Portable Air Conditioner Any Good?
I'm considering purchasing a DeLonghi "Pinguino" portable air conditioner (it's on wheels; does not get installed in the window). Has anyone had experience with these? Any recommendations or warnings? Thanks.
Answer:
The original post never showed up here: They have these conditioners in Portland, and they don't really seem all that good to me. They cost almost twice as much as a window mounted air conditioner, and you still have to vent the hot air out somewhere through a long tube. I imagine there may be some instances where this would be an advantage, but portability never seemed to be a strong point of an air conditioner. Once you move it from point a to point b, point a is going to heat up again. I had a Pinguino several years ago (around when they first came out) before I installed central A/C. It actually worked better than I expected, and it was certainly useful for me since none of my windows are A/C-friendly. (The first unit I got had a DOA float switch, but that really doesn't mean anything...) Generally, I found that it was able keep a 15x15 room cool provided you were willing to keep it running-- it couldn't really lower the temperature quickly. Also, you had to be careful to keep the room shut off from the rest of the house... Based on other comments I've seen posted the design may have changed, but my unit had to be filled with water every few hours. The heat pump within the unit evaporates the water which is in turn rejected through the vent as vapor. This is not condensate; the unit does not dehumidify much if at all. In fact, on some particularly hot and humid days I would run a dehumidifier in the same room and use its condensate to fill the Pinguino. (Yes, I'm aware that the dehumidifier adds heat, but I think I ended up ahead with the reduced humidity, at least from a comfort standpoint.) The Pingiono instructions claim that it will run at reduced capacity with no water (air serves as the second-stage "fluid"). In my experience this mode of operation is useless. It's hard to compete with the heat of vaporization of water.