Portable A/C advice needed.

[Raymond Fries]

I have been researching portable air conditioners for my garage and opinions are quite diverse on reliability and quality. I am looking at a 14K unit for my two car garage. Can anyone recommend a brand that is reliable?

I also have been trying to decide whether to tap into the dryer vent, install direct vent(s) through the wall or run the hose(s) up and vent it to the attic. Ideas?

Thoughts on a one or two hose unit?

Thanks...

[joe maday]

Two hose units are faster to cool down a room, more efficient (from my understanding). but still need a window to exhuast the hot air....why not use a window unit or put one in the wall ....??? especially if you have thought to vent through the wall as a choice. I say put it in the wall get it over with and enjoy

[Mike OMelia]

Two hose units are faster to cool down a room, more efficient (from my understanding). but still need a window to exhuast the hot air....why not use a window unit or put one in the wall ....??? especially if you have thought to vent through the wall as a choice. I say put it in the wall get it over with and enjoy

I have a question here... My portable unit is a two hoser. I assumed that connecting the intake hose to the window vent would mean I was cooling warm, outside air. Sort of like in your car you have the option to recirculate or draw in fresh air. And that cooling the inside air would be quicker, more efficient. Am I wrong on that?

[John Hays]

I almost went this route when looking for AC options for my shop. From what I gathered, all of them are hit or miss in terms of reliability and it really depends on the type of climate you live in. They aren't recommended for areas with extreme cold (if you want the heating feature) or extreme humidity.

For example, at my job I perform maintenance on a very small house (about 850 sqft) that has a dual hose portable AC unit here in Georgia. It barely cools the main living area it's in (which is around 450 sqft) and is still pretty humid in there, but it does nothing for the rest of the house. In fact, the owners had to finally put a small window unit in each bedroom to compensate. From what I understand, that thing runs full blast 24-7, so it makes me wonder just how much their electricity bill is each month.

With that said, a unit like that might be suitable for your needs, depending on the size of your shop, how much insulation it has and the climate conditions outside. Quite honestly, a portable AC unit is not something you would want in the hot/humid summer months in Georgia, but that same unit might perform just fine in Indiana. Unfortunately, these units are somewhat new technology, so (a.) there may still be some bugs that need to be ironed out with performance and (b.) not many people use them right now, thus the feedback is questionable.

I'm with Joe on this one, a window unit is proven technology and costs about the same. If you don't have a window, you might want to consider a mini-split unit (which is what I chose), but those are much more expensive.

Good luck! ;)

[Mike OMelia]

http://www.whynter.com/Knowledge_Base

They explain here why you might not want to use a dryer hose.

Mike

[John Hays]

I have a question here... My portable unit is a two hoser. I assumed that connecting the intake hose to the window vent would mean I was cooling warm, outside air. Sort of like in your car you have the option to recirculate or draw in fresh air. And that cooling the inside air would be quicker, more efficient. Am I wrong on that?

From my research, the answer is as follows:

"Portable air conditioners do not exhaust inside air to the outdoors.
Portable air units recirculate the inside air over the conditioner cooling coils to keep decreasing the temp of the inside air. The warm air you feel at the exhaust is outside air that is driven by a blower over the condensing coil to re-condense the refrigerant gas after it has been evaporated in the air cooling coil.
The low pressure refrigerant in the cooling coil (evaporator) is compressed by a compressor and sent to the condenser where it is liquified. It then passes thru a valve which reduces the pressure, cooling the gas and passes thru the evaporator and back to the compressor.
Air from the room is continuously recycled over the condenser coils to cool it.
Air from the outdoors is continuously cycled over the condeser coil to condense the refrigerant vapor."

Hope that helps.

[Mike Cutler]

If by portable you mean the roll around units with plastic duct hoses, then I would recommend that you get a full size wall unit and frame it in. I have a Sharp and a Penquino, both rated at 10kBTU's. One thing about the portable rol larounds they don't really highlight is that you have to provide a drain collection system. The three I've had all have small drain hoses.
I had been using the roll arounds in the house for a decade and finally switched to two 10kBTU window units. They are much better at cooling. I now have the Sharp in the garage shop and the Penquino is being used by a friend to cool his summer cabin.
My shop, which is uninsulated,just under 400 sq/ft, gets direct sunlight on a low pitched roof, and is not airtight, is being cooled by the 10K Sharp roll around. It's "adequate", and if my shop were insulated, it would suffice and be very comfortable. The Sharp collects about 5 gallons of water a day that has to be gotten rid of. I stopped putting it in a pail, and just drilled a hole in the floor, and ran the discharge hose, not duct, through the hole. I'm going to insulate the shop and install , wall unit this fall.
One more thing with the roll around portables is that there is a max/min height for the ducting.

[Mark Burnette]

I have a Friedrich portable 2-hose unit. Never heard of the brand but in my research (about 2 years ago) it seemed to have the best reviews. No drainline is normally needed as the condensate is disposed of by the outside air flow (somehow). IF humidity is extremely high the water pan might fill and the unit will then shut down until you empty it. I've never needed to do that. That's about all I can say good about this type of AC. In my experience they're best in a small closed room like a bedroom, maybe 400SF max. They simply aren't as effective as a window unit. The 1-hose vs. 2-hose issue is probably a tie. The 2-hose uses outside air to take away the heat--but outside air is hotter than inside air so the transfer isn't as efficient. OTOH the 1-hose units do use conditioned inside air to transfer the heat outside--more efficient but that's air you paid to condition. A trade-off.

I still use the portable at my cottage and as long as it's running all day it can almost keep up with the increasing temps. When I decided to cool my shop I gave up a window and bought the biggest 220V unit that would fit. Ideally I wanted to mount a vertical unit through-wall in a stud bay (I only have 2 windows in my shop) but was surprised to find these are almost extinct for some reason. I guess nobody has narrow windows anymore.

[Steve Milito]

Another thing to think about is the shorter the exhaust hose the better they work. The BTU ratings are best case scenario. So they don't work nearly as well as the BTU ratings on the unit.

[Raymond Fries]

There are no windows for a through the wall unit and no wall space to cut through where it would not be unattractive outside.
Turns out that the floor space where I was going to put the poratable unit is not going to be deep enough because of the space required for the hoses. Turns out that 90 degree bends reduce efficiency.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a 12,000 BTU mini split that is a DIY install, is reliable, and in the $600 - $1K range? I would love to stay under $800 if possibly as I still need to get a new pull down attic door and I have $1K to spend right now. I would wait on the door to get the A/C if needed because it is starting to get HOT here in Indiana. I am cooling a standard sized two car garage. It is well insluated and has a nice insulated steel door. However, there are windows at the top of the garage which faces SE.

Thanks for your tips and recommendations.

[Silas Smith]

I live a couple hours south of you in Fishers and my small 3 car garage does just fine with a single hose roll around. My garage is insulated, including garage door and one set of windows. With the extra space I have, it's probably a wash in terms of stress on the unit. I usually turn it on about 30 minutes before going into the shop and everything is fine. Don't open the garage door though!

[Dan Neuhaus]

I have a friend whose a sales rep for Goodman mfg. I recently purchased 3 of their lower end mini splits for my house which is going up for sale soon. I installed 2- 1 ton units (heat pumps) and 1- 2 ton ac only unit. Did all of the install myself except for the final hookup and charge which I left for a hvac buddy. The units work great for the cost but don't have all of the features of the higher end mini splits like Fujitsu.

[denis tuomey]

I have the same situation, 95+ is kinda hot for woodworking. I've been thinking of getting a window unit and set it on a low profile dolly and when I need it just raise the garage door up enough for the unit and cover the rest of the opening with cadrboard. Couple of weeks ago I put a box fan in the door way from the house blowing into the garage and covered the opening above it, kept the temp at 90-91, which wasn't too bad.

[steven sherman]

I recently purchased a 1 ton a/c heat pump from Thermospace. The unit is $662 with free shipping. It seems to be working fine after 1 month. The unit also comes with linesets. I was able to borrow a vacuum pump and gauges prior to releasing the freon. I wasn't able to pressure test the unit, but i just kept the vacuum in the system overnight to check for leaks. The system is not a well made as the Mr Slim unit that I replaced, but I think its a good value.