Customer Reviews

Royal Sovereign ARP-1000EX Portable 10,000-BTU Dual-Hose Air Conditioner

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

 

 

I bought this air conditioner several months ago in preparation for the summer heat. The unit is quiet heavy (90 lbs with shipping materials) so it was a bit heavier than I was expecting. The installation was easy and all of the parts were included in the shipping container. I've used it on and off for several weeks now and love it. My apartment faces west with large windows and it bakes in the sun. At times it is hotter inside than outside even with the windows open. Today it is supposed to be in the mid 90s and my room is nice and cool. At times it is almost too cool. The unit is a bit loud when running on high but not anything unexpected. I run the fan (no a/c) on low in the evenings and it draws in the cool evening air. I'd definitely buy this item again.

I bought this unit at the [...] website. They're selling it for $[...] right now, which is a good price.

The air conditioner works really well but I think the air can blow a bit colder. The air is a little bit warmer than the coldest setting of the a/c than all of my current and past cars (TT, Camry, X5, Prius). However, the force with which the air is blown out is pretty strong, much stronger than I thought it would be. Because of this, the air moves around the room pretty nice.

The dual hose is nice, you can really feel the hot air escaping by touching the exhaust hose.

I couldn't give it 5 stars because it is so LOUD. Even on the lowest setting, it is very loud. I have to turn it off when I'm on the phone with someone. Somehow, the fan only setting is loud too. When the compressor is on, at the highest fan setting, I feel like I'm on a plane. But I guess that's the price you have to pay to stay cool.

Anyhow, I'm going to return this air conditioner because my apartment (early 1900s building) has horribly poor insulation. Without this a/c, it would be 95 degrees in my apartment on an 85 degree day. With the royal sovereign unit on full blast, it will be 75 degrees inside on an 85 degree day. I think the air conditioner works great, but my apartment's lack of insulation is just too much of a challenge for this baby to overcome. I don't want to hear it on the max setting all day just to keep it at 75 degrees. I'm probably going to return this one for the 12000btu version of the same model. I'm hoping that this will work out better.

All in all, this is a decent A/C, if you have good insulation, and not a lot of sunlight. Please be warned though, this thing is extremely, unbelievably, annoyingly LOUD. I want to give this thing 3 stars because it's so loud, but I don't know how to change my vote.

The A/C worked great, but...

After 3 years, we turned it on one day and heard this horrible screeching sound 1.5 seconds after the compressor turned on. This turned out to be the condenser fan (there's 2 fans in the unit). We were disappointed in that we expected a $450 A/C to last longer than 3 years!

PROBLEMS:
* Royal Soverign web site offers a few parts but not the motor for sale.
* We actually found the motor offered by Sears (and even a schematic diagram -
better than the R.S. wesbite!), but for almost $200! We could buy a
cheap window A/C for this price.
* We had to take off all four panels just to get to the motor. Four screws
on the motor are easy enough to remove, but we can't take it out since
it's attached to the blower wheel. So far haven't found a way to take
off the blower wheel without disassembling half the unit.
* Conclusion: Unit was designed for cheap assembly, not servicing. Obviously
they expect us to buy a new entire unit rather than replace a simple
fan motor. If companies truly want to be "environmentally friendly" it's
more than just product design... companies need to get away from this
"throw away" mentality!

I currently live in San Diego and I got this A/C after the first heat wave of the year which was outrageous and hit into the high 90s. I didn't buy it on Amazon, it was a LOT cheaper where I got it, so LOOK around. This unit is VERY heavy. I have a two story condo and getting it upstairs was really difficult, but I managed. Unfortunately the window is too big and I had to add cardboard to the window kit. It is really nice that you can roll it around though. I was surprised by how big it is, but it works great and even though it's quite loud I am able to sleep with it on. Cools quickly too. The hose doesn't get as long as I would like though.

I bought 2 Royal Soverign a/c units, 12,000 BTU from Sears in 6/08. We haven't used them a whole lot. Ours are tan with a black exhaust area/top. Models ARP 3012. We paid $599 each.

We left for the day and like we always do, turn the a/c to a lower setting. A family member had stopped over and I had her check to make sure the a/c was on. She said the unit upstairs was off. I thought that was odd, as I had left it on. When she turned it on, it sounded like 100 forks in a garbage disposal. I could hear it over the phone. Apparently, due to the issue, the unit was over-heating and then turning itself off. We are lucky the house didn't burn down.

When we got home we looked into the issue and after removing the tubing from the unit, we instantly found shards of cheap black plastic. Some parts looked tube like. We removed the 14 screws on the back, cleaned up the broken plastic laying inside the unit (we thought it was part of the exhaust) and thinking everything was fine (but were were still going to look into what that tubing was for) and we put the back of the unit back on and we turned it on. More horrible breaking of plastic sounds and then more plastic was sucked into the tubing. We're thinking that the case that surrounds the fan blade and compressor is breaking up. We are sure that this will eventually happen with our 2nd unit. I would not buy a Royal Soverign brand. I'll check back and give an update when I can as we have plans to drop it off at a service location. The compressor is covered for 5 years. We will not be paying a dime to have this fixed!

I noticed that a large area of the lower back of the unit is louvered with openings to allow air to enter. This is the same space where the "intake" hose attaches! Unless this unit is put into a hermetically sealed room with both hoses vented to the window, make-up air will be pulled into the unit from the room itself thereby making the inlet hose a superfluous add-on. It is my belief that this unit is (and will perform as) a single hose unit in most environments where it is used, unless the room can be sealed against make-up air intrusion. I would be curious to hear how this unit performs from others who have used it in a hot environment. Also, would the unit be damaged by blocking these louvers?

UPDATE: I blocked these louvers on the backside of the unit using 8 1/2 X 11" paper and the unit has worked very well. So far in three years, no noticeable negative effects. Without blocking these louvers, almost no air is sucked in through the intake hose, defeating the purpose of having it. I must stress that blocking these back louvers makes the unit perform differently than intended by the manufacturer and you do so at your own risk.

Due to the "fix" being so simple to perform and seemingly without ill effect, I am raising my rating to 4 stars.