LIVING DIRECT EdgeStar AP14001HS - Portable Air Conditioners

In the time I was researching which portable A/C to purchase, the price of this unit went up $15 but even so it was still equal to or less than the cost of any other 14,000 BTU unit that had heating capability and actually less than several that did not have the heating feature.The unit was received within about 4 days of placing the order through Amazon.Package arrived in good condition.Installation was easy - almost totally intuitive and there was only one point where I had to refer to the enclosed documentation. It took me 1 hour total to unpack, install and clean up afterwards. I did ensure the unit had been standing upright for at least 24 hours before turning it on, based on comments from some other reviews on the same item.The unit turned on instantly and within a few seconds was producing a good volume of cold air.This unit was purchased to replace a 9 year old 13,000 BTU unit (different brand) that was past its prime and in which the self-evaporating drain pan feature was no longer working, resulting in almost 3 gallons of condensate that had to be drained into a bucket and emptied each morning after the unit ran 8 hours overnight.This unit cools much more efficiently - rating wise (at 14,000 BTU) it is only about 8% higher than the one it replaced, but in practice it feels like it has about 25% more cooling capacity. The old unit used to have its compressor running all night long and despite that, would not drop the temperature enough to meet the 72 degrees setting. The new unit reaches the 72 degree level within a few minutes of turning it on (in a dormitory environment with 10' ceilings, windows on two sides, one of which faces the sun most of the day, and a 24' x 20' floor area - about 480 square feet) and the thermostat keeps it within 1 degree of that setting throughout the night. You can hear the compressor kick in and out and it seems to run about 50% of the time and maintain the pre-set temperature vs its predecessor which had the compressor running 100% of the time and did not ever reach the pre-set temperature, and produced 3 gallons of condensate that had to be manually drained. The new unit is rated for 525 square feet and from what I have seen, it would have not the slightest problem in keeping that much area at the required temperature.Filter is easy to clean and easy to remove and replace.I don't have a sound meter to measure the sound level, but it is not intrusive, about the same level as the unit it replaced, and in the dormitory environment acts like white noise to make other sounds less impinging.The only one small point that annoys one of the room's occupants is that the blue LED indicator lights and the display panel are quite bright - enough to cast a faint blue glow around the otherwise dark room. This was "cured" by sticking a yellow tabby over the LEDs and display panel which muted the brightness. A suggestion for future versions would be a dimmer control for the LEDs and control panel.As California has been having some hot days, have not had any reason to use the heating function yet so cannot comment on that.This unit looks very similar to the Whynter 14,000 BTU unit which sells for almost $100 more than this one. (One of the other reviews commented that this unit is basically a Whynter with a different label - I can't comment on that but it does look almost identical to the Whynter and produces the same volume of cold air and has the same features as the Whynter which we have in another room).Overall, totally satisfied after using it every night for 2 weeks now. And it has not needed to have the internal drain pan emptied, so the self-evaporating feature seems to be performing as intended. Although I don't expect to have to do so for many years, I would definitely buy the same machine again.

First off, if buying a portable AC you really, REALLY need to buy a dual hose model. It's ridiculous they even sell single hose models. This EdgeStar AP14001HS is a dual hose model.With single hose portable air conditioners, some of the air inside the room being cooled - air that your AC has already worked hard to cool - gets exhausted out the window. This creates a negative pressure and outside air - warm outside air - is drawn into the house/room through tiny cracks and gaps in the house.With dual hose units all the chilled air inside the room stays inside. Because a second hose draws in air from the outside to cool the coils. Rather than just sucking in air from the room to cool the coils and then exhausting it outside.Now - about this unit. Two years ago I purchased a Whynter 12000 BTU portable uni for the upstairs of my house. It worked well enough but only lasted two years. I made a bunch of calls to local heating and air businesses but no one seems to repair these portable units. So I had to purchase another. As long as buying another portable AC I decided to get the maximum BTU available which is 14,000. The Edgestar was about $50-80 less and looked to be exactly the same unit as Whynter's 14000 BTU model.It arrived two days earlier than Amazon's original estimate. In good shape. And it is exactly like the Whynter AC's. I didn't even change hoses. Just disconnected the hoses and unplugged the electric. of the old unit. Rolled the new Edgestar unit into place and everything snapped right in. So it's near certain that the same manufacturer makes these units. So one might as well buy the least expensive.It is quieter than the old Whynter unit. Seems to cool well. Like the Whynter these have an evaporator system which sends moisture that condensates from the AC cycle out the exhaust tube. If you live in a super humid climate you might have to empty the drain pain on occasion - which is a fair amount of trouble. But in two years I never had to do so. The evaporate system seems to work well for most. I just hope this unit lasts longer than two years.A few consThe instructions could be a lot better. The biggest issue is they don't identify what control panel lights indicate what functions. Really dumb. For anyone reading, the top light in first row indicates it is in cooling mode. The middle is fan and the bottom lights are dehumidifying or heat. If heat it is a red light.The instructions say to install the carbon pre-filter. But there is no carbon pre-filter. There is some sort of weird looking black plastic filter in a plastic bag. I went ahead and installed it. But it's not carbon. I might by some carbon filter media at a pet store (you can find it in the Aquarium section and it's typically inexpensive)it is not much of a con - but the heat mode on these portable units is a heat pump. Basically reversing the AC operation. If you live in an area that gets really cold - below freezing - heat pumps are not all that efficient or effective. I wouldn't pay extra for the feature but this unit was still cheaper than comparable ones without the heat (pump) feature.