ARC-122DHP

The portable AC was purchased to cool and dehumidify an attached garage, a little over 400 sq ft., that is being primarily used for storage. I live in S. FL - it's hot and humid. Stored items are subject to heat damage and it gets hot (well in excess of 100 degrees) when the sun hits the west facing garage door (to be insulated - the next project and already have the materials). I was impressed with the double packaging (an outside and inside carton and plenty of supporting Styrofoam panels holding it firmly in place, to prevent damage). The AC itself is well engineered and constructed. Materials are substantial including the window kit. Assembly and start-up instructions are clear and easy to follow - read them before you start putting the thing together. The down side is that the hoses are an eyesore when installed in a vertical, sliding glass window (see photo). Still, the window kit fit perfectly. Once the window sliders were in place, attaching the intake and exhaust hoses was a bit tricky. It took two sets of hands - one to hold the window slider kit in place from the outside and one to snap the hoses on. The window is a standard 48" high and it took the entire length of the sliders extended and fixed at their max dimension. I've plugged the unit into a surge protector bar then that is plugged into a 115/120 outlet that has a 20amp CB and one other appliance plugged into it, a washer. No problems popping CBs when the compressor cycles while the washer is running. The AC cord plug has a ground fault interrupt circuit built in - a nice safety feature. Recall that the 12000 BTU rating of this AC is actually about 7000 BTU by the two standards, the latter specifically for portable ACs since 2017. So, it's a little bit less BTU than is needed for this space. Without direct sun on the garage door, the unit easily cools the space to a dry 78 degrees from a starting temp of about 87 in 1.5h. As the sun moved around to shine on the garage door, the unit struggled to maintain 80 degrees but did so running in the cooling mode continuously. As evening fell and radiant heat dissipated, garage temp went right back to 78 - the set point - and the unit went into the dehumidify mode automatically shutting the compressor down. Pretty efficient. Once I get the garage door insulated I suspect I can get the garage cooler, a bit drier and easily into the 75 degree range. 78 seems to be fine and will be more energy efficient temp. My plan is to use a 4 and 3/4" hole saw, put in two holes through the wall to vent outside about 3 feet below the window sill and install the intake and exhaust hoses there, replacing the window slider kit. That will return the window to it's normal use and remove the eyesore of the unit's hoses.

Before I get started, I'd like to say that I'm the type of guy who absolutely can NOT stand the heat. Anything over 80 degrees and I start losing my marbles. I get easily irritated, I get a bad temper, can't focus, can't work, and can't think straight when it gets too hot at home. So when the recent heat waves were hitting California, I knew I had to buy a portable AC. I ended up purchasing this particular unit because it was slightly cheaper than the competition, and more importantly it had a dual hose setup which I wanted. Won't lie, I had my reservations making this purchase, since so many things can go wrong with this type of product. However, when it arrived and I started using it, it's been nothing but an icy blast thus far!So here we go with the details. The unit arrived, and I set it up myself without any issues. Took me about 30 min to get it all done. I noticed that the window board was pretty thin, so I put some extra foam behind the edges of the board to block some outside noise (kids playing in the courtyard). Additionally, I also put gorilla tape around the whole edge of the window board to prevent hot air from leaking into the apartment.After getting it set up, I let it rest for 24 hours (which you should always do with portable AC's). I came home the next day from work and it was about 95 degrees outside. However, inside my apartment felt way hotter like a sauna/green room as it was baking in the heat with the windows closed all day. Immediately, I put this baby on blast at the highest setting, and set the temperature to 61 degrees which is the lowest. A short 10 minutes later, the apartment living room felt like it was livable again. An hour later, and I was in a cool paradise. I even set up a box fan that blew from my living room into my bedroom and to my surprise, this method actually cooled my room down to a sleepable temperature!The first two weeks I've had it I was super paranoid with the whole leakage situation. I would check back every 1-2 hours like clockwork to see if the AC was leaking water onto the floor. Part of my paranoia was caused by the dripping sound I hear within the unit. To my surprise, even after a month of use, I haven't gotten any leakages! The self evaporating system seems to be working great thus far, at least in my humidity level. If you want to compare to your environment, just look up Culver City, California temperatures & humidity and you'll be able to see what kind of environment my AC has been running on. Today is 86 degrees, with 53% humidity, and I usually have it running 6-10 hours a day. No leaks, and no drain pipe needed, at least not yet.There was one small issue I've had though. This is NOT a quiet unit. If you're looking for something quiet perhaps for a baby's room, this is not the one. It definitely runs loud. I don't know the exact decibel level but when sitting next to it, it sounds like there's a tiny lawn mower roaring next to me. I'm completely OK with the sound level, and it's not loud enough to interfere with my discord calls, even when I'm sitting right next to it, so all is well. Plus, I'd rather my apartment be a little noisier but cool, than silent and hot lol...All in all, this was a magnificent purchase thus far and worth every dollar. It seems like each individual customer's experience may vary, but mine has been great through this month of intense Cali heat. Would strongly recommend this product to anyone who feels like their soul is melting to the heat. Hope this helps!TLDR: Reliable unit so far, great cooling, easy assembly, no leaks, but LOUD!