Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

UPADTE 5/27/2014 It has been a few years since I purchased this unit and since Los Angeles has been experiencing a heat wave (95 to 110 degrees) I thought I would give an update. This unit still sounds exactly the same no increase in noise level and it still performs the same no change after 2 years. As of today I am still happy with my purchase and I feel I have got my moneys worth I really didnt think it would last this long without any problems. Please read my first review and take all the steps to secure the hoses. I feel this step will insure that that unit will perform at its best. So far so good 2 years and counting! UPDATE 7/2/2013 Ok this is the second summer I have had this unit and If you live in Los Angeles you know its been 95 to 105 degrees all week! Havent used this AC since last summer so this week we brought it out and hooked it up and it is still working flawlessly! No problems what so ever same sound level same cold output all the buttons still work and the hoses are still fine. So far for me this unit has been rock solid and I am still very happy with my purchase, if you intend on buying please read my original review below and spend a little time to hook it up correctly. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I bought this AC after doing some research and the reviews here. My unit arrived in great condition and after reading some reviewers say the hose attachment did not stay on with the screws provided I went to the hardware store and bough 8 bolts, nuts and lock washers as well as a plastic filler plate to fill the gap that the vent didnt cover. Total price $8.98. I put everything together with the bolts I bought and threw away the screws that came with it, I can see how they would not be able to hold the hose connector properly they are just some short wood screws that go through connector to the window vent plate, not a very secure way to hold it on but oh well. I turned the unit on immediately very cold air poured out now it wasnt very hot in the room maybe 75 but you could feel the difference it made. I will give a better review on its full performance after the summer which I feel will be a good test the room I have it in has direct sunlight all day and is the hottest room in the house. The unit looks well made and is very solid the noise level is not that bad my portable unit is more quite than my window unit that has only 12,000 btu's. So far I am happy but I will update this as the summer goes into full heat mode. Do your self a favor and take the vent plate and one of the hose connectors to a hardware store and get the bolts this will save alot of cussing later on. I truly believe those wood screws will not last too long if there is any amount of pressure placed on the plate from the vent hoses. Oh and one other thing the vents, I am not to sure why they are designed to go just straight up? I am going to make a hood to redirect the air a little more forward but I will try it the way it was designed and report back. Dean UPDATE 6/25/2012 Ok so we have neen through a few 90 degree days here and I have to say that there are a few things I have learned about AC efficiency. first insulation is a must a room the is not well insulated will not cool as well as a room that is! My AC unit is in a room with a sliding glass door that gets full sunlught all day long so it gets pretty hot with the AC running full blast it got cool but not COLD, i mean it was comfortable but i felt it was at the limit of what it could do. What I did was buy some solar shade screens and placed them in front of the sliding doors not the whole door just the upper half. The AC unit now does an a amazing job of cooling the room! The heat coming in from the window was canceling out the cooling from the AC so it never had a chance to do its thing. it got so cold in there on a 80 degree day I found my kids watching TV with blankets covering them! So my final thoughts on this purchase are, you must assess the room and the environmental that this AC will be used in and use some common sense if there is a heat source in the room that will cause it to heat up the AC will only go so far to keep the temps down if you can help the unit by minimizing any direct heat to the room the AC will perform at its best.