Clean efficiency in a white box
This is an excellent high-efficiency budget air conditioner for small to medium sized rooms. The fan speed is adjustable so that the unit can push cold air further into a room at higher speed.
I really like all the options available in the controls. You can have it run as long as you want or you can set it to run on an internal timer or according to an internal thermostat.
The on/off button is easy to use and the whole control panel responds well to presses. I don't feel ignored by this control panel.
In addition to setting the fan speed you can set the thermostat from 60 up to 90 or you can set the unit to run the fan only without cooling the air.
Also there is an energy efficient mode which turns off the cooling system when the thermostat reads the right temperature but the fan keeps running for 3 minutes to continue moving air over the inactive but still-cold compressor. Then at 10 minute intervals the fan turns on for another 3 minutes and continues like that until the temperature goes high enough to activate the compressor again.
There is Clean Air button that turns on a little electric air purifier in the unit. A good bonus for allergy sufferers which I keep on all the time.
There is a sleep button that works with the thermostat settings. When the sleep button is pressed the unit continues operating. 30 minutes later the thermostat is set 2 degrees higher. 30 minutes after that again it is set another 2 degrees higher so it is more efficient while you sleep. The unit will then operate with the thermostat at that higher level for 7 hours and then turn off sleep mode automatically returning to the original thermostat setting before the sleep button was pressed. I don't know anyone who sleeps a full 8 hours so the sleep mode can be deactivated with the press of the button.
The unit reminds you when to change the filter by turning on a light. The reusable filter can be rinsed clean and the button under the filter light can be pushed to reset the timer which runs for 250 hours of operation before lighting again.
There are two control features that I don't like so well.
First there is the mode selection button which controls which of the three modes you are in: "Cool" "Energy Saver" and "Fan Only". I would have preferred two buttons to go up or down the list instead of only down. It's a minor pet peeve for me.
Second I think the controls beep too loud when pressed and I don't think there is a way to adjust volume.
Another thing I dislike is how the timer can only be set in half-hour increments up to 10 hours and then 1 hour increments up to 24 hours. I would have liked to select smaller time slices like 10 minute intervals. That makes it a longer process to program the timer but gives me more control. However since I normally use the thermostat mode this is not really an issue for me anyway.
Be careful about putting furniture directly in front of the plug. The plug itself looks good and the cord comes out the bottom but the reset and test buttons are not placed deeply enough into the plug box so they can be accidentally pushed. This may turn off your unit and the instructions say not to use the test and reset buttons to control the operation of the unit.
The unit seems to generate an average amount of sound. It does not sound any louder or quieter than an average air conditioner.
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