Amcor ALW 12000E Portable Air Conditioner Review

While selling my ancient non-air-conditioned big old house during the summer heat it seemed appropriate that some of the interesting rooms be cool.  Several rooms had window units that kept the space chilled to a comfortable level; there were a few rooms that could not accommodate window units.  Not all windows in 1895 were built to fit our modern air conditioners and there was no way, without spending a small fortune, that we could install central air.  The concept of a portable, high-efficiency air conditioner had marketing appeal. I opted for the Amcor ALW 12000E for a variety of reasons but apparently my research had not been thorough enough.

This 12,000 BTU unit comes with a window kit that includes a five foot extendable exhaust hose.  This fits through a window adapter kit designed to slide into most window spaces. The panel has a large hole and connector for the hose to fit through. Mine was a non-standard window of 20 inches.  The unit is sleek in appearance, weighs approximately 68 pounds (although carrying it upstairs it seemed much heavier), has an easy to use (and read) control panel with a 24-hour on/off timer.  The unit dehumidifies up to 65 pints of water a day, with most of the water going out through the window but some being used to cool the machine. A small drain outlet with a long water tube fit through the hose and helped remove moisture out the window.  This is supposed to cool a room up to 400 square feet unless the room receives direct sunlight or has a computer. It's on casters for wheeling around the room, but again the exhaust hose is five feet and once you have this set up in your window you won't be moving it around much.  The footprint is relatively small, 15 inches wide, 16 inches deep and 30 inches high.  The battery-operated remote for the electronic controls is easy to use and you can program the timer for one to twelve hours or for continuous operation.  It has a thermostat that controls the temperatures and it has two fan speeds, one supposedly for fast cooling and the other for normal cooling. 

I bought this for its portability feature and the ability to drain out any size window, the quiet cooling that it claimed to offer, the remote control and programmable options.  Outside it was typical Midwest summer hot-and-humid so the dehumidifying/air conditioning feature appealed to me.

What actually happened?

I can't even begin to say how disappointed I was with this unit.  The exhaust hose wasn't too difficult to install but it was not a tight seal around the slide unit. The unit was quiet but it did not cool the room, instead it seemed to increase the temperature. My real estate agent was excited about the air conditioner, she was thinking about one for herself.  We couldn't believe that the longer the unit ran the warmer the room got.  It seemed as though it was not only pulling in hot air, but also throwing out heat from the unit's motor. The room was 300 square feet, well within the recommended space for these BTU's (400 square feet). I had an air conditioner in the windows of the two other rooms on that floor so it wasn't attempting to cool the entire space.  The space was my exercise room and no heavy furniture blocked the air flow.  When I closed the door to the room we'd return a little while later and were astounded by how warm it was.

After re-reading the instruction manual (several times) I returned to the store where this was sold and explained to them my dilemma, asked if there was something else that I should be doing and they agreed, my set up was correct. This is a simple unit to install, but the salesman also said several other customers had returned with similar complaints.  He recommended bringing this back for a refund or to exchange for a different model.  I was alone at the house, didn't have anyone to help me carry it back down the stairs and the house sold.  I turned it off and it has been off ever since. The packaging stated that this had a working temperature cooling range of 62 F to 110 F, and the ambient room temperature ranged around 85 to 90 degrees but the digital temperature display on the Amcor ALW 12000E frequently showed 95 to 100 while running.  It never dropped below 90 degrees and walking into the room compared to walking into a sauna.

If you're looking for portable cooling my recommendation is to pass on Amcor's portable air conditioner. The concept is most appealing and hopefully other manufacturers have a better product.  My experience was not satisfying and instead very frustrating. Perhaps I was using this during the wrong season - perhaps it was really just a space heater.