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A portable air conditioner can be one of the best, most energy-efficient ways to keep individual rooms in your home cool. If your home needs a little help staying cool, consider getting a portable air conditioner. They can quickly reduce the temperature and make it more comfortable in rooms of all sizes!
To help you decide on one, we’ve carefully curated this list of the best portable air conditioners in Canada. Any one of these machines will be great for the rooms in your home!
Best Overall: Whynter 14,000 BTU Dual Hose Portable Air Conditioner
The Whynter 14,000 BTU Dual Hose Portable Air Conditioner is the best portable air conditioner in Canada. It comes with a host of thoughtful features, powerful capability, and a great design. Together, these things make it ideal for most rooms in most households. This machine is incredibly powerful, with a huge, quick cooling output that will leave most rooms feeling better in just a few moments. This is due to the dual-hose design that allows the machine to vent air and take new air to cool at the same time.
This larger machine works in rooms up to 500 square feet. This is most rooms, even in open floor plans. You can control the thermostat using the digital controls on the unit or the remote control. The huge temperature range makes it simple to find the best temperature for you, as long as it lies between 61F and 89F.
Auto-drain technology allows this unit to drain the water collected during the process without any help. The moisture is recycled and used during the cooling process, creating a cycle that makes maintenance and operation simple. The activated carbon filter and washable pre-filter eliminate plenty of allergens, while options like the 24-hour timer can reduce energy usage and keep to your schedule.
Overall, This is a great portable air conditioner for most rooms. There are few spaces it won’t cool, and the fast cooling time is great when you need the extra cooling power without waiting for a more traditional air conditioner to do the job.
This Whynter portable air conditioner offers three operation modes: cooling, dehumidifying, and fan. You can use it in any of these ways to keep your space comfortable. When used on the cooling settings, it works extremely quickly to drop the temperature in a room up to 500 square feet. It uses an activated carbon filter to improve indoor air quality, and the pre-filter is washable so you don’t have to replace it. The Dual hose configuration cools faster by pulling in air from outside your home.
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Best Temperature Range: De’Longhi 12,500 BTU Smart Portable Air Conditioner
The De’Longhi 12,500 BTU Smart Portable Air Conditioner offers powerful year-round performance. While most of the portable air conditioners on our list are also a dehumidifier and a fan, this machine takes it a step further and offers a heating option. Whether it’s the middle of a hot summer or the dead of winter, this portable machine will get the job done. It works best in rooms up to 550 sq ft.
This powerful machine uses Eco Real Feel Technology, which calculates the proper temperature and humidity levels for the air around the machine. It automatically adjusts these settings based on the temperature it senses.
This air conditioner also doubles as a dehumidifier and a heater. The impressive temperature range reaches from 64F to 95F. That’s sure to keep you comfortable all year long, especially if you’re using it in smaller spaces.
Other benefits include a simple, no-tool installation and a washable dust filter. Those who suffer from allergies will be able to breathe a little easier while the machine is in use. It’s so simple to set up with the single-hose configuration – you can take it anywhere in your home without much hassle.
This De’Longhi portable air conditioner does so much more than cool your home. It’s also a portable heater, dehumidifier, and fan. It uses a washable dust filter that traps dust, hair, and more. You can clean it with running water. The Eco Real Feel technology uses temperature and humidity control features to achieve the perfect temperature for your room. Plus, you can install this unit without any tools. It’s simple to put it together and get it working.
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Best Wi-Fi: Whynter ARC-122DS Elite Portable Air Conditioner
Whynter’s ARC-122DS Elite Portable Air Conditioner is the best portable air conditioner in Canada when it comes to Wi-Fi connectivity. You can use the controls on the machine to control the temperature, but you can also use the remote control. Barring those options, you can connect the air conditioner to your home Wi-Fi connection and control it via a Wi-Fi app. No matter where you are in the house (or where the remote is), you’ll be able to adjust the temperature and settings on your portable air conditioner.
This machine operates extremely quietly, at a rating of less than 52 dB during operation. You’ll easily be able to hear the TV or hold a conversation over the sound of the machine. The dual-hose configuration allows it to work quickly and efficiently to cool the air in your room. With good coverage of up to 400 square feet, it’s great for most medium-sized rooms.
The dual hose system also means that the machine can automatically vent humidity. It recycles the humidity in your air and uses it as part of the cooling process, so you won’t have to empty buckets or connect it to a sink. As long as it’s properly connected to the outside, there’s nothing you have to do to make the machine run more efficiently.
Even though it can cool rooms up to 400 square feet, this machine is extremely small. The smaller footprint makes it ideal for smaller spaces, but also makes it lightweight and portable.
Whynter’s ARC-122DS Elite Portable Air Conditioner uses a dual hose configuration, which ensures that it will cool your space quickly and efficiently. You can adjust the temperature from 61F up to 89F with both digital controls and a remote, and you can easily connect it to a Wi-Fi app as well. The auto-drain function immediately vents humidity, depositing it outside your home via the dual hoses. Despite this machine’s big range, it has a relatively small footprint, ideal for small rooms.
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Best Ionizer: Danby 14,000 BTU 3-In-1 Portable Air Conditioner
The Danby 14,000 BTU 3-in-1 Portable Air Conditioner features one of the largest BTU ratings on our list, meaning it works well on rooms up to 700 square feet in size. It offers a few different features that distinguish it as one of the best portable air conditioners in Canada.
First, it operates extremely quietly. Such a powerful machine might run very loudly in other cases, but this Danby model runs at about 50 dB due to its Silencer technology. You won’t be disturbed by the loud motor sound while you’re sleeping, watching TV, or chatting with friends.
Second is the Ionizer function, which can be turned on and off via the remote and controls on the unit itself. Some users are fond of the ionizer. It helps charge the air around the air conditioner, which helps to keep it a little cleaner for you. Thankfully, the ionizer is not on all the time. You can easily switch it off if you aren’t a fan.
The Follow Me Remote is another great feature. The remote acts as a thermostat, so the air conditioner reacts to the temperature at your location rather than where it’s sitting. This is great for maintaining a comfortable temperature no matter where you are.
Danby’s large 14,000 BTU portable air conditioner provides great cooling for rooms up to 700 square feet. The remote acts as a portable thermostat, and the temperature can adjust based on where the remote is. One of these settings is the useful 24-hour timer, which allows you to set the air conditioner to turn off at certain times or switch to other operation modes. It’s extremely quiet during operation, with a rating of only 50 dB. You’ll be able to hear the TV or conversation over the machine. This air conditioner also includes an ionizer, which can help improve air quality overall.
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Best For Small Rooms: Frigidaire FHPC082AC1 8,000 BTU Portable Room Air Conditioner
Sometimes, you don’t need an air conditioner that works in a huge space. The Frigidaire FHPC092AC1BTU Portable Room Air Conditioner is perfect for smaller offices, cabins, campers, and other tight spaces. It’s extremely portable and works to keep rooms of up to 350 square feet comfortable on the hottest days.
It also operates extremely quietly, down to 50 dB at its lowest settings. This low noise option pairs perfectly with sleep mode, which reduces the temperature and noise level of the machine all night long. You’ll always be more comfortable with these settings, particularly if you enjoy a cooler bedroom.
The small footprint makes it easy to move around, so you can move it from room to room without any issues. The lightweight design helps users push it from one location to the next. A washable filter removes dirt, dust, and other allergens from the air, ensuring that your space remains fresh.
The Frigidaire FHPC082AC1 has a smaller footprint than most of the other portable air conditions on our list, making it ideal for smaller rooms and those with limited space. It’s also extremely portable and lightweight, weighing about 20 pounds less than the other models we’ve looked at. This means it won’t be a chore to move it from one room to another. Sleep mode is a unique, activated feature that increases the temperature by degrees as you sleep, allowing you to sleep cooler and more comfortably. The filter inside can be washed when the signal light comes on.
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Best For Allergies: De’Longhi 11,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner, Dehumidifier, And Fan
De’Longhi’s 11,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner, Dehumidifier, and Fan pulls triple duty when it comes to cooling your home and keeping allergies away. A washable net dust filter reduces allergens, pulling them out of the air and keeping them from recirculating. Those with allergies to dust and pet dander can greatly appreciate this feature.
This air conditioner works perfectly in rooms up to 400 square feet, so it’s perfect for all your small and medium spaces. Despite the increased power, it’s extremely portable and easy to move from one room to the next. You also won’t hear it running; it operates very quietly on the lowest setting, which is ideal for sleeping.
This unit installs without any tools and operates with extreme energy efficiency. If you want a portable air conditioner that’s portable, effective, and operates with energy efficiency in mind, this is the option for you.
De’Longhi’s 11,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner is highly portable, with built-in casters and a lightweight design. You can easily move it from room to room, as it’s easy to set up with any compatible window. While in operation, the unit is extremely quiet. You can watch TV or hold a conversation while the air conditioner is running. The dust filter is washable and helps trap allergens, making this unit friendly for those with allergies. It’s also 17% more energy efficient than other De’Longhi portable air conditioners.
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Best Design: Serene Life 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner
This Serene Life 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner has all of the great features you should look for in a portable air conditioning unit. It has four different functions. In addition to the cooling properties, this machine has a heating option, a built-in dehumidifier, and a fan. You’ll never need to put this machine away, and you can use it in medium-sized spaces all year round.
The design of the unit allows for easy portability, meaning you can take it with you from room to room. The handle on the top and smooth-rolling casters on the bottom make it simple to move the unit. The window set-up is simple as well, and you can easily move to remove it from one window and set it up in another with minimal effort.
If you enjoy sleeping with the air on, make sure to use the sleep mode option during the night. This option reduces the temperature and operating noise level to help you sleep more comfortably and without being interrupted by loud fan sounds. This mode is perfect for smaller bedrooms, especially those that might not have their own air conditioner in the window.
No matter how you choose to use the Serene Life 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner, it uses less power than some of the other models on our list. It works efficiently to operate on a lower wattage than machines of around the same size. While other machines in this BTU range may use about 1,400 watts of power, this portable air conditioner only uses about 1,150 watts. Over long periods, this can save your electric bill.
You can control every feature, including sleep mode, the different operations, and the thermostat with either the remote or the digital control panel on the device. Serene Life gives you so many options to create a comfortable environment, and it works great in rooms up to 450 square feet!
The Serene Life 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner offers a sleep mode, which changes to low noise operation as you sleep. It also increases the temperature slowly over the night, ensuring that you stay cool all night long. Despite features like this one, this portable air conditioner doesn’t use too much power – it operates at a lower power level to lighten your energy bill. You can activate all of the unit’s features via the included remote control or the digital control panel on the machine itself. On top of all of this, this portable air conditioner also has a heating function.
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Best Budget: BLACK+DECKER BPP05WTB Portable Air Conditioner
Black+Decker’s BPP05WTB Portable Air Conditioner provides a host of useful features to create a comfortable temperature in the smallest rooms. This budget portable air conditioner comes at a reduced price compared to the other options on our list, and it works a treat in rooms up to 150 sq ft. If you’re only cooling a small space, such as an office, cabin, camper, or small dorm room, this air conditioner will work wonderfully.
This air conditioner doesn’t just cool. It doubles as a dehumidifier and a fan, circulating air throughout the space even if it’s not cooling it. The single hose configuration vents humidity and heated air back outside, ensuring that your space stays comfortable. Setting this air conditioner up in the window is no trouble at all, so you can easily move it from space to space with no trouble.
The unit operates quietly on the lowest settings, making it ideal for sleeping. There’s even a sleep mode that reduces the sound and the temperature throughout the night. This means that you can sleep more comfortably, especially if you enjoy a colder bedroom.
The Follow Me Remote helps keep the temperature ideal at your location, so long as you keep the remote with you. The remote constantly takes temperature readings, ensuring that the area where it’s located in the temperature the automatic thermostat relies on. Keep it near you to have the room comfortable no matter where you’re sitting.
This Black+Decker portable air conditioner is easy to install, making it simple to move from room to room. It’s great for the smallest rooms, as well as campers, cabins, and other smaller areas. It helps these rooms cool down to temperatures around 64F on the lowest setting. There’s also a sleep mode, which reduces the temperature and offers quiet operation all night long. The remote has a Follow Me function, which uses the remote as a thermostat. The temperature on the machine will automatically adjust based on the temperature at the location of the remote, so keeping it with you will allow you to stay comfortable.
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Choosing A Portable Air Conditioner For Canadians
A portable air conditioner can be the perfect solution for rooms that always run a little warm, even when the central air is on. Likewise, they can help cool one room at a time and keep energy bills down. However you want to use your portable air conditioner, you’ll need to know how to choose the right one for you.
A portable air conditioner is a standalone unit that cools rooms of varying sizes without the need for a bulky window or central unit. These air conditioners work much like the ones you may be familiar with. They take in hot air (either from your home or outside), push it over a cooling element, and blow it into the room.
Portable air conditioners are great for keeping your home cool during the summer. Some (especially the ones on our list) work extremely well to cool the air in your home. Others may double as dehumidifiers, offering dry air for those humid summer days.
Some operate more efficiently than window units, and with less energy cost. If you can’t install a permanent air conditioner, a portable unit may be just the solution for you.
There are a lot of portable air conditioners in the market in Canada. Worse, many of them use obscure terminology that’s difficult to understand. To help you, we’ve broken down some of the key features you should be looking for in a portable air conditioner.
BTU, or British Thermal Unit, is a measurement of how quickly your air conditioner can cool a room down. Usually, it reflects how much an air conditioner can cool per hour and is based on room size. Larger BTU ratings can cool larger rooms more effectively.
You’ll have to consider the square footage of your room (as well as the height of the ceiling) to choose the perfect BTU rating for your space. However, this handy guide can help you determine the correct BTU needed.
Higher ceilings may require a higher BTU rating. Try to overestimate the BTU rating by a thousand or so for your space. More power is always better in these circumstances. You may also need more BTU if your room has appliances in it or if it’s very sunny.
Of course, we expect portable air conditioners to cool the air in your home. Most do more than just cool, however. You’ll often find these operational modes present in your portable air conditioner.
Portable air conditions must be connected to the outside using a hose. There are two different hose configurations.
Before you choose the right configuration for you, consider how fast you want your space cooled and how often you’ll be moving the unit.
The operating temperature range of a portable air conditioner tells you what its hard limits will be. Though most allow you to adjust the temperature as you see fit, there are limits to how effective it can be. A range of between 60F and 90F is standard and will give you the most use out of the machine. The larger the temperature range, the better.
Like all air conditioners, portable air conditioners are loud. When the noise exceeds a certain decibel level, especially when the machine is operating so close to you, it can be difficult to be in the same room. Noise levels below 52 dB are ideal, though up to about 56 dB is still normal for portable air conditioners.
If noise is going to be an issue, consider choosing the lowest possible dB rating you can find. Some machines have a silencer, which can drastically reduce the noise level, too.
Setting up a portable air conditioner can be more difficult depending on the model you choose. However, most follow a very simple formula. They are quick and easy to install, and some can even be installed without tools.
Whether your portable air conditioner has a dual hose or single hose configuration matters little when it comes to setup. The first thing you should do in both circumstances is to attach the hoses to the back of your machine. Make sure that you are near a window and there is an electrical plug close by.
Once the hose or hoses are secure to the machine, you can begin installing the window kit. This kit usually comes with specific installation instructions. Most of the time, you simply set it in your open window and close the window on top of it. This creates a seal between your window and the window kit.
Finally, secure the hose or hoses to the openings on the window kit. Make sure that everything is sealed and secure. At this point, you’re ready to begin to use your portable air conditioner. Make sure that you are patient. Sometimes, these machines can take a while to get started, especially in very hot rooms.
Overview of the Best Portable Air Conditioners in Canada
Now that you know what to look for, we should remind you of why we choose the portable air conditioners on our list. These options made our list of best portable air conditioners in Canada because they all have unique features that set them apart from the other options in the Canadian market.
Our best overall, the Whynter 14,000 BTU Dual Hose Portable Air Conditioner, elevates itself above the rest with a large coverage area, huge temperature range, and high-powered fan. It comes with an upgraded window kit, so it might appeal to those with irregular windows.
The De’Longhi 12,500 BTU Smart Portable Air Conditioner offers the best temperature range on our list. At the lowest setting, this air conditioner can cool temperatures to 64F. However, when the heating is turned on, it can go up to 95F. As a whole, the unit is capable of producing a wider range of temperature options.
On the other hand, The Whynter ARC-122DS Elite Portable Air Conditioner is one of the best Wi-Fi options on our list. It flawlessly connects to your home Wi-Fi network, allowing you to control the temperatures and options from any smart device.
Danby’s 14,000 BTU 3-in-1 Portable Air Conditioner offers a luxury feature at an affordable price. It offers the best ionizing option, which can help improve air quality in your home. Some users are a fan of ionizers, and they are somewhat rare on these portable air conditioners.
Smaller rooms can feel cooler immediately with the Frigidaire FHPC082AC1 8,000 BTU Portable Room Air Conditioner. Rooms up to 350 sq ft will stay comfortable regardless of the temperature outside. You can use this option in small offices, campers, and even smaller dorm rooms.
Those with allergies might appreciate a little help keeping the air in their room allergen-free. The filter on the De’Longhi 11,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner, Dehumidifier, and Fan traps dust and other allergens, removing them permanently from the air you breathe.
While most of these options have great designs, it’s the Serene Life 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner that has the best. The handle on the top and slim, sleek design make this air conditioner extremely easy to roll from room to room.
Finally, the BLACK+DECKER BPP05WTB Portable Air Conditioner is the best budget option on our list for portable air conditioners in Canada. It comes with many of the same great features as the other options we’ve seen, but it cost much less than they do. It’s great for those who need a machine and doesn’t have much to spare.
