Back to Whynter ARC-122DS Elite Dual Hose Digital Portable Air Conditioner Dehumidifier

Customer reviews

3.93 out of 5stars
(15 reviews)

Most helpful positive review

5.00 out of 5 stars review
Verified Purchaser
06/25/2021
Efficient and pretty AC unit
I had a single hose portable several years ago and this on is already a superior experience. The silver cabinet does not look bad at all in my living room, and the noise level isn't bad either. I can watch the television without turning the volume up too significantly. I wrapped the exhaust hose with some insulating material and it is doing a great job of cooling adjacent rooms as well as the room it is in, probably because it's pulling out the humidity. I tried it on dehumidify setting and it did a great job without making the room freezing which my mini-split does in another part of the house. The exhaust pipes fit in the window with the screen in place unobtrusively.
woodswoman

Most helpful negative review

1.00 out of 5 stars review
Verified Purchaser
09/05/2022
Not worth the money
First of all, do not be misled by the sleek look of the air conditioning unit. It has two large hoses in the accordion style used by clothes dryers, only much bigger and less flexible. When the unit is installed and ready to work, it looks like something more suited to a workshop or other industrial space than a living room or bedroom. And because of those huge hoses, the unit must be placed close to a window - but not too close. It will need to placed about 2 feet away from the wall so as not to kink the hoses. So, big as this thing is all by itself, you have to add even more space when planning the location. In my very small room, it is taking up a 2' x 3' footprint. I bought this air conditioner believing it was portable; it's not. Not in any real sense of the word. At over 60 pounds, it's a lot heavier than a window unit with the same BTU capacity, and even though it's on wheels, the wheels don't function well on carpeting (the instruction manual points this out), and the hoses must be reinstalled in the new window along with the unit, making it much more difficult to relocate than a standard window unit. The frame that holds the hoses in place in the window is poorly designed and the manual suggests a permanent installation, including screwing the frame in place. This means either removing the frame at the end of the cooling season - not small matter if you've screwed it into your window frame - or dealing with an uninsulated and drafty frame throughout the winter. It was designed to be left in place, as the manufacturer included plastic caps to seal off the hose openings. In terms of function, it isn't as effective as the last window unit I had in that room - a small, inexpensive Frigidaire model. I timed it yesterday and it took over two hours to lower the temperature by 10 degrees in a 10' x 11' room, with the assistance of a ceiling fan. The old Frigidaire did it in half the time, and without the fan as a backup. The only advantage to this unit is it is quiet. Not extremely quiet, just quiet compared to most window units. If I had it to over again, I would NOT have purchased this air conditioner.
MajesticOcelot
14 reviews
Filter by:
Sort by:
  • 1.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    09/05/2022
    Not worth the money
    First of all, do not be misled by the sleek look of the air conditioning unit. It has two large hoses in the accordion style used by clothes dryers, only much bigger and less flexible. When the unit is installed and ready to work, it looks like something more suited to a workshop or other industrial space than a living room or bedroom. And because of those huge hoses, the unit must be placed close to a window - but not too close. It will need to placed about 2 feet away from the wall so as not to kink the hoses. So, big as this thing is all by itself, you have to add even more space when planning the location. In my very small room, it is taking up a 2' x 3' footprint. I bought this air conditioner believing it was portable; it's not. Not in any real sense of the word. At over 60 pounds, it's a lot heavier than a window unit with the same BTU capacity, and even though it's on wheels, the wheels don't function well on carpeting (the instruction manual points this out), and the hoses must be reinstalled in the new window along with the unit, making it much more difficult to relocate than a standard window unit. The frame that holds the hoses in place in the window is poorly designed and the manual suggests a permanent installation, including screwing the frame in place. This means either removing the frame at the end of the cooling season - not small matter if you've screwed it into your window frame - or dealing with an uninsulated and drafty frame throughout the winter. It was designed to be left in place, as the manufacturer included plastic caps to seal off the hose openings. In terms of function, it isn't as effective as the last window unit I had in that room - a small, inexpensive Frigidaire model. I timed it yesterday and it took over two hours to lower the temperature by 10 degrees in a 10' x 11' room, with the assistance of a ceiling fan. The old Frigidaire did it in half the time, and without the fan as a backup. The only advantage to this unit is it is quiet. Not extremely quiet, just quiet compared to most window units. If I had it to over again, I would NOT have purchased this air conditioner.
    MajesticOcelot
  • 5.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    08/10/2022
    Super quiet!!
    It's super quiet and cools great!
    Tammy
  • 5.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    07/26/2022
    Air Conditioner/for a better night sleep
    I highly recommend this A/C unit
    Arturo Espinoza
  • 5.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    07/22/2022
    I'm loving this air conditioner
    I haven't had the air conditioner long but so far so good. I use it in my bedroom, it gets very cold.
    Ershla
  • 2.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    07/22/2022
    DOE 7000 rating
    Sams hides low DOE SACC ratings of items. Look at manufactures website cause DOE requires 2017 and newer to have new rating besides 12000 BTU (ASHRAE-128 Standard) / 7000 BTU (US DOE STD) or DOE SACC
    SubmarineVeteran
  • 2.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    07/15/2021
    Buy a different brand. Didn't even last 3 summers
    Didn't even last 3 summers. Worked great at first but mine just died on 7/15/2021. Woke up and the display was off but it was still running, fan was making a weird noise. I had to trip the breaker on the plug to shut it off. Leaked water the whole day and didn't realize it. Took the plastic off the back to see if it was clogged, etc and there was standing water everywhere and on places where there were wires. I had it set up correctly, I had it draining into a bucket with a proper hose and all it was cooling was a small bedroom. When it worked it was great but man did it fail horribly. JUNK. NOT happy with this brand at all. Save your money on this overpriced brand and research others.
    Joshua
  • 4.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    07/05/2021
    Works well for a small room, but...
    So far it's working as advertised - it cools a room adequately. I can't give it 5 stars because the hassle of setting it up for use in a room with horizontal slider windows; the supplied window kit may work for sash windows but not sliders and I had to fabricate something out of wood to attach to their kit to make it work, and it ain't ideal. We bought it primarily for use in a 3-season sunroom (10ft x 12ft) that gets way too hot in the summer without a/c but this little unit is doing OK. Plus although it may be a bit easier to move around from room to room than a window a/c it's still not as easy as they want you to believe because the window kit takes time. Still, it's better than no a/c at all.
    Kirkules
  • 5.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    06/27/2021
    Amazing!
    Does its job! Live in AZ and even on 118 degree days I have to turn this down because I am too cold. I have it in a theater room with vaulted ceilings which is closed off by curtains so the cold air stays in the room. Definitely worth the money!
    KJG
  • 5.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    06/25/2021
    Efficient and pretty AC unit
    I had a single hose portable several years ago and this on is already a superior experience. The silver cabinet does not look bad at all in my living room, and the noise level isn't bad either. I can watch the television without turning the volume up too significantly. I wrapped the exhaust hose with some insulating material and it is doing a great job of cooling adjacent rooms as well as the room it is in, probably because it's pulling out the humidity. I tried it on dehumidify setting and it did a great job without making the room freezing which my mini-split does in another part of the house. The exhaust pipes fit in the window with the screen in place unobtrusively.
    woodswoman
  • 5.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    06/15/2021
    Very cool cooled down pretty quickly
    Was just as described and the packaging was great and safe
    crystal
  • 5.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    06/13/2021
    so far AWESOME
    cools in minutes! what can I say, its workin wonderful. cooled the room down by 8 degrees in less then half hour. hope it continues for the season.
    daydreaminberly
  • 4.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    10/12/2020
    Good a/c
    if you need portable ac, this is it...it is loud, block your ears and have a goodnight sleep...the window type is a little less noisy but you can't moving it around like this portable unit..
    Jess78
  • 2.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    10/03/2020
    Not very powerful, no need for dual hose
    Surprised by how little cold air it generates. Also the dual hose design is actually a negative: pulling air in from outside when California has smoky skies is bad, so I am not using the intake hose at all and just letting it draw room air in. It's okay, but more big, heavy, and expensive than I expected, and it doesn't really cool the room adequately.
    StillHotInCa
  • 4.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    08/25/2018
    Performance
    We have had this for a couple of months now. The unit works very very well. It cools our bedroom very fast at night which saves us having the whole house cooled. The controls are simple. The remote is a great idea. The unit has really a great feture in that 99%of the watervapor evaporates so you are not cotinuously emptying a water tank. This great especially since removing the plug is difficult since it is virtually limpossible to get this this out when the unit is plgged in to a window. The is a light which glows orange when the tank needs to be emptied. Why did I not give the product 5 stars? Two reasons. One is minor that is the time to get the unit was over 4 weeks. The second reason is more of a problem. The way rhis fits in the window is with adjustable baffles. The product features are misleading when they say adusts from fom 20 inches to 44 inches. The design of the baffles is such that to get to the gap you want to fill you may have to cut one of the adjustable pieces of plastic. Then if later you want to move the unit to another room with a wider opening the baffles are too short. This happened tous. One window was 33inches which we could not get without cutting the baffle. If we had done thar then we could not fit into our 44 inchwindows.
    Terry 65
  • 5.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    05/30/2017
    A Premium Product at an Affordable Price
    I have a multimedia conference room on my 3rd floor where the temperature is extremely hard to control during the summer months. I do have central air there, but central air alone cannot handle the room. After buying several portable ACs and returning them I finally put my hands on this one. This unit differs from the previous ones I owned in the following ways: -The compressor is extremely quiet and you can barely hear it. You hear the fans, which are right at 52db but just the fact you don't hear the annoying noise made by compressors, to me is great plus. It sounds more like white noise. Definitely the quietest of all the units I've had. -The thermostat on the unit is very accurate. With other units, they would shut off the compressor as if had reached the temperature when the room temperature was actually way above. -The dual hose system really makes a difference. This unit cools the room much faster because it doesn't draw warm air from other rooms to replace the air used during the cooling process. -The EER (energy efficiency ratio) is 12. Anything above 10 is good, but for a portable unit 12 is exceptional. The unit wont use more than 900W when the compressor is running. -I love the design. It blends in and it doesn't disturb the appearance of the room. -The window kit has very good quality and air won't leak on the back of the unit. With my central air in the off position, it manages to bring the room temperature to the low 70's with ease. My conference room is about 250sf but it is on the third and without any cooling on a summer day it reaches about 105 degrees by 4pm. So the unit performs very well. Overall this unit is very well designed. I wish I could adjust the vent from the remote control like the previous units I had. I've learned, however, that once you have it set the way you want, you don't need to change it anymore. So, not a big deal.
    PaulFields