Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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70 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Happily surprised, August 1, 2006
I got this item at BJ's Wholesale for $279. I bought it because of the dehumidifier function and the self evaporation process advertised. At this price, despite high hopes, I was relatively skeptical on its efficiency and was ready to returned the unit if I was disappointed. I never buy an appliance without checking Consumers Reports but the most recent article, published in June, covered only Windows AC units. If you need to place the unit in its side during transportation to your house, it is advised to wait 24 hours before turning it on to allow the coolant to get back in place. The unit is heavy and you might need help to move upstairs or downstairs. Once on the level you like, the build-in wheels will make moving to the room you choose easy. The flexible hose is relatively frustrating to work with if the space you have is restraint. My bedroom is small and I have a chest of drawers by the window I connected the exhaust system to. It took some time adjusting but with transparent duct tape, it worked well and stayed in place. On AC setting, the machine is adequate and the cooling is thorough. However, what I am most impressed with is the dehumidifier function. This option runs only on medium fan and, despite the heat wave we are experiencing right now in Massachusetts, I haven't had to switch to the AC option! I was sure I would have to do so, eventually. It was close to 100 today and the temperature in the bedroom was at 70. Now, it is nightime, in the low 80's and very humid but the unit, still on dehumidifier function, is reading between 70 and 73. The unit can stop if it needs to be drained but has worked non stop for 5 days, 3 on AC and yesterday and today on dehumidier, so far, without problem. I couldn't get any info but plan to contact the maker to know how much energy, if any, is saved in this function vs. A/C. I am happy with this machine and, so far, don't regret the price I spend on it. If my satisfaction with this product changes, I shall make an update.
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94 of 98 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gets the job done. Slightly quirky vent hose system., August 5, 2006
During Calif.'s late July, 2006 record-breaking heat wave, I searched in vain for a local appliance store who had portable a/cs in stock. They were selling them as fast as they got them in and I was sweltering day and night with nothing but a box fan blowing 80f+ air on me. In this part of town, NO ONE rents apartments with air conditoning. "Oh, you get cool ocean breezes here" the building managers say. Yeah, sure, except during the Summer or heat waves.
My apartment's living room where I spend a lot of time has tall sliding
glass windows so it's impossible (and not allowed) to install a window unit.It had to be a portable like this, and until a few years ago these kinds of a/cs couldn't be had for much under $1000.00. A friend surprised me and ordered one of these Haiers as a gift (nice friend!) with UPS Blue second day shipping from J&R in NYC. UPS screwed up and missed the delivery by a day so my generous friend got the nearly $100.00 shipping cost refunded.
Once I received the unit and saw the condition of the outer carton, smashed in on all eight corners, I feared it'd be damaged. Luckily, Haier uses huge styrofoam caps around the a/c inside the carton so the a/c came out of the box in flawless condition.
Setup took about an hour as I read the badly-worded instruction manual and
assembled the exhaust hose / window vent system which consists of a bunch of plastic pieces, some of which have to be screwed together, and a length of five inch diameter rubberized wire-reinforced hose that will stretch and bend to just about any angle or position you need it to go. The plastic panel that goes into the window and receives the exhaust hose only extends to about four feet high (or wide) - it's really designed more for casement windows than vertical sliding windows, so I have about four feet by five inches of screened, open window above it. Eventually I'll get a clear plastic panel cut at a hardware store to fill that gap but Haier could be more generous with the plastic hose mounting panel and realize some people have tall vertical sliding glass windows, not casement windows.
After sweating (literally) through the installation (the a/c itself needs no assembly; it's ready to plug in and go, once you get those exhaust hose
assembly parts put together), I fired her up and learned the controls, which are simple and straight-forward. Freon-based a/c with three fan speeds, fan only with three speeds, and dehumidify with cooling with one fan speed.
Everything is controlled by soft touch pushbuttons (no dials whatsoever..)
.. which beep when pressed and a digital display shows the temperature
you've set for 15 seconds, then reverts to displaying room temperature. I
don't know where the unit's room temperature sensor is - front? back?
bottom? The manual doesn't say.
It has auto turn on and shut off timer functions which increment in full
hours but I haven't used those yet. I stored my old box fan in another room and when I'm not using the Haier in a/c (cooling) mode I just switch it to fan-only mode.
You can control air flow through the "smile" shaped vents side to side only, but not up and down. There are fancier units like this on the market that have remote controls and motorized louvers. At $300.00, this one lacks those features, so if you want or need to change modes, you have to get up off your couch potato rear and walk over to it and press the buttons.
Overall, I'd give this unit four out of five stars. It's a little on the
noisy side when the a/c compressor kicks in, (no more so than a window unit though..) but quite quiet in fan-only mode. During the heat wave, I had it running basically 24/7 for about a week and did not seen its internal humidity-removal water level warning light come on once, nor
have I had to pull the drain plug on the bottom of the rear side to drain
excess water, so unlike another reviewer, I'd have to disagrre and say this unit DOES perform its self-evaporation function as advertised. If you're going to buy a portable a/c, get one with auto-evaporation like this one unless you want to tediously empty a drain pan every hour or two. This unit has NO drain pan at all, thank goodness.
In in dehumidify mode, the air coming out the vents
feels as cool to my hands as it does in cooling mode. I bought a pencil
thermometer at an auto supply store (the kind you shove into your car's
a/c vent) and it reads 45f when the Haier's a/c compressor is on, so that's the temperature of the air as it exits the vents.
[...]
I would have bought one of these portables years ago were it not for the high cost. Now that they're down at the $300.00 level, they're affordable.
You should not expect to cool an entire house with a 7000 btu unit like
this, but it does a fine job in a single room, (even one over 300 sq. ft.).. and if your situation prevents installing a window unit, a portable like this makes a fine alternative. Only time will tell how long it'll work "like new" but I'm pleased with it and unless you need a fancier unit with a remote control and motorized louvers, go for this one. J&R's customer service is top notch. And a bit of advice - don't buy a used one even if it saves you a few bucks. An a/c with electronic controls is a complex unit.
With a used unit, you have no idea how many hours of use it's seen, or how
it was used or abused. Make sure the one you buy is brand new.
I'll come back and add to or modify this review if the unit has any problems in the future, but after a week of use, I'd give it a (cool) thumbs up.
[...]
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111 of 117 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not Exactly as Advertised, July 10, 2006
Although we have come around to liking this product we were initally disappointed in what was sold as a unit that did not need draining. It does need to be drained or it will automatically shut off after an hour and a half usage. We have it on top of a bowl so that it can drain and thus stay on. It cools the room well but is more work than we expected. Just know what you are buying-an air conditioner that is not self draining!
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