Portable Air Conditioner Reviews – Would One Help Your RV When It’s Really Hot?

Portable Air Conditioner

Pam and I spend much of our full time RV living in warmer climates.  We have wondered if a portable AC unit would help cool the rig down when it’s in the nineties and with high humidity.  So, we started looking at portable air conditioner reviews to see if we could find one that would work for us.

Our fifth wheel had two AC units: one was a 15k Btu unit, and the other was a 13.5K unit. They were installed in a ducted system, which makes the system quieter, but you do lose some cooling in the transfer.  They mostly did a great job, but when you are in south Florida in the summer, they ran an awful lot. Keeping it in the low 70’s meant running them constantly.  Doing that risks freezing up the cooling coils, thereby possibly damaging the unit.  So to get them to cycle, thermostat settings stayed in the upper seventies during the day.

Our current RV, a Newmar 2023 Superstar, is in a similar situation and is also longer than the fifth-wheel RV.  On our previous RV, a 2021 Tiffin Allegro Open Road, we had the rear AC unit go out when the temperatures were in the high nineties.  We had to get a portable air conditioner quickly.

We visited our local home store and found a HiSense portable air conditioner that needed a window to vent.  That was not a problem, as the windows in the slideouts work well for adapting the hose assembly to fit.  Within hours of the roof AC unit failing, we had supplemental cooling.  That worked well till we got a replacement AC unit installed.

Last summer, while in Texas and with our 2023 Newmar Superstar, we needed to use the portable air conditioner unit again.  It was necessary to supplement the two 15k BTU AC units.  We had temperatures in the hundreds!  We installed the portable AC unit again using a slideout window.  It really helped cool the front of the RV where the temperatures were the highest.  The HiSense portable AC unit performed admirably!

If you have been thinking of a portable air conditioner unit as we did, perhaps the information we share here will also help you consider this option. It may save you some time when you are looking at portable air conditioner reviews.

Think of portable air conditioners as the cooling choice of last resort. They’re better than a fan, but not much.  That’s what Consumer Reports discovered in its tests of eight portable air conditioners that, despite their claims, barely got a room below sweltering, let alone 78 degrees.  That’s considered the upper threshold of indoor comfort.

We found our HiSense to perform exceptionally well, given some questionable reviews.  That may be because RVs are a much more confined space, and with the roof AC units running too, we have found our performs very well.

Portable air conditioners are intended for homes in which window configurations or building regulations prevent the installation of window units. They can also be a consideration for small rooms like in an RV.  But getting one is a compromise you may not want to make because they’re typically bigger, noisier, more expensive, and use more energy.  Retailers report that dissatisfied customers return many portable air conditioners each season.

How they work

Unlike a window air conditioner, all the mechanical parts of a portable air conditioner sit in the room you’re trying to cool.  This contributes to the noise and less-than-capable cooling, as the portable unit uses conditioned air from the room to cool the condenser and exhausts the hot air out an ungainly exhaust hose that resembles a dryer vent.  

That creates negative pressure, causing unconditioned warm air from surrounding rooms or outdoors to be drawn into the room you’re trying to keep cool.  Now they have dual hose units that help with this situation, but they tend to be a few hundred dollars more than the single hose units.  If you are going to spend $500 – $800 for one of these, why not just get a better roof unit?

Portable AC Unit with Single Vent Hose

How portable? 

And it’s debatable how portable they are since once the hose is connected to the kit in the window, you won’t want to move the unit, especially since they typically weigh 50 to 80 pounds. While they have wheels, portable air conditioners can be difficult to roll on carpets and over raised thresholds between rooms.   They also need their space—the hose is 5 to 7 feet long, and the air conditioner must be positioned away from any walls or furniture that may block its airflow.  This can make it a terrible choice for an RV!

How they test 

Consumer Reports tests measured how long it takes a portable air conditioner to lower the temperature in a room appropriate for its claimed size from 90 degrees to 75. After 100 minutes, few made it to even 80. But if you have no alternative, consider the HiSense at $220 for its lower price.

Back of a Portable AC Unit

While Consumer Reports tests portable air conditioners like window units, most manufacturers don’t. The Department of Energy is reviewing the current industry test for portable air conditioner capacity and efficiency. The current test doesn’t account for the often significant leakage and transfer of hot air into the space being cooled.  

One alternative being investigated by the DOE is that the industry adopt the window air conditioner test for portables because it more accurately measures actual cooling. This would make it easier for consumers to compare portable and window air conditioners. In the meantime, don’t assume that a portable air conditioner rated at 5,000 to 15,000 Btu will cool like similarly rated window or roof unit models.

If you have no other option than upgrading your roof units, this can be a way to get by during the really hot months that you have to endure. The better option is to live in a cooler climate. After all, if you live in an RV, you can move your home wherever you want. For us, we are located where we are for specific reasons, and we kind of have to stay put. But come winter, we’ll be much happier!!

We hope this helps you as you consider keeping cool in your RV.  Please leave a comment if you found this review helpful.  Let us know what you decided to do.

Please leave a comment or question before you go!

Happy travels,
Howard and Pam