In the middle of this summer on the hottest day of the year, my central HVAC died on me. Being that it was in the middle of the summer, I couldn’t get an HVAC technician in for weeks I have an 8 1/2 year-old French bulldog and it is so important that she stays cool So I hopped on Amazon and purchased the Black & Decker portable air conditioner 12,000 BTU and I am so happy that I did!!! It took several months for my HVAC to get fixed I was able to keep my bedroom hallway and both bathrooms, nice and cold with this Black & Decker portable air conditioner I had no problem, setting it up myself I attached the hose and used the window kit that came with it, and was up and running in five minutes. It took very little time for my rather large master bedroom to come down and temperature from 90° to 68. This portable AC was my savior for the rest of the summer! It’s a work horse. It ran for days on end without issue. I love that it was portable. I was able to get an extender for the hose and roll this into my hallway so I was able to cool off my home office on days that I was working from home. Then those evenings, I would just roll it back into the bedroom. If someone hasn’t given me another standup air conditioner I would’ve purchased a second one of these for my living room and dining room area. The only thing I wish they would change the remote control It needs to be backlit. But other than that, it’s a very convenient feature that I really appreciated having It’s nice to be able to control the temperature of this machine without having to get up and go over to it, especially in the middle of the workday The airflow was very strong and it was adjustable. I was able to adjust the angle of the flow quite easily. I’ve never used a product like this before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect but this definitely exceeded my expectations. My HVAC is now fixed, but we are definitely keeping this close. Our HVAC is an older system and our master bedroom doesn’t cool off so well with it so next summer we’re going to be setting this up in our master bedroom for added cooling. This machine ran for two months straight without ever turning it off. We experienced nothing but great cold air from it. Thank you, Black & Decker for making such a great product and keeping my family cool during one of the hottest summers we’ve ever had!! Such a great product. Easy to set up, seems to be very durable, and it didn’t take up a ton of space If you are looking for a great AC system that will cool off larger areas of your home. I highly recommend this Black & Decker portable air conditioner. Read more
I am a little confused with all the negative reviews saying that this product is not worth it. So far, this product has done wonders for me. Unfortunately, it has not quite been a month yet since purchase, but it has been well worth the money! I understand seeing these negative reviews would turn people away considering the price, so I am going to give my honest feedback. I live in an apartment complex, a townhome, and we are not allowed window units; however, the AC does not reach the entire upstairs very well, and the maintenance team likes to do as little as possible about it. So, we had to invest in one of these, and I can honestly say, I am so thankful I don’t have anymore sweaty nights! The temp goes down to 64 degrees which is super, super comfortable. I do not sleep with it that low, but I love a cold, cold room, so I sleep with it at 68. If my door is open, it will cool most of the upstairs (three bedrooms). I have had some complications with understanding the controls and keeping the AC part running constantly, rather than just the fan. The fan will always be running regardless of the actual unit running, which still does keep it cool, but def not as strong as the actual unit pushing out a repeated cold. It is hard to explain because I am still figuring it out, but ultimately the hard AC does work constantly, and no matter what, it’s always blowing cold air. If you’re worried about the apartment complex not allowing window units, but you really want to be cool, get this. The part the has to go in the window is not big at all, and it actually, from a glance, just looks like you have a window fan, and it sounds like it too. My only complaint with this product is that because the AC part turns off and on to fan mode when it thinks the room is cool enough, it will constantly wake me up in the middle of the night. It will wake me up when it starts to turn on and off because it does sound like an actual AC unit when it turns on, and that got so annoying. That is why I wish I could figure out how to get it running constantly rather than turning off every time it feels like the room is at the temp it needs to be. To address one final complaint, I seen a lot of complaints about the noise. I would say, if you sleep with a fan on, the noise is FINE. I don’t sleep with a fan on anymore because the noise that it makes blowing, makes up for the noise from the fan. As I stated already, it’s just the kicking of it turning on and off that keeps me up. I have found that if I leave my door open when I sleep, it runs most of the night because it is also trying to cool the upstairs, not just my room. As for energy efficient, I will have to come back to this when I get the electric bill for next month- being that I have not had it a whole month yet. Read more
