 Recommended With Some Installation Tips |
| Review Date: August 6, 2007 |
| Reviewer: J H Murphy, Agoura, California USA |
I won't repeat the comments in the other reviews, which are generally accurate. If you want a portable air conditioner, well, you must make some compromises. I first used portable air conditioners professionally about twenty years ago, so I was aware that they had ducting requirements. If those are a problem for you, look for another solution.
As background, our 16-year-old central air conditioner had a relay fail, and my wife was ill, so I needed to provide some heat relief fast. We live in a condominium and a window unit - the cheapest solution - was not allowed. I installed this in a couple of hours at night and it has been a blessed relief.
I found that there are a couple of installation tips which may make your life easier. Every situation is different, these worked for me, but you should assess whether these will be useful in your particular circumstances.
1. Duct tape is your friend. Don't scoff - the purpose of duct tape is to seal air conditioning ducts, and guess what, that's what we are doing here. Rather than drill into your window frame to mount the duct opening and cover, duct tape will hold it and seal. Since ours is a temporary installation, this is fine. You may find it useful to fasten the window duct apparatus with duct tape for a week or two, until you decide exactly where you want the product permanently, then go through the drilling later when you are sure of the location.
2. Our window was an aluminum-framed horizontal slider. The instructions call for a security mount by screwing an L-shaped bracket to the sash and window frame. This is a BAD IDEA, since this makes it impossible to use the window for a fire exit. A 1x2 cut to the right length will secure the window, and can be removed easily in an emergency. Use our friend Mr. Duct Tape to secure the duct cover to the sliding window. Leave a utility knife handy to cut the duct tape just in case. In any event, for a high-crime area, consider the security impact of a partially-open window.
3. The plastic window opening cover/duct outlet comprises five pieces: two flat plates, a sliding connector to hold them together, a snap-in duct mount/insect guard, and an internal sliding piece to cover the duct opening when the duct mount is removed. For horizontal sliding windows, lose the internal sliding piece, which is always sliding down during the installation. This will make sense when you actually see the unit.
4. As designed, the snap-in duct mount was too long to fit inside our existing screen. I didn't want to remove the screen, which helped to conceal the duct, so I didn't use that, instead relying on our friend Mr. Duct Tape once more.
5. For horizontal sliding windows, this unit will work best with vertical blinds.
6. Make certain nothing leans on or obstructs the hose between the air conditioner itself and the window. Items leaning on the hose may destroy all your painstaking duct tape handiwork.
The unit draws in air from the room being cooled. Some of this is chilled and returned to the room, and some is used in the heat exchanger portion of the air conditioner and exhausted outside. You will need to draw air into the room being cooled. This was not an issue for us.
We are pleased with the unit, and found it more than ample for a roughly 250 square foot room. Highly recommended, just be aware that the exhaust installation is a bit fiddly. Don't forget the duct tape! |
Best Portable a.c. out there
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| Review Date: July 3, 2007 |
| Reviewer: lm, Boulder, Colorado |
Living in a condo and presently not having the funds to install central, a portable was my only option and with 100 degree heat daily this summer I finally broke and bought one.
Like the last reviewer, I also researched thoroughly before purchasing. However, I disagree with many of the reviewer's complaints.
1) The exhaust hose is a breeze to install and probably took me no more than a couple of minutes. I even had to cut mine down to size and it was not an issue.
2) I have honeycomb blinds on the window and the unit does not interfere in the least, so I am not sure why his are "rendered useless" by the a.c. unit.
3) Perhaps he is a very light sleeper, because I have mine running right this very minute on the highest mode and it is still "library quiet" in my opinion. My window fan makes at least 10x more noise than this machine.
4) Nearly all operational displays are on the remote, but the unit also comes with a remote holder on the back for easy storage. If you put it in it's place, you won't lose it. I love the sleekness of this product and am happy that it does not have a bunch of number and digital displays on the front. They designed this unit to blend in as seamlessly as possible with the indoor environment, and I appreciate that.
I paid full price for my unit and would do it again in a heartbeat. I have the 10,000 BTU unit and am using it to cool off a fairly large area which includes a kitchen, living room, and dinette area...probably some 450 to 500 square feet. It cools like a champ! This a.c. was worth every penny and I am a very satisfied customer.
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Wonderfully quiet and cool
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| Review Date: July 8, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Mink Creek, Intermountain West |
We love this unit. Our house has a loft that is 10 to 20 degrees hotter than the main floor. As we live in the high mountain desert this can be quite hot! We either lived with the heat by using 4 fans and a lot of patience or by freezing out the main floor. Our family dubbed the lower floor as Antarctica and our upstairs as the Sahara. After a decade and a lot of worry about energy usage, we decided to try a portable air conditioner. After searching for one that was modestly priced, we purchased a different portable air conditioner. It sounded like a jet engine. Based on reviews, after two days, we decided to exchange it for the Sharp. The difference in the volume is beyond belief. I have a hearing disorder so quiet operation is very important. While we spent nearly twice the amount of money on this unit compared to the previous one, it is more than worth it!
I have listed the pros and cons I experienced below. Generally, the cons are more quirks but a few things may require adaptation. Overall, they are things I am more than willing to live with in exchange for the quietness and the cool.
Pros
-Quiet
-Did I mention quiet? The compressor and the high fan mode are louder than the 38 db they advertise but the overall sound is still modest. To me, it sounds like an aquarium pump.
-Sturdy look and feel to the unit. The plastic seems strong and the parts fit together well. It does not look cheaply built.
-The unit is slick looking.
-The mega chill function is nice to quickly start to cool your room off.
-The vent includes both horizontal and vertical adjustments. There are two vertical adjustments that can be directed so that they blow air to the left and the right of the unit. The adjustments are similar to how car vents work. Several other brands only have a horizontal adjustment.
-We compared the temperature on the remote to three other thermometers located around the room. One thermometer was sitting beside the remote. After three hours of operation, the temperatures were very consistent. One thermometer read 1-2 degrees lower but that one was more in line with the vents even though it was about 12 feet away.
-Cools better for the same BTU than the "freight train" model we had.
-Parts were well machines making the assembly easy.
Cons/Quirks
-The remote works across quite a long distance, but has a modestly narrow range. We had to position the unit at an odd angle to be able to work the remote without having to get up and point it at the machine.
-As other reviewers have noted the controls are on the remote, not the machine. However, I did discover that you can turn the unit on at the machine and it will default to the automatic mode with a temperature of 68 degrees.
-The button marked power does not indicate that the power is on. The LED beside the power button, which is labeled operation, turns on when the machine is operating.
-The vent control could be a bit better. The highest position could benefit from being about 15 degrees higher so that the air was directed a bit more towards the ceiling.
-The delay setting only operates on a 12 hour clock. I could not figure out how to set an automatic on for the afternoon and off for the morning like I could on the "jet engine" unit.
-As others have noted, the rain protector portion of the exhaust hose requires that you remove or alter the screen in your window. Since we live in a pretty dry area we decided not to install this portion and leave our window screen in place. This might not work for those in a wetter climate.
-The fit in the window frame could be better. While the included foam window insulation was nice it was not enough. We added more and also ended up using clear packing tape to secure the exhaust.
-The exhaust unit has multiple pieces that can be fit together to accommodate different window sizes. As we have a vertical slider, we had to use quite a lot of packing tape to secure the parts together. This was true with the other unit we installed but the plastic on the Sharp seemed "slicker" and thus was more prone to slipping apart.
FOLLOW-UP COMMENT, SUMMER 2, July 2010
We continue to enjoy this air conditioner. We have become more sophisticated at using it also which we believe reduces our energy consumption. We typically use the unit to reduce the temperature of our bedroom. In the past we turned on the air conditioning a couple of hours before bed and off in the morning. Now, rather than turn the unit on air conditioning a couple of hours before bed we turn the vent on and express the hot air from the room. We turn the unit on just before going to bed. This seems to work well.
We also discovered that there has to be a clear line of sight between the unit and the remote to have the thermostat work well. This was never an issue last year but discovered it this year when we rearranged our furniture. |
Great Option for Narrow windows
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| Review Date: June 28, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Donald C. Pachner, New York, NY |
When I was told by the local appliance store that my 18" windows were too narrow for a through-the-window air conditioner, I thought of cursing the carpenter who talked me into putting these windows in...the salesman also told me that these AC units are loud and don't last as long as window units...my employees in the office where I needed AC were complaining about the heat and humidity during the summer. I saw this Sharp unit at Costco and the "Library Quiet" description, so grabbed it.
The directions state that the vent can not be installed in windows narrower than 22", but after calling Sharp customer service and a 10 minute conversation with their helpful customer service rep, I discovered this is not true if you don't intend to install the vent hose permanently (I take mine out at the end of the day.)
While I did screw the retainer into place over the supplied foam inside of the window frame (not within the travel of the sash, but further inside the room, with just enough clearance for the window sash to move up and down its full travel and close) I found that taking the "rain guards" out of the vent frame is an easy procedure at the end of the day, as well as replacing it in the morning, when the weather requires AC. That allows the window sash to close after the "rain guards" and hose are removed.
For this reason, I had no problem hooking up the vent hose in the morning, and taking it off in the evening. Since this is used in an office, I need the unit functioning only during working hours. No need for duct tape, though I do need some a little additional weatherstripping near the window along the top of the exhaust vent frame.
For those who mention the heat exhausted from the hose...yes, the hose runs warm, but that heat is exhausted from the room! No complaint from me on that issue.
My employees are delighted with the quiet operation and the comfort level in the 600 sq' room during 90+ degree F, humid days here in the NYC area. All-in-all, this was an excellent buy, if a bit expensive for an A/C. |
Highly Recommended
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| Review Date: June 27, 2008 |
| Reviewer: DJ Feedback, Brookyn |
Well I bought this unit at the same time as another 10,000 BTU portable AC unit by Royal Sovereign. The Sharp was about 20% more expensive but it more than makes up for the additional outlay.
This unit is very nicely designed, it's sleek and clean looking and quite small and light. The best bit of the design is the way the the back steps down so that the outlet hose comes out pointing upwards instead of backwards - this is great because it means that the unit can go right back against the wall to optimise space yet the hose is still concealed by the front of the unit. The other thing which makes this unit a much better buy than the R-S unit I bought is the noise of the Sharp is very acceptable (it's about half that of the R-S unit when both are running at their full cooling potential).
I've had the unit for a couple of weeks and haven't needed to drain it at all yet - unlike my R-S unit which I have drained at least 5 times.
I'm very pleased with this and would certainly recommend it to anybody who is looking for a portable AC unit - please bear in mind though that portable AC units do be less efficient than window units and do take up a fair amount of floor space! However if you are looking for a portable unit I'd certainly go with this one. If you have a large room you should consider going for the more powerful version but for a medium sized room this one is pucker : ) |
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