Customer Reviews

SPT WA-9020E 9,000-BTU Portable Air Conditioner with Remote Control

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

 

 

I have central air, but my bedroom upstairs is usually 5-10 degrees warmer than the other bedrooms (vaulted ceiling). This product works perfectly even though the room is much larger than 250sq ft. This portable AC only costs 50 cents a day to run, considerably less than running the central air. It's quieter than I expected and the air is very cold. The only thing I don't like is the instruction manual - just not enough info. The exhaust hose must be mounted properly to the outside through a window. All portable AC units create a vacuum in the room and if the exhaust hose is not practically air tight, more warm air from outside will come in than cold air blowing out. I have had it for a week now and it has yet to need the water reservoir emptied.

This item is not worth it. It takes hours to cool down my 100 sq ft room. I have a 5,000 btu window unit that kicks butt compared to this one. Also, not convenient at all. You need to place a drip pan underneath to catch the water and it only allows a 1" space at the base. I had to build a 4" platform to lift the unit high enough to sit a basin at the bottom to catch all the drip without having to empty it every 1 1/2 hours.

this air conditioner has one filter which is easily removed for cleaning purposes, but the intake filter is completely hidden and cleaning it entails disassembling the unit, removing the case, just to access the filters. What a nightmare.

This 9000BTU AC is supposed to cool a 250 square foot room, so I thought it'd be more than enough for my 190 square foot bedroom. When I turned it on, I was sure it would make things cool pretty quickly, because it was very loud. . . my wife and I called it the "jet engine" during the brief time before we sent it back. Instead it was only able to cool the room by about 3-4 degrees, even when I let it run all night. I tried it for three nights before returning it, and one morning when I woke up, it was actually cooler outside the house than it was in the bedroom where the AC had been running full blast for about 12 hours. Pathetic!

I replaced this unit with a 6000 BTU window unit by Frigidaire. Even though the Frigidaire is only 2/3 the BTU rating, it makes less than half as much noise and was able to cool my fairly small bedroom from 100+ and humid (we're in the middle of a major heat wave in the Northeast right now) to about 72 degrees in about 90 minutes. Needless to say, the 6000BTU replacement will cost a lot less to run as well. . .

Also, I know some people don't care about this kind of thing, but this Sunpentown AC is just incredibly ugly. From the photo I wasn't really sure if it would look cool and futuristic in person or clunky and overbuilt. Guess what. . . it's the latter! It just looks junky and designed by a twelve-year-old who was trying to draw a Camaro instead of a piece of furniture that's supposed to look fairly decent in your house. Most appallingly, and although it doesn't look so bad in the small photo online, that beige insert for the louvers looks like it came from some twenty-year-old piece of office equipment (remember when everything was the same hideous beige?) and it's totally out of place with the silver/gray plastic used everywhere else.

I had a portable AC by Maytag that lasted about 7 years and worked very well, but this Sunpentown I bought to replace it is a terrible failure in all respects: ugly, the loudest air conditioner I've heard since I was a kid in the 1980s, and it doesn't cool worth a damn.

The only nice thing about the entire experience is that I bought it from Amazon, so it was incredibly easy to return! Thanks, Amazon, for being so freaking awesome. . .

This thing just isn't worth the time or money so I suggest you pass on it. Well made unit and I've owned mine for several years. Used it for a while to cool part of my 250 ft houseboat. It would really only cool the very back of it. It's big and clunky and not real quiet. One problem is the compressor is inside of course and you hear it. The REAL problem is that it doesn't really cool. It seems to blow cold air but NEVER cools down the room.

Anyone want mine?

I received the item and was all right with it I found it a bit bulky and I had to raise it closer to my window because the coil attachment that went from the unit to the window was a few inches short and kept pulling out of the window, this was beginning to frustrate me. I had to place the unit on my cedar chest to be able to enjoy it. I feel like all of the air is raising to the ceiling and not straight out into my bedroom because of the short coil that came with the unit.
Otherwise, it does cool my room a little longer than usual if it were a little closer to the floor. If someone can tell me where I can find a longer coil to go from unit to window this would make me very happy.

This unit was easy to install and easy to use. It works great...cooling down the room quickly. The only problem is that is it very loud.

WOW,THIS THING IS CRAP! IT RUNS AND RUNS BUT NOTHING HAPPENS. 5 DEGREES MAX COOLING. VERY LOUD,VERY LOUD,VERY LOUD. IF YOU WOULD LIKE A UNIT THAT YOU NEED TO RUN 24-7 TO COOL A 250 SQ. FOOT ROOM TO 73 DEGREES, THEN THIS IS THE UNIT FOR YOU. SAVE YOURSELF NOW. I NOW HAVE A $300 PAPER WEIGHT. DO NOT BUY!!!!!.

I ordered two of these for the two upstairs south facing rooms of my house. Both units came packaged well, but one looked like it might be a return. There was no damage on the unnew unit other than 4 cracks in the exhaust hose which duct tape took care of, and there was no plastic film overlay to protect the control panel from scratches. Take off 1 star. That said, there is no discernible difference in the performance of the two units. The window vent kits mounted easily, and the units do a good job of keeping the rooms cool. Matter of fact, the smaller of the two rooms actually got too cold until I turned the thermostat up. The units are not quiet, but bearable and much quieter than the in-window units I was accustomed to as a child. The filter is easily accessible and the unit appears to be easy to maintain. One reviewer complained about an additional intake filter being inaccessible unless you take the unit apart; this is so, but it's not listed as a required maintenance item. It's a screen on the side of the unit that I intend to vacuum periodically - I will report back if that doesn't do the trick. Draining the water is not a task I relish, but it's more convenient on this unit than a larger portable a/c from another manufacturer which I have cooling the family room. This unit can't compete with a central air system, but at 1/4 the price of central air for 3 portable units, we're enjoying this summer in relatively cool comfort. I may report back after I see the first electric bill.

I guess I assumed that portable AC units would be portable beyond 6 feet from the window. Clearly these products are designed for situations where a window unit cannot be employed because of the window and the weight it can support.

The exhaust hose is literally 8 ft long and does not allow you to place the unit between two rooms or move it around the house as needed (because you would need to connect it to a different window) - which is what I thought they were.

Buyer beware...if you intended to use it as it is designed, works fine. The unit is a little large, but it does pump out a lot of cool air.