EdgeStar AP8000W - Portable Air Conditioners

I just got this today. I was really nervous because there were quite a few complaints and I just wasn't sure how well this would work. That being said there have been a lot of good things about this unit. It came a day early, which was wonderful because my home office is not climate controlled and the hot, humid summer of KY is about to kill me (90+ days already with 80% humidity). It was very easy to set up (took less than 30 minutes). It has cooled my office down from 86 to 74 in one hour. I had a ceiling fan and another fan in my office up until this point and they just weren't cutting it any more. I was expecting this to be loud, but on the low fan setting it has cooled my office really well and I can have phone calls and not have to turn off the unit. It is much more quite than a window unit. It is pretty loud on the highest fan setting, but I'm in a small space and don't need the high setting. I was considering getting an Emerson Quiet Kool, but it was a lot more expensive. I decided to try this one instead and save some money and I'm not disappointed so far! I am happy and cool for the first time in over a month and hope this thing works for a while! If anything changes, I'll revise my review, but so far it's great!

PROS about as small and light (50lbs) as they get comes with remote comes with window kit powerful fan thermostat very little assembly/packaging CONS no accessible drain pan machine itself only had power button (no controls) loud OVERVIEW I live in a 300sq foot studio with a 15 foot ceiling and a south-facing bay window. My apartment gets hot when it's sunny and is almost always damp/humid. I got the Koldfront because it was the only unit that would fit in my available surface area: on top of my kitchen cabinets. I already had ducting running through my cabinets to vent my over-range microwave, so I popped the Koldfront on top of my cabinet and tied the exhaust into my existing duct work. It takes the Koldfront about 5-7 minutes to cool my apartment down to habitable from digustingly hot. Technically, I think my space is supposed to be a little too big for this machine, but having it blow cold air across my ceiling seems to do a good job of displacing all the hot air, and since it's located high up, it should be sucking warm air out as it cools the condensers. I ran this machine for a couple of days at ground level and was less than excited about it's potential, I could actually feel a temperature differential about two feet off the ground between cold and hot air. But moving it closer to my ceiling made all the difference. When it was on the floor, all it did was move air and maybe cool a little bit. Now that it's at ceiling height I'm actually getting chilly. FAN SPEED There are three fan speeds: high is pretty loud, and low is still relatively loud. I've gotten used to it pretty quickly though, it pretty much acts as white noise, dampening external sounds. MODES AC, Dehumidifier, and Fan are the available mode settings for this machine. I'm happy about these options since you won't always need/want the condensers coming on and off, and you can dehumidify when it's cold out without turning on the AC. WATER RESERVOIR The koldfront is supposed to vent humidity out through the ducting, but has a water resevoir for high humidity situations. Unlike some machines, the reservoir isn't a bucket that you can remove from the machine. To drain the reservoir, you have to pull out a little plug at the bottom of the AC, which is about two inches off the ground. That doesn't give you much room to maneuver a drain pan. Fortunately, at 50LBS, it's not too heavy to put in the bathtub and let drain there. The lack of an accessible reservoir is a definite con though. Apparently the Koldfront is made to be able to hard-wire a drain, so that may be an option for some. I ran my machine on and off for a couple of days in San Francisco and it drained something like a cup of water. I don't know the total size of the reservoir, but the drain indicator lite hadn't turned on yet before I drained it. THERMOSTAT I've read some reviews complaining of an inaccurate thermostat on the KOLDFRONT, but mine seems to be about spot on. REMOTE AND LCD PANEL Don't lose the remote, or if you do, hope you had your Koldfront set exactly how you want to have it because there's no way to change settings without the remote. The remote itself is pretty intuitive, with power, up, down, mode, fan speed, Celsius/Fahrenheit, timer, and cancel buttons. And it comes with batteries. The LCD panel reads the ambient temperature in either Celsius or Fahrenheit until you press the up or down button on the remote, in which case it reads your preset temperature preference. There's a blue/green/yellow LED that indicates whether you're in AC/dehumidifier/ or fan mode, respectively. The information on the LCD is large enough to read from several feed away. ASSEMBLY Like most appliances, the Koldfront came with a cardboard cover over the packaging and plastic ties keeping it on. You just cut the ties and lift the cardboard cover off the machine. Inside, there's just a couple pieces of Styrofoam, the AC, and the window kit, plastic duct, instructions, remote, and two AAA batteries for the remote. The AC itself doesn't require any assembly, aside from plugging the duct in. The drain plug on mine had popped out, so I just twisted it back into place. There's a little more involved in assembling the window kit, but the instructions are pretty good on how to get that together. All you need (if your window is the right size) is a phillips head screw driver. The window kit is held into place by the weight of your window and doesn't need to be screwed into the window frame at all. CONCLUSION Overall, I'm happy with my Kodlfront. Mine arrived fully functional out of the box, and raising it to ceiling height has made it a lean, mean studio-cooling machine. It's a little bit bigger than I had guessed from the picture, but it's still smaller than most, and fit where I needed it to. It's loud, but inexpensive and has a built in thermostat and remote. Draining it is going to be a hassle, since I've moved it out of easy reach, but there's nothing else on the market that would have worked for me, so four stars for working properly, but not five, because of the lack of controls on the machine, the lack of a removable reservoir, and the loudness of the fan.

This unit is powerful and well made. Cools my second floor nicely. I have 3 bedrooms and a bath upstairs in a 100 year old house with odd AC ducting. My 2nd floor always stayed 10 to 15 degrees warmer than downstairs with the AC running. To get the 2nd floor cooler, the first floor would be freezing cold. This is a great fix, and with an 8-foot run of ductwork to the window, it positions the unit closer towards the center hall. Removes humidity, cools effectively. Might be a tic loud for a light sleeper if it's in the same room. I have it in one of the Guest Rooms and it doesn't bother my sleep while running on High. I highly recommend this unit. I can't manage window unit on my own. I did that a few years back. Too heavy and scary for a second story application. This unit weighs about 40 or 50 pounds but you can position it close to the window, or up to 8 feet away. Then in the Winter, roll it into the closet (it rides on 4 casters) and shut your window. Super easy.

This was supposed to arrive July 6. We are in the midst of a heatwave, and the stand up I've used for the last 7 years or so, is dead. It's 14,000 btus, massively heavy, and I nearly have a heart attack every time I move it in and out of the house for the summer. It's also 600+$,and it barely does the job of cooling one 250sq for room. I was done with that. I purposely picked this model because it's a foot shorter, and I'd guess a lot lighter than the one I had. I wondered about the loss of the btus, but I didn't care. I just needed something manageable, fast. This unit was due to arrive July 6th. It's as if they expedited it knowing we are dying over here. It came today. 3 days early. It not only weighs a lot less than what I had, it's much easier to situate and install. It also cools better than the one with 400 more btus, 2 external air hoses, and costs 350$ more . I'm comfortable and happy. Thank you so much to whomever expedited the transport. I cannot express how much I appreciate it. You guys rock. I will probably buy another one of these and put it in the adjacent room.

So this is an ok AC unit. It’s easy to put together and easy to install the kit in the window. It works pretty well... I have mine in my bedroom pretty close to my bed and it definitely keeps me cool all night. However, it is LOUD... I am someone that likes to have a fan on at night to drown out outside noise, but this thing is really loud on the AC function. It also kind of vibrates/rattles. I have had lots of the window unit AC’s and none were ever as loudly annoying as this one... I’ve only had it about 6 weeks and 3 of the 6 weeks it was not being used. It has a remote which works well, you can adjust the temperature and has 3 fan speeds. It also has a dehumidifier and fan-only option. I have a somewhat small bedroom (about 10x10) and keeps the whole room pretty cool. I really wouldn't recommend for a bedroom because of the noise, but it would work fine in an office or den (any somewhat small space with a door). You could use it in a bigger open room, but it won’t adequately cool down the whole space. I definitely won’t be using it in the bedroom next summer.

Reviews are so subjective, so please understand that I am writing just from my perspective in the hopes it can help someone else with their buying decision. I live in the Northeast where there is a lot of humidity and just purchased it right before Memorial Day. First, I had excellent service, it arrived in great condition and on time. As I already had another portable from several years back in another room, I found this very easy to set up. I do not close all my windows to use any air conditioner, I find that stifling. My living room has two windows and I placed this on one and a small window fan on the other (yes, I take it over the top). You would think that would affect the air conditioner but it doesn't. This machine does a great job and unlike my other portable, this one has a much larger area that blows out the cool air, the dehumidifier really works well and they have a nice video on Youtube that shows you how to set it up and keep it clean. I am very happy with my purchase, really love this unit, and am thrilled I avoided the price increase! Way to go Amazon!!!

Update: 5/31/2018: My original review is below...It WAS an awesome air conditioner but it seems to have kicked the proverbial "bucket" today. For the price that I paid, I don't think it was worth it to essentially "rent" it for not even a year. I'll see what happens concerning a warranty. etc. I'd proceed with caution and/or get the 2 year extra warranty. _______________________ I was absolutely hesitant to buy this but our centra ac isn't working well enough to cool our addition. My wife hates the exposed window units so a portable air conditioner was what it had to be. I picked this because of its size, BTU rating and cost. It was circa 270 and a lot less expensive than some other brands but it was a brand I recognized. It's not up there with the top 2 or 3 but I've had experience in the past and found them to be budget friendly and just work. This is no different so far. It gets HOT in Florida...ridiculously hot! This has been a lifesaver (it would've literally been had we not had any other air conditioning). This replaced a more expensive one because the other was a few years old and was leaking bad (not good when it's supposed to evaporate humidity). This one has a 50 liter (I could be wrong) internal capacity and it DOES evaporate humidity so you don't have to dump water. This is especially nice as it is a pain to do so and also can ruin the flooring. Pros and cons: Pros: Very quiet compared to other models that are double the price (but the other is 3 years older)...still not bad and I no longer have to have tv volume all the way up Cools well! It's not as good as a 10k BTU one but that's because it's rated for 8Ak BTU's. Has 3 levels of fan speed (a lot of others have only 2) Doesn't leak...in FL; where it's very humid Has a good setup for the exhaust & comes with what I needed to get setup quickly I love the filter system as it's easy to clean Cons: It's efficient but still a bit costly to run (all are but I felt obligated to mention this) The vent system is not great. It doesn't give you a lot of versatility but it does work; just wish I could move it more I believe that about wraps it up. I recommend this if you need to stay cool in the dog days of Summer or any other time!

this is a quality unit. well built and sturdy. most importantly, it doesn't completely shut down between compressor cycles. it remains on until you manually turn it off. if it did turn off, i'd return it. i despise air conditioners that turn off the entire unit, including the fan, between cooling cycles. why? because they wake me up! the flex pipe is supple but sturdy plastic. the remote is simple to use but also sturdy. easy set up. i literally had it up and running in 10 minutes. just barely fits under my standard high desktop. clears it by 1/8", but clears it nonetheless. seems to cool a 250 square foot room with 10 foot ceilings on the central california coast ok, but it doesn't get very hot here. i mainly got it to condition the air from the heavy marine layer that irritates my skin. i don't find it to be excessively loud as some other reviewers have commented. seems normal to me. however, the compressor does make an inconsistent deep thump sometimes when the cooling/dehydration turns off. that's bad because i'm a light sleeper, and it has woken me up. so, i'm looking to see if i can slide some springs under the bottom to isolate it from my floor. i think that will help. the cooling cycle LED is too bright, but not an issue for me because i use an eyemask when sleeping. it comes with a replaceable filter and carbon sheet. very easy to remove - just pull off the front grille and replace. make sure you manually open the vent on the top front. a one time operation. i'd give it 5 stars if it were made in California, or at least headquarters in CA. on a positive note, their HQ is in Austin, so its not all bad. and if it wasn't some color other than white. yuck. i'll probably paint it after the warranty expires.