Whynter - ARC-1230WN

Whynter ARC-1230 or ARC-14S Dual hose and 14,000 glorious BTUs. Not cheap but they're the best of the best.

If you have the money, buy a dual hose Whynter portable AC. Otherwise - the design and construction of single hose units is such that you won’t be able to get it to not pull vacuum, even by adding a second hose to provide it with outside air. There will be leakage inside the unit itself that will prevent you from getting a perfect loop from outside to outside. But that’s still going to be much more effective than running it with the stock single hose, so it’s worth doing, and will be your best short term solution if money is tight.

You’re not doing anything wrong..portable ACs are mold traps by design. Sitting all winter with leftover moisture = fungus party. Run it on fan mode before storage to dry it out. As for brands, try Whynter or Midea dual-hose. They’re slightly easier to clean. Or go mini split and never look back.

I’ve owned multiple portable A/C units and have never had to drain them curious why Whynter is different.

I did this while using the heat mode and it still shut off every hour because the tank was full .

So which hose did you cap the intake or the outflow ?

Whynter. They’re also packed very well in the box.

Whynter ARC-1230 or ARC-14S Dual hose and 14,000 glorious BTUs. Not cheap but they're the best of the best.

Have had 2 Whynter dual hose units over the past 8 years. really solid cooling machines.

Hi, currently living in my 06 Sienna. If you are set on a portable: A) Get a Dual Hose. The intake being outside the vehicle mitigates a big part of the vaccuum effect which draws heat in through the gaps and seals. B) Insulate the Hoses: Wrap hoses with a single or a comination of insulating material(s) C) Insulate your Windows: Use insulating foam boards to make window covers for your rear windows and windshield. This can shave hella degrees on a hot day. D) Get enough BTU: Ignore the sq ft recommendations, you are cooling a mobile oven. I am running a Whynter 14k BTU Dual Hose (there are cheaper and honestly probably better comparable units), and it makes the space livable with no insulation on the hoses, and shitty thin window covers, in direct sunlight E) Get enough Wattage: The unit I bought said around 1300 continuous watts. Bullshit. This thing regularly pulls 1800 for lengths of time. Thats alot. I have a Bluetti AC200l + b300kx2 totaling 7600 watt hours roughly, so I can it run it for a little over 4 hours on a full charge. I run 3x 200w Renogy panels on the roof, so 600watts per hour, and will be investing in a Charger1 (DC to DC smart charger [wont draw from a battery with too love of voltage]) to add another roughly 500w per hour roughly while driving...It's not enough, and it still won't be enough. Power storage for HVAC is tough, so have enough battery, and always be charging.

Single most important thing: Dual hose units maintain the pressure balance in your room. Single hose units vacuum hot air into your house. Next most important thing. Buy new. These things are consumables. I like my Whynter brand units. They've lasted far longer than I thought they would. I also like my Hisense unit. It is nice and quiet.

I did this while using the heat mode and it still shut off every hour because the tank was full .

The 12K BTU portable units work fine for even a large bedroom. I have three, all Whynter two hose. One even keeps a 600 sf finished attic with seemingly no insulation in the roof at an okay temperature on hot days. When it is over 100F out, it struggles but still the attic is tolerable if not ideal.

Yes, is the space insulated? First question to answer. Does it have windows? And which way do they face (aouth, etc)? We have a large 14000btu whynter portable ac in the garage. Its fully insulated and no windows. Works well to keep the space below 80 and around 50% humidity on most days. With that said, If i had the cash and space, a mini Split would be the way to go.

I’ve had mine for a little over a year. ARC1230WN in my spicy top floor bungalow. Replaced an old 8000btu window unit. It’s been very nice, far more quiet and far more efficient.

Any dual hose one will be more efficient and possibly more quiet. I have the Whynter Arc. It does a great job. Some people may find it noisy but it doesn’t bother me. But it IS large so not easy to lug between places.

I have the Whynter ARC-1230WN and I really like it. It was right around $500, which was my max budget, but it’s the best dual hose model that I could find (yes, they are more expensive).  It’d definitely be overkill for your 300 square foot bedroom, but I’ve been happy with the Whynter brand. Mine covers 600 square feet. I have it centrally in my one bedroom apartment and keep the doors open.  My number one non-negotiable feature is a model with auto-evaporation. I had a different model in college that didn’t have this feature, and in Florida (where I went to school), it would FILL the water basin about every three hours, which was so annoying overnight.  When I was shopping this time, I used this [AC comparison spreadsheet](https://www.reddit.com/user/NefariousnessSecret0/comments/1kwgaw6/comparing_air_conditioner_models_portable_window/) to sort the models by auto-evaporation. It used to be pinned at the top of the Air Conditioners subreddit.

The whynter has a slightly higher CEER compared to the DUO (14.2 vs 13.8) for what it's worth. It does a great job of supplementing AC in my home office without of electronics.