Windmill 8,000 BTU Quiet Window Air Conditioner, Cools up to 250-350 sq ft

For reference, I live in a 750 sq foot, 1-bed walk-up apartment on the third floor. I could ramble on about this AC, so I chunked out my take-a-ways: Features: Sleek and Planet-Friendly. It's a far cry from the bulky window units I've had in the past — Passed down from my parents'' house and so on. The smart controls are intuitive and easy to navigate. My favorite feature is how quiet it is - We sometimes forget it's on. Coming from someone who lives in NYC with constant noise outside, it is lovely to have one less appliance that adds to it. Performance: We live in an old NYC walk-up apartment, and this AC has made the record-high summer temperatures bearable. The dual air intake feature is a nice touch. I've noticed that the air is distributed well across the room, which is always a plus. Emergy Bill: Compared to our energy bills with past units, this hasn't increased ours and seems super efficient. They have a program called EcoRewards, where you adjust your temperature at certain times (to help decrease your carbon footprint), and you get money back that you can use towards your bill. Value for $$: Excellent! Depending on what type you're looking at, it might be priced slightly higher than traditional units -- But the energy savings, sleek design, and basically silent noise level make it worth it. I'll be buying another one once our next one poops the bed. THINGS TO NOTE THAT I FOUND HELPFUL: - They offer a trade-in program where you can get $10.00 off your purchase if you recycle your old AC. In NYC, you can schedule a free pick-up for your old unit (their website has the link for this) - The company is big on environmental sustainability (love to see it), so take advantage of their EcoRewards Program. During certain times of the day, you change your AC temp by a few degrees, and the money you earn can be used towards your electric bill. The company will send you a message letting you know when and for how long to do it. Buy it! It’s perfect for people who refuse to compromise style, comfort, or eco-friendliness. They give you everything you need to install it, including scissors for cutting the window lining. They also sell great winter covers, so you don’t need to remove the unit annually. If you want an AC unit that combines style, efficiency, and noise level, this is a super solid choice.

Good AC, quiet operation BUT if you plan on using automations (programmed on off, mode choice, fan speed) DO NOT buy this AC. It took more than 25 emails with tech help to get a simple automation working. Google "windmill ac automations not working reddit." There is no guide or FAQ and the scripting just does not make sense. The automation routines available on the app are flawed. Tech was very responsive, but I got suggestions that did not work and were later contraindicated. If you just plan to turn on the AC manually or with the remote control you should not have problems. Thanks again Tech help, but really not one help request should have been necessary.

I’ve had to deal with Window units on and off over the last 40 years, some pretty new and some built in the early Sixties (they are REALLY heavy), but I will say this is the nicest I’ve used. But expectations are everything, if you think it will be a miracle machine you may be disappointed. But if you like good industrial design, care how it looks, and love the idea of controlling with your phone, I think you’ll be pretty happy with it. It was easy to unpack, easy to install (with really clear instructions), didn’t require anything not in the box to install (yes, it really does come with scissors to cut the side panels. If you think that’s ridiculous you haven’t been around people under 30 much lately), it’s powerful, and has a great App. I don’t want to pick on anyone else’s review, everyone has their own pain points and expectations, and yours may not be met: no product can be perfect for everyone. But I think it’s a good, well made, and quiet unit, that looks nice and does pretty much what they say it will. The “Inverter” that comes with the WhisperTech just means that the compressor is variable speed; unlike the old units we dealt with that only ran at full blast, this guy will speed up and slow down depending on how much cooling is needed. This can cause the unit to rattle on startup, or make noises when it’s changing speed that people aren’t used to associating with AC units and they assume it’s a flaw. It’s really just a temporary side-effect of a great feature: variable speed means it’s quieter and uses less energy just keeping your room cold than it uses to get it cold in the first place. This is a good thing. I don’t leave a lot of reviews, and this product doesn’t really need any help, it has a great star rating already. But I do see a fair number of one star, “Just don’t buy it!” reviews that are based on things like it broke after a week or the filter isn’t a HEPA filter and that makes the whole thing useless, where they are not reviewing the unit itself, but rather their disappointment that it failed in one specific thing that they hate (it doesn’t say it has a HEPA filter—you may want one but that’s not a flaw in the unit). Just read the description they gave it, and strip out all the shiny phrases and exclamation points marketing put in, and decide if the product they describe is what you want. As I said way at the top, before we all got old reading this review: it’s as good as they say it is. I think most people will enjoy it and think it was worth the money. Enjoy the rest of the reviews!

I don’t quite know where to start. From the first start up, the unit shakes so much for a brief moment when the compressor turns on that it rattles against the window loud enough to wake me from a dead sleep despite requiring 7 screws directly into your window and frame. I had to add additional support below and on the sides to stop it from shaking on startup. One of its biggest selling point, the inverter, also somehow results in the unit running so slowly that it sounds like someone is playing a bass tone on a subwoofer throughout my apartment (only noticeable to those sensitive to sounds). The front panel is warped and held on by weak magnets meaning it also rattles if not put in place JUST right. It’s super quiet other than that… The carbon filter is a joke. It takes up about 10% of the entire intake and a brief smoke test showed almost all air was pulled from around the filter. The firmware is not even currently on version 1.0 and it shows. It requires a Windmill account for any functionality (most WiFi enabled ACs do but it’s another relatively new, unproven company hoarding your data). It doesn’t maintain previous settings such as cool vs eco, set temp, or fan speed on startup. Similarly, night mode only stays on for one night at a time and is buried deep in the settings that are not intuitive to find. Why not just put the slider on the main page taken up by 50% advertisements for your local utility company? Not sure if the unit is at fault or the app is bad but it tends to hover about 5 degrees above where it’s set in app. With the app’s energy meter, you can see it actively NOT using the full capacity despite also not being anywhere close to the set temp. While the energy meter should be a cool feature, anything other than the real time readout is hilariously inaccurate with my unit using 500 watts for 3 hours straight and then reporting an average of 287 watts over that same time period. Every encounter I’ve had with this company including the app, customer service, and the unit itself shows that this is just another tech startup with too large a marketing budget. I’d never recommend this AC to anyone.

Claiming something is “whisper quiet” when it’s very much not is quite deceiving. When this thing is in cool mode the compressor buzzes so loudly. It does the trick to cool your space and looks nice but I can’t get over the sound . For the amount of money you would think it would have a higher quality mechanism. The Midea U-shaped unit is far superior with sound but has been recalled for leaking (this happened to us) . This company is lucky Midea has so many issues and this apparently is the only alternative. I’m really disappointed and would not recommend buying it , especially if you’re sensitive to noise