SPT 8,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner

I bought the SPT 8000btu portable A/C several weeks ago. I am pleased with its performance and price so far in the hot 100 degree summer of Tucson, Arizona. It appears very well crafted and comes with a clear English instruction manual. This is a small unit and I suspect for many people it will be underpowered for their situations. It is underpowered for my situation as well but keeping my A/C bill down as low as possible while maintaining a modicum of reasonable comfort was my goal. I am not looking for frigid conditions. This unit does not do frigid unless you have it in a small enclosed room. To clarify, the air that exudes from the unit is indeed frigid but the volume emitted is limited by its size. The air output area is only 9.25x7 inches; less than the dimensions of a standard piece of office paper. This unit runs on only 900 watts; half the power of my Presto deep fat fryer. I have the SPT's thermostat set to shutoff at 84 degrees but it has never reached that temp and has never auto shut off. It runs until I manually turn it off. This indicates it is underpowered for my space but it does cool it down sufficiently for my needs. I recommend it be supplemented with fans as I do. My apartment has central heat/air but the vents lack louvers to open or close so all rooms are heated/cooled simultaneously whether you need it or not. This is most wasteful. Plus I have no idea how old, inefficient, or poorly maintained the central air unit on the top of my roof is. It's probably a rusty, inefficient, electricity guzzling relic. It does cool but at what price?I have a typical modest one bedroom apt in which the the small kitchen and living room is essentially one space, the square footage of which exceeds the specifications of the SPT unit. But I have it near my desk at the end of the living room and it cools nicely. The window kit extends sufficiently to fit the standard apt horizontally sliding aluminum window. The exhaust tube is like a compressed plastic slinky that can be stretched out but efficiency is best served by trying to keep it straight at its shortest,most compressed state (thirteen inches) by lifting the SPT onto a piece of furniture and placing it close enough to the window so the slinky does not have to be stretched (plus raising it is better since cold air sinks). Thus, there is only 13 efficient inches between the rear of the unit and the outside and less strain on the unit. It does exhaust a lot of hot air which I went outside to inspect with my hand. It is quiet and produces a subtle authoritative hum of quality when the compressor is on.My only quibble is that the connection of the slinky to the two adapters on each end (one on the unit and the other on the window unit) could use some improvement. It looks as if they screw on but they don't. The inside of the two adapters have two parallel ridges on which the ridges of the slinky catch as you push the slinky directly into the adapter. It took me a while to figure this out. So you have to wedge as much of the (slightly expanded) ends of the slinky into the adapter as possible, but there are no clicks or pops to indicate that the appropriate connection has been effected. It's kind of primitive and easily becomes dislodged. I used duct table on both ends to effectuate a better seal. I have yet to see my post SPT electric bill but am cautiously optimistic that it won't be drastically higher. So I recommend this if it suits your circumstances. If you need more cooling, you can opt for SPT's 10000BTU unit --- but your electricity bill may be higher.

My computers are in a 180 sq.ft. room on the second floor of my condominium. While my unit has central air, this room is always 4-5 degrees (F.) warmer than the downstairs. In fact, due to the design of the A/C air ducts, this room only gets about half the airflow that goes to another, smaller, upstairs room. In short, it has always been way TOO HOT, especially in the summer, and computers don't like heat.I bought this unit because of the rave reviews on Amazon, and while I am very pleased with my purchase, there are a few areas where my knowledge was lacking prior to my purchase. Originally, I planned on setting up this unit to use in two different rooms, at two different times of the day, but I soon discovered the casters are too small to safely move the unit with the carpeting I have (though the casters would work well on hard floors). Also, changing the window kit setup and the exhaust vent from one room to another would be way too inconvenient to do on a regular basis, so I quickly abandoned that idea.Here are a few more points to consider:1. The unit is much bigger than I thought it was when I looked at the photo on Amazon. Be sure to check out the dimensions before you buy it (see photo).2. If you have a window that opens by sliding the glass from side to side, and that window is recessed into the wall more than one inch or so, the four inch wide window kit that comes with the machine will not work without some modification. This is because the oval-shaped vent in the kit is about three inches wide, but it quickly flares out to a 6 inch diameter circular vent. In my case, I had to buy a 4 inch wide (1/2" thick) board to place in my window, just to the right of the window kit, along with additional weatherstripping, in order to make it fit in my window (see photo).3. Whether the fan is on high or low, it is very noisy, especially when the unit is cooling. I could not even imagine sleeping in a room with this noise, unless the only choice was sleeping in a very hot room, then I'd have to get used to it. Keep in mind, however, that the fan runs continuously, whether or not the unit is cooling. It only goes off when you turn off the power.4. The direction of the vent can only be adjusted vertically, not from side to side.5. While the exhaust hose can be extended to a maximum length of 59 inches, the minimum vent height above the bottom of the machine is 12 inches, and the maximum vent height above the bottom of the machine is 47 inches (photo from the manual). Also, the vent should be free of any kinks.6. The unit uses 900 watts of power (photo from corrugated carton).Nevertheless, with all of the above reservations, this machine really delivers the cold air and my room stays much cooler than before, and for that I am very satisfied with the purchase. In addition, the unit comes with a remote control with the same functions as those on the main unit. It is very convenient to use.One other note: there are two drain plugs on the back of the machine. The first one is located about 15 inches above the base of the machine. If you want to continually keep the machine drained, this is the only way to go. A one foot (approx.) clear plastic hose is provided for that drain, but it will also accept any 3/4 inch threaded hose (I used a 3/4 inch washing machine hose). I ran that hose into a large glass bottle by drilling a hole into the plastic bottle lid and inserted the hose's other end (very easy to do).Update: If you live in an area with low-humidity (as I do), you may be able to use the internal tank without it ever filling up. Unlike my instructions in the paragraph above, I no longer need to drain the tank as I am using the internal tank for the whole season without any problem.The other drain plug is located about one inch from the base of the machine. It holds the contents of an internal tank. You can use one drain or the other, but you wouldn't use both. If you use the internal tank and it fills up, the machine will stop emitting cold air, although the fan will continue blowing, and the display will give an error message indicating a full tank. This is what I am using now. If the unit ever fills up, I can easily roll the machine from my bedroom and take it outside to drain the tank. But if you have carpet, or if your machine is stationary, that may not be a good solution for you. I hope this review helps. Thanks for reading.

I was a little wary after some of the reviews because our apartment is large and open, with high ceilings, and I was afraid this unit would struggle to cool it. But I hooked it up with no problems. We're not allowed to put air conditioners or vents in the windows, and our apartment has only one window anyway, and then the whole wall of the great room/living room/dining room is plate glass with a sliding door. So I placed the unit in front of the sliding door and vented it out that way, with the sliding door open just wide enough for the vent apparatus. (You can buy kits separately for just the purpose of venting a portable air conditioner out a sliding door, actually.) I didn't put weather seal around it or make anything permanent, but it didn't matter. This thing works like a charm!To make sure I got good airflow I did place a stand fan in front of the air conditioner, at a 90-degree angle, and let it blow some of the cool toward the other side of the apartment.Within an hour we were cool and we've been cool since (over 2 weeks), even too cold a few times. We've been having super-humid 90-plus degree weather so I was surprised. I had expected this unit to maybe take the edge off but it cools the whole place like a charm. The only downside I can see is that my cat likes to jump up on it and change the settings, and that's more a failing of the cat than of the unit.