Whynter ARC-110WD 11,000 BTU (5,900 BTU SACC) Portable Air Conditioner with Dehumidifier and Fan for Rooms Up to 350 Sq Ft, Includes and Storage Bag, White

My husband and I needed a portable AC unit for our computer room as it it located upstairs in our apartment and the central AC does not efficiently pump cool air to the top floor. It would be like 5-10 degrees hotter upstairs than the rest of the apartment. With our computer room having several computers and electronics, it became unbearably hot in the summer months, and cranking the AC down did not help (it only made the bottom floor colder and the top floor the same temperature). After much messing about with the air ducts/vents to try and 'funnel' the cool air to the top floor, we gave up and ordered this AC unit.This was a good purchase. It was easy to install with some basic tools (needed a hacksaw to trim the window piece to fit) and we also bought some weather stripping foam to create a better seal around the window piece.We have had it running non-stop all summer and most of the fall with no issues. I routinely vacuum the filter in it for maintenance, but other than that it hasn't needed any upkeep.It cools our computer room (about 10'x10') very well with the door closed, and if we leave the door open to the hallway and adjoining bedroom it will also cool those rooms by a few degrees. We haven't really tried cranking it down to anything below 70 degrees, but at 70 degrees it does a great job keeping the first room constantly cool and the adjoining rooms at around 72 degrees.Previously, we would have to crank the AC to 67 degrees and keep it running constantly to get a cool 72 degrees upstairs. Horribly inefficient. This has saved us a bit of money on cooling costs as the downstairs can now be left at a constant 72 degrees and the upstairs is cooled to 72 degrees with the portable unit supplementing the central AC unit.So far, very happy with this purchase and would recommend as a supplemental cooling unit.

So Far I really like this air conditioner, it lives up to its promises, it doesnt leak like another air conditioner I had, that made the claim it reabsorbed the water, and used it for cooling the unit as it worked. Instead it leaked out the bottom from some indeterminate location. This one I am very happy to say doesnt, in fact it has two drain plugs. I tested them out after running the unit for 4 hours on an upper 90 degree day in Seattle, I opened the top drain and had a bowl ready to catch the water, not much water drained out, I opened the lower one a few hours later and the same, not much water. I then ran the unit for another 4 hours with no issues. This unit will automatically shut off if the water gets too full, so you can empty the drains, but so far that hasnt happened, it uses excess water pretty efficiently it seems, the dual hose pipes seems to help this unit work more efficiently too. It cools a 600 square foot room quite well, with the excess cool air leaking into the rest of the 2000 sq foot house keeping it overall cooler.

This is a good looking unit and cools my area well. I found the following problems while using it.Problem 1. I am in NC and this unit produces a lot of water when on cool. After one day it shut down and I determined that the internal water collection tank was full. After emptying the tank the unit come back on. However the tank filled again and I had to attach a hose to the back and drain the unit into a catch basin. It is located in my garage so its no problem. I decided to run the intake and exhaust hoses directly through the wall using common dryer hookup adapters. The install looks nice and professional. If you want to see pictures contact me. I am not going to post them hereProblem 2. The unit is specified to use not more than 1080 watts and draw a maximum current of 9.5 amps at 115 volts (Power P = voltage in Volts × current in amps) = 115 volts x 9.5 amps = 1092 watts (see the manual on page 16 line 4 and 5).When it threw my 15 amp breaker three times I ordered a Kill-A-watt meter for measuring current draw. Using the meter I determined that the unit was drawing 13.5 amps after operating for about one hour. You obviously cannot have any other current draws on the same 15 amp line.I contacted the manufacturer (Whynter) at 1-888-949-6837). The person who helped me said they had not had the same problem reported by other users and suggested the unit may have a bad compressor. That I should ship the unit to them for service or if I was under the 30 day window to request a replacement from Amazon. I did the latter since I had no box to ship the unit in. I received the new unit via Prime shipping and hooked it up. Well this one blew the breaker after a few minutes. I put the unit on the current and wattage meter and found it was drawing a peak of 14.44 amps which calculates to 1656 watts. Just using the garage door opener would kick the breaker out.I found one other review on Amazon complaining of the same problem. see JW review of March 12, 2014. I have quoted the pertinent paragraph from that review.(quote from JW's review)" Update: My friend purchased an LG LP1214GXR and it's noticeably quieter than this Whynter unit, enough to consider returning our unit. We threw away our box though, so it's moot. Also, we haven't been able to use our unit for an extended length of time because it has been blowing the breaker on the room. We suspect that the unit probably draws 12 amps or more (like most 13,000 BTU units) rather than the stated 10.8 amps (room's breaker is 15 amps and blows easier when it's hot outside). We bought a heavy gauge extension cord to plug it in in another room, not ideal,but don't really have a choice."I did not have the option of running it from a separate breaker so I had to have a new ($225) 20 amp outlet install in my garage to handle the unit. If I had the other box I would have returned both units. Without the box I had no way to box it up for return. Lesson learned. Keep all boxes until the return period is over or you are sure you are satisfied.I don't blame Amazon I do fault Whynter. They should have updated the manual to correct the current requirements. I chose this unit partly based on the low current required. So I was deceived!!! Lesson learned.