Customer Reviews

Amcor PLM14000E 14,000-BTU Portable Air Conditioner with Electronic Controls

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1 star:		(8)

 

 

I purchased an Amcor PLM 14000E portable air conditioner based on its selling points, including being able to use it in a standard outlet, its light weight and size, and the BTU rating. The a/c unit arrived in a box that had significant wear and tear, but the unit was intact and all parts were there. It actually weighs 83 pounds (per UPS scales) vs. the 75 pounds as indicated by the manufacturer and the 58 pounds indicated in the description. The installation and setup was very easy - about 10 minutes. The weather strip provided by the manufacturer is basic and cheap. I used a better quality weather strip from Home Depot. After waiting the required 2 hours, I turned the unit on. The unit ran well for approximately 3 hours, and then the built in Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter (AFCI) tripped. I reset the AFCI (built into the unit's power cord) and the unit ran for about 10 minutes and the AFCI tripped again. I cannot get the unit to run for more than 10 or 15 minutes without the AFCI shutting the unit down.
I plugged the unit into a standard, 15amp household circuit. I checked the voltage at the outlet and it read OK. I also calculated the total load of all the lights and appliances in the room to see if I was drawing too many amps. If I powered on EVERYTHING that's plugged into my master bedroom circuit, including the new A/C unit, I might be pushing 15 amps. The unit indicated it took 9.5 amps and I typically only have two 75 watt lamps running at the same time the A/C unit was running. Total amps never exceed 10 or 11.

I called Amcor and they told me the AFCI tripping issues was a "known problem" (quoted directly from the service representative) and that it was due to the very sensitive nature of the built in AFCI. He went on to say I could call an electrician to inspect my home wiring (house is only 8 years old) and/or have a 20 amp dedicated circuit installed, and/or have the built in AFCI removed from the unit's powercord. He was sure to emphasize that he nor Amcor supported removing the AFCI unit. The other option the Amcor rep suggested was to return the item and request a refund - which I did.

So I'm out roughly $140 in shipping charges due to Amcor selling a portable air conditioner with a "known problem." I'm not sure it qualifies as a defect, but it certainly does not work as advertised.

Other "issues" include:

The fan is a bit noisy and does not shut off after reaching the desired temperature set on the thermostat, but the compressor does shut down. It would be better if both the fan and compressor shut off.
The remote control has a display panel that can easily get out of sync with the unit's display panel. If you change the thermostat temperature on the remote control and do not point it directly at the unit, the change will not take affect on the unit, however, the remote's display will indicate the new temperature setting. I'm not sure how useful the remote's display panel is.

(This is a lengthy review which focuses on a personal account rather than the features of the unit itself. It should provide valuable insight for those of you contemplating a portable AC purchase).

PURCHASE REASONS
1. I live in New York, there are typically 3 months a year of hot, and sometimes humid, weather. I need to cool a 300 square foot room.
2. In my living room, I have only one window wide enough to hold a window ac unit. I would hate to have my main vista view window obstructed by an ac unit.
3. On some days, it's better to have an open window and use a fan.
4. I want selective room cooling.

SUMMER 2006 EXPERIENCE
A week into the purchase, I was feeling elated ("wow, this unit cools really well and it's 80F outside"). Then that feeling turned to frustration ("damn, this circuit breaker is way too sensitive"). And finally, after a month of usage, annoyance set in ("damn it's 90F and humid outside, this machine keeps shutting off every two hours and getting on all-fours to empty the water tank is a pain".... "damn!!! it's 2am and I feel hot'n'sticky but I've got to empty that tank"). By the end of summer 2006, I was so disgusted by the underwhelming performance of the unit that I vowed to either improve its usefulness or junk it.

PROBLEM
When the internal water tank is completely full, the unit stops working. On a very humid day, that can mean less than 2 hours of continuous operation. Appalling. Alternatively, you can fore-go the internal tank and use continuous drainage. Unfortunately, the drain outlet is an inch from the ground which makes it impossible to use a hose and bucket (since any drainage hose must run downwards). There must be a really good technical reason why the outlet is located at near-ground level, otherwise it is an incredibly stupid design flaw. Furthermore, the exhaust outlet (for expelling hot air) is situated 1 foot off the ground. How many window sills start at 1 foot height? Stupid, stupid, stupid!

SOLUTION
I elevated the unit by two feet. I placed the whole thing on a sturdy table. Warning: this unit is heavy so you need a strong, rigid platform. It also has wheels (which I didn't want to remove), so the unit needs to be stabilized. I bought some pvc hose pipe (1 inch diameter) from home depot and also bought two buckets from some random store (each bucket holds five times as much water as the internal tank).

SUMMER 2007 EXPERIENCE
Besides a couple of circuit breaks, I've had flawless operation. I'm glad I now have a truly usable unit (which doesn't demand my attention in the middle of the night). However, it required a lot of effort to get there (including my strength to raise the unit onto an elevated platform).

IMPORTANT POINTS
1. I did my research before my purchase but still felt like I initially bought a turkey. Many net reviews are very inadequate. There is either too much regurgitation of the units features or superficial user experiences ("wow, this unit cools my space really well"). For example, a seasonal user in Boston may have a very different experience from an all-year user in LA.
2. Pay attention to the EER rating. AC units are power hogs and the electricity bill can sky rocket.
3. Consider buying a powerful fan to circulate the cool air. It can make a BIG difference.
4. Don't gloss over the noise levels. These units are completely within the cooled room so they will be noisier than comparable window units. I now use headphones to watch TV.
5. Have a REALLY good reason for choosing a portable unit over a cheaper, quieter, (better performing?) less maintenance window unit.
6. Pay attention to where you buy from online. You may need to pay hefty courier costs if you need to return the unit.

CONCLUSION
Portable units are a great idea but they are still in their infancy. The technology needs to be seriously improved before they can be considered the default option (over a window unit).

I am having the same problems as others. The unit is tripping each 2, 3 hours. I called electrician about this issue as AMCOR suggests, but he said it must be AC's problems, not circuits.

Also water started leaking from this unit even though I did empty the water tank! My new carpet got water damaged! I am so in shock this.

I have tried to call Amcor, but could not reach them because always busy. So I decided to retuen this and have been trying call Air & Water which I bought this from, but also I could not reach them at all, either. Waiting has been forever on the phone, so I gave up and had to do return process by online. Now they want me to pay return shipping fee and 15% restocking fee. I just feel it is not fair.

Don't waste money for this unit. Find reseller that not ask any fee to return.

This product did not live up to my expectations in so many ways. As mentioned, the GFI plug is ultra sensitive, you'll give up on setting the time after it trips for the 10th time in three hours, you cannot get it to shut off at desired temp, and the design of the unit is terrible. I was told by several online retailers that this unit was "drip free," although I should expect to empty it "occasionally" if I live in an especially humid environment. Well, living in Southern California (and having lived on the East Coast for a brief stint) I presumed I'd be ok with an "occasional" emptying. I was even told by one retailer that their firm was located in Southern Cal and they ran their unit for a month without needing to empty it. Well, maybe I just generate more humidity inside my home than they do. Anyway, I empty it twice a day now. Moreover, it makes a lovely beeping noise and flashing indicator to let me know it needs to be emptied, which is great to have when you're sleeping. I like waking up at 3 am to my AC flashing and beeping like a fire alarm. But I digress. Back to the design flaws of this unit- the drain plug is conveniently located so low on the unit (MAYBE an entire inch off the floor) that it takes several trips to drain it into their convenient drip pan (provided for your emptying pleasure). The exhaust hose on the unit gets very hot; I mean, hot to the touch.

Listen, there are so many cons to this unit, and this review could go on for another paragraph or 7 describing them. However, I think you get the point. If you like poor design, bad quality, false advertising and high maintenance, this just might be the unit for you. Otherwise, stay away.

Not to disrespect the other reviewers here - I understand that some products work well in some situations and not in others.

For my own experience, this has been a great purchase, none of the problems others have reported. I've had it for 3 years now (my building is a bit slow to switch from hot/cold for central air) and it's been great, no leaking, no electrical problems, just very reliable, cold air. In fact I'm on here right now buying a 2nd one.

NOT IMPRESSED WITH THIS THE AMCOR PLM140000E. KEEPS SHUTING DOWN DUE TO THE AFCI CIRCUIT BREAKER. THE TIME CAN BE SET USING REMOTE BUT TO SET TIME ON THE ACUTAL UNIT ONLY THE HOURS WILL WORK THE MINUTE FUNCTION WON'T BLINK TO SET. ALSO THE ROOM TEMPERATURE IS SUPPOSED TO SHOW ON THE FRONT OF UNIT BUT IT ONLY WILL DISPLAY THE SELECTED OPERATING TEMPERATURE. I WISH I WOULD HAVE HAD A REVIEW TO READ PRIOR TO MY PURCHASE. I WAS ALSO TO RECEIVE A FREE AIR PURIFIER WITH MY ORDER. THIS HAS NOT ARRIVED YET AND THE STORE (AIR-N-WATER) HAS DUMPED THE WHOLE PROBLEM IN MY LAP TO TAKE CARE W/AMCOR DIRECTLY. OF COURSE CAN'T GET THROUGH TO AMCOR.

I hear that gentleman's frustrating experience. Here's my own experience: I am a single parent, no man in the house to help me out. I thought of getting one of those portable window units but I had no idea how to put it in the window without falling to the ground. So I opted for the stand alone portable air conditioner.

I actually bought a 16000 BTU unit but the same brand, etc. I get full on western sun coming through my bedroom window with summer temperatures in the high 90's and 100's in the summer. My daughter and her husband were coming to visit me last summer 07 and I wanted to make sure they were cool as well as I. I already owned a stand along portable air conditioner in 9000 BTU's which worked fine for me the summer before but now, I needed two units, I got the 16000 BTU unit from Amcor and it was so powerful that my circuit breaker kept going off. So much for keeping them cool. I consulted with my brother in law who is a contractor and he said it's easy for him to install a higher circuit breaker. (I don't remember what the term was.) He simply pulled out the original one and inserted the higher (wattage) one and my circuit breaker has never tripped again. It was easy and cheap to do.

Concerning the drainage system. It does have a continuous drainage hose that actually does work even if the drainage plug is at the bottom of the unit. As water piles up, it eventually squirts out the window with a little hose that's included. I can hear it give a little squirt from time to time. A couple of times I even checked to see if there was extra water being built up in the unit that needed to be drained and there never was any that I had to drain out. It works. At the end of summer as I took the unit out from the window, I unplugged the drainage plug and not one drop of water came out.

The one thing I had a big problem with was the exhaust hose. It's made out of cheap, thin plastic that has no insulation around the 4 inch in diamiter hose. My room would get hot simply from the hot exhaust hose. So, the thinker to the solution that I did was I went to a home supply store and bought hose or pipe insulation. I didn't stick the hose through the inner of the insulation, I just doubled it up and cut with a blade the length that I need and duct taped as tightly as I could around the hose. I found that I was faced with the problem that it gets so hot in the summer that even the duct tape came undone, so I wrapped more and more duct tape around and around and that kept from coming undone.

The noise, I can deal with that, it's not super loud. I can't deal with the heat. I like that I can simply take it out of the window when cold weather comes and when hot weather comes again, I can simply rehook it back up in the window. I think it's definately worth buying a stand alone air conditioner that isn't a hassle to hook up and take down.

For full on hot summer sun, this unit kept my bedroom cool. I have a swamp cooler and with one unit at one end of the house (upstairs) and one unit at the other end of the house (upstairs) I never turned on my swamp cooler. I thought the two did better than my crappy swamp cooler. I'm going to buy another one to see how much better the house feels this summer.

As other reviewers have noted, you should avoid this product at all costs. It shuts down all the time. I've tried connecting this to a line conditioner and it helped a bit but the unit still randomly just turns off. Don't make the same mistake and buy another brand of air conditioner.

I've used this A/C unit for 3 years. Other reviewers complain that it trips the circuit breaker. It's never done to me ever. Never tripped it's own built in circuit breaker, never tripped the building's breaker. I'll turn it on at 8am and off at 7pm when the cool breese starts and it runs just fine. As for removing water, there is a little hose you hook up to the a/c unit and run it inside the white 4" exhaust hose. The water is blown out the window - It's totally automatic. There's no need to empty the unit manually. Never had a leak.

The exhaust hose does get hot and radiates heat into the room, so I got some insulation designed for a hose from Home Depot. Heat is retained in the hose and blown out the window.

Noise - it does get noisy and when talking on the phone your friends know when the A/C is on. But, I can watch TV with it on, just turn up the volume.

The window bracket cracked by the hole where the hose plugs in. 1/4" wooden dowel and hot melt glue gun to the rescue! Glued dowel to both sides of the hole, Now it's stronger than stock.

I have used this A/C for one year, and I love it. If there is too much humidity, then the A/C will turn off. After I emptied the water tray; it works perfectly. I have had to empty the water about four times over the last year, so it is a great product!