours it would be great. I.E does the it make the room it is in cold?

Thank you..

Also OP sorry for hi-jacking your thread. Just heard these ones are ment to be good. But like to get some reveiws.

[shellbell3]

It depends how hot it is, our upstairs can get up to 40 degrees or more on the really hot days so when its like that it won't be cold but cool, otherwise it can be cold if you sit the temp down that low or if you have it on for a long time.
The kids rooms are smallish too so that helps also. We've been really happy with it cause it helps keep the room decent enough to have good night sleep, we do need to leave it on most night too cause once its off it heats up pretty fast. And we need to put it on at least 2hrs before bed to get the room cooler.
Also if your windows are wind out like ours its a bit harder cause you can't put the tube out without allowing hot air to re enter. If they're up/ down windows prolly will work even better.

[Marydean]

I have 2 portable aircons - both De Longhi Pinguino & they are both *fantastic*. They are "real" airconditioners, one of them has a water boosted action & a tube that you use to vent the hot air out a window/door. The other is a portable split system, so the fan part sits inside the room and it's connected to the split system by a long insulated tube thing that you can feed out thru a window or door. It's very powerful and can cool a large space like a large l-shaped kitchen/family room area. It was quite expensive but a godsend, especially if you're moving from rental to rental. The split system is quieter than the other but obviously cost a lot more so there's a payoff there.

I can't think when it gets too hot so it's been worth every penny here - but it was very expensive to run both of them day & night during the big heatwave we had in Jan so I think I'll be a bit more careful with their use from now on.

[HollyC]

When we were renting we bought a portable aircon. It was a refrigerative one with a tube you stick out the window. It was useless. We spent about $900 and got a very powerful one. It blew out cool air, but the unit itself and the tube got so hot that it all evened out. I read the manual and there was one sentence that said it wasn't a 'room' airconditioner, it was designed to cool a personal space within a room. It was also so loud.

We ended up taking it back and buying a box one and temporarily mounting it in a window. It worked so well.