Honeywell HL12CESWK Environmental Appliance, White

The review below is long, but if you have a specific room that just won’t cool – and especially if you’re an apartment dweller like us who can’t do a more permanent solution – the longer review may provide some helpful insight.TL;dr: solid, sleek unit that does what it’s supposed to in our 100+ degree humid summer heat. Our living room would never cool down with the central AC alone. By adding this unit to run in conjunction with our central AC, it has cooled down the living room greatly.Ok, here’s the longer review (all degrees in Fahrenheit):By way of background, our apartment is on the top floor of our complex and so is regularly hit by the sun. We’ve lived in this apartment for over a year now. Last summer was brutal, and we barely survived, so this summer we decided we had to do something.100+ days in the summer are common where we live. While our apartment is equipped with a central AC unit, on days where it is 95 degrees or higher, it would never cool the living room below 82 or 83 degrees, even when we trapped cold air in the apartment early in the day. The central AC would finally cool the room down to 73-74 degrees around midnight.Our main problem area is our living room, which has a vaulted wood ceiling. The living room opens up into the kitchen for a total area of about 250-350 square feet. Use of a laser thermometer showed that the vaulted ceiling in the living room would be the same as, or hotter than, the temperature outside, so there is likely an attic insulation issue as well. Further, our sliding glass door that leads from the living room to the outside balcony gets hit directly by the sun in the afternoon. There is one small vent in the middle of the transition point between the kitchen and living room, which frankly does nothing to move air in the living room itself. In short, the central AC unit was not moving any air in the living room, which was retaining more and more hot air as the hours would pass during the day.Based on our research, this portable unit is rated for rooms that are 450-550 square feet. We determined that this should be adequate for our much smaller room size given that we have a vaulted ceiling and likely need a higher capacity unit.Overall, we have run this unit two days in a row so far when it was 98 degrees outside (yesterday) and 103 degrees outside (today), with 44% and 24% humidity, respectively. We ran it to 65 degrees in the early morning and trapped the cold air in the apartment. It is important to note that we are running the central AC at the same time to ensure the bedroom our dog is crated in during the day is cooled sufficiently – the AC has never had a problem cooling down those rooms. So, with this unit running and supporting the central AC, it has done a remarkable job, and keeps the living room at 74 degrees, versus 82-83 degrees without. That 8-9 degree difference is huge in terms of comfort.In terms of noise level, there are three fan settings, but we’ve only run it at the max setting for an extended period so far. While there’s no mistaking there’s an appliance running when the compressor is on, the overall noise level is that of a high velocity fan. We saw another review say they turn up their TV volume one click and that does the trick, and we’ve found that to be true for us as well.As mentioned previously, we have a sliding door in the living room which leads out to a balcony, so we opted to buy Honeywell’s sliding door kit (sold separately, and purchased from Sylvane) to vent this unit. While we could have easily get a piece of wood or similar material cut at a hardware store to fit your space for way cheaper, we wanted a quick and simple solution in this area so went ahead and purchased the kit. That said, the kit itself is flimsy and just three pieces of plastic, so we felt it was greatly overpriced. But it does what its supposed to, with some modifications outlined below.If you decide to go with Honeywell’s sliding door kit, be sure to buy additional weather stripping than what they supply. Here’s why: there are three panel pieces on the sliding door kit – the top and bottom panels slide into the center panel, which has the cutout for the exhaust hose. Naturally, if you slide a door shut onto this assembled kit, there’s going to be a gap because the pieces do not fit flush with one another. This is because the middle panel is wider than the top and bottom panels, so to ensure the sliding door closes flush with the kit, you need to compensate for the gap.To fix this, I placed two strips of thermal weather stripping on top of one another on each side of the top and bottom panels, and one strip on both sides of the middle panel. The sliding door now closes flush with the panels, no gaps – meaning no outside air leaks into the apartment.We also used Velcro strips to secure the sliding door kit to the door frame for added stability and bought an adjustable sliding door bar lock for added security.After adjusting the sliding door kit to the appropriate height, we sprayed Great Stuff Door and Window gap filler foam insulation onto the back of the panels to provide further insulation from the outside heat. Prior to using this insulation, the plastic on the kit would be the same temperature as the outside temperature. The foam insulation has helped greatly, the only downside being that you can’t adjust the height of the kit once the foam has been applied, so make sure you get it to the height you need before insulating.Since the foam sprays and dries bright yellow, I cut, sanded and spray painted the foam white to match the sliding door frame and so it’s a little more conspicuous.Back to the portable AC unit: it has done an amazing job for our apartment. We were at our wits end, and it has provided the solution, comfort and peace of mind we were looking for. I would highly recommend this unit - you get what you pay for and it lives up to the Honeywell name.

This is our 2nd purchase of a Honeywell unit; first was the 10,000BTU. this unit is much louder when the compressor is running then the other which to some extent is to be expected as it is a larger compressor. That said, it is no worse then our comparable size window unit. Functions just fine keeping the room at the 75 degree we set it for and cycles as it should. Did have to trim down the window adapter as it was blocking the vent; a bit of a pain but with the variability in window sizes no adapter is going to be perfect for all windows. We are in a home that is over 130 years old and every window in the place is different so sometimes you just get creative. Keeping us comfortable, beats lifting a window a.c. unit and will allow us to place where we need it the most. As long as it keeps operating as it is (only had this one for 2 days), we'll be happy!Update: the noise level on this unit is awful; believe the unit was poorly assembled as the noise gets louder as it runs. Will give Honeywell a chance but this unit may end up going back.

Right out of the box, this air conditioner was a winner! I just grew tired of hauling large a/c units from my windows each season; back-breaking work for sure. Rolled this unit out of its box, let it sit for several hours (per all reviews and instructions, this is necessary for the unit to settle), set it up, plugged it in and enjoyed!The unit begins cooling immediately. The noise level is tolerable; can't say that it's louder or less loud than a regular in-window unit. Love the remote option, but do wish there was a remote "station" on the actual unit so that I won't misplace it. I have an older Sharp portable unit and I've got to say, the remote station is quite handy.The window setup for the exhaust was a cinch; definitely less annoying (and less harrowing) than installing a traditional window unit. There were enough extra foam insulation strips provided to be used.The one minor inconvenience/lacking feature is that the louvers are static. It would be really helpful to be able to focus airflow in a more specific direction. Other than that, the unit works great! Purchased this just in time for some serious heatwaves that we've been experiencing. Everyone in the household truly enjoys being nice and cool!When winter comes, it will be super easy to remove the exhaust strip from the window, roll the unit away, and not think about it until next year.

We have two of these. Super easy to install and there is no damage to your windows. Because of roots in the sewer we had to cut down trees in our front yard. The sun hits the front from noon til sundown. Our master bedroom would be miserable without an additional ac. We would have to cut the thermostat down to 60 to get any relief with just the central. We have an exotic bird and that wouldn’t be good for her. We put one in our guest bedroom and one in the master. We set our central ac on 78 and the bedrooms on 64. It’s nice and cool where we want it and comfortable in the rest of the areas. The only drawback is they do take up room.

Bought this on June 5th, arrived 5 days later, worked good for the first week or so, and since then, it doesn't cool anymore. This unit hasn't gotten the room it's in lower than 79 degrees.This is not my first PAC, so I do know how to set them up and use them.This unit is trashBuyer beware

We wanted to like this product a lot. It looked very slick and was a much higher BTU rating than our current window A/C. It was moderately quite and had strong air flow. It just didn't cool that well. Our little 5000 BTU window unit performed just as good for our cooling needs. Plus the window bracket is not well designed, it's constantly popping out. No flanges or a raised edge to stay in place. It pops out with the slightest movement. We ended up sending the unit back