To test portable air conditioners, we heat a climate-controlled room to 92 degrees. Once the room reaches 92 degrees, we turn off the heat and turn on the portable AC unit in cooling mode, with the fan speed set to medium and the temperature set to 68 degrees. We run the unit for 2 hours and 30 minutes, repeating the same test twice for each AC unit. We then use the data collected during the tests to measure two things:
- How consistently the portable air conditioner keeps the room within 5% of 68 degrees
- How consistently the room was kept within 5% of the individual lowest temperature of the air conditioning unit
Once we have this information, we compare the results of the units to see which one held the set temperature the longest. We also look at which units held their individual lowest temperature the longest. We did this so that if a unit did not reach 68 degrees in the allotted time, we could still track how consistently the unit held the lowest temperature it reached. The higher the percentage, the better the unit performed.
When looking at performance, it’s important to note that the units we tested didn’t have identical specs, so direct performance comparisons aren’t the only thing we take into account when compiling our list of the best portable air conditioners. We also look at a unit’s features and other options in relation to its price and specs to determine its overall value.
We also don’t make direct performance comparisons when looking at units with vastly different sizes and capabilities—for example, the 12,000-Btu Midea MAP14HS1TBL versus the 5,500-Btu Frigidaire FHPC082AC1. For this reason, we compared performance results in two groups based on coverage area. Specifically, we compared the smaller Midea, Black+Decker, Frigidaire, Whirlpool, and GE models (all of which have coverage areas of up to 350 square feet) against each other, and the larger Black+Decker, Whynter, Haier, LG, and Midea models (which have coverage areas of 500 to 550 square feet) against each other.
