Customer Reviews

DeLonghi PAC A120E 12,000-BTU Eco-Friendly Portable Air Conditioner

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

This unit does the job advertised, I will admit that. It does cool a room very well. In fact, it keeps the back half of our house nice and cool.

The downside is that it leaks like crazy. Even with the dehumidifier off. And I live in El Paso, not exactly a humid area of the country.

The problem seems to mostly stem from the fact that unlike most similar units, the internal tank is not removeable. This means you can not drain the water off before it overflows the tank.

To make it worse, there is a drain hole in the rear of the unit. But hooking up a hose does not good. It seems it is only made to drain the unit at the end of the season, not for routine use. This places it to high in the tank to actually drain.

We are seeing roughly a gallon of water a day leaking from this unit. I just wish I had looked here before I bought it.

We are on our second Pinguino after our first machine leaked on our carpet. We returned the unit now the second machine leaks aproximately 4 pints of water a day. Delonghi know they are selling a defective product. When you call customer service there is a promt for Penguinuo air conditioners!
They refuse to do anything about replacing this unit at no cost to me.

***BUY AT YOUR OWN RISK***
I purchased this DeLonghi PAC A120E a year ago when my wife and I needed a stand up air conditioner unit. I should have read the reviews here because it started leaking water all over our carpet and hardwood floor. This unit has been in operation for 3 months and it has broken down and has ruined a 150 dollar carpet. I have tried to contact the customer service for DeLonghi but it is useless. The nearest service center is 75 miles away from my house and is NOT open on weekends. The company does not pay for shipping or send a technician out. DeLonghi is unwilling to help or provide any kind assistance in this matter. Why should they? They already got paid. Our local repair shop will not touch these units and will cost about 200 dollars to replace the part. Please keep in mind this unit is still in warrantee. We are left with a VERY EXPENSIVE PIECE OF JUNK (a 700 dollar piece of junk). They say it is NOT their policy to ship or pay for shipping to their service center. Its a great scam. If I could give this product a negative number I would. SAVE YOUR MONEY. I will NEVER buy a DeLonghi product again. I just want to reiterate what an absolute inconvienece this is. It is the hottest week of the summer and my thermostat has reached 93 in my living room. So, thanks DeLonghi for that. I'm sweating as I type this and I bet your CEO is sitting somewhere very cool and perspiration free.



PS. I am not exaggerating and have not had any previous problems with DeLonghi, but they have been awful to deal with.

The drain hole from the top catch basin is plugged to fix it you have to open the back panel and gently open the drain hole to the bottom tank that has the shutoff switch when it gets full it should auto shut off so you can drain it. I got mine as a demo floor model. When it drains it's a great little unit

Yes this unit leaks like crazy.

Here's the problem (and a solution). There are two reservoirs in which water is stored, an upper and a lower. The lower reservoir has an auto-shutoff - if the water level gets too high the AC unit shuts off so it doesn't overflow. Water is supposed to trickle down from the upper reservoir to the lower. The upper reservoir has no auto-shutoff. Here's the problem - dust collects in the upper reservoir preventing water from moving to the lower reservoir. When this happens the water has no place to go so it causes the unit to leak onto the ground.

Here's a solution to the problem that I found helps. Turn off the unit and unplug it. When facing the front of the unit remove the left side panel (there are about 6 screws that need to be removed and then the panel slides off). Inside the unit on the left side you will see a small white tray with a hole in the middle - this is the upper reservoir. Dust is collecting in that small hole. Using a hand vacuum and a drinking straw can remove a lot of the dirt. Tape the straw so the vac only sucks through the straw - like an vacuum attachment. Then just vacuum in the hole and hope that it gets most of the dust. You may need to do this every couple of weeks as dust builds.

This portable air conditioner seems to be a dream, but in fact it is a disaster. The unit leaks water *badly*, as attested by most of the comments here and elsewhere on the Internet. You won't discover this immediately. If you run the unit occasionally, it may not collect enough water to be a problem. But if you use it on a regular basis, it *will* overflow, often with disastrous results.

Water, of course, is part of air conditioning. You can't cool air without water coming out, unless the air is absolutely dry. In-window units and central units simply pump or drop the water outside.

An in-house portable unit has to get rid of the water somehow. I suspect that the DeLonghi unit is designed to remove the water along with the hot air it is pumping to the outside. Whatever way it's *supposed* to work, it doesn't handle the amount of water you'd get by running an A/C for several hours each day.

I discovered this the hard way, by finding my carpet soaked through to the wood beneath. It's going to take $600 or more to repair a 6' x 8' patch in my bedroom.

I haven't even bothered to contact DeLonghi. My experience is that most companies respond to disasters like this by running in the opposite direction. We shall see.

In any event, *do not buy this unit*.

DeLonghi PAC A120E was easy to set-up, because it included EVERYTHING!
I am just loving it. Comming home from work to a nice COOL place. Who could ask for anything more. I have not seen my Electric Bill yet, so I will only give it four stars.

*****update - I just got my Con Edison bill in the amount of $299.89! I was in a little bit of a shock (my normal bill is $115ish). I guess i will have to cut down on usage. I have all the lastest energy saving devises(cfl light blubs) etc., and I have to find more ways to save on my Con Ed bill. Keeping cool this summer for me is a must!

Note: Con Edison did get a rate increase recently, so some of the cost is because of that.

Before I buy products I use the trusty Amazon website. This was the only exception with this product as I went ahead and bought it after reading the reviews but thought that the leaking couldn't happen to me as I wouldn't think I'd get a defective unit. Well, lesson learned! Mine leaks all the time. We had to buy a siphon and a washing machine tray for it, spending more money. Too much work and not acceptable. I'll be returning it the store. Shame on DeLonghi for claiming "no drip" when that is simply not true. I wish they had just done the honest thing and make it where there is a small basin that is removable to put the water in. I would have accepted that. But too late and shame again! Will be returning the product tomorrow after the last 4 weeks of leaking when I only bought it 2 months ago.

Please save your money and buy from a company that does not make false claims.

We noticed the water before it created a major catastrophic buckling of our hardwood floors. We are going to return to a window model and eventually transition to a heat pump.

I wish I had read the other reviews before I picked it up.

We got this thing about a year ago and it worked great for about 1-2 months, then it started leaking massive amounts of water. So much that we had to go buy a Rubbermaid 50 Gallon tote to keep it from flooding the room. So now each morning we have the elaborate procedure of laying out towels, one person on each side lifts & sets the unit on the towels and we then drag the Rubbermaid container into the bathroom to dump out the water and then place the unit back into the container. Don't waste your money on this!!!