Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

If you're comparing this to a window AC, beware... It's not a simple tradeoff. You may want to read this Consumer Reports Article first: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/06/are-portableair-conditioner-claims-a-lot-of-hot-air/index.htm There's a lot I didn't realize before I installed this, as an alternative to a window AC. Unfortunately the product descriptions didn't include this info. I'm probably going to return this and put my Window ACs back in. Because portable ACs sit on the floor inside your room instead of in a window, they: (a) Have a water tank which you need to empty regularly, since water can't drip outside (b) The directions also instruct you to drill a hole in your window frame (which is the original reason I bought this, I didn't want to drill into my new windows). You can get around this by propping the window down with a piece of wood, but this is going to require extra work & parts. (c) The tube gets quite hot, quite quickly. This means that the tube is radiating heat into the house -- this can't be energy efficient, and will cost you quite a bit more in energy! A few reviewers have commented that you can add a wrapper around the tube to get more heat to stay in the tube -- but it sure doesn't seem like a user should have to do that -- at the least, LG should have a better designed tube that contains more heat and is more energy efficient. Yes, this is cooling the room more than it's heating it, but with heat escaping into the room it's going to have to work much harder, and cost you more in your electric bill. As Consumer Reports mentions, 8000 BTUs in a portable unit ends up not being the same as 8000 BTUs in a Window unit -- you're going to get a lot less cooling at the same BTU. There's no doubt this is not cooling nearly as much as my 8000 BTU window unit. (d) The output fan is lower to the ground than most windows, which means that the AC is going to be low. In my case, in order to avoid having the fan point under the table (and waste much of the AC power), I'd have to completely rearrange the room, moving the table around. (e) The AC unit says you have to put it 20" away from any wall. This means that it's not going to be able to be put against a wall. (f) Because of the way the pipe comes out the back, you won't be able to turn this much. It's going to point in just one direction, not necessarily the direction you'd like. Additionally, it is not as easy to install as you might guess -- it's not a terribly complicated process but the manual makes it seem much more complex than it really is -- their instructions could use some work. This is a product that could really use a youtube video with directions on how to install -- unfortunately, LG has not stepped up to the punch (or has not made their videos findable, neither mentioned in the manual nor on the website). Because of all this, I'm quite surprised and disappointed. I've returned this model and will go back to my Window AC unit. The only reason you might consider a portable AC like this is if your building code won't allow you to use a Window AC, then this might be a good model, but beware that it may not be what you expected!