AC - Buy LG Air
Some owner reviews complain that the compressor on the LG emits a loud, high-pitched whine that sometimes makes sleeping difficult. We didn’t hear anything like that in our own tests, although we did measure a small spike in volume that occasionally popped up around the 9,900 Hz to 10,500 Hz range, and then again between 14,500 Hz and 15,000 Hz. That’s toward the upper limit of the adult human hearing range, but it could account for the problems that some people have encountered.climatisation The LG is also the heaviest portable AC we’ve tested. This is normally fine, since the unit has wheels to help you move it around, but its weight can be a problem when you’re trying to tip the machine over to use the drain plug, which is inconveniently located at the very bottom of the unit. The other downside is that the LG usually costs around $100 more than the Midea—when it’s available, that is. Although the single-hose Frigidaire Gallery Cool Connect GHPC132AB1 is not an inverter-style portable AC, it proved to be even quieter and more consistent than the Midea Duo and the LG LP1419IVSM in the way it distributed the air around the room during our tests. With an SACC rating of 8,000 Btu per hour, it’s not quite as powerful as an inverter model, but it’s still better than any of the other non-inverter portable ACs we tested. The Frigidaire also cooled faster at the beginning of the cycle, dropping the temperature about 2.5 degrees across the room within the first 15 minutes and averaging a 0.57-degree temperature drop in every 15-minute increment after that, in comparison with the Midea’s 0.38-degree cooling average. And the Frigidaire was better than any other model we tested at maintaining a consistent temperature between the two sensors we placed in the testing room (one at 3 feet directly in front of the AC, and the other 6 feet away on a diagonal), spreading the air evenly around the room so that there was never more than a half-degree difference. The Frigidaire’s cooling consistency was impressive (and inexplicable) enough for any portable air conditioner, though especially one without an inverter compressor. But its volume output came as a similar surprise, as it measured about 2 decibels quieter on average than the Midea. The Frigidaire’s compressor is a little more noticeable when it first kicks on, but otherwise it produces a mostly pleasant white noise that’s easy to ignore. Case in point: After our initial tests, we set the Frigidaire up in a 1-year-old’s bedroom, and it was indeed quieter than the white noise machine that the baby sleeps with anyway.