portable A/C units

[69 OUR/TEA]

Hey guys,seeing if anyone has had any experiences with the small 115v portable air conditioners, 8k,10k,12k btu units.It is for my back garage workshop,24x24, that is secluded off my front garage.It is well insulated and during the winter retains the heat real good,and now actually holds out the heat pretty good.I have no windows in there,so I can't put in a window unit unless I go to the wall units and I will have to cut open the wall,take off the siding outside and trim around it,etc.Seems like an easier way out with one of those portable units that just needs to have a hose connected to outside which would be easy for me to do.
Anyway,good/bad experiences with them? Thanks

[Mike DC]

I dunno, I haven't had one of those portable ones. 

I will say this, the whole principle of an A/C unit is a "hot air remover" rather than a "cold air creator."  If you can't get rid of the hot air it produces then it won't help.  So make sure to get that hot air ventilation hose done right.

[hatersaurusrex]

I've had a couple of units so I'll chime in.

With the unit I bought for home a couple years back to spot cool a bedroom (Goldstar or whatever they had at home depot) it has a tank in the back that you can empty to get rid of the humidity.   In TN in the summer I'd have to do this about twice a day.   The unit we had featured a cutoff, where if the tank filled the unit shut down so you can forget about it without worrying about a flood.

I got tired of emptying it morning and at bedtime, so I opened up the drain plug that continuously drains and hung the tube out the window right below the exhaust baffle that comes with it.   It was on the bottom part of the unit, so the tube had to run about 2 feet up the wall to the bottom of the window sill to go out.   Most of the time it was problem free but sometimes the draining didn't go so well and the tank would fill anyway, and at the end I started getting overflows so we got rid of the unit and put in a normal window A/C.    

Overall was a bit of a hassle but better than sweltering.   Later on, we picked up a TrippLite SRCool12K.  If you're willing to spend more, TrippLite makes a unit with a vaporizer that doens't need a drain at all, it revaporizes the humidity back into the air.     Plus it pushes out like 12K BTU's on a single 15Amp power leg.  I got one through work (I work at a computer manufacturer, and this unit is made for datacenters) and it was phenomenal.

Overall:

Pros:

Cool Air! Yaaaah!!!!

Cons:

- The exchanger baffle where you mount the exhaust tube sits in the sill under the half-open window and means the window is halfway up all the time.   If you're keeping your charger in this garage and are worried about security, this means the window is very easy to raise the rest of the way and climb on in to help yourself.   I'll leave it to your imagination as to workarounds, but putting a spacer bar of some type between the top of the frame and the top of the lower window half worked nicely for me.   I just cut a piece of furring strip to fit and painted it.

-  One of these will likely eat up an entire 15 Amp power leg.   My unit ran at 13 Amps all the time, and if I plugged in anything else to that leg (4 total outlets) it tripped a breaker.   So if your garage only has a single power leg realize you can't run your tools and this unit from the same leg.

-  The dripping problem.  To work properly the drain tube really needs to be mounted lower than the unit.   If you have a floor drain in your garage, perfect.   If you want to run it out a window you'll have to keep an eye on it.   Or spend the coin and get the TrippLite unit and you never have to drain it:

http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/model.cfm?txtModelID=4462

It's made for computer server rooms so you can order them through any computer retailer.  Amazon has a particularly good deal on them right now:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002XITVCK/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=11057845059&hvpos=1t2&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2005622081901559038&hvpone=470.18&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&ref=pd_sl_8ggjs5qhbq_b

They retailed for $900 when I got mine.  I'd jump on that if I were you.

[hatersaurusrex]

Oh and also I used one at work, where I ran a lab with two racks of server equipment in that were on all the time.   The room itself was about 16x16, but even with those servers humming (Each one eats about 400W of power, and there were about 20 of them, so think about a room that has 80 100W lightbulbs in it in terms of heat) it stayed ice cold in there.   

[2Gunz]

Unless its a huge deal I would just cut a hole in the wall.

The "portable" units are a pain in the ass and are much more expensive that the window units.

For the size of the room your looking for roughly a 8000-10000 btu air conditioner.

If it where me I would just the biggest one that will fit and you can power up.

Your never going to wish you bought a smaller unit.

Years ago I bought an 8000 btu unit as it was rated for the size of the room.
A week later I went back and bought a 12000 btu.

Much better, never going to play that game again.

Good luck!

[69 OUR/TEA]

Thanks guys,after some thinking,I'm going to open up the wall,frame out the hole for a "thru the wall A/C unit".Going with a 12k btu.For winter I'll remove it out of its sleeve that will be permently fastened to the wall,and insulate it and cover it off nice.

[hatersaurusrex]

Holy crap from the time I posted that link to now the price shot up $300 bucks.  It was only $400... a steal.

Now I'm thinking I should have bought a couple just cause

[twodko]

LG makes a sweet window mount AC and heater unit. About $500 or so but you get both. I'd like to have one for my woodshop.