Dimplex Portable Air Conditioner

Dimplex Portable Air Conditioner

Model    GDC18RWA 

Power    5.3KW

I bought this unit in the hope that it might be able to take the edge off the temperature in our family room on hot summer days.  The room is a family room/kitchen which is about 30 m2.  As the advertising claims, it is true that no matter how hot the ambient temperature of the room is, it does pour out cold air.  The only problem is that the amount of heat it generates radiates out of the lower portion of the unit and also from the pipe that exhausts out of the window (yes I do have the window blocked off except for the exhaust pipe).  The exhaust pipe gets very hot, almost too hot to touch.   It could be that the room is too big but I do find that overall the temperature does rise rather than cool when I fire it up even if it is very pleasant when you stand in front of it.  Stand being the operative word as it blows the cool air out of the top of the unit.  In hindsight it might have been better to get a unit that blows the air our horizontally so that you can sit on the couch with cool air blowing at you.  The unit is on wheels so it is not too difficult to move it around on a level surface but you had better get help if you want to get it upstairs.  

 

To be fair on the unit, the room is at the upper limits of its intended use.  If we use it in the bedroom it is a bit more effective but it still struggles.  Also you would never be able to sleep with it on as it is very noisy, even with the fan on “low”.  We have had the unit for a couple of years now but it only gets hauled out on really hot days, which is of course when it has to work its hardest.  So far this summer only a couple of times but that is another story more to do with the absence of a true Australian summer. 

Likes:

Portable, no installation will cool the air that comes out of the vent

Dislikes:

Noisy, overall seems to heat the room rather than cool it. Manual is light on info.

Conclusion:

Would I buy it again, probably not.  I just find it too noisy if you want to watch television.  Also the lack of effective ambient cooling defeats the purpose for which we bought this unit.  I do have some ideas on how I may be able to improve the performance which if they are successful I will share on this blog.  However if the manual was any good it may already have been covered.  So far I cannot give this unit the thumbs up!