Midea Inverter Portable AC with Heat

Update - 4 months in -------------- Decided to do a follow up since it's getting into the summer time now and I've had this now for the past 4 months. For context I live in the inland empire with dry desert California climate. As we speak right now It's 97 degrees in my room of around 350-400 ft. I bought this to circumvent issues I was having with my central AC that my landlord is being extremely stingy about getting properly fixed that froze on me last summer, and even froze on me this week when I turned it on again for this extremely hot weather. Ive primarily have used it before in hot weather so I knew it would work but I was worried that I was crossing the threshold of efficiency where it would be better to simply use my AC instead of doing my hacky solution. Except for trying to get the ac fixed and this past week I have not turned on my AC a single time during this summer or this week with over 90 degree weather. And this has been not only working, but still working more efficiently than my AC for my space. It's really good at being able to regulate itself at a decent level when your room is at the temperature that you set. For my case however I do run this at 78, which is fine for me. The degrees it shows will be about 2-3 degrees cooler in your room to whatever you set it too, but I know that a lot of people like it way colder than I do in my room. The colder you run this unit, the less efficient it'll be, especially when your trying to work with extreme temperatures. I do suggest getting the warranty when you get this unit as the actual pipe you get with the unit is extremely flimsy and super expensive (around 60-100 dollars last time I looked). I had some damage on mine from setting it up, but found a workaround with drilling in screws instead to keep it in place, but I still got a replacement sitting in my room after sending them pictures from that. There are automations that come with the app that would help to make it more efficient I haven't played around with, but I suggest you do so as the only issue I've had running this consistently is it running when it's cooler outside, but my room retaining a lot of heat naturally due to how it was built. If you do this, I suggest getting an indoor thermostat so you can control when you turn it on conditionally by both your indoor temperatures and the outdoor temperaturees, as I've found in my case especially after dark it'll be cool outside but super hot in the house because of the heat cooling off from the walls. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Im basing this on my first couple of days using this unit from a unusual heat wave for the past few days in cali, and not off any long term use from using the product I primarily was looking for a portable unit with the purpose of saving money in my small rental apartment. My AC over time has massively gone up over time and very likely needs to get an inspection but even with it working as intended, it's generally a very costly piece of equipment especially during the summer. I have an all electric unit - so the expense is already going to be higher than if I had gas, but the unit also being broken and older has also increased that cost over time. The unit itself is around 70ish pounds, so if you're looking to move this around upstairs, then I wouldn't get this unit. It is movable but you really want to utilize the wheels whenever possible. In my apartment, the 2 ideal locations that I would place this unit would either be my bedroom or my living room, which can both be accessed easily by wheeling it to where it needs to go. The installation of the unit is fairly straight forward. I actually have not done any permanent fixtures with the foam as I'm trying to avoid doing that as possible, but I haven't had any issues with the unit being semi fixed. The noise from outside seeps a bit more like this, but this also isn't a unit that I need to use all the time - as I really only need it when the weather gets hot. One primary concern that I have so far operating the unit is the hum of the refrigerant as it's going in the unit itself. The first couple of days it was making a very annoying audible sound that was mostly machine like, but it seems to have gone away after operating for the last few days. If you hear this noise, give it a few days to see if it goes away on its own. The other issue with this unit is the flimsiness of the installation itself. It's very easy to break the clips for your mounts, and the replacement cost for those pieces is around $79 dollars on midea's site. You have a limited warranty of 1 year on the unit itself, but I can see this breaking very easily after some time, especially if you move it around a lot. The unit has 4 modes, for mine it has a fan, cooling, and a dehumidifer mode. From using the auto mode it seems to do a fairly good job once the room is set to a certain temperature. Generally speaking though, with any AC, you should turn them on first thing in the morning when it's cool, so it doens't need to work as hard cooling your house. It's easier for it to maintain a cool temperature, then it is to bring down the temperature of your whole house. I've also seen people say "it doesn't carry air that well, but also try to use it in a 1000 ft garage, or some other weird area. This unit is specified to work for around 450-550 feet. My room is around 200-250, with my living room being around 500 ft with obstruction that makes it difficult to carry air if my doors are all open. If you need to carry air, grab a fan that can carry air in your room like a dreo or a vornado, or any kind of fan that can tilt or has the ability to swivel. My room says relatively cool, but my living room right now is at a different temperature without my engaging ingenuity around it, but I am able to circulate air into my living room by setting up my fans properly. It's just a hassle to do that constantly. Otherwise, for energy savings from my wattage hours it's operating at a much lower cost than it would to use my AC. Even if I needed to get more involved with adding more fans to circulate air in my house, that hack is significantly less than the amount of electricity im using right now. I haven't gotten a kill a wat to watch the unit, but from my bills alone, the total operation on a fairly hot day seems to be around 4 watts, vs my AC which would easily take 10 watts minimum even on an average day.

I have now purchased two Midea Duo 14,000BTU units. They both had mechanical issues on first use which I had to investigate and resolve. After that they have both been phenomenal. I would not buy any other unit, because I have bought other brands and theirs cannot hold a candle to Midea. See below for Midea issues as well as praise. Note: these Midea units have a large rotary fan which is held by a massive rubber… grommet? rubber… bearing? at only one end of the rotary fan. The fans also have a unique structure cast inside of the rotary fan (presumably to help draw air from one chamber to another within the ac unit). This unique fan structure and unique mounting of the fan requires Midea to counterweight the fans with metal weights at the factory. This style of fan has also lead to vibration and potential self destruction in these units. But when it works it works well. Praise: The unit itself is phenomenally well made, incredibly well thought out. Every detail has been planned for and the instructions are clear. The build quality is very good, form factor is excellent too. The Midea app is great and integration with the new device was seamless. The install video is great too. The ac works wonderfully well. Heat mode works phenomenally well and is super quiet. Heat mode does not require reconfiguration or any particular preparation other than hooking up the drain line. I used the included drain adaptor to run a 1/4” black silicon line to a glass gallon jug for heat condensate drainage. The Midea Duo 14,000 BTU unit (with heat) has an internal pump that pumps out condensate from heat mode. This is very helpful. Issues; Within a minute of turning on my first unit, it made a HORRIBLE persistent rattling sound. The compressor/cooling lines were rattling against each other. I was able to get in where these lines were and slide the vibration-dampening sleeve that was already on one pipe, further down the pipe, so it would actually keep the pipes from rattling against one another. My second unit (after sitting for 16-24 hours as it should) made a high pitched metal-on-metal squeaking sound emanating from the compressor when I turned on the ac. I immediately turned the unit off, pondered for a bit, then ran the unit in heat mode, this immediately resolved the metal-on-metal squeaking issue. It now runs perfectly in heat or cooling mode. P.S. These units do make a high pitched whine sometimes, but most people will learn to tune it out. Do not attempt to repair these without some knowledge and caution of these sorts of things. P.P.S. This unit replaced a Whynter ARC-14S that was much bigger, louder, had no heat, and finally, it did not work well. So Whynter went back! Edit Jan 2023: This unit is 8 months old and now periodically emits a loud buzz and does not work. I believe the compressor is freezing up. The issue occurs a few times a day, sometimes once a week. Midea Customer Service asks silly questions and marked my ticket as "Solved" when I failed to reply within 5 days (including weekends). Not impressed. I am now seeking a replacement or refund if possible. Edit Jan (late) 2023: Midea customer service refunded me for the malfunctioning unit. I am a little concerned that it was not worth repairing a $700 unit, and now I must pay a $60 disposal fee for freon containing devices in CA, but overall I appreciate Midea’s customer service.

I bought one of these for my house (which doesn’t have central air or normal windows that a conventional AC could fit in). At the time, I was at the end of my rope. I had tried all sorts of portable air conditioners. Single hose ones, dual hose ones. “8000” BTU models. 12,000 BTU models. Every one of them had problems. Most couldn’t cool down a single bedroom. Then I bought this shiny new Midea, with its composite hose design. Surely this was the right choice! I set it up, and started running it in my room. At last! It started cooling, and cooling well. My room became ice cold for the first time in ages. I was perfectly content for a while, and there were no issues. I would clean the filter regularly, and drain the unit on humid days without incident. I was so happy with this AC, in fact, that I got another, for the downstairs living room. That one worked great for a while too. Then, miraculously, just this summer, the problems began. Both units, within a WEEK of one another, stopped working right. Our rooms weren’t cooling down nearly as well as they used to. I started hearing crackling noises from within each unit when I spun them up, and they would halt with an error code after a while of running them. I checked to see if it was an issue of humidity - nope. Then I checked the filter, and… what the…?! There was a thick layer of ice built up all over the back of the unit, blocking the filter fins entirely. I was freaking out. I checked the other model. Ice on that one too. And then the ice would melt and drain directly into the inside of the unit, and they would stop entirely at that point, due to being waterlogged. I got ahold of Midea Support for some help, but they wouldn’t do anything for me, since “the warranty was up”. The best they could do was refer me to some sketchy HVAC repair location nearby with 1 star on Google Maps and a load of reviews saying the place was a scam. So incredibly unhelpful. Now I’m stuck with two oversized paperweights that I have to drain into my bathtub for a minimum of 4 hours each so we don’t get any mold growth, and no way to get my money back for TWO faulty products that both stopped working suspiciously around the same time. I’m guessing Midea’s “warranty” period is so tiny because these things are made to fail over two summers of use. It makes sense - keeps you buying more and more of the same overpriced piece of junk that will continue to break over and over for as long as you have money in your savings account. At this point, I’m completely out of options, and I’m sitting in a pool of my own sweat. Thanks, Midea.

It was 100F for a week when my bedroom room portable "bit the dirt" and I scrambled to get an alternative. This one was rated well and had some technological features that seemed would be energy-saving and reliable, so I jumped on it. Arrived promptly and I hauled this fairly heavy bulky unit up two flights from living room to bedroom and unboxed it. Not a small matter for this small gal, but I thought I would soon reap the reword with COOL. Well, the unit I had previously included a window vent set up that took no time to set up. This one? I tried to figure it out from the detailed fine print instructions that apparently includes a lot of parts most people won't need to use, and then gave up and googled to see if any users had made a video to help. Well, as it turns out the company had produced one. Unfortunately, they must have impressed on the guy making it to keep it ridiculously short because he skipped over a LOT that I needed to see/hear. The person who made the video seemed impatient with his intended audience as well. Given I had an instance where the venting tube came unattached from a prior unit, causing the unit to pump hot air into the room to nearly 100 degrees F, I find this part to be pretty darned important so his seeming contempt for viewer was infuriating. Still, I watched it three more times and then just took the parts and went to work on the window. I managed to get it installed and could finally test it out. To my appreciation, the app included and the features of the unit are working quite well. I can only hope that continues because I missed the closing timeline to buy an extended warranty. So, the good, it works well, has some good features, has less of a compressor noise than other units (albeit it does make some noise that does startle my poor old pup) and can adjust when the windows are open overnight to just blowing as a fan. The less good: I wish it were not black nor as big and bulky as it is compared to my last unit. I also wish the exhaust tubing and window set-up was not going to be so problematic to take out for the winter time (the insulated taped areas will have to be scraped off and I will have to find a replacement to seal the window next season. (Maybe that is why the guy in the video hurried through that part)... Ending on the good, the price was fairly reasonable and it was reliable for the two hottest months of this season when I had it in place. I only wish Amazon would make it clear that you can only buy the extended warranty through the return period as I would have loved to have done so, but missed it by two days while traveling for work. As the reviews from major websites have been good for this unit, I can only hope that won't be an issue and it lasts. And if you are small and like me, have to haul it up major stairs, arm twist someone into helping. It might make you less irritable and impatient as I was trying to set it up that day in intensely hot conditions! Finally, I am fair and have awarded four stars. If it functions well into next season, I will come back and give it a fifth star (especially if I have no problem finding the insulated foam tape to secure the window set-up again that caused me so many headaches this year. So, a good overall rating but with some qualms...

Edited to add: TAKE THE 15MINS TO *READ* THE INSTRUCTION BOOKLET. I NOTICE TOO MANY COMPLAINTS THAT ARE A VERY CLEAR OVERSIGHT & CAN BE RESOLVED BY THE SIMPLE SETTING(S). ****TIPS FOR TEMP**** Yes. So I've learned that it runs MUCH COLDER, LONGER when the filter is cleaned once a week. I literally spray it off (out) with my kitchen sink hose and it's quick and easy. Next, use a swifter duster and remove any buildup from the lower part vent exterior. The first time I did it I was in shock at the big piece of dust that slid off... that alone reduced the temp at least by 10° immediately. Next, on the very bottom in the back there is a screw off nozzle. Then pull out the rubber insert WITH A DRAIN PAN UNDERNEATH, this is the condensation that must be drained every once in awhile. I do mine every few weeks, its minimal and quick. Reinsert that rubber fitting and screw back on the round plastic cover so it's sealed when done. While I'm at it, I always run the dehumidifier afterwards with the hose it came with into a small few gal Rubbermaid bin. I set a timer because it's actually overflowed when I forgot to dump it and left it running. I will run/drain the dehumidifier for at least 5mins during all of this maintenance and while in cycle I'll switch it to cool and the water rushes out (fully draining, quick) this seems to reduce the temp drastically again for another several weeks without reduction. Make sure you carefully remove that hose, reinsert the rubber fitting and screw back on that cap. Oh and the dehumidifier is the one halfway up on the back. The directions tell you all of this but I had to read it a few times to fully understand since I'd never had one before. Also if the display ever reads a code, there's a reason and it tells you in the manual. That's how I learned about the drain at the very bottom. Hope this helps you and others. Happy to help! Original Review... I'm very please with this portable air conditioner. I was able to set it up and getting running very easily, alone. It's been running for about 15mins and my large room has already dropped from 91° to 74° it's amazing and I highly recommend this unit after hours of Amazon research and this final decision. As far as the noise, WHAT NOISE? Its an air conditioner and I hear the fan gently blowing nice cold air... if youre looking for silent, good luck. This is the quietest I've ever heard and will sleep peacefully without question. BUY IT, YOU WON'T REGRET IT.

This review specifically covers the 8000 BTU, single exhaust unit. I have been using this unit for four months in the heat of summer, so I feel qualified to post an educated review. I use this unit in my second floor bedroom, as the second floor always gets quite a bit warmer than the first floor of my house. The central air conditioner does a good enough job for the first floor, but to really cool the second floor adequately, the first floor would become uncomfortably cold and the power bill would be through the roof. This unit does a very good job cooling my bedroom. I don't run it too hard, as it is simply assisting the central air get my bedroom to the right temperature. The system was pretty easy to set up. The instructions state that there must be a foot of cleared space on all sides of the unit, but in reality it only needs room in front and behind the unit, I have one side against the wall and another against the bed and have had no issues. The remote is alright, but it is annoying that certain settings are only available on the remote or the machine itself. Specifically, fan speed can only be controlled by the remote, while the continuous fan setting can only be activated on the machine itself. The unit has memory, so it will remember the exact settings it was on not only when it is shut off, but also if it is unplugged while running. The latter point is very useful, as I have the unit plugged into a smart outlet, so I can shut it off with my Google Home, or using phone remotely from anywhere. One thing I did not think of when I bought it is that air conditioners pull humidity out of the air and drain water. On this unit, there are two ways this can be handled. The default way is for the machine to store the water in it's internal water tank. The system will shut off once the internal tank is full and will not start again until it is drained. This is a pain because the internal tank is not removable, so you have to drain the water from the drain plug at the bottom of the system. The system is heavy, so this is not a convenient way to drain the water. The other way is to use the "continuous drain" feature. This can be done by opening the continuous drain, which is about halfway up on the back of the machine. Once open, you attach a drain hose (one is included) and it will continuously drain to wherever you have that hose. I have an old gallon milk jug behind the unit for it to drain to. On humid days it can fill the jug in a few hours, whereas when the weather is dry it can run for days without a drop of water draining into the jug. I keep note of the water level in the jug so it does not overflow, which can happen. Overall, an excellent unit for a single room. I do not think it is powerful enough to try to cool multiple rooms, but for one "bedroom-sized" room, it is enough. I would definitely recommend this unit.

When directly measured against the 12000 BTU Window U shaped AC this units increased energy usage AND air flow are not in line with the Window unit at all. Nearly 70% more AMPS used peak running and air flow nearly 20% less. Despite claims of dual hose airflow (eliminating heat transfer), measurable heat dissipation from the hose is present. As tested the energy savings were not noted. The hose heat transfer was not eliminated as suggested, and the airflow was diminished from what a "smaller" unit produced (and at a lower cost per unit). This is evident in their BTU ratings if you consider the meaning of the 120000BTU DOE vs 140000BTU ASHRAE ratings. In essence the unit "feels" like a 12000BTU unit with these numbers while sized at 14000BTU. At least that is my take on the standards and what I experienced real world at the unit itself (while in comparison with Medea's own window product). What I found was that the unit cost more to purchase, cost more to run, produced more internal heat transfer, and produced less cooling airflow than a 12000BTU U shaped window unit. Clearly the floor unit takes up more livable space than a window unit as well. For my money, this all equated to a poor purchase when the U shaped Window unit could be used instead. I would suggest the Window unit wholeheartedly. In cases that a window unit is unacceptable or undesirable: This unit used nearly as many AMPS as a 4 year old Midea portable "single hose" unit tested to compare this unit. That is extremely surprising as the Window inverter units use significantly less power than the older (mechanical) AC units I tested. This is really not the case with the portable unit I tested (and returned) with this purchase. I did not, however, that heat transfer was diminished by the design of the dual hose. It was not eliminated as suggested by the advertising. I have design questions and reservations about the dual hose design and that claim (not just real world tests that were easy to observe) but I did not test air flow or whether the hot air was recirculated due to the proximity of the intake and exhaust outside. So making statements other than easily measurable heat at the internal hose and room dissipation I will not make. Since I can state it improved (but did not eliminate) heat transfer inside, and that can be tested and recreated, I am confident in that statement (and I will not make a statement of the reason why... even if I think I can discern it). Overall: The unit works well for what it is. It is an improvement over previous generations of Midea portable AC units that I could compare to. It sis this in respect to slightly lower power usage, and heat dissipation from the exhaust hose. It did not perform, I feel, to its potential when in comparison to the Midea Window units. I would suggest the window units over the portable easily. If you are in the market, and can use a window unit and do NOT need the portability: You would be best served with the Window unit. If you need to upgrade a portable unit, you should consider Midea as a slight improvement over non dual hose and inverter based portable AC.

I waited a couple of months to see how the experience held up before submitting a review. Before purchase I had wondered about the drainage situation, performance, and overall noise level. I can address these points fully now. The Midea Duo is a wonderful machine -- in a small bedroom (roughly 11x11) setting this to the lowest setting (60 degrees Fahrenheit) will actually take a space this small down into the mid / upper 50s. This is while the machine copes easily with southeastern heat and humidity outside. I watched a Youtube reviewer test the noise level, and yes, that very low decibel rating is accurate with one caveat. The minimum noise level advertised only happens on low fan when the unit is in air circulation mode, no AC active -- the compressor running will easily exceed that level even on the lowest settings. Don't get me wrong -- I work at a desk approximately four feet away from the unit and I have absolutely no issues doing my job. There is a quirk of the unit where when the AC first activates, it briefly will spin everything up to maximum even with the settings configured to low / medium. This will last about thirty seconds before the inverter tech kicks in and the compressor drops into background noise. This is my only pet peeve overall. I am unsure as to why there isn't a "quiet mode" setting where it will run the compressor at a low setting more often for longer periods to maintain temperature versus needing to run full power for a bit. I would absolutely love this as a feature. Sending the compressor all the way to maximum and maximum fans briefly before stepping back and operating quietly is annoying, but I will note that I do not consider this loud enough to interrupt my day. Sitting further away will mitigate the issue completely. The noise is never enough to wake me from sleep and isn't "terrible". On normal low AC settings outside of the initial "start up" where it runs full tilt, I would say it is about as loud as box fan set to medium-low. The full start up level of noise for the compressor is approximately as loud as a window AC running on full. You will definitely notice the different stages as it cycles up and down. This thing will freeze you out of a room and quickly drop the temperature. I have never seen anything like it. Even dealing with Florida heat and humidity it was able to take a heat soaked room that was in the upper 80s down to the low 70s in a span of two hours. I had some concerns about needing to drain this vs a comparable Whynter unit with their exhaust technology. Those concerns were unfounded -- even with Florida humidity I have never needed to drain the unit. I have checked multiple times but I have never had more than a few drops of water in the tank. The AC exhausts the water vapor efficiently out through the window and does not seem to accumulate much at all. I have not needed to use the dehumidifying option, so that option may require more draining. For normal AC use you will probably not need to drain it often at all. If you live in a drier climate than Florida, you will probably never need to give draining it a second thought at all. Installation was not difficult for one person and all needed adapters / panels are provided. Midea supplies extra panels and adapters in case you need extensions. I do recommend reviewing the instructions and using the dampening foam panels to keep outside noise and heat away. You can install it without the instructions (it's that simple) but your life will be much easier if you read the manual. :) Make sure to install the hose flow separator at the end of the vent or your performance will not be as great. Once the foam is installed and the window secured with the included foam liners, outside noise is no worse than what it was before with the window closed. Midea has done very well in thinking of customer comfort. Durability -- it cools just as well as it did on day one. It has, however, developed a very annoying rattle/vibration when the compressor spins up and goes to full power. This sounds like something vibrating loose in the unit and this happened a few weeks into ownership. If I press my hand to the side of the unit this is goes away, so perhaps some piece of sound insulation has let go internally? I do not know if it is a defect since it is cooling perfectly, but I had to take away from the noise level stars because this is annoying and something I notice daily. Before it started doing this vibration-rattle the unit was much quieter. Purely fan mode is wonderfully quiet, so I know this has to be coming from the compressor somehow. Make sure to clean and check the filters, as the mesh is very fine and this unit needs the airflow to operate at best performance. I have not needed to use the heat function since we're still in the upper 80s and 90s, but will update as I use it. The remote control is good for when you don't want to get out of bed to change settings, but I find the app to be easier to use. The remote can do most of the things the buttons on the unit will do minus a few options that require the unit buttons to be held down. The app will let you fine tune most settings on the unit and select fan speeds beyond low, medium, or high. I would like to see full control from the app with all settings that can be adjusted on the unit itself. Our power bill did not increase by much using the AC. Part of this is probably helped by the Midea taking some of the strain off of the old (and inefficient) wall units here. I normally leave it set to low fan circulation and around 72 degrees on the AC. It uses much less power than a comparable window unit and I would absolutely not have anything other than an inverter driven AC at this point. The technology is that good. Would I buy another Midea again? Absolutely. There are improvements they can make to the overall build quality (addressing the various vibrations / rattles that have appeared) and settings (a quiet AC mode would be greatly appreciated), but overall this is very comparable with the best that Whynter has to offer and the thoughtfulness of the app is wonderful. It is not cheap, but the price gives you a tremendous performance and feature combination. I have no doubt that this would cool a large living room or combined space with ease. Thank you to Midea for saving me from Florida Summer! Edit and followup: I attached two decibel measurements. The average for medium fan is 54 and the average for the unit running in AC mode is 61 with spikes up to 68. I finally ran the heat and it works great, though it will collect a lot of humidity as condensation in the trays. The unit is very easy to drain, but you can also switch to dry mode to have the unit evaporate and exhaust the water. Edit #2: Still working great after a year and a half with no issues