Whynter Portable Air Conditioner 14,000 BTU & Heater with Dual Hose Dehumidifier & Cooling Fan for 500 Sq Ft Rooms, Includes AC Unit Window Kit, ARC-14SH (9,200 SACC)

I use my garage as a hobby room, workshop, a place to think, and once in a while, just escape. Most of all I use it to do stuff for others, and this time of year, it’s impossible to work out there without sweating like crazy. It is an attached garage with a bonus room over and only one exterior wall, besides the wall with the overhead door in it. The door is insulated and the exterior wall is brick veneer, so I thought I might have decent results trying to condition it in some way. It is about 500 sq ft.There are no windows, and I was not cutting a giant rectangular hole in the brick wall, so a window unit was out of the question. A split system was an option, but I was looking at $2-3k and lots of work. I read all about freestanding AC units and settled on this one. I liked that this one had the dual hoses. That made sense, and I chose the heater to make the garage a 365-day space.It came UPS two days faster than the est. arrival date. The box was holding on for dear life when it arrived, but much to my surprise, the unit did not have a scratch. I let it sit upright overnight to let the coolant settle before plugging it in. I was lucky in that last year I had cut two 6” diameter holes from my garage into my crawl space to allow air to enter, and then be exhausted by a wall-mounted exhaust fan I had installed on the opposite wall. I was able to use those two holes for the AC inlet and outlet hose connections. With minor ingenuity, the AC hoses easily connected to the two 6” size damper vents I had installed there. I turned the unit on, set it to 72, and hoped for the best.Within about 6 hours, the garage was colder than the house. It has been working perfectly for almost 3 weeks. The garage is now just like any other room, and I’m hoping that by keeping it cooler, it radiates less heat into the rest of the house and offsets my AC costs inside. That remains to be seen, but it sure can’t hurt. Like any AC, it does bring the garage temp down, then cycles off when not needed. I’ve tried running the unit with the inlet hose just open to the garage, but the humidity climbed and it was not as comfortable as when both hoses were connected to an exterior space. The hoses included are super quality and the window installation kit is very well thought out, though I did not need it.The unit is slick. Very attractive. Intuitive backlit controls and remote. I do wish it had an app for my phone. It does have a 24-hr timer, but I’m having best results not letting the temp vary by much. The self-evaporation feature is working. I removed the rear condensate cap thinking it might drip onto the floor a little, but no drips. A little surface condensate collects around the cooling vent, but nothing major. I expect it will drip out the condensate outlet in heat mode this winter. It runs extremely quietly. It would not be an issue at all sleeping beside this thing.All in all, this unit has been worth every penny so far. It basically added a usable-all-year room to the house. Kudos to Whynter for making such a great unit and having an incredible delivery time. It came cross country to NC in a matter of a few days.Highly recommended! I’ll try to report back once I use heater mode or if there are any hiccups.Update December 2024:So I've had the unit now for two blazing summers and the cooling works perfectly. Just a great addition to my garage. No complaints whatsoever. Cooling is the main reason I bought it.It's been pretty cold lately and I've converted the unit to heat mode by disconnecting and capping the intake hose vent as the instructions say to do. I have taken the cap off the drain outlet and put a pan under it so it can drain out as needed. It heats really well for maybe 24 hours, but same as last winter, I am having some issues with it freezing up in heat mode only. I can remove the intake vent cap and see the ice on the coil inside. To clear the ice, I go to fan mode to let it defrost, then back to heat mode, etc. Not too much trouble, but it would be nice not to have to do that.I discovered this problem last winter when I turned it off one day and it made a horrible clacking noise. It was ice crystals hitting the fan, I guess. This year I wrote in just to see if I could find some answers. Along with a couple helpful users, the factory responded quickly to contact them, so I'll give them a call and see what they say. Ambient temp in the garage is about 55 deg F, so it should work. I'll report back.Another update, 24 hours later:I tried heat mode again without the intake hose vent cap in place. In other words, I tried running it with the intake hose disconnected, but the intake NOT capped. 24 hours later, the garage is so warm that I had to turn the temp setting down, and not a trace of ice inside. I guess the extra air flow prevents freezing. Drain working perfectly. I'll probably hook a garden hose up to the drain outlet and run it outside to keep the garage floor dry.

I’ve been using the Whynter Portable Air Conditioner few weeks now, and I couldn’t be happier with my purchase. This is a premium, well-constructed product that feels solid and durable right out of the box.Setup Was a BreezeSetup was incredibly straightforward—much easier than I expected for a unit of this size and power. The instructions were clear, and the dual hose system was simple to connect. I had it up and running within about 20 minutes.Impressive Cooling PerformanceWhen it comes to cooling, this unit is a powerhouse. Even on the hottest days, it brings my space down to a comfortable temperature in no time. The air output is strong and consistent, and it manages to cool the entire room evenly.Well-Designed & ReliableYou can tell a lot of thought went into the design—everything from the controls to the hose setup just works. It’s relatively quiet for an AC of this strength, and I haven’t noticed any issues with operation or durability.One SuggestionIf I had to offer one suggestion, it would be to tweak the fan settings. Right now, the fan continues to run even after the room reaches the set temperature. It would be great if the unit could shut off the fan to save energy and further reduce noise once the desired temperature is reached.Overall, I highly recommend this Whynter Portable Air Conditioner to anyone looking for a powerful, reliable, and easy-to-use unit for larger rooms. It’s a premium product that delivers exactly what it promises.

Recently purchased the Whynter 14k BTU dual Hose, A/C & Heater unit from Amazon and I wanted to use it for a couple weeks before I wrote the review. Shipping box is very nice and the unit was delivered safely. There is an external box, and internal box, and several internal cardboard support pieces that keep the AC and the accessories nicely tucked. No issue with the opening of the box, just cut the straps and lift UP, the external box will slide up and over the unit. The unit is nicely designed, and sleek looking. Matte Silver sides and gloss black center, however the air hoses and window attachment were a light cream color. The unit itself is quite heavy and dragging it up the stairs to be used in our master bedroom (20x15) was a bit cumbersome but i made it up there ok. There really isnt any handles build in, you just sort of have to grab it underneath and support it somehow w/o breaking the plastic side vents... Your result may vary. Setup was very simple, there are two angled cylindrical attachments that click into place in the back of the AC unit which the exhaust/inlet hoses get screwed into. The window attachment piece, which extend to fit a window, was for me, too short. I had to rig up extra plastic material to seal the window, so I was a bit disappointed this product didn't come with extra varying length plastic so you can pick and choose the correct pieces. An extra piece of plastic can't be more than a few dollars, but no big deal, you can get a similarly shaped flat sheet of plastic from your local hardware store, or a thick piece of cardboard will work just fine. The air hoses are about 4 feet fully extended, and for me, reached the window just fine, however i can see if you wanted to place the unit further away from the window, this might be an issue. The plug it self has it's built in fuse/reset button and is three prong'd with a fairly stiff electrical cord, you will probably have to use the bottom plug hole, however if you house is wired upside down, its is easy to have to cord facing the otherway, so don't worry about that. There is a blue LCD back-light screen with a easy-to-read digital display for temperature control, fan speed, and A/C or Heater operation. I did not use the heater yet, but the A/C mode works great! There is a little pop fan on top can you can hand lift out to direct the air upwards. There is a little slider than can direct air left or right, but honestly i can't tell the difference when the selector is in a different position. There is a remote control which works if you're pointed exactly dead on to the LCD screen, and it seems a little limited on range. A/C blows very cold in the lower temperature settings. However when the condenser turns on, it is quite noisy. There are three fan settings (L/M/H) and you can't really hear the fan differences when the AC is on. I have the Whynter unit approximately 10 feet away from the bed (which is in the center of the room), and I would say it was slightly difficult to carry a conversation with it on sitting on the bed-- Which is ok for me, since i typically use the unit to cool down the room prior to sleeping, however i have had the unit on overnight-- it acts like a white noise generator and i was able to sleep with it on no problem, light sleepers might have an issue. (Just think of it like an AC unit at a hotel, about the same noise level). Sometimes my 2 yr old daughter takes naps in the room during the daytime, when the unit is on, and she has no problem with the noise. We have had the unit stop due once to the moisture accumulation when it was very humid outside, and the drain plug, located on the bottom of the unit, was easy to use (and ALOT of water came out, approx 1L after having the machine run for several hours each day for about a week's time.... As a precaution, we had a cookie sheet underneath it just in case and so far even after open/closing the drain plug, no water has leaked. To supplement the AC to get cooler air around the room faster, i have a tall portable fan near it to assist with the blowing of cold air throughout the room and it seemed to get the room cooler faster with it. Overall very pleased with the unit, it does as it's supposed to do, which is cool my room!