De'Longhi - PACL90

Contrary to the Ask, my partner and I bought a Delonghi portable for about $100CAD and it barely worked, even made the room hotter on humid days in spite of the air gaps being boarded and taped off. We sold it and bought a Canadian Tire house brand (Noma) window mount unit with half the BTUs and it completely outclassed the portable for 1/3 the price. We had to buy a half-sheet of 1/2” polycarbonate (MDF or something would work too, we just wanted the light to come through) to fill the window gap, but it wasn’t a huge deal if you’re remotely Handy. The portable was also *constantly* tripping the breaker in that room when the compressor kicked in if you had anything else using power at the same time. Never once had an issue after we switched to the window unit, but at half the BTU output that’s hardly surprising. Having the compressor and evaporator outside of the space you’re trying to cool makes a night and day difference, otherwise the unit bleeds heat into the room and works twice as hard to keep it cool. It’s a snake eating its tail.

I got a good AC from the Italian brand DeLonghi. Also got another one from Ayce (do have split level apartment). The DeLonghi one is the best of them two.

Yes, and I recommend buying one second hand in the cold months. Pinguinos and suchlike, used a few times selling for 75 quid on t'ebay

We used a portable refrigerative air con temporarily (with removable window kit & tubing), which did the job for the master bedroom when we had a newborn (waiting on the ducted installer).

Pretty sure ours was a Delonghi, but this was many years ago - so there could be better options out there today

My mother is the same - heat pump runs almost all-year-round to cool her house. A proper heat pump would be the best option. Do you have one in the house currently? I have one at each end of our house - one in the lounge and one in the master bedroom. During a hot 26 degree day, both must run to cool the house but at night we only need the lounge one going and i cant hear it from my bedroom. So maybe this is a reason to get a heat pump installed in the lounge. Portable air conditioners are not good long term because they consume a lot of power and dont cool a large area but may work for this situation. They are also very loud. Maybe you can hire or borrow one? I truly believe single hose units should be illegal to sell in NZ. Delonghi used to sell a dual-hose model but it was about $200 more expensive, didnt sell well due to price, and so they stopped bringing them in. But it worked so much better than a single hose model. Your concern about the window is valid - they only ever come with sliding window kits. However when I was working in a temporary portacom office with pivoting windows, I cut out some large cardboard flat sheets, glued them together for thickness and rigidity. Jammed them in the window to seal it and then cut a hole for the hose to go through and keep a tight seal. In another temporary office, we had one set up so that it was out in the garage, using garage air as the source and waste, then had a baffle to direct the cold output into the office so it was only creating positive air pressure in the office with cold air going in. Edit: I have seen a couple of camping portable air conditioners that may work - they seem to come with dual hoses. 1 min.... Edit: Ecoflow i thought was the one - but it only has a single hose. I see jaycar has a model, will check that for you. 1 min.... It appears jaycar sell the only dual hose model in NZ. Its not very powerful - only does a single room. But at 240 watts, it would be a lot more efficient in how much cooling it can do with balanced air pressure compared to an 800 watt single-hose portable air conditioner that creates negative air pressure in the room. Being that its designed for tents and camping, its not going to come with a great window kit but you'll have to make something out of wood/cardboard anyway for that. another idea...1min.... Trade Depot search their site for Window Kit They sell window kits for push/pull pivot windows which i think would work well. You would need to cut a second hole for the second hose. This diagram should explain why portable air conditioners with a single exhaust hose are bad. [https://imgur.com/a/M3XqPq8](https://imgur.com/a/M3XqPq8)

I have a delonghi too, do you ever empty out the water?

I have an old mobile RC unit from my time in France, no name brand, model is not even available anymore and a colleague from work tried one recently from Delonghi(she's returning it because it was way too noise, like I told her). From my experience all of them are loud, over 65 DB due to the compressor, no matter how the company sugar coats it(Delonghi said their is 62DB, still way loud and I bet you it gets to more than that), it's a very very loud refrigerator at the end of the day Second point : you need to either find one that has 2 exhausts or convert one to have 2 of them. Reason is efficiency, manufacturers nowadays do not make mobile AC's with 2 exhaust because it's cheaper, so you are stuck with the one exhaust and should convert it to 2 because the side that normally should have the second exhaust is the compressor side and this side gets very hot. So think of it like this, you want cold air and have something that to get cold air create also a lot of heat and manufacturers being lazy and cutting costs said ok let's have the hot stuff be cooled by the ambient air that you the user want to cool. I just DIY-ed a second exhaust and put some heat tape where the rest of the holes were. AC has been going strong for 4 years now so no I did not damage it and it's well out of warranty now and the compressor also has a fan from the manufacturer so it pull air already, I just made it so it's more efficient to cool the room. Third point they do not cool that well, I set mine on 16 and in a 30 sqm room it barely drops to 22, it's a 9000 BTU unit so based on this and what I seen a wall mounted unit can do it should drop down easily to 18 but no, 22 is it's limit, which is still pretty comfortable if you ask me. Forth thing you will need to figure out how to constantly evacuate water from it because the included reservoir is good for 20-30 minutes, then it will stop until that water is evaporated, so get a hose and see where you can evacuate it without much hassle. Fifth point you will need to put it in a location where it evacuates the heat meaning you will have to find a place for it next to a window or a door that needs to be sealed off well, if you seal it well you will see that the usually included zipper blocking wall will inflate towards the outside or inside(can't remember now), this is due to the pressure difference from the inside to the outside, for me this is a good sign you have made a well isolated air conditioned room. There is now a better alternative, pricier but I do not know how it works in the form of a compressor positioned outside and a fan inside, like a traditional wall AC, Midea Portasplit it's called, no idea how good it is or how it works but the principle behind it for me should result in less noise, better cooling and even less electricity used.

Me too, after our DeLonghi costing twice the price failed after 3 summers. Nothing beats a proper installed split system.

We have a server room that is probably 6x12 feet in size, running 3 rack servers and some other small items. Not a LOT of heat output, but enough that it gets war. We have been through probably 3 Delonghi Penguino units in the past 4-5 years. Any other suggestions in that $500-1000 range for portable AC units?

We used to have a Meaco one from Costco within that price range, and that broke within a year. Since then we tried an AEG one which was terrible, and now have a De’Longhi Pinguino. It looks like Currys have a couple near your price range. We also have a still working De’Longhi dehumidifier which is probably old enough to vote, and so while now I’ve praised them on the internet I’m sure they’ll both break immediately, I have some faith in the brand. Would definitely suggest considering spending a little extra on one of the Pinguinos if you can.