Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After reading multiple reviews and explanations on the downsides, I finally purchased a portable AC for my computer room. This is after years of my PC equipment turning my computer room into an oven. I went with a portable unit because window units are unsightly, block out natural light, and are a pain to install/seal/uninstall seasonally. I settled on the Whynter Elite ARC-122DHP after reading several reviews, but as I have been running the unit for the past several days, my feelings on it started mixed and went down from there. Yes, it cools a 100x100 room well enough (with concerns about a room much larger), but it has some very big downsides, IMHO. 1) I can't speak for all portable units, but this one has a serious design flaw. The night after quickly installing it, I turned the unit off for the night and went to bed. When I woke up, the inside of the room where the AC was installed in was hot, humid, and smelled of outdoors. Figuring that I needed to better seal around the window, I went out and purchased the window AC weather-seal and completely sealed around the AC window slider kit and the space between the upper non-opening window and the sliding window. The next day, I had the same issue. I was baffled as I searched around the window for leaking air...until I realized that the problem was NOT the window. The problem was the unit design itself! There are two intakes and one exhaust. One intake on the back of the actual AC unit and is used to suck room air, cool it, and blow it out the front of the AC unit. The other intake is part of the dual hose system that pulls in air from outside to cool the compressor and then vent the heat outside. It also helps with keeping the air pressure in the room consistent. The AC air intake and hose system SHOULD be able to be separated internally from each other. Just like in your car, I should be able to bring in fresh air from the intake hose if I want, but I should also be able to close it off and just use internal air. It is here that this unit has a terrible flaw. Once you turn OFF the AC unit, outside air (which is hot and humid) flows in through the dual hoses and flows out the AC unit's intake vent in the back. I have NO option to keep this from happening other than to manually disconnect the two hoses from the window sliding kit and cover the holes on the kit. I don't know if other brands do this or if mine is defective, but this is the worst design I have ever seen. All other AC designs I have seen have a duct vent that manually or automatically closes once the unit is turned off. It keeps your room air from leaking out or the outside air from leaking in. This unit or model has nothing to stop that from happening or if it does, it isn't working. 2) I had to figure this out on my own. There is NOTHING in the manual that covers this issue. Zero. 3) This unit is incredibly loud for what it is and most of the noise is being caused by the fan(s). 4) The window plate and hose connectors are garbage. Tons of cracks, seams, holes, and leaks. The exhaust hose connector even has a drill hole in it for reasons that for the life of me, I can't figure out why. The hole blows hot air into the room every time the unit it on. I scoured the manual searching for its purpose, but found nothing. To stop the hot air, I had to cover the hole with aluminum tape. Like I said...I don't know if other units have the same issues as this one, but I am left unimpressed and more than just a little disappointed thus far about this unit. I would return the thing, but trying to do so would be such a pain, it would be better if I just tried to sell it on my own and search from another solution. In the end, I can not recommend this AC unit in its current form.