Portable Air Conditioner 12,000 BTU with Dehumidifier,& Cooling Fan for 400 Sq Ft Rooms, Includes AC Unit Window Kit, ARC-12S (5,000 BTU SACC), Platinum

We bought this for a 10'x10' bedroom filled with electronics equipment that keep the room overheated year-round. My son wanted the portable unit, rather than having to bring his heavy, noisy window A/C up from the basement for those unseasonably warm spring and fall days outside of full time A/C weather. He also wanted to be able to use the fan and dehumidifier, without having extra appliances in his room. The heat from the electronics concern me, and the stuffiness cannot be good for a teenager with allergies, so I wanted my son to have a fan on year-round to keep him cool and to help the equipment stay cooler. This portable A/C seems to fit all of our needs! When the A/C is not in use, there is a cap that fits over the vent hole on the window kit, so it's easy to detach the vent tube and leave the kit in place when the fan or dehumidifier are being used (neither require the outside vent). The unit is sleek and modern-looking, The vent hose and window kit were easy for me to assemble in about 15 minutes. The only thing needed is a Philips head screwdriver to tighten the hose to the window kit, and to tighten the screws to the window frame, if desired. One thing that was necessary to add which was not contained in the kit: 4 nuts to go behind the 4 vent screws; otherwise the hose pops off every time you move the unit. No big deal, though. In terms of how the 3 functions operate: 1. The A/C is excellent! It starts bringing the room down by one degree during the first minute of turning it on, and continues till it reaches your preferred temperature setting. The vent hose got fairly warm when the A/C was put on high in a hot room, but as the room reached a cooler temperature, the vent became cooler, as well. We checked the plug during this time, and it remained completely cool throughout. 2. The dehumidifier has easy to empty water collection pans. We haven't tried this function yet, but living on Long Island, I'm sure we will use it over the course of the humid summers here, and will add an update if there is any problem to report. 3. The fan is excellent at all three settings, and is basically silent on low. Even on high, it is decent white noise and not offensive, providing significant air flow throughout the room. There are several items that I would have liked in the description prior to making this purchase, since I would have measured the space and planned accordingly. The directions say that 1. for safety reasons, you need 20' of empty space surrounding the unit, and not to place it near a wall or corner, which could interfere with the intake/air flow. (We have it sitting only 3' from the back wall, facing into the room, and all is well. It cannot get knocked over where it is, and we do not have young children in the house, so it is safe there, and air flow appears fine.) 2. The power cord is 6.5'. For safety reasons, you cannot use an extension cord or electronics multi-plug, since it would disable the overheat/surge safety mechanism in the plug. 3. They said to plug this unit into its own circuit, to avoid tripping a circuit breaker during operation. 4. Although the vent hose is 9' long, and they sell extension vent tubes, for the air conditioner to perform optimally, they highly recommend using the shortest possible length of venting tube. (We have the vent tube extended only 39"; there is an "S" curve from the window to the unit, since the vent drops down from the window kit and fits into the unit about halfway down.) Since we have an old house, we only have one 3-prong plug near my son's windows; luckily for us, it is on its own circuit breaker. If I had known the length of the power cord (which barely fit), the safety issues preventing use of an extension cord, the footprint needed around the unit, the length of vent hose that works best, the need for an isolated circuit breaker, etc. I would have taken all of those issues into consideration and measured before making this purchase. As it turned out, we got lucky, but it would have been very disappointing to receive the unit only to find out in the middle of installation that we couldn't meet the specs they call for. I don't usually write long reviews, but as I got to each installation step, I found another hurdle and wondered whether we would be able to keep the unit. If those spec's had been included in the description, it would have made installation an easy and stress-free experience. If this portable A/C fits your space using their spec's, I'm sure you will be thrilled with its performance! We are! I hope you find this review helpful!

I've had this for almost two months now, having made an "emergency" order during the middle of one of our Summer 2012 heat waves in Chicago when my bedroom window unit finally gave out. It has fully met my expectations, but expectations are the key concept. You must understand certain things about these units before ordering: 1. They are noisy. All the mechanicals are now inside your room, not outside your window. I got used to it and have no trouble sleeping, but I am not a light sleeper. Consider your own sleeping styles. 2. Many of these units require drainage or emptying a water collection tray. This unit does not. It has a great way of evaporating the moisture it collects back out through it's exhaust. I have never had the unit stop due to it being full and it runs 24x7. 3. You must have a way to vent the unit by connecting the hose to the supplied window insert. I had just enough room left above my existing window A/C to insert the supplied frame for the exhaust hose. This configuration takes up space. Plan for the unit and the hose setup to take up room! 4. As many other buyers have pointed out, you cannot compare BTUs of these units with that of window units. I took the advice of others and bought a unit one capacity level ABOVE what I thought I needed and I am very glad I did. If I had bought the unit that said it will cool a room the size of mine, I don't think I would have been satisfied. Yes, they are expensive, but buy big or be unsatisfied. Installation: Installation was ridiculously simple. The box was structured such that after cutting the straps, the whole box top and sides lifted right off of the unit. Once out of the box, the pre-affixed wheels made it easy to just wheel it into the bedroom. The hose and window insert were easy to install. There is one design flaw though, inherent in these units. They place the fresh air intake right by the exhaust hose exit in the rear. This means the unit competes with itself to cool the air, because that hose gets HOT!. Simple solution though. Buy insulated duct wrap at the same time you buy the unit and wrap the hose in it from the back of the unit to the window. Or as a temporary measure, wrap the hose in bath towels, especially close to the unit intake, to reduce the heat produced by the exhaust hose. Operation: I turned the unit on after plugging in and it fired right up, producing cold air. It's not freezing cold, like older window A/C's, but it is cold. It took about an hour to take the room from 87 and 60% humidity to 76 and about 40% humidity. Like other buyers, I do find the limited movement of the air output louvres to be annoying. You can only move the airflow form side-to-side, not up and down. If you have a high bed, you'll want to consider raising the unit up onto something, preferably something very sturdy. It has three fan levels, but I usually keep it on low. The remote works well, but no light so you may have to use a flashlight at first until you memorize the position of the buttons by just feel. One thing I haven't tired yet that I do plan on is running it as a fan in the winter. I like to have background noise when I sleep. You can run the unit in fan only mode without the exhaust hose being connected. It's the dehumidify and cool functions that require exhaust to the outside. The fan alone, without the compressor, is actually very quiet but just noisy enough for steady background noise. Efficiency: It claims to be energy efficient and uses an environmentally safe refrigerant. I have to say that it does cool well (as long as you understand you probably need one unit size larger than recommended) and it does seem to efficiently evaporate all the moisture it collects out through the exhaust (there is a fan that stays on constantly to ensure this). But when I got my first electric bill after running 24x7, I knew it was efficient. My energy usage declined by about 25% year over year, with this unit plus another window unit running versus two window units. And that was during a month when it was hotter this year than last. So all in all I am very happy with my purchase. But understand how these units differ form window units and buy one size larger.

The Whynter ARC-125 unit was not too bad... I have a bonus room upstairs that is not under the insulated attic, that plus the fact that it was east facing usually makes it about 10 - 12 degrees warmer in the summer then the rest of the upstairs rooms. The room itself is about 150 sq ft. So, Pro's for the unit: 1) Easy to setup and move around with it's built in wheels. The Window setup and hose was fine after I added a little plexiglass addition to match my window height 2) Controls easy to use 3) 2nd summer of heavy use with no significant performance issues 4) Managed to cool my room down to a bearable 75 degrees when the non=ac temp in room hits 81-82. Con's 1) a bit loud... if I had to take a call in my room, I opted to turn it off for a while. Exacerbated for using at night. Sometimes you have to jiggle the hose and unit to get it to quiet down. Honestly, I probably got used to it after a while though, it's more of a blunt "thrum thrum thrum" 2) I would be concerned about overall performance if I was using this in a place like Phoenix or the deep South, wher it is hotter/more humid then my home in SoCal.

**Update 7/1/2015 As mentioned in the original review, i was shopping for a 2nd portable AC unit. My neighbor bought one from a local store, without doing any research or reading reviews, and when he set it up, i was blown away. The unit was quieter, produced colder air, more air volume, and came with what i considered to be a better hose / window kit. The unit he bought was a Danby DPA140B1WB. this is a 14,000 BTU, so it should produce colder air, however the difference was staggering. I bought one from Amazon the next day. The first 2 nights i used it in my bedroom, and WOW. I finally had an ice box to sleep in! Since then, I have switched it with my Whynter, using the Danby to cool front room / house and the Whynter to cool bedroom. If you're looking to buy a portable AC, I strongly suggest looking at this Danby DPA140B1WB. It's about $50 more, at the time of this review, but the difference is significant. I can't comment on the durability of this, as i've owned it for less than a week. But each day as the outside temp rises, I am amazed at the difference of the inside temp using this new Danby. Right now, the outside temp read 105 and the inside temp is 72. *********************** I Purchased this portable AC unit in May of 2013, and am just now getting around to writing the review. my experience with this has been extremely positive! Over the past 2 years, I have found that this will consistently keep my house right at 20-25 degrees cooler than outside. As I set up the unit for its 3rd summer, it seems to be working as good as it did on day 1. This summer, I went to room darkening drapes Vs mini blinds, and this has made an enormous difference. it was 107 outside yesterday and a very cozy 72 inside. the 35 degree difference in temp is the most I have ever noticed with this, so again, it's working great in its 3rd year. Noise - this isn't the quietest unit on the market, as my neighbor recently brought home a new 14,000 BTU unit that's noticeably quieter. However, the noise that it puts it out isn't bad as its an AC unit, keeping the house cool! I'm now looking for a smaller unit for my bedroom, and will be looking at Whynter after my positive experience with this model.

I had this 12K A/c shipped to me in Virgin islands at BIG expense and it arrived and I unpacked it and find that the piece that fits into the window will only extend to 37" and the "Specifications" sheet that I printed out BEFORE I purchased this item clearly states that the window extension will go to 48". I called the company and he tells me that I was "misrepresented" by that print out and the company takes NO responsibility. I will have to now wait for a PURCHASED extension! The "Specs" sheet I printed out is 14 pages long and I got it from the Kingersons website, but I am sure that it was written & produced by the company, WHYNTER...what do you expect from a piece of crap produced in CHINA? Had I known I would not have purchased and would have looked for an American made product. I cant say how it works yet, since I dont have all the parts....but if it doesnt work well, I am STUCK with it I took a chance and so far NOT happy with the company, and the parts that came with it are pretty darn flimsy, I dont think they will hold up long to being removed and replaced every time I want to use it. For safety sake, I would not leave the extension in and the WINDOW OPEN and UNLOCKED when not home, so the removables need to be made a little more sturdy

I'm a contractor with 15 field years of nuts and bolts and 15 years of desk time so this review is for the customer and the manufacturer. I don't back this product nor do I warrant the skill level of the person buyingh it. All I can say is..h..this is what it is so grab a cocktail or a smoothie and sit down and I will try to keep this brief. Thank you for your patience. First. Excellent packaging and kudos for the the double box. Not every package is shipped on Monday or a before a long weekend. Everything arrived intact with no problems. If you're a 120 lb office cubicle dweller with no friends just cut the box open to get the contents out. Second. Fire the people that wrote that crappy manual. Or redirect their labors elsewhere. Thanks for all the boiler plate safety info but people would like to know how to install it quickly. Most of these people will wait to install during a 90 degree day and have no proactive plan. Third. Get the engineering team that designed the hose couplings to focus on the window vent. They have their act together and nailed their part now just get them to work on the multi faceted window application which is a pain in the ass because of the variables. I put 4 wood screws into the window frame and good thing because you have to pull and adjust on that to get the unit into a favorable position. It's not a product flaw and i'm sure that a person with a level head can figure it out but we all march to the beat of a different drum so be proactive for the other guy. Fourth. I own a condo which I consider my permanent home in the Northeast part of the blessed USA. My neighbors are typical condo folk. They get nervous when they hear power tools. You guys have smart guys on your payroll to make things work better for those in between guys right? For those do it yourself girls too right? Get that window vent figured out and you have a steller product. Get to work boys. Fifth. Noise issues. Please. Sweat out a week of 100 temps and talk to me about priorities. Not all us us come close to being able to afford to cool down our own house. Please keep in mind that there are sacrifices that others consider minor inconveniences. I'm pleased with the product and installed quickly. It's chilly for sure. Unit is cooling down 487 square foot room without problems. Girlfriend sais it takes up too much space. Girlfriend can go....Whynter AC is more than welcome to stay. I give it 5 stars now. It screams quality. If it craps out in a couple years i'll scream at the people who deserve it. Looks like a top star product.

The unit cools very well, but 5 issues create problems. 1. The hose with the unit is really awesome - I love it - sturdy and when you bend it, it holds its shape. BUT it is much too short. I had to put the unit on a table just to duct to a standard height window. I really can't believe Whynter did not include a longer hose. ARGH!!!! 2. Drain is at the very base of the unit on the back. I have a small vinyl hose connected to it running into a 5 gallon bucket. I had to source the hose locally which cost me quite a bit of time and effort. Take the outlet screw cap with you and get the ID of the cap. 3. There is NO vertical adjustment on the output vents. Wah??? Really??? 4. Good and bad. The panel that fits into the window to hold the duct is very sturdy and works well. However, this sturdiness means that if you have a small window width (which I did) you will need a saw to cut the panel to size. I used a band saw (we have 3 of them - lol). PLEASE BE CAREFUL. I tried to use a carpet knife initially (yeah stupid, I know) and I almost lost an arm. The material is very sturdy. 5. The exhaust hose gets very, very warm. When the compressor is running and the unit is exhausting hot air, the exhaust hose reached a temp of about 140F. This is expected, but what we didn't take into account was that this hot exhaust hose would heat the room up. Yep, it is hot enough that the unit and the exhaust hose heat really work against each other. The hotter the room, the hotter the exhaust - and well, eventually you have a little, intensely hot micro-climate around the hose. For us this was unacceptable because the placement of the unit and hose were close to where we sat in the room. The cooling was negated in that localized area and if it is a small room it will actually heat the room enough that you don't get great cooling. I would imagine this issue is why the bigger units have 2 exhaust hoses to dispense with the waste air more quickly. Overall Whynter dropped the ball on the finishing touches with this unit (and I assume all its units). Suggestions: include a drain hose, put in adjustable vents, include both a long and short duct panel, and for the love of pete add 4 feet to that flippin' exhaust hose (that is just inexcusable). I hope that you sell fewer units due to these issues so that you will not cut corners in the future. I still may return mine when I get sick of having to use a table to raise the unit up. BTW - it seems that ALL the extension kits on Amazon are worthless. Go to local store and get a hose there. Whytner really needs to work on a few things with these units - especially the length and insulative factors of the exhaust system.

After Super Storm Sandy last October, our house required new siding and a new roof due to wind damage. The roof was just completed in May and we are still awaiting the siding. This is delaying the usual installation of our window air conditioners for the summer. We just had a heat wave here in NY of several 85-90 degree humid sticky air days, and I bought this air conditioner after searching through multiple floor unit choices both online and locally. The unit arrived quickly (thanks Amazon!) and was packaged well. There was no shipping damage or problems and UPS delivered right to our door. Is it as powerful as our 8000 BTU window air conditioner we usually have in our living room? Well, almost - but to be fair after reading multiple reviews of floor units I didn't expect it to be. They are just not as powerful as window units. However, the convenience of having a portable unit you can wheel from room to room is great! All you do is open the window and put in the exhaust hose. The unit is not overly huge and is self venting out the window - no emptying of any pans of water. It got the room pretty cold and I felt the hose - it was hot - venting out all the hot air/humidity. The living room was nice and cool (it is about 500 square feet) and this unit looks great - not too mammoth. We also wheeled to the bedroom at night and it got the room very cold and the noise wasn't too loud. In fact, it was a very soothing white noise perfect for sleeping. There are no bright lights or anything on the unit to keep you awake. I'm very pleased with this purchase and I recommend this unit!!

Arrived quickly, and works great with the current heat wave. Yes it makes noise just like at window air but is easier and a better installation solution for apartments. Balances off the one in the living area to cool entire apt.

I have had this product for several months now, and in particular over the last month of summer heat it has been a very effective little air conditioner for a ~ 450 sq foot room. Love the portable aspect of this AC unit - it keeps the room cool during sweltering summer heat, and is not too obtrusive. Also easy enough to move from room to room - I recommend getting a second window covering for the hose for ease of transport if you plan to use it in one room during the day, and another during the night (ie bedroom at night). My only complaint is that it is quite loud when set to the cooling setting - can be disruptive to your sleep if not used to it. Overall definitely worth the price paid of about $260, though I see now it is going for above $500 which is a bit steep.

I like how it keeps my place nice and cool and and the humidity low. I love it's compact shape and it looks nice to. Easy to push around. A lot less noisy than my last AC and the sound a lot less irratating. It's a little noisy but than all portable AC produce noise it just comes with having the motor inside not outside. I'm very happy with my purchase!! I love it actually. I get the sun all day like long so it was getting up to 90c with the high humidity. It was unbearable!! Plus doing research this brand of AC came up as one of the best in reviews. I had a some trouble putting it together. I'm older not much strength but every one should find it very simple. Comes with easy instructions.

Well it past the ultimate test. I purchased this unit in the winter because it was on sale. I was quite skeptic about the patented auto drain technology of this unit as with most portable air conditioning unit (I did own two over the past 14 years) you must empty the container of accumulated water every 5 hours on very hot summer days. The past week we suffered from very hot and humid days (40 degrees Celsius on some days (104 Fahrenheit)) and although the unit was on 24 hours/day for 6 days, I never once had to empty or drain it. My place is roughly 600sf and on the hottest days, it felt comfortable throughout the apartment. I wouldn't do jumping jacks in the leaving room but it was quite comfortable to cook, eat and watch TV. As for the noise level, the unit sits in the living room and I could easily watch TV or listen to the radio without any problems. The only downside (if I can really call it downside) is it doesn't have an energy saver option to shutoff the unit completely when the temperature has been obtained, the fan continues on without cooling. Over all, for anyone who needs a portable unit, I highly recommend the Whynter ARC-12S and for those like me who ware skeptic about the "auto drain", believe it, it is just amazing. I am 101% satisfied with my purchase, I just hope it makes it through many summers!

The air conditioner is GREAT, especially for the price we got it, but everything that happened with the shipping was an absolute nightmare.