Window air conditioners can be a lifesaver in the middle of summer. Sure, I am writing this article in February but I can assure you ladies and gentlemen that I can remember the heat of July and August. You see, I am from Kansas and if you didn’t know it gets pretty darn hot here during the summer. On some of the more severe summers we get four, five, or even six weeks straight of one-hundred degree temperatures. Don’t worry though, at night it falls down to a balmy eighty-five degrees.
Here in Kansas, and I can imagine elsewhere, there is a huge market for air conditioning. I don’t care if it’s in your car, your office, your home, or even your tractor. (Yes, they have that in tractors.) The need for air conditioning is crucial but what do you do if you move into a new home or a apartment that does not support air conditioning? What if the home is so old that there are no central ducts routed in the walls? How do you stay cool then? Well in this particular scenario you have two choices and almost everyone chooses option B.
A) Pay a contractor to retrofit your entire home so that it can handle a central air conditioning system. This involves not only installing inbound ducts but also outbound. They tear apart your walls and make one hell of a mess.
B) The other option is window air conditioners. They’re simple and most of the time they’re cheap, at least when compared to the big central air systems out there. All you have to do is buy the unit, pop it in your window, secure it, plug it in, and presto! You now have cold air and relief from the summer’s sun.
Choosing a Window or a Portable Air Conditioner
Before you make your decision on rather or not you will be buying a portable air conditioner or a window air conditioner you should first consider the differences between the two types of products. What product are you leaning towards? Which one should you actually get? To be honest folks, these products are really very similar and there are only a few key differences that you will need to think about before making your buying decision. Let’s take a look:
Window Units
- Window air conditioners have to be mounted either through your window or through a make-shift hole in your wall. Once mounted correctly they provide a stable and reliable cooling source. Some people may struggle mounting these units, especially if it is a higher BTU model and is a heavier unit. Depending on the size a proper mounting job may require two people.
- Generally, window units are more efficient then a portable unit. That means that you get more cooling power per BTU and also save on energy bills when compared to portable air conditioners.
- Another benefit to them is that you don’t have to worry about where to vent the exhaust. Window units are designed to be halfway in and out of your house so that there is a space for the exhaust to go right away. The downside here, which I’ll mention further below, is that mounted window units are sometimes seen as an eyesore and depending on where you live you may get complaints.
- If you have decided on a window unit then check out RefrigerantHQ’s guide on ‘What are the Best Window Air Conditioners,’ by clicking here.
Portable Units
- Portable air conditioners are just that, portable. That means they are easy to move around your home or to even pack in your truck and take somewhere else. The versatility of this adds a lot of favor to the portable air conditioner side of things.
- A portable air conditioner is much much easier to install. There is no mounting required, no support brackets, none of the hassle that comes with installing a window unit into your home, garage, or office. These units are all about the ‘easy’ button.
- While portable air conditioners are easy to install they also prevent any potential squabble with your home owner’s association. Most HOAs do not allow a window unit hanging out of a home. They see it as an eye sore and will tolerate it. A portable air conditioner can give you a work around as the worst anyone is going to see is a small exhaust tube.
- For RefrigerantHQ’s guide on ‘What are the Best Portable Air Conditioners,’ by clicking here.
Considerations
Now when you decide to buy a window unit and you begin looking at the different brands and sizes out there you may begin to feel overwhelmed. There are SO many choices out there. How can you be sure that you pick the right one?
I’m not going to get into every little consideration to make when buying a window unit in this article. Instead, I wrote a window air conditioner buyer’s guide that takes you through the steps of what to look for and how to prepare to buy a window air conditioner.
This buyer’s guide can be found by clicking here. This guide should answer any question that you would have on air conditioner. If you feel like I missed something please feel free to reach out to me by clicking here to let me know.
The Best 10,000 BTU Window Air Conditioners
The 9,000-10,000 BTU ranges are intended to cool rooms between three-hundred and fifty square feet to four-hundred and fifty square feet. Again, these are your living rooms or larger master bedrooms. Depending on where you live in the world this could be a small studio apartment as well. These sized window units are good for cooling that one or two room situation but if you are looking to cool an entire floor or a higher square footage area then you should be looking at the next size up. Otherwise, if you feel this size is the right fit for you then go for it!
Our Good, Better, and Best products are featured below:
- Good – LG LW1016ER 10,000 BTU
- The LG LW1016ER is a great priced unit in the 10,000 BTU range. With this product you get a lot of the features that we have already mentioned from previous products. This unit is also Energy Star certified with an energy efficient ratio rating of 12.1. Lastly, this takes a standard 115 volt outlet, which is rare with these larger BTU units. This is a solid buy and will keep your home cool.
- Better – Frigidaire FFRE1033S1 10,000 BTU
- I’ll be honest with you folks there wasn’t too much difference between the LG LW1016ER and this Frigidaire FFRE1033S1. Sometimes that is the case when comparing Good and Better categories. Like before this unit is Energy Star certified with the EPA and is rated at 12.0 in Energy Efficiency Ratio. You get the usual controls of that we have come to recognize from other units. Another feature on this unit is that it runs quieter than others out there. While that may not seem like a big deal I can assure you that if you are a light sleeper like my wife is then you will wake up to a loud window unit. While the price on this unit and the LG are pretty much on par I would suggest going with this one over the LG model.
Frigidaire FFRE1033Q1 10,000 BTU
- I’ll be honest with you folks there wasn’t too much difference between the LG LW1016ER and this Frigidaire FFRE1033S1. Sometimes that is the case when comparing Good and Better categories. Like before this unit is Energy Star certified with the EPA and is rated at 12.0 in Energy Efficiency Ratio. You get the usual controls of that we have come to recognize from other units. Another feature on this unit is that it runs quieter than others out there. While that may not seem like a big deal I can assure you that if you are a light sleeper like my wife is then you will wake up to a loud window unit. While the price on this unit and the LG are pretty much on par I would suggest going with this one over the LG model.
- Best – Frigidaire FFRE1033Q1 10,000 BTU
- The Frigidaire FFRE1033Q1 is our pick for the best category. This category was tough determining a Good, Better, Best approach. This was mainly due to so many of the appliances closely resembling each other. There was very little that set them apart from each other. The FFRE1033Q1 has many of the features that we mentioned with the above product picks in this category.
I picked this to be our best for one main reason and that is customer feedback and reviews. With the other units there were some reviews out there but there was nothing like the volume that I saw on this product. It is always a safe bet to purchase when there was numerous reviews with an average rating of four out of five stars.
- The Frigidaire FFRE1033Q1 is our pick for the best category. This category was tough determining a Good, Better, Best approach. This was mainly due to so many of the appliances closely resembling each other. There was very little that set them apart from each other. The FFRE1033Q1 has many of the features that we mentioned with the above product picks in this category.
Conclusion
If you find that the 10,000 BTU size isn’t the right size for you then I would highly suggest you visit our latest article titled, “What Are The Best Window Air Conditioners.” This article is similar to the one you are reading now except that it shows suggestions and input for all window air conditioner sizes. Yes, that includes 5,000 BTUs all the way up to 24,000 BTUs. By reading through this article you will get a feel for exactly what sized air conditioner you need.