Product Description

The Koldfront 8,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner (model PAC8000S) is an ultra compact portable air conditioner that delivers a frigid blast of cold air and fits in almost any space. This compact portable air conditioner is capable of cooling up to a 225 square foot room and offers a three speed fan function and a dehumidifying function. The PAC8000S Portable Air Conditioner is our value choice pick - For those that are looking for a great price but don't want to sacrifice quality or features in their purchasing decision. This portable air conditioner also has an adjustable 24 hour timer, so you can set it and forget it. This is a great unit for situations in which you need a stylish unit that provides powerful cooling and versatile operation. Another great feature of this portable air conditioner is that it is an environmental friendly unit - It meets new RoHS standards. RoHS, also known as the lead-free directive, stands for Restriction of Hazardous Substances. The goal of RoHS is to restrict the amount of certain toxins in electronic and electrical equipment such as lead, mercury, and cadmium. This restriction lessens the harmful impact these toxins can have on the environment and allows for the safer disposal and recycling of electronics and electrical equipment.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27199 in Kitchen & Housewares
• Brand: Koldfront
• Model: PAC8000S

Features

• Ultra Compact Design- At just over 2 feet high, this portable air conditoner fits almost any space and is even easier to store.
• Energy Saving Design - Use the digital thermostat and 24 hour timer to save on your energy costs by setting this unit to run only when you need to stay cool.
• Year Round Versatility: Use this unit year-round to dehumidify your area when air conditioning is not required
• Environmentally Friendly: Meets RoHS Standards - This directive currently being enforced in the European Union requires electronic products to restrict the amount of harmul toxins such as lead and mercury
• Self-Evaporative System- This PAC8000S offers a auto drain exhaust system that essentially eliminates the need to empty any water from the unit.

Customer Reviews

Nice air, yummy air.
How does one go about reviewing an air conditioner?
Well............
It looks nice, it's sleek and sexy.
Hmmmmmm.....
The pros?
It's cheap, it's easy to put together, it comes with a remote,the display is very easy to read.
It's an air conditioner, dehumidifier, and fan all in one.
Most importantly.........IT WORKS!!!
I live in an apartment and there is a wall air conditioner in the living room.
That's nice but it does NOTHING for the bedroom which is like a blast furnace during summer.
This little air conditioner cooled my room off in no time.
The window kit is easy to put in, I have slider windows.
If you have casement windows you'll have to find some way to improvise.

The cons?
The instructions are kind of crappy.
I hate drawn diagrams.
The little tube thingy that snaps in the back of the unit was anything but easy to get in, but after some cramming it went in.

All in all.........I LOVE IT.
It's cute, it's little, it was delivered VERY quickly.
And most importantly...........IT WORKS.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Decent for small rooms
We just had a record-breaking heat wave. I live in a poorly-insulated house that becomes hot in 85-degree weather, and we hit 100. (Just north of Seattle, WA.) This A/C did a great job of cooling two small rooms (cool one room, move the A/C to another room, cool that one, then back again, for about a week).

Some observations:
1. You MUST vent a portable A/C out a window or into a drop-ceiling, or you just pump the hot air back into the room.
2. Portables seem to work better when elevated (hot air rises, so this helps keep the "convection effect" going by getting closer to the hot air).
3. It's a little noisy. Adding rubber gasket material to the vents reduces the noise a lot by damping the vibrations.
4. An A/C's BTU rating must match the room size, or the unit simply won't work right. This is true of all A/Cs, and seems to be somewhat critical for portables.
5. It acts as a dehumidifier, which means that you have to drain the water tank regularly or the unit will shut off until you do. (An indicator light tells you when you need to drain the tank.)

So, for those who need to cool small rooms, I think this is a good buy. It has been for me.

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Follow-Up on Aug 28, 2009:
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I just put the a/c into the garage to store until next year. This thing worked beautifully in the small rooms, but I didn't try it in any of the larger rooms.

Whatever you do, DO NOT BUY THIS.
So, I live in a studio. Not very big at all. You would think this air conditioner would be able to handle keeping it cool. Well, not so much.

Regardless of how low I set it, or how long I kept it running, it kept my studio at 78 degrees. It was actually a better deal to shut it off, open the windows/door and let the air circulate. It actually got cooler in there once I did that.

Moreover, the hose you connect to the window vent is an eye sore, and isn't flexible enough to let your place the unit somewhere convenient. So you end up having to leave the A/C unit in the middle of the room instead of neatly in a corner or against the wall because the vent hose doesn't allow otherwise.

This is pretty much the worse purchase I have made in a LONG time. Worse of all, it doesn't even make sense for me to return it. The seller charges as 12% "re-stocking fee". Moreover, I would need to carry the huge 70+lbs box up and down stairs to get it back to my work so UPS can pick it up. The box is very flimsy once you remove the nylon ribbons that it comes sealed with, and doesn't really allow you to transport it without spending some money on repackaging.

So yeah, I'm stuck with a $300 70+lbs paper weight. Good times.

[EDITED 07/30]: So I was contacted by the seller (CompactApplience) and their conclusion was that my studio was too big for the 8,000 BTU rating. They actually let me return just the A/C unit without having to worry about packing all the awkwardly-shaped pieces, and reimbursed me for everything, including shipping. Although I've decided NOT to try a different unit with a greater BTU rating, I'm leaving this review here so that hopefully people looking into buying this or any other unit are aware of the importance of considering the size of the room you're trying to cool down when you choose the unit BTU. I was remotely aware of that, but didn't look too much into it, and you saw what happened... Luckily for me, the seller handled the situation superbly well. A happy ending, after all. :)