Customer Reviews

Danby DPAC120068 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've owned one of the Danby 12,000 BTU air conditioners (model DPAC 12030) for two years now. A unit of this size struggles to cool a 400 sq.ft. room a few degrees (with 30ºC outside, window curtains drawn). I find the best way to use it is to have the air blowing directly toward me.

My main complaints about the unit are:

* After a few months of use the small LED display, which is needed to operate the unit, slowly went dim to the point of not being able to read it. After many phone calls to Danby I was finally able to get the display replaced under warranty by a local electronics service company. But a few months later the display went dim again - as though Danby hadn't bothered to upgrade this obviously faulty component. To their credit, Danby agreed to replace the display one more time out of warranty.

* The air coming out of the unit had a strange smell of oil for the first season. The service company said that sometimes the compressor leaks oil and it was probably the smell of the oil burning off of the compressor housing.

* The unit is not real quiet. For the first year there was a rattling noise that occurred when the compressor kicked in, but this noise seems to have gone now.

This item is a piece of junk! Cheap parts and poor construction make it a nightmare to operate and a problem waiting to happen. Within first month the thermostat stopped working. It will barely cool 400 SQ. Ft..and it is way too noisy. Customer service is very poor as well. Stay away from this turkey. If you buy it don't lose your receipt. You will need it.

I bought this Danby Portable Air Conditioner Model Number: DPAC120068 a couple of months ago from a different supplier. I use it in my bedroom and have the rest of my apartment unairconditioned. It gets up to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and my room stays cool at 73 degrees.

Dual Hose feature appealed to me so that no negative pressure is created bringing in hot air into to the room from outside. It was easy to install with everything needed included in the box except foam insulation standard for AC window units. I did not have to drill any holes into the window sill which is required for window units.

I was disappointed that the unit still uses the old refrigerant R22, which means I will not be able to service the unit myself. The unit knocks a little when it first starts up but quickly quiets down. I do not know if this is normal. The knocking is irritating but it has not woken me up or kept me from sleeping. The water tank can and will fill up at humid times when the external coils cannot evaporate such a large amount of water. Luckily it is a very large tank and will take a long time time to fill.

Overall, I am happy with this unit. There is a remote control which I have no use for. If the power should go off for more than a few minutes, Danby says that it will forget all settings, so do not be surprised if you come home from work to a hot room.

I am giving 3 stars out of 5 because of the old R22 refrigerant, lack of memory for power interruptions, and brief knocking.
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I want to give the device 3.5 stars, but I cannot so I'll give it 3 stars for being average. I have owned this device for 9 months now, and have used it for probably 2, and just started using it again this year. I'm not really sure how effective it is compared to other portable machines, but it does make a great cooling fan, and it cools a small room well. The main reason I bought it to help me stay cool when I do my elliptical machine workout, and on that front, it works perfectly. The backlit display is nice, and the machine is probably "average" for noise level. The hoses are good quality, flexible and you can put the hoses vertically or horizontally which is really nice, and while I haven't really used it, the remote control with an LCD is a plus. The coasters on the unit make it pretty easy to move around, and it feels very solid in build quality.

I'm not sure how long the unit will last, but if I get at least 4 years of use out of it (I paid about $400), that's roughly $100 per year and I'd give the device 4 stars at that point. From others I have spoken to, you can expect to get 5 years usage, tops out of most portable air conditioners.

No complaints so far...

We decided to buy this before the heat wave hit this year (which it has not for more than 2 days) and so far it has been able to cool an 800 sq foot room about 3 degrees. It is only 80 degrees outside right now and it cooled the room to 78 in about 20 minutes. Mind you this is meant for a 6 sq foot room (we decided to just test it a little).

It does have a strange smell to it...oil maybe? But, I would say it is worth the money for a portable a/c unit. The fan is about as loud as a normal stand alone fan.

I had this unit for 2 years now is it works fine even running this unit for 3 days straight without shutting it off. It is very well build compared to a Royal Sovereign 13,500 BTU unit that I also have. Both units pump out cool air, but the only reason this unit did not receive 5 stars is that it can barely keep up with a 400 sq ' room that gets direct sunlight. I would buy again if the price ever drops below $420 delivered..

We bought this as a $400 solution to a $3000 problem. We thought that two lousy space pac ac outlets in our first floor family room would cool the whole 1st floor (about 1,000 sf).

We were wrong, and rather than install another central ac system on just the first floor, bought this. It sits in our DR - Chicago summers can get hot, so it often runs for days non-stop. We haven't had any trouble with it at all, and other than one of my kids breaking the moving louvers that help circulate the air, it runs fine and keeps its 750 sq ft pretty cool. Not put-on-a-sweater cool, but cool enough to not be sweating.

Granted, it's big and kind of ugly, but it doesn't take up a window, and when the weather gets better, it's easy to disconnect it from the window to open.

I'm guessing this will die in a year or two, and we will likely buy another Danby.

Died after 2 seasons on NO replacement parts! Horrible customer service, terrible manual and when it did work, it had problems starting up the compressor frequently.

AVOID or you will be sorry