SPT WA-1140DE Dual-Hose 11,000-BTU Portable Air Conditioner with Remote Control

The key to getting this to run quietly is to take the plug out and hook up a hose that drains into a bucket. If you keep the plug in, the unit will automatically evaporate the water and expel it through the exit hose, but it will make a loud compressor-type noise every minute or so. Hook up a hose drain and bucket and it will run quietly. I've had mine for six years and it still effectively cools the room.

We ordered this AC unit through Amazon and when it arrived, we did take a look at it and turned it on briefly to make sure it worked, but did not need to use it right away because where we live in the northwest summers are unpredictable, and it was not hot enough to use it. We had originally decided to purchase this because we do get heat waves sometimes, and there are some very hot days in the summer which are not pleasant without AC, and it is standard for most homes here not to have it.Well, when we finally did have days hot enough to use it we took it out and set it up in a room. We discovered several hours later our carpet was completely soaked with water. We had to replace all of the carpet which started to smell like mold very quickly, and had to sanitize the area to kill mold spores before placing new padding and clean carpet. Unfortunately, the 30 day guarantee Amazon gives had passed. My husband found that the bottom water reservoir had a crack in it. We contacted the company and they made us pay 60 bucks to ship it back to them, even though I explained we just needed a replacement of the part and could fix it ourselves. My husband is a brilliant engineer and was fully capable of replacing the part. The company said no, insisting their own people had to fix it and told us they would send us a REFURBISHED product in exchange. I was not happy about sending back a brand new product for a refurbished one, but the customer rep assured me it would be as good as a new one.They sent us the refurbished one, by that time it was well into cool autumn. We did not need to use it right away because of the cool temps, but when we inspected it to our dismay they sent one not only with the SAME PROBLEM AS BEFORE, another cracked water reservoir which leaked water all over the floor (luckily this time we set it up in a room that had laminate floors) but also found it was a dirty machine that also had other miscellaneous parts broken AND missing parts!This was very upsetting for us as we currently have a useless machine we spent a large chunk of money on. We are not willing to spend any more money shipping this poor quality machine back to this company. Next time the weather gets warm, my husband will try to fix the cracked water reservoir.My advice is not to buy this product or to buy anything from Sunpentown. If you do, fully inspect and fully use the product for extended amounts of time while it is still protected under Amazon's 30 day return policy. I fault Sunpentown for sending us two defective products, for sending us an inferior and obviously used machine in exchange for the brand new one we sent back to them, and for not trusting that my capable spouse could have easily just replaced the broken part on the first machine, if they had agreed to just send us that one part. I fault ourselves for not 100% fully inspecting the capabilities and functions of this product within the first 30 days of receipt.

This is the second portable air conditioner we've purchased for our home to help cool the hot side of the house, as a supplement to the central air. The other is a single-exhaust AC made by a company or brand name no longer in existence (Everstar). This SPT does work really well in cooling down the room, as effectively as the Everstart, but the Everstar has more oomph and more air flow coming out so it feels more substantial.The dual hose design seems to make it more efficient because outside air, not cooled interior air, is used to cool down the motor. However, note that the instructions tell you not to use the dual hose mode when the outside temp is above 90. The two hoses do double the annoyance factor when you're trying to take it in and out of the window.My biggest beef with this model is that the exhaust hoses face up toward the ceiling. If you are exhausting at the bottom of a window, especially if the window goes low to the ground, you have to move the AC 3 or so feet away from the window to allow the hose space to bend up then down like an S. It would have been better if the hoses went straight out from the back of the AC at a 90 degree angle. My Everstar has the 90 degree straight out exhaust, but it's too low and so has to bend upward. Just take into consideration where the exhausts are and your personal window application/height. An ideal design for me would have had the exhaust at the center of the back of the machine, at a 90 degree angle. But it's not a deal breaker. This puppy puts out great cold and is relatively pretty quiet.One other thing - I am not sure how the evaporative process works but the lack of a water holding tank is nice. With my Everstar I had to empty the water reservoir pretty frequently on humid days.