Costco is one of the most popular places to buy appliances, home goods, and food. Portable ACs is popular with young couples and students, as well as older folks in homes that may not have the latest state-of-the-art air conditioning installed. Some apartment homes have old AC units or none at all, which creates a need for alternative, cheap cooling.
Costco offers an array of different units. Haier is a brand of portable ACs that is familiar to AC reviewers and those in the AC business. Their units are typically solid but the quality of build has been an issue to some customers. Costco offers the Haier CPN10XC9 at under $300. Many reviewers, including myself, share the view that this unit may not be user friendly. My friend purchased this Haier a few days ago, and this is what he essentially wrote to me:
“Really noisy, and installation can be bothersome. Had to call Haier customer service and they weren’t as helpful as I hoped. Couldn’t sleep with the unit on so we suffered a few nights before we just got used to the heat. Good price for the unit though, but I really think I could’ve saved more elsewhere. It didn’t seem to cool the room much, though.”
After researching their problems I realized that they did not properly exhaust the unit outside the window. In truth, for some reason they totally forgot about it! If you are not sure of how to properly vent their portable AC, you can watch a video on YouTube here.
Once my friend properly ventilated his unit, he was much more pleased at its performance. It was still noisy according to his tastes, but he was now able to sleep a but more soundly. I would recommend the CPN10XC9 as a “quick buy”, but there are many more resources other than customer reviews that can help you decide which AC to purchase. Buying a $300 appliance takes a lot of research and contemplation, as your comfort is often the most important thing during hot days!
I went to an old friend’s baby shower for a few minutes to drop off my girlfriend. As I looked about their newly settled nursery I saw a peculiar figurine, which I thought was a toy of some sort, sitting by the baby’s changing station. I asked my friend what it was, and consequently she answered, “Oh, it’s an air purifier!”
The purifier was in the whimsical form of a penguin. Their baby boy’s room was decorated with the theme of an arctic scene. My girlfriend bought a stuffed polar bear to match the decor. She told me she had gotten it from Walmart and that so far, it seems to have been doing okay.
I wouldn’t know if the purifier was working efficiently because it was not mine. How would you know the purity of air by simply breathing it in? It certainly didn’t smell like a baby…he was about a month away. I read the box and several of the features popped out to me. It was not only a true HEPA filter, but also had UV light and an active carbon filter to eliminate odors.
I asked her several questions and she responded pretty enthusiastically that she had checked on the filter…which showed signs of debris after two weeks of consistent, constant use. So, according to my friend, perhaps the penguin air purifier, the Crane Penguin Air Cleaner, is worth a try at its economic price.
Energy costs are rising, especially in my native CA where it can get quite dry and sunny. When I was in college, I had to come up with rather creative ideas to stay cool while spending as little money as possible. Many homes are investing in portable ACs for the simple fact that they do not cool the whole home, but cool where you need it most. Here are several factors why portable ACs are useful:
1. Spot cooling: If you spend most of your day in the living room, then chances are that you don’t need other areas (let’s say…like the kitchen) cooled off at your expense.
2. Minimal installation: Portable ACs are not permanently installed, so if you need to move the unit to another room at the end of the day, you can.
3. Energy-saving: Again…why cool the whole house when you only need your bedroom cooled at night? Also, many portable AC units come with thermostats or timers to cool when you need it, when you want it. You can save plenty of money with this summer strategy.
4. Price: Installing a permanent AC system can run hundreds. A good portable AC is often under $400, and some are even less than $200. Plus, if you live in an apartment lifestyle (as many young adults do), portable ACs can come with you.
So consider these facts when purchasing your own portable AC. Of course, it’s not for everyone but it can be a great choice for those looking to save a little cash, stay cool this summer, and keep their lifestyle a bit more eco-friendly.
My girlfriend has a smallish apartment that, for some reason or another, was designed to face the sunrise. She loves the sunshine but constantly keeps the blinds closed in fear that it’ll heat up her studio home. During the summers, as I found last year, it gets hot, really hot. It doesn’t help to add that she lives in the Inland Empire, away from my comfortable Orange County tastes, and her apartment complex doesn’t offer the conventional central AC that I’m used to. I spent many weekends with her in hot sweltering heat…and my only condolence was to go to the public pool.
Since her apartment was already small, we wanted to purchase something that would compliment her living space. Other portable AC units are pretty huge and the footprint is often sizable. We went to Target online and had a Haier CPRB07XC7 shipped to us. Unfortunately, the Haier unit requires a working remote to program and it wasn’t working right out of the bat. We made a trip to Target that day to inform them of the non-working unit, and we went through a pretty extensive process to get what we needed: a working AC unit…which we needed out of the box!
30 days later we received the new remote, and finally put the CPRB07XC7 to use. Although it’s a nice unit, I found that the 30-day wait was really unecessary. On the Target online store, I’ve read that many other customers have had the same problem with the remote…and at first I thought that it was just one of those things that “wouldn’t happen to me”. Perhaps Haier should rethink a remote-less design for convenience! Thankfully, it’s still working as of today. Just hope the remote doesn’t break again.
I have heard that nowadays they ship the unit with two remotes…who ships any appliance with two remotes? Must be a very dire sign that even the company doesn’t have much confidence in their product…
I picked this Royal Sovereign Portable Air Conditioner at a SEARs while planning my pre-emptive measures for the hot summer months. My apartment doesn’t have a central AC unit and has forced me to use less conventional methods. Last summer I kept wet bandanas chilled on my neck, as it was a Boy Scout survival technique I learned when I was 8. I do have an older window AC unit with the apartment, but after awhile it shut down and I was not willing to hassle the management for it (since they did a “wonderful” job on my heater…it smells like old clothes).
I researched a lot of units and decided on this simple AC unit because it had high markings. I turned it on and left it on for an afternoon while I went grocery shopping for the week…and when I returned it was ice cold in my apartment. I was very pleased. My mother actually asked me to bring it over already…to help her clean out her hot attic. I hated cleaning the attic as a kid, and for some reason or another my mom would always choose summer to do it. I suppose it’s because the day care kids are gone, and that summer is the “slow” month for my mom’s business.
I turned the AC on for about an hour before I went to work in the attic a few weekends ago. I dare say…I wasn’t so upset about helping her out anymore! Eventually I was comfortable enough, and the attic was clean enough, to pull out my old sleepingbag and take a nice siesta..!