This portable AC unit is an absolute BEAST. I am extremely happy with it!
Pros:
1. The main reason for buying an AC, how well does it cool, you ask? Absolutely fantastic! It easily puts out 30-35F colder output air than the ambient temp of the air in the room. Even outputting air lower than 32F, with no problem. The lowest I have seen it output was 27F when the room was at 61F and it has never frozen up on me. When the room is 90F it will easily output 60F, sometimes even lower temp air. All temps checked with a calibrated infrared thermometer. This is fantastic performance! With temps at 96F outside, it will easily keep my 375sqft upstairs room with vaulted ceilings at 75F, and that is WITH a computer system, including three monitors, and a server that all total around 750 watts, trying to make its job difficult! Great performance! That is the whole reason I bought this unit, since this upper story room gets really hot in the summer, even when the computers are not running, and that is where I have to work from home. To get this performance, I insulated the exhaust tube well, so heat does not radiate from it back into the room. It will not work as well if you don't do that. I doubt it could keep the room at 75F when it is 96F outside if the exhaust tube is not well insulated.
On days that I know it is supposed to reach above 90F I turn on the AC early in the morning (8AM usually) at its lowest 61F setting, so it will get as cold as possible before the heat of the day, and basically let it run all day continuously, while I work, for it to keep it at 75F.
If I don't turn it on early enough, it does struggle keeping it at 75F when it is 96F outside. But if I do as I explain above, starting it early, it will slowly creep up as the day gets really hot. But so far I have never had it go above 75F when I start it early in the morning, even when it is 96 outside (the hottest I have had to deal with, so far, since I bought the unit in July 31, 2021. I live in Orange County California for reference. And keep in mind this is with 750 watts of computer equipment heating the room all day as well.
In comparison, I used to have a Soleus Air 14,000BTU unit with two hoses a few years ago. I thought it was decent, but not amazing. So when it broke I didn't bother replacing it. Well working from home because of COVID changed that, and I am so glad I bought this Whynter!! It is WAY better than my old unit.
2. Good noise levels for a portable AC. Quieter than the Soleus Air. On the highest fan setting, it is about as loud as a large box fan on medium settings. The fan is what makes the most noise on this unit. The compressor is quieter than the fan on its highest setting, so it doesn't really sound that much louder when the compressor is on. On the lower fan settings the compressor is louder than the fan. BUT there are some cons with the noise when it cycles if you are using this unit in your bedroom as you are sleeping. See the cons section below for more info on this.
3. I actually love that the air is blown upwards! Unlike a lot of reviews on here, who really dislike that. I have vaulted ceilings on the upper floors, and having the air blow up, will actually keep the room cooler and more even. It might take it longer to cool down a room on initial start-up, but it will keep the temps more even, and won't have to cycle as much when the air is blown up. Since hot air rises, the only way to cool the air efficiently above the height of the unit, is to blow the air up. My earlier Soleus Air could only blow the air horizontally, and it would be nice and cool down low, but at head level standing up it would be significantly warmer, and the room was never evenly cooled well. None of those problems with the upwards air from the Whynter. It keeps the whole room much more cool overall.
If you need the cool air blown directly at you, use a fan. I do agree with other reviewers that it would be nice if the unit itself could have the output adjusted more. But I prefer it blowing up, so it is a non issue for me.
4. I like the looks a lot more than any other unit I have looked at.
Cons:
1. I loved the AC's performance so much in my office that I bought another one for the bedroom. It is actually cheaper to run these than running my central air that is cooling the whole house, and instead just cool the rooms I am in. I hardly use my central AC anymore, and my electricity bill is much lower as a result. However in the bedroom, which is also around 375sqft, and vaulted ceilings, I ran into a problem that I didn't run into in my office, because it runs pretty much continuously in my office. When the temp in the bedroom reaches the AC temp settings, the unit shuts the compressor off, and runs the fan on the lowest setting for a while, and then shuts off the fan completely. This is terrible because the difference in noise levels is quite drastic when it comes back on, and it will wake you if you are using this at night while sleeping. But this is not even the worst. The worst is that it cycles the fan on and off, even when the temp is not high enough to trigger the compressor. And it does this a lot! Supposedly it does this to "sample the room temp" to see if it needs to turn on the compressor. I really dislike this, as the noise from off to the fan on is a big enough difference, like I said above, to wake people from sleeping. So even when the temp is low enough, it still cycles the fan on and off, a LOT!
2. This next bit is also mainly at night when trying to sleep. When it is hot enough, but not so hot that it needs to run continuously, it also cycles a lot when it reaches the set temp! And it is not that the unit is oversized for my needs. That is just how it is with this unit. Like I said it will keep a room at 75F on a day that is 96F, but it has to run pretty much continuously to do that, and you have to start it early, so it has a head start. Clearly it is not oversized for daytime use and the temps outside are above 80. The issue at night, when the temps outside are cooler: Say the temp outside at night is 75, and you have your temp set at 70F for sleeping (and by the way, the thermostat in the unit is very accurate! It matches my infrared thermometer reading exactly when it turns off. If it turns off when set to 70F, it really is 70F at that point! Impressive). When it reaches 70F it will shut off. But then it turns back on again at 71F! Only one degree warmer. This is too narrow of a working band. It should really be 2-3F in my opinion. Also, in my opinion, a perfect way to program this would be that if you have it set to 70, it would actually cool to 65, and then stop, and turn on again when it reaches 75. That would be perfect! I would rather be too cold than too hot. With such a narrow working band, this AC is oversized for a 375sqft room with vaulted ceilings and the temp outside is less than 80. With a wider working band of 2-3F, even when the temps are less than 80 outside, I think it would cycle longer, with less wear and tear on the compressor, and let people sleep better without the constant 5 minute cycling.
That said, I would rather have too narrow of a working band, than too wide. A 5F band would be terrible too, as when you set your unit at 75 during the day, it would reach 80 before it would turn on again. That is too hot, and uncomfortable. Too wide of a working band also causes issues when your significant other is more sensitive to the cold. With a 5F working band, if you set it to 70, so that it won't go above 75, 70 might make people sensitive to cold feel too cold, while 75 might be borderline too hot for someone sensitive to the heat, like I am. Too wide is worse than too narrow, in my opinion.
Anyway, the point of this long winded section, is that the ideal solution would be for the working band to be user adjustable! If you want it 1F, you can have that, and deal with the shorter cycles, but even temps. If you want it 5F you can have that, and have much longer cycles (probably better for the compressor), but deal with the wild temp swings. 1F cycles too much for my liking, and honestly it is my fear that it will wear out the compressor, more than just my comfort that makes me cringe when it starts cycling so often. But when combined with the issues I mentioned in Con #1, that it is very loud when it cycles, it is just too much to bear when trying to sleep. During the night when I set the unit much colder than during the day, I would be fine with a wider working band to keep the loud cycles down. On cool days or at night, I would set it to 5F wide and set the temp to 65 so it would never get above 70 for night. And on a cool day I would set it for 70 so it would never get above 75. During a hotter day, I would want a more narrow working band. The current 1F working band is fine! I can set it at 74, and it will never get above 75. And since a hotter day will take it longer to lower it one degree to 74 from 75.
But if the working band had to be set and not be adjustable, I would rather it was set to 2F, or at most 3F, rather than the 1F it is set at from the factory. That would work better on cooler days or at night, with a bit less cycling, even though the temp swings would be greater. And it would be okay on hot days as well, when it will probably run continuously, anyway.
So I have resorted to two options:
Option A: Setting the unit to 61 when sleeping, so it won't cycle for a long while since it is set so low, and when it finally reaches 61 and starts to cycle every 5 minutes, it wakes me up, and I shut it off completely. Then I can sleep in peace until I get too hot at around 74F when sleeping, at which point the heat wakes me up. I am more sensitive to the heat when sleeping. That usually takes about 2-4 hours depending on how hot it is outside, and so when it wakes me up I turn it on again. It usually will cool from 74 to 61 in a couple hours, at which point the cycling wakes me up again, so I shut it off. And then I am usually good until I need to get up. This usually results in being woken up 2-4 times during the night, depending on how hot it is outside. Not that bad, as I usually get up at least once a night, anyway, to get a drink and go to the bathroom, etc. So when the AC wakes me up, I take care of things then. And I am good at falling right back asleep.
Option B: If it is really hot, I start the AC about 2 hours before I go to bed. By the time I am ready to go to bed, it is usually at 61F, or at most around 63F. Then I can turn it off and fall asleep in nice cool comfort. But because it is a warmer night, and because I started it earlier, it will warm up earlier in the night, etc., and as a result I usually get woken up more in the night from being too hot, and I need to start the AC an extra time during the night. So this option results in the AC waking me up more times a night than Option A. Still not really a big deal, and the comfort of falling asleep in nice cool temps is worth it sometimes.
But I really wish I could set the working band. This would solve this problem entirely. At night I would set the working band for 5F and set the temp to 68F. That way it would go up to 73F (not too hot to wake me up), and turn on, but take longer to get down to 68F. And cycle maybe every 20-30 minutes instead of every 5 minutes as it does now if I set it at 73F. Then during the day, when I don't care about being woken up, I could change the band to 1F or 2F, and be more comfortable with less drastic temp swings. It would be perfect!
3. The remote is pretty bad. My Soleus Air had basically the same functions on the remote, but what was nice about it was that it worked from really far away, and at wide angles. The Whynter remote has to be quite close, and you have to point it directly at it, and not to the side by much. Otherwise it won't work at all. Second, the Soleus Air remote was a two way remote. The unit could communicate back to the remote. That way if you changed settings on the unit itself, it would also update on the remote. The Whynter remote is one way only. From the remote only. If you change any settings on the unit, it will not update the remote. This can cause issues. If you have set the fan speed, the timers, or whatever on the unit, and then change the temp on the remote, all those settings are overwritten by whatever the remote was last set at for those settings. In other words, say you had turned down the fan on the unit, but had the fan on the highest on the remote last time you touched it. If you then use the remote to change the temp settings alone, the fan will kick up to high as well, even though you didn't want that, because that is what the remote has set in its memory. The Soleus Air communicates the settings on the unit to the remote first, and then the remote would send the temp change, so that no settings are overwritten. And vice versa. Nice feature the Soleus had.
Also, in the 21st century it should be able to be controlled over WiFi from your iPhone or Apple watch! From anywhere. Even from outside your house. And the remote could work over WiFi as well. Then there would be no range or angle issues. Having an app would make it really easy to change the working band as described above as well, and enable all kinds of useful features. Like elaborate programmed timed behaviors. Like automatically setting it to 61 for two hours, and then turning it off for 3 hours, and then on again for 2 hours. That would also solve my sleeping issue, without needing to change the working band.
Anyway, despite these cons, this AC is still wonderful for me. All I really care about is that is can cool really well, even on extremely hot days, and this unit definitely does this very well! Better than any other Portable AC that I have had, or seen others have. Others might not be able to deal with the cycling when trying to sleep, or not willing to resort to the options that I have resorted to. In which case, this Whynter might not be for you, despite how good it is! But if you are using it in a room other than the bedroom, it is absolutely fantastic for most people, I would think!
| Manufacturer | Whynter |
|---|---|
| Part Number | ARC-14S |
| Item Weight | 73 pounds |
| Country of Origin | China |
| Item model number | ARC-14S |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Size | 1 Count (Pack of 1) |
| Color | Platinum/Black |
| Style | AC Unit Only |
| Material | Carbon |
| Power Source | Corded Electric |
| Voltage | 115 Volts |
| Wattage | 1300 watts |
| Installation Method | Window |
| Item Package Quantity | 1 |
| Air Flow Capacity | 222 Cubic Feet Per Minute |
| Sound Level | 56 dB |
| Special Features | Best Overall Portable Air Conditioner, Activated Carbon Filter, Dual Hose, Dehumidifier |
| Included Components | Window installation accessories, remote, and storage cover bag with pocket |
| Batteries Included? | No |
| Batteries Required? | No |
| Battery Cell Type | Alkaline |
| Warranty Description | One year warranty on unit. Three year warranty on compressor. |
| Capacity | 500 Cubic Feet |
| Floor Area | 500 Square Feet |
| Cable Length | 6.5 Feet |
