BLACK + DECKER BPACT08WT Portable Air Conditioner Review

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If you live in a place where there is no central air conditioning and you don’t have the type of windows that support standard window air conditioners then you may have a need for a portable AC unit like I do.  This is where a Black + Decker Portable AC Unit come sin and you can get the unit with the following BTU options:

With the starting price of $309.99 on Amazon for the 8k BTU model and going up to $449.99 for the 14k BTU model the output of the unit should match the size of the room you want to put it in.  The unit is about 16 inches wide by 27 1/2 inches tall.  The depth is a little misleading because where you attach the hose to the back of the unit forces it to be further away from a wall since it can’t sit flush against a wall with it’s exhaust hose.

Barring that the unit fits nicely in a corner of a fair sized room like a living room or dining room or a larger computer office.  The key thing to note is because the maximum length of the exhaust hose is 4 feet and 11 inches you need to absolutely make sure you place this thing next to a window that the exhaust hose and attachments can reach.  The included window kit is very easy to install and comes with various attachments for adjusting height for a fit plus comes with insulation foam strip for making sure you can seal around the window kit.  This window kit will install in vertical or horizontal sliding windows with ease.

So I have a sunroom which has mostly windows and thin walls, the key thing about this AC unit is you should most definitely use a dedicated AC outlet, because it is 900W and can draw up to 9A you need to make sure this isn’t on a shared power strip with other appliances or devices.  I had no trouble with any power tripping in my limited power house as the 15A circuit this was attached to was shared by a number of other devices, but a hair dryer turning on at the same time is likely to trip a breaker if sharing the same circuit.

I didn’t want to do any permanency for the exhaust fan because I needed to remove it in a few months for when fall comes, so instead of using the foam stripping that comes with the kit I wound up using white duct tape to help hold things in place and seal around air gaps.  I was able to still put a screen back in place over the exhaust where it blew outside.  The exhaust air is quite warm, so make sure you don’t have anything in the way of the exhaust air.

The unit is on 4 rolling casters and is portable only limited by the default length of the exhaust hose which I supposed you can get a longer one if you need.  It has no trouble keeping a 10×20 room cool in the summer heat with it being able to set the temperature as low as 65 degrees and the unit says it should only operate in a room with a temperature between 64 degrees and 95 degrees.  This rules out using it in say a hot garage in Arizona summer heat which could have a much hotter temperature than is recommended.  The unit itself has 3 modes, a cooling mode, dehumidifying mode and just plain fan mode.  It also has 3 different fan speeds and you can adjust the temperature control to make it more comfortable if it gets too cold.

For me pretty much this thing has been running 24×7 for the past week at it’s coldest setting and it has been great for keeping my office cool which has 4 laptops constantly burning and generating heat where the inside temperate of the room was exceeding 85 degrees prior to getting this portable AC unit.  I had no air conditioning for the past 5 years where I live due to California homes next to the cost not having any A/C and this unit really helped make the last few weeks of July and the month of August a much more bearable experience.  Unlike other AC’s it has virtually no water drip and the pan you can empty only at the end of the season before you put it away in storage for the winter.

If you are in need for a single room air conditioner then so far the Black and Decker Portable Air Conditioner does a great job and is highly recommended, and I have the 8,000BTU unit I didn’t even have the more powerful units which are for larger rooms.

 

 

 

We are influencers and brand affiliates.  This post contains affiliate links, most which go to Amazon and are Geo-Affiliate links to nearest Amazon store.