Customer Reviews

EdgeStar Extreme Cool 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I'm on my 3rd season with this unit.

1. Its way more powerful than my GE portable. Keeps the LR cool when the GE would not.

2. This unit, though powerful, is very poorly made.

Example:
All four wheels broke off the first season (my season is June-Aug)
The unit emits a "burnt tire" smell. finally stopped smelling in the 3rd season. Friends are no longer asking, "what's that smell?"
The digital lights went out at the start of the 2nd season, so no warranty to fix.
The directional blades fell off the machine during the second season. Can not be repaired.
The exhaust hose lasted only one season, then fell apart, even though properly stored ($29 + s/h for replacement)

To all those who see nothing but good ratings at the Compact Appl site: They refuse to post any of the real negative stuff. They fix the comment section to reflect only good reviews of 4 stars and more. Not too ethical, no?

Compact Appliance sent me a piece of junk (Portable air conditioner EdgeStar model # AP1200S). It kept tripping the breaker and the one time when it did run for 3 hours it never cooled the room. Compact Appliance told me to contact EdgeStar then EdgeStar said to contact Compact Appliance. It is very frustrating to deal with these two Companies. No one wants their piece of junk portable air conditioner back.

The return policy with Compact Appliance is horrible [...] Compact Appliance makes you pay for shipping back to them no matter what. There is no satisfaction guaranteed even though they say there is on their website.

The manufacture warranty through Edge Star is also horrible. They make you pay for shipping on the extremely heavy portable air conditioner to an EdgeStar authorized repair facility (wherever that is- as it does not say on the warranty).

I find it hard to believe that there are so many great reviews on this air conditioner on the Compact Appliance website. The Amazon reviews are not as good.

It is very frustrating when you are looking forward to getting cool air after you paid a lot of money to Compact Appliance and took time carrying it up the stairs and unpacking and installing it and still not having cool air. Then having Compact Appliance and EdgeStar blame each other and you is even crazier. It has been a very upsetting two weeks. It is not worth buying from them.

I am happy to report that I purchased a Sharp portable air conditioner at Costco and it is working beautifully. If for some reason it stops working (even 5 years down the road) I can take it back to Costco and get me money back instantly. Costco is a company that does guarantee satisfaction unlike Compact Appliance.

I purchased this air conditioner from another site. We've had it for one day and it is going back. The first problem is the stupid window kit. It is thin and flimsy. The other problem is that the window kit does not fit flush in the window. There is about a half-inch difference between the extension and the window. Plan on using some duct tape to close the gap. The next problem was the first day it arrived it was 80 degrees but the lowest the unit would cool the room down to was about 74 degrees - even though it was programmed for 65 degrees. Our old unit was only 6,000 BTU's and it kept our room really cool for 5 summers so I do not believe this unit is really 12,000 BTU's. I left the unit on overnight because the exhaust opening on the window plate is little more than the kind of plastic grates you see on milk crates. They supply a plastic cover but it takes a bit of force to twist it off. As I mentioned earlier, the window kit plate isn't the sturdiest so I was worried if I used too much force it might fall out the window. The final straw came the next day when the unit shut off because we had to drain out the water. This is crazy - how often would it need to drain on 90 degree days? I am so happy I purchased this unit early enough to return it before it gets too hot. BUYER BEWARE - THIS PRODUCT IS JUNK!

Do not buy this item or any item from this company. The product was broken right out of the box. If you buy something them and it works, you're lucky. If it does not, good luck getting any kind of customer service for repair.

I'll make this short. Bought one last year. Worked well for 2 months in a space about 14 by 40. Prepared it for storage per instructions and put it in the basement for the Winter. Plugged it in a few weeks ago and just got a beep and no poor. Tried to trouble shoot it using the directions. Called Edgestar for service help. Good luck getting a person on the phone. Eventually they called back. Service hours are something like 9 to 5, no weekends. That's not uncommon but certainly not convenient for those of us who work outside the home, which is 80% of the working population. Anyway, since the 90 day warranty was up, I get to have a small appliance repair guy charge me to diagnose the problem, then send the paperwork to Edgestar who will send a part. Then I get to have a small appliance repair guy charge me to install the part. So the thing worked for 2 months and I get the pleasure of paying another $75 to $100 bucks to get it fixed. Poorly built product and sketchy customer service.

I have a similar unit made by sharp. It vents the water as vapor through the exhaust hose. Maybe I didn't read the product description well enough because I thought this made the same claim. I live in New England where it gets very humid. Every few hours I need to empty the water through a port on the bottom of the unit. It is at the lowest point of the unit so it is hard to drain the water into another container. I suppose I could wheel it outside or lift it to the sink but it is too heavy to manage. I plan to find a hose that will attach so that I can drain the water into a container. The manufacturer should have thought of this and included one.

I tried to purchase this unit directly from Compact Appliance after seeing a banner ad that advertised a price of $389+ free shipping. When I clicked through to the site the price was $429+free shipping. That's a Difference of $40 bucks. I contacted them via their live chat system and was told that they didn't place those and and weren't responsible for their content and refused to give me the advertised price. I contacted Google ads and Ad Click. Both confirmed that Compact Appliance/Living Direct Inc. did purchase the ads and were indeed responsible for their content.

In short they are liars and cheats. I wouldn't purchase anything from people that lie right out of the gate.

If you buy one, good luck getting it fixed or replaced when it breaks. from the other reviews here they seem to break a lot.

These guys are about as shady as it comes. Don't give them your business.

I bought two units about a year ago. The first arrived broken. The packaging was in perfect condition but the base of the unit (where excess water collects when AC is running) was cracked. I called the manufacturer, it was no problem getting them on the phone, and they replaced the unit. So, no issues with the company as far as customer service. The second unit shook very badly when the compressor kicked in, so badly that it vibrated my chair 20 feet away and shook the lights in the basement below. The company replaced this unit, too. One replacement has worked very well. The other replacement had its LED display die. Called the company and they send me a new LED unit, which I installed. Over the year I've used the machines (pretty much daily for either heat or cooling), one of the units has started vibrating very badly, just like the unit I replaced. Do the units heat and cool? Absolutely. But the build quality? Not so good. 1 good unit out of 4 isn't impressive. Other points: the unit has two speeds and corresponding noise levels: very high and loud and slightly less high/loud. This is not a quiet unit. I use ear plugs when I'm sleeping and have to turn up the TV. I've had no problem with water leaking from the unit, even running 24 hours a day, so I'm happy with the water evaporation. I installed through the wall rather than using the included window vent, using 4-inch PVC pipe. Would have been nice to get a through the wall install kit with the unit.

I would rate the AP1200S-1 EdgeStar portable air conditioner at 0 if allowed to do so here. After only 12 hours of use, an E1 error message appeared and could not be cleared. Compact Appliance says I must call the EdgeStar support people. EdgeStar support wants it packed up and shipped to Texas at my expense (at least $75 shipping cost for this heavy item) for "repair" and will replace only parts under warranty (no refund/exchange possible). Their labor is at my expense. Alternative, try to hire a local AC technician to troubleshoot and repair the unit and EdgeStar will send replacement parts without charge, but they warn that there's no guarantee it will work if they don't do the labor. This is junk as far as I'm concerned. I won't be getting it repaired. It looks good on paper, but I sincerely regret this purchase. Buyer beware.

I bought this air conditioner for a small bedroom, but was unable to install it due to the exhaust hose being too short. At 49" the exhaust hose is too short for any window that is more than about 3' above the floor.

I set the unit up in a larger room with a lower window, and it has cooled the area from about 86F to 78F, making it livable, although it is not able to cool the room to 75F as I had hoped. The room is close to the maximum of 425 sq. ft.

In my opinion the exhaust hose should be longer. Also, the window kit is almost useless. The window kit is supposed to work for windows between 20" and 38", but due to the design you have to cut the PVC in order to get it to fit if the window is between 20" and 28", as the grill gets in the way of the panels. I don't happen to have a power saw so I am having to use cardboard, which is not really satisfactory.

In conclusion, this product has promise, but I would not recommend it unless you are handy with tools to customize the window kit.

Edit: After using this unit for a couple months, I am happy with it's ability to cool the room. However, I have noticed that it sometimes starts to rattle, especially when it's on the fan cycle of cooling. Pressing or banging on the control panel stops it for a while.

I was hoping I could use a longer exhaust hose, but I contacted Edgestar and they advise not to use a longer exhaust hose as it may damage the unit, but to place air conditioner on a raised platform. Still trying to figure out what I could use to raise it.