frontpage Posted by shb2dae • May 21, 2025
May 21, 2025 8:10 AM
Item 1 of 1
frontpage Posted by shb2dae • May 21, 2025
May 21, 2025 8:10 AM
Refurb: 12,000 BTU Midea DUO Dual-Hose Portable Air Conditioner
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It can also peg around 450-480 watts periodically when settling down from medium to low or when first kicking into low when the compressor surges, and then levels out at around 250-300 watts.
Medium is pretty capable of bringing my living room/kitchen area which is around 400sq ft or so I'd say with other rooms doors shut, from 85 degrees to 76 or so within 30 minutes to an hour.
YMMV depending on your area, it's generally in the high 70's to low 80's outdoor temps here at the moment, but it can reach 95+ in the middle of summer, so I can't comment on those sorts of conditions just yet.
Fan speed settings more or less control compressor load along with it on these units. If you set the fan to low, expect the 250-300 watt load range, medium upper 700 watt range, high over 1K watts. So you can't have for instance just the fan on low and the compressor running at full load, or the fan on high and the compressor at its lowest load, these aren't actually 'smart'. Ceiling fans or floor standing fans will certainly help to distribute the cold air throughout more than one area/room.
Since temps aren't that high yet I generally just have mine in low all the time with continuous fan mode, so when the compressor turns off entirely, the fan still runs at a load of 10 to 12 watts to help with any moisture accumulation in the tank.
If my asshole cats unplug it and the house heats up into the mid 80's I'll run it on medium until it gets down to 76-77 and switch it back to low.
When I get it plugged in again I'll correct any errors I might have made, I put a U-shaped window unit in the living room cause I'm less concerned about my cats messing with that, and will be moving the portable to my bedroom and can recheck the load then.
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https://www.costco.com/PriceAdjustment
If that link malfunctions, go to customer service, type in 'price match', see the costco.com price article and it has that above link a little bit down the page.
I have two of these, and just installed one. The instruction sheet is hard to read and way too small, but there are videos on amazon and youtube. It's pretty easy, no panel cutting.
As soon as I powered it on, the google home app saw it's Matter registration, hooked it to my wifi and home app. So I can control it from my watch or voice to a speaker. Just on/off and temp control, so you need the remote for other stuff.
Makes a momentary rattle as the compressor starts, and that's why a bunch of people return them. So many that they had real box art boxes with "refurbished" part of the artwork, So refurb you're getting one that's been shipped back and forth, possibly carried home and carried back to a store and then shipped to a refurbishing center, repacked and resold and shipped some more.
We'll see how well they do when it's 105 every day in July. At least there's no humidity. Which in reading reviews are a problem for this and a lot of other portables. They aren't good at shedding water through the hose. Lots of returns for that when the bucket filled up and they'd already thrown out the hose with the packaging.
Some folks break the small plastic tabs trying to snap the sliding/casement adapter into things. It's very thin and cheap feeling. I'll probably break it when trying to disconnected it from the window in the Fall.
They also historically have had zero ability to ship one missing or broken part. It's a "return the whole thing for a missing plastic piece" deal, and that's led to many returns and angry customers who had the whole thing half installed and had to send it all back.
At the price delta, buy the costco one. I thought it was cheap at $479, now at $379 brand new and shipped < half the number of times as the refurb, no brainer. But if you don't have the extra cash, and can only afford the refurb, you aren't in a high humidity area, you're careful with the plastic parts and whisper silent wasn't the top three needs, should be a good one. At least it's 12,000 by the reliable/accurate measure. Many will say 12000 and it's actually 8000 or even less. That leads to many portable ac returns, not just midea. Most aren't truthful about cooling ability, noise, or problems with full water tanks.
Yep I agree 👍. So far mine has been awesome. Like i've said previously, It showed up looking brand new and runs great. I happened to be at my local Costco today and I almost wished I would have bought it there. They had a few huge palettes of brand new ones for $349. That's a ridiculously good price for a brand new unit with costco's return policy. But at $212 with 2 year warranty, I really can't complain. It's a bit louder than I had hoped for at full power. However, I don't really hear any of this high pitched noise people are talking about. But low and medium are fine noise levels. I don't imagine I would go over that anyway...
The other thing that people should do (and with anything compressor like fridges/ac/dehumidifier) is get it unboxed and into the correct orientation standing up, then don't plug it in or use it for 12 hours, even 24. The lubricating oil in the compressor needs to be in the very bottom of the sump on startup or a lot of wear can happen in just a few seconds. Often leads to early failure.
Anyhow, I'm still impressed with the hassle free and almost hands free way it connected smartly and just became part of my google home. I usually avoid stuff with wifi and an app because there's always one problem or another.
Came in almost-new condition, save for a small scuff on the front and some residue on the temperature display, as if there was a sticker removed. All accessories (remote, window adapters) were present and still in new packaging.
Fired up in the garage and have run for a few hours each day since. Works like a champ so far, takes a bit to cool a really hot garage but that's to be expected, does great at bringing down humidity (it only comes with about 18 inches of drain hose, so I bought some longer hose from HD to run under the garage door.) Overall, very pleased with price and performance.
Now, off to find a deal on garage door insulation...
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Did you return it? I reached out to Midea on eBay to ask about the wrong remote and a broken clip. I haven't heard back. Considering a painful return…