BLACK DECKER Smart Portable Air Conditioner 14 000 BTU for Rooms up to 700 Sq Ft Smart Portable

I work from home. My home office, with all its computer equipment, heats up considerably. The office is always 15-20° warmer than the outdoor temp. In the summer, 90° outside can easily mean the office is 100-110°. Ouch. Not only is 100° an uncomfortable work environment, but it's dangerously hot for any computer equipment. Small 12x12 former bedroom -- I originally tried a Honeywell 8,000BTU unit. I gave up on that after a month or so and gave that unit away. It could not cool the room, due to the computer equipment, despite the unit running pretty much constantly. I then upgraded and for the past several years I've been running a Wynter 14,000 BTU portable AC. It was loud, but it did the job of cooling the room. The condenser burnt out about 6 months ago, but it would still blow cooler air and suck the hot air out of the room. So I continued to use it until I found a replacement. It never really got "cold" without the condenser functioning (and no one wanted to repair it) but would easily cool the room to a more livable temp - around 80°. However, it ran almost constantly in summer months. So my electric bills easily climbed by $100+ each month. Naturally, I decided to replace the old unit, which was breaking down, and decided on this Black&Decker 14,000BTU unit. The B&D unit EASILY cools the room in a few minutes and keeps it cool all day (cooling, then shutting off, then kicking back on several minutes later). Overall the B&D unit is much quieter than previous units I've owned. Of course there's the sound of the fan/rushing air when it's running, and there's a loud "ca-chunk" when it starts up the condenser (as expected). But, unlike previous units, I can still talk on the phone 5 feet away without having to first shut the unit off. In addition, the hose attachment on the back of the unit is LIGHT YEARS better than any previous unit I've seen. I do not want to have to install dual hoses for venting. So I will only look at/use one hose units. I always had trouble with hoses staying connected to the units. The "unit-to-hose connectors" other manufactures proved were a COMPLETE joke with no actual "locking" ability.. it was like resting a tissue on an outdoor picnic table and not expecting it to blow off. The hose would fall off then the unit would simply be blow hot air into the room rather than venting it out - actually heating the room as opposed to cooling it. I previously had to wrap the vent hose with a considerable amount of duct tape in order to keep it actually attached to the unit. The hose connection on the back of the B&D unit is SO MUCH BETTER and fool-proof. It essentially locks in place and stays put. No more worries about the host falling off. I like this feature a great deal, even though it's such a minor thing. My ONLY real complaint is the remote control. Not in its functionality, but in its design. The LCD screen REALLY needs some sort of illumination. Forget about reading the remote screen in a dimly lit room. I really dislike how dark the screen on the remote control is. But, it's not like I need to read the remote screen repeatedly or even frequently. I can live with it. But if they wanted to improve anything, it would be the illumination of the remote screen. I can't yet speak about longevity of the unit. I tend to use a portable AC every day, 14-16hrs, from about April through to about October.. and I got this B&D unit in Aug of this year. I would expect it to last at least 5 years, if not much longer. My last 14,000BTU unit lasted a decade before it started breaking down. If I factor in the cost over a 10 year lifespan, it's well worth it when considering at a per-year breakdown. I also can't directly speak about electric costs, as I've not had the B&D unit long enough to make an adequate comparison. However, since the B&D unit shuts off for several minutes after cooling, rather than continuously running, I would anticipate energy costs to be much lower than I've previously experienced. But I do consider any energy costs to be a necessary evil to both keep computer equipment at healthy temperatures and to not have to work in a 90° office. Overall, I'm pleased with the purchase. I was strongly looking at this unit for a few weeks weeks, researching, then it hit some sort of sale at Amazon and I purchased it for much a lower price through Amazon than I could have from ANY other retailer. I did shop around several online retailers for this same model and Amazon had the lowest price by literally hundreds of dollars at the time. Read more

I bought this last summer when my AC conked out and I didn't want to immediately shell out the $5K+ it would take to replace it. But it's very hot and humid in my area so some relief was necessary. My brother lives in a house without central AC and uses a combination of window units (which aren't allowed where I live) and a portable unit similar to this one. I looked at number of different models and read a lot of reviews before settling on this one. (And I definitely wanted to order from Amazon because of the fast, free delivery right to my door, and also because of price.) I have to say that I was taken somewhat aback when it arrived in such a big, heavy box. Thank goodness the delivery person got it up the stairs to my door because I had a hard time just dragging it inside. I then let it sit there for a couple of days* while I got my nerve up to unpack it. I shouldn't have worried because the container was designed so the unit could be very easily removed. (But I then had to drag/roll it into the other room. Yes, I'm apparently a weakling.) *My delay was probably a good thing because there was a notation on the box that the unit shouldn't be turned on right away if the box had been turned on its side (the same as with fridges). I had no way to know if it had been turned on its side during shipping, but it was safest to assume it had been. Once in the right location, it was pretty easy to install. Again, I had been expecting something more complicated, but was pleasantly surprised. I didn't need any special tools or jury-rigging. It was literally a matter of minutes to get the vent set up in my window. So, how does it cool? Pretty well. It would probably be great in an enclosed room, but I have it set up in a more open area. It gets the immediate area pretty cool, but, of course, I can feel the temperature rise the further away from it that I walk. I can't fault the unit for that. It cools enough and reduces the humidity to make several small adjacent rooms comfortable/bearable. I left the unit set up in place all all thru the winter--didn't bother to take the vent out of the window--and it was fine even in the cold weather. I've never needed to empty the drip tray, despite the humidity. I don't use the remote since I mostly just set the temp and let it run, so I can't speak to how well it works. (But, eh, a remote's a remote.) When it's getting a workout, it does sometimes shut off because it ices over (there's a warning light that tells you what's happened). No action is required, tho; I just have to wait a few minutes and it restarts on its own when it's ready. It is a bit loud--louder than central AC, but about the same as a window unit. To be honest, I got used to it pretty quickly and don't even notice it anymore. It certainly doesn't bother me when I sleep or anything. I'm very pleased with this unit. It's done a great job, got me out of a bind, and saved me a bundle. It works well enough that I've been in no rush to replace the central AC (although I'll get around to it eventually). Read more