Midea Inverter Portable AC with Heat

I have now purchased two Midea Duo 14,000BTU units. They both had mechanical issues on first use which I had to investigate and resolve. After that they have both been phenomenal. I would not buy any other unit, because I have bought other brands and theirs cannot hold a candle to Midea. See below for Midea issues as well as praise. Note: these Midea units have a large rotary fan which is held by a massive rubber… grommet? rubber… bearing? at only one end of the rotary fan. The fans also have a unique structure cast inside of the rotary fan (presumably to help draw air from one chamber to another within the ac unit). This unique fan structure and unique mounting of the fan requires Midea to counterweight the fans with metal weights at the factory. This style of fan has also lead to vibration and potential self destruction in these units. But when it works it works well. Praise: The unit itself is phenomenally well made, incredibly well thought out. Every detail has been planned for and the instructions are clear. The build quality is very good, form factor is excellent too. The Midea app is great and integration with the new device was seamless. The install video is great too. The ac works wonderfully well. Heat mode works phenomenally well and is super quiet. Heat mode does not require reconfiguration or any particular preparation other than hooking up the drain line. I used the included drain adaptor to run a 1/4” black silicon line to a glass gallon jug for heat condensate drainage. The Midea Duo 14,000 BTU unit (with heat) has an internal pump that pumps out condensate from heat mode. This is very helpful. Issues; Within a minute of turning on my first unit, it made a HORRIBLE persistent rattling sound. The compressor/cooling lines were rattling against each other. I was able to get in where these lines were and slide the vibration-dampening sleeve that was already on one pipe, further down the pipe, so it would actually keep the pipes from rattling against one another. My second unit (after sitting for 16-24 hours as it should) made a high pitched metal-on-metal squeaking sound emanating from the compressor when I turned on the ac. I immediately turned the unit off, pondered for a bit, then ran the unit in heat mode, this immediately resolved the metal-on-metal squeaking issue. It now runs perfectly in heat or cooling mode. P.S. These units do make a high pitched whine sometimes, but most people will learn to tune it out. Do not attempt to repair these without some knowledge and caution of these sorts of things. P.P.S. This unit replaced a Whynter ARC-14S that was much bigger, louder, had no heat, and finally, it did not work well. So Whynter went back! Edit Jan 2023: This unit is 8 months old and now periodically emits a loud buzz and does not work. I believe the compressor is freezing up. The issue occurs a few times a day, sometimes once a week. Midea Customer Service asks silly questions and marked my ticket as "Solved" when I failed to reply within 5 days (including weekends). Not impressed. I am now seeking a replacement or refund if possible. Edit Jan (late) 2023: Midea customer service refunded me for the malfunctioning unit. I am a little concerned that it was not worth repairing a $700 unit, and now I must pay a $60 disposal fee for freon containing devices in CA, but overall I appreciate Midea’s customer service.

[UPDATE 2/19/2026] check my updated photo I have about 4 of these units and all 4 have now developed severe mold in the rotating blower and probably elsewhere in the unit also... one has started putting out an extremely sour smell. The unit is built like an absolute tank and not made for opening up to clean the inside so I am essentially stuck with thousands of dollars worth of paperweights or RISK MY FAMILIES HEALTH! I have attached pictures. I have been meaning to update this review for a while with this, but only remembered after needing to have to shop for a replacement as its starting to get hot! Avoid Midea products, their window unit also just had to be recalled because of mold and now this happens! [old review] So starting off, this Summer has been BRUTAL with EVERY single day in July/August over 100f and May/June being high 90 and low 100’s. The AC systems in our homes were struggling and racking up the bill with us spending often $9-11 a day to cool with both helping each other. We also have poor insulation which is something we’ve had to try and tackle ourselves. In the end we got fed up of running the homes existing AC system because it was simply too expensive and opted to get a Window/Portable AC. The windows on our home are very flimsy and not at all suited for window units sadly and frankly we weren’t too keen on having to drill into things, worry about them falling out and having the hassle of having to bring them in every other season. So we opted to go for a portable. Now there’s two different kinds of portable AC units. Single Hose and Dual Hose. Single hose units suck in air from the room which creates negative pressure in the room and pulling in hot air from either gaps/cracks in the doors/windows and blows all the hot air out the single hose. The single vent hose gets very hot - so between the negative pressure pulling in heat and the hot hose these single hose units have to try and fight those two things to keep the room cool which can REALLY lower their efficiency. Hence why you’ll see units advertise 14,000 BTU’s then in brackets have a lower BTU usually half of the first BTU rating. The second BTU number is the SAAC rating which basically takes into account the heat pulled into the room from the negative pressure and the hose and tells you how efficient it is. So units that advertise 14,000BTU typically use the power of a 14,000 BTU unit but are only really equivalent to a 7000 BTU unit with those other things taken into account. Dual-hose units (like this one) pull air in from the outside eliminating much of the negative pressure issue (where heat is sucked in from cracks/windows/doors) hence why the secondary SAAC BTU rating is much higher. And in my experience the vent hose is actually much cooler. This dual-hose design on the Midea/Toshiba is quite unique. They have decided to combine both hoses into one big wide unwieldy thing which sucks if you want to angle your portable AC to face it in a certain direction, but the benefit of it is that it goes vertically up from the back of the machine and bends up then down meaning you can shove it closer to and up-against the wall/window which you cant do on other units. Kudos to them. So it has its pros/cons. Pro: Being able to shove it against the wall / Con: not being able to angle it. Now we first decided to buy the Toshiba version of this AC from Home Depot for our living room. It’s the exact same machine as this but in white. Midea and Toshiba are the same company. We set it up as soon as we received it and had it set up in minutes! I recommend cutting the foam seal tape down the middle so you have two strips and instead of sticking it on the window-sill, stick it around the window vent plate for the AC. That way you can remove the plate and shut the window in a jiffy if you decide to move the unit! We set it up with the app straight away and I love all the features and control I have over the unit from the app. It’s awesome. Just to be clear the Toshiba app is what I use to control both my Midea and Toshiba unit (yes I bought a Midea after the Toshiba since I loved the unit so much!) The app allows you to remotely turn on the unit, set the temperature, the swing function, turn on/off the LED display, make schedules and more! I can’t go back to a different brand after having this (yes I tried to cheap out with my second portable - I’ll explain soon). Anyhow we have a large openspace ground floor which merges into the upstairs hallway w/ high ceilings and despite this portable AC being rated for 550sqft it does an pretty good job of cooling the downstairs living area. Our master bedroom is downstairs and granted, that doesn’t get much cooling since its well out of the way but that’s fine. Since getting this portable AC we’ve been able to turn off our MAIN downstairs AC system from MORNING (when we get up and out the bedroom) till BED TIME when we go to bed. And this little guy keeps the downstairs living area VERY comfortable the entire day on its own during these 100-110f days in Texas. This has saved us a fortune in electricity. Also this portable AC, not only does it have remote smartphone control, google home/alexa smarthome functionality BUT it also uses something called a smart variable inverter technology. So unlike other bog standard portable ACs which loudly turn on and run at full power/volume then shut off abrubptly when they meet the desired temp - then ramp up again when the temp creeps up. The Midea and Toshiba are able to gently ramp up and down the power depending on the situation. Other portable AC’s turn on and draw a full 1300W whereas the Midea/Toshiba can run and drop to as low as 50w when the fan is running, maintain temps at a low 300-500w or work a little harder and stay at 900w or if its really working hard ramp up to 1300w. This works brilliantly to save on the noise and power usage. It’s not running at all or nothing all the time. It’s smart, it can adjust the power and power draw to suit the conditions. This like I said helps conserve energy and keeps noise at a minimum. THAT BEING SAID, it would be nice if Midea/Toshiba added the ability in the app to allow us to force it to run at full power if we so wished rather than let it decide when to conserve power etc. Overall, for our downstairs, this unit (at least the Toshiba we got) was WELL WORTH the investment. NOW - Onto PART 2. Cooling the upstairs (specifically my home office) which I work in every day. Despite the Toshiba version of this Midea doing an amazing job of cooling the downstairs. The upstairs and my office was like a damn oven. I came to the conclusion that if i wanted to get ANY work done in my office upstairs I had the choice of running the main upstairs AC which effectively couldn’t keep up and would run FULL blast the entire day costing us a fortune OR invest in another portable AC. I decided to purchase another portable AC and instead of buying another Toshiba/Midea dual-hose unit I decided to cheap out and try the Black and Decker 14,000BTU(7000BTU SAAC) since it was well reviewed on Amazon despite it being a single hose unit with no smart features. Well…. BIG MISTAKE. As I said earlier in the review, the single hose was like a damn oven defeating the purpose of cooling the room if it has a hot burning heater of a hose behind it. I can’t talk about the negative pressure/leaking in hot air since I can’t measure that. But despite it being in a 100sqft office room and the unit was rated for 450sqft, it would run CONSTANTLY and STRUGGLE to keep the room at a comfortable temp. I asked myself “What’s the point of this thing” it cost me $500 after taxes and it was doing nothing. It also rumbled on and off and consumed max power at all times at some times going as high as 1800W almost tripping my breaker! Worst of all was I missed the app and smart controls I enjoyed on my downstairs Toshiba/Midea. So… after a few days I bit the bullet and said screw this, filed a return on the Black and Decker and pulled the trigger on the Midea 14,000 (12,000btu saac) which essentially was just a couple of hundred dollars more with better efficiency and many more smart features/remote control. I REALLY missed being able to turn the AC on in advance downstairs via the app and set schedules. Well the Midea arrived, I liked the black as opposed to the white of the Toshiba but it’s essentially identical. The Midea app wasn’t compatible with my Z Fold 3 for some reason so I had a go at setting it up with the Toshiba app and to my surprise - the Midea AC works just fine with the Toshiba app as the Toshiba AC does! They are all essentially the same app with minor differences. Well, weeks later I am THOROUGHLY impressed with the Midea as much as I am with my Toshiba downstairs. They are both on the same app so I can control both seperately using the one app which is nice. I’ve not had any issue with the fan inside ripping itself apart or shaking the machine. It’s running perfectly. Just make sure its sitting on a good flat level surface :) The Midea can cool my office down to the low 60’s if needed making it like a darn fridge. It’s awesome, I’ve had fun pushing it to its limits. It feels like magic on a 105f day, walking into my home office and it’s actually chilly cold lol. I now have no need to use EITHER the main downstairs or upstairs AC systems LOL. Anyhow, to round off my review I just want to share how ecstatic I am about this unit and have NO QUALMS about recommending it to others. Now as for the issues I have read, they could potentially be from dodgy delivery issues (from being bumped/knocked around or dropped during transport.) So I guess it really comes down to whether you get lucky and your unit moves through the delivery/courier system delicately or not. I saw some pictures where peoples boxes were all bashed in, dented and the rotating fan part was bashed into the unit. I suppose that could be why many of the people with issues have had such a bad experience - their unit was damaged in transport. But it seems I was lucky enough to receive my two units in good shape. Now the Toshiba variant of this (in white) is actually selling for $649 on Home Depots website right now but they go in and out of stock on a regular basis and can be hard to buy (I guess they are popular) but if you can, why not save 50bucks. Plus I’d probably trust Home Depots delivery people more than Amazons for big fragile items like this. But if you get the Midea (providing the delivery/transport goes well) you’ll be just as happy. My wife is now tempted to get one for her office upstairs and hell I wouldn’t mind getting one for our master bedroom downstairs too if budget permits one day. But I am VERY happy with my two units I have right now and I hope Toshiba/Midea keep supporting this unit because it is an absolute gem! Pros: - VERY ENERGY EFFICIENT - Great for space (can tuck it closer to the wall/window) because of the hose design - Much better SAAC BTU rating - Decent noise - LOTS of Smart Home functionality (APP and Google Home/Alexa support) Cons: - Can’t angle it left/right very much because of the dual-hose in one design - Not as quiet as they advertise (but what can you expect when the condenser is inside the room with you) JUST BUY IT ALREADY (and good luck with the delivery/shipping) :D

I waited a couple of months to see how the experience held up before submitting a review. Before purchase I had wondered about the drainage situation, performance, and overall noise level. I can address these points fully now. The Midea Duo is a wonderful machine -- in a small bedroom (roughly 11x11) setting this to the lowest setting (60 degrees Fahrenheit) will actually take a space this small down into the mid / upper 50s. This is while the machine copes easily with southeastern heat and humidity outside. I watched a Youtube reviewer test the noise level, and yes, that very low decibel rating is accurate with one caveat. The minimum noise level advertised only happens on low fan when the unit is in air circulation mode, no AC active -- the compressor running will easily exceed that level even on the lowest settings. Don't get me wrong -- I work at a desk approximately four feet away from the unit and I have absolutely no issues doing my job. There is a quirk of the unit where when the AC first activates, it briefly will spin everything up to maximum even with the settings configured to low / medium. This will last about thirty seconds before the inverter tech kicks in and the compressor drops into background noise. This is my only pet peeve overall. I am unsure as to why there isn't a "quiet mode" setting where it will run the compressor at a low setting more often for longer periods to maintain temperature versus needing to run full power for a bit. I would absolutely love this as a feature. Sending the compressor all the way to maximum and maximum fans briefly before stepping back and operating quietly is annoying, but I will note that I do not consider this loud enough to interrupt my day. Sitting further away will mitigate the issue completely. The noise is never enough to wake me from sleep and isn't "terrible". On normal low AC settings outside of the initial "start up" where it runs full tilt, I would say it is about as loud as box fan set to medium-low. The full start up level of noise for the compressor is approximately as loud as a window AC running on full. You will definitely notice the different stages as it cycles up and down. This thing will freeze you out of a room and quickly drop the temperature. I have never seen anything like it. Even dealing with Florida heat and humidity it was able to take a heat soaked room that was in the upper 80s down to the low 70s in a span of two hours. I had some concerns about needing to drain this vs a comparable Whynter unit with their exhaust technology. Those concerns were unfounded -- even with Florida humidity I have never needed to drain the unit. I have checked multiple times but I have never had more than a few drops of water in the tank. The AC exhausts the water vapor efficiently out through the window and does not seem to accumulate much at all. I have not needed to use the dehumidifying option, so that option may require more draining. For normal AC use you will probably not need to drain it often at all. If you live in a drier climate than Florida, you will probably never need to give draining it a second thought at all. Installation was not difficult for one person and all needed adapters / panels are provided. Midea supplies extra panels and adapters in case you need extensions. I do recommend reviewing the instructions and using the dampening foam panels to keep outside noise and heat away. You can install it without the instructions (it's that simple) but your life will be much easier if you read the manual. :) Make sure to install the hose flow separator at the end of the vent or your performance will not be as great. Once the foam is installed and the window secured with the included foam liners, outside noise is no worse than what it was before with the window closed. Midea has done very well in thinking of customer comfort. Durability -- it cools just as well as it did on day one. It has, however, developed a very annoying rattle/vibration when the compressor spins up and goes to full power. This sounds like something vibrating loose in the unit and this happened a few weeks into ownership. If I press my hand to the side of the unit this is goes away, so perhaps some piece of sound insulation has let go internally? I do not know if it is a defect since it is cooling perfectly, but I had to take away from the noise level stars because this is annoying and something I notice daily. Before it started doing this vibration-rattle the unit was much quieter. Purely fan mode is wonderfully quiet, so I know this has to be coming from the compressor somehow. Make sure to clean and check the filters, as the mesh is very fine and this unit needs the airflow to operate at best performance. I have not needed to use the heat function since we're still in the upper 80s and 90s, but will update as I use it. The remote control is good for when you don't want to get out of bed to change settings, but I find the app to be easier to use. The remote can do most of the things the buttons on the unit will do minus a few options that require the unit buttons to be held down. The app will let you fine tune most settings on the unit and select fan speeds beyond low, medium, or high. I would like to see full control from the app with all settings that can be adjusted on the unit itself. Our power bill did not increase by much using the AC. Part of this is probably helped by the Midea taking some of the strain off of the old (and inefficient) wall units here. I normally leave it set to low fan circulation and around 72 degrees on the AC. It uses much less power than a comparable window unit and I would absolutely not have anything other than an inverter driven AC at this point. The technology is that good. Would I buy another Midea again? Absolutely. There are improvements they can make to the overall build quality (addressing the various vibrations / rattles that have appeared) and settings (a quiet AC mode would be greatly appreciated), but overall this is very comparable with the best that Whynter has to offer and the thoughtfulness of the app is wonderful. It is not cheap, but the price gives you a tremendous performance and feature combination. I have no doubt that this would cool a large living room or combined space with ease. Thank you to Midea for saving me from Florida Summer! Edit and followup: I attached two decibel measurements. The average for medium fan is 54 and the average for the unit running in AC mode is 61 with spikes up to 68. I finally ran the heat and it works great, though it will collect a lot of humidity as condensation in the trays. The unit is very easy to drain, but you can also switch to dry mode to have the unit evaporate and exhaust the water. Edit #2: Still working great after a year and a half with no issues

Update: Our second summer using this AC. We used black duct tape to fix the window kit and so far it’s holding up really well. I added an extra star because it’s actually a pretty quiet AC compared to other brands we have. It works really well. So, if you’re willing to struggle through the set up a bit and maybe tape a few things, I’d highly recommend it. The the pros out weigh the cons. Original Review: I would have given this AC 5 stars if the window adapter wasn’t such an awful piece of junk. The adapter piece is very stiff and when we were connecting it, the attachment piece snapped clean off. We read other reviews that complained about the window kit so we were very careful and it still broke. I contacted the manufacturer and they sent me a link to purchase a replacement piece for $80 (and $10 shipping so $90 total). We tried to tape it, but it just wouldn’t hold so we caved and ordered the replacement. Hopefully it doesn’t break a second time. The whole window panel piece just isn’t very sturdy. Definitely prepare to get creative with installation if you do make this purchase. The AC itself is great, except that you can’t really turn it or have it stand at an angle because the hose is very stiff and it needs to stand right where your window opening is. But it’s quieter than our other AC and cools our room well. Bottom line: I would have rather just paid $100 extra from the beginning if it meant the window kit would be good quality. Overall, I’m glad we got this AC. Just hoping the manufacturer listens to feedback and improves the window kit.

I bought one of these for my house (which doesn’t have central air or normal windows that a conventional AC could fit in). At the time, I was at the end of my rope. I had tried all sorts of portable air conditioners. Single hose ones, dual hose ones. “8000” BTU models. 12,000 BTU models. Every one of them had problems. Most couldn’t cool down a single bedroom. Then I bought this shiny new Midea, with its composite hose design. Surely this was the right choice! I set it up, and started running it in my room. At last! It started cooling, and cooling well. My room became ice cold for the first time in ages. I was perfectly content for a while, and there were no issues. I would clean the filter regularly, and drain the unit on humid days without incident. I was so happy with this AC, in fact, that I got another, for the downstairs living room. That one worked great for a while too. Then, miraculously, just this summer, the problems began. Both units, within a WEEK of one another, stopped working right. Our rooms weren’t cooling down nearly as well as they used to. I started hearing crackling noises from within each unit when I spun them up, and they would halt with an error code after a while of running them. I checked to see if it was an issue of humidity - nope. Then I checked the filter, and… what the…?! There was a thick layer of ice built up all over the back of the unit, blocking the filter fins entirely. I was freaking out. I checked the other model. Ice on that one too. And then the ice would melt and drain directly into the inside of the unit, and they would stop entirely at that point, due to being waterlogged. I got ahold of Midea Support for some help, but they wouldn’t do anything for me, since “the warranty was up”. The best they could do was refer me to some sketchy HVAC repair location nearby with 1 star on Google Maps and a load of reviews saying the place was a scam. So incredibly unhelpful. Now I’m stuck with two oversized paperweights that I have to drain into my bathtub for a minimum of 4 hours each so we don’t get any mold growth, and no way to get my money back for TWO faulty products that both stopped working suspiciously around the same time. I’m guessing Midea’s “warranty” period is so tiny because these things are made to fail over two summers of use. It makes sense - keeps you buying more and more of the same overpriced piece of junk that will continue to break over and over for as long as you have money in your savings account. At this point, I’m completely out of options, and I’m sitting in a pool of my own sweat. Thanks, Midea.

I bought this because I live in a rental in Texas which is a very old and poorly insulated house. We do have central air but it costs a fortune to run and struggles with the Texas heat. The Midea is for a bedroom that's only about 300 square foot, which sounds like overkill but my old 10k BTU Black and Decker had trouble cooling to 80 on our 100 degree + days. This unit should also be cheaper to run since it's much more energy efficient. I really wanted the extra BTUs for cooling more than I wanted the heater but I'm already making use of it thanks to a brief late February cold snap. I had accidentally set it to automatic mode while setting it up and very quickly realized it had warmed my room up, now I'm really glad I got the Duo. Before when we would have big temperature swings at night I'd have to go to sleep with the AC set to 72 and a space heater set to 66, otherwise I'd either go to bed sweating or wake up freezing. Now I've got one unit that keeps my room at 72 all night despite the wild temperature swings outside. As far as noise goes The Midea has a much more powerful fan so naturally, that is louder but it's compressor is actually much quieter than the Black and Decker.. no more loud buzzing when the AC kicks on. I'll try to update this review once we start getting 100-degree weather and I see how it handles Texas summers. ***UPDATE**** I've had it for about 2 and a half years now, and it still works great after being stored for a year while I was living in a place that had great central air. I recently moved into a metal building that had been converted into an 850 sqft apartment and currently have the Midea in the bedroom, where it does a great job even with the door open. I'm considering buying another, though, because it isn't enough for the entire apartment during the day. Even with the 2 other cheap window units running alongside it, my apartment feels about 80-85F inside right now. It's 99F and humid outside, and It's a metal building with vaulted ceilings that is no doubt very poorly insulated, so it would otherwise be hotter inside than outside if it weren't for all the AC units running. I think with one more of these units I could drop the inside temp into the 70's if I can find a nearby plug that's on a separate circuit from the other units. I forgot to mention that it doesn't work with Google Assistant as advertised. None of the commands are recognized. I looked it up to see if there were certain commands that work and it seems this is a widespread problem. Update 11/16/24 With the nights starting to get cool and the heat being used I started seeing puddles under the newer unit. After reading this seems to be a common problem with these. I have the unit raised with a drain tube going from the middle drain into a 7 gallon jug. Despite this I was still getting puddles, so I decided to take it apart yesterday. I found the middle drain had a disconnected hose between the pump and the drain. After reconnecting, it works fine, and no more puddles. Just for the purpose of sharing info... The top drain is just a trough under the coils, it has no water pump, it likely overlows to the drain pan at the bottom. The middle drain (the bottom one with a plastic cap) has a pump to suck water out of the bottom of the units drain pan and pump it up and out of the unit. The very bottom drain, which only has a rubber plug with no plastic cap, is just a hole that drains the drain pan onto the ground with no pump. If the middle drain isn't working and you're getting puddles underneath, the internal hose between the pump and drain has likely popped off. This drain does not work without this internal hose because it is not gravity-fed; it sits above the drain pan. Update 12/1 The first unit I purchased started having P1 errors recently. After realizing no water was draining from the middle drain port I decided to take it apart too. It was the same issue as the other unit, a disconnected hose between the pump and drain port. It's a fairly easy fix but you'll need quite a bit of strength to pull apart the casing after removing the screws. This time I added zip ties to the hoses to tighten them. I suspect having the drain sealed may cause back pressure from the pump to pop it off so I will leave it open with a drain hose going into a 7 gallon Aqua-tainer like my other unit. I uploaded a picture of the clear rubber hose inside that has come off on both of my units. **Update 1/18/25** During our first spell of freezing weather, both of my units stopped heating. One stops when the outside air temperature hits around 40-45 degrees, and the other, which is in a much smaller room without vaulted ceilings, stops working closer to freezing. I never noticed during previous winters because I only had one unit, and it was in a small bedroom. I will need to buy space heaters since we're having unusually cold weather this year in central Texas. I thought they were broken until I read other reviews of people with this issue. As a result, of these being useless below 40 degrees, I knocked off another star and don't recommend them for the heater function. When they were off, I could feel cold air blowing into my house through them, so I may need to disconnect them and seal the part where the hose connects for the winter. **Update 6/12/25** The internal condensate pump only activates when the heater is on for some really dumb reason (this is by design). I finally found a good solution, one that would keep you from needing to take it apart to reattach the internal pump hose that comes loose on virtually every one of these units. I bought 2 Little Giant condensate pumps, one for each of my portable AC units. I have drain hoses going from the bottom drain ports into the Little Giant, which is placed below the AC, then the hose from the Little Giant goes up and out the window. These pumps are very effective and not very expensive, at around $60.

Bought this AC based on NYT recommendation and after some research. I had already bought a Whynter ARC-14SH (different portable AC) and found that one to be very loud and clunky, and I ended up returning it. Midea Duo cools my place very well (~950 sqft in the PNW summer for context). It is MUCH quieter than than the Whynter AC I had. The high fan for Midea was less loud than the low fan on Whynter. The inverter compressor is also much less noisy than the rotary compressor on the Whynter. The 5-piece window kit that comes with the Midea Duo accommodates my large 60" sliding windows which is a big plus. Update: Heating is working well. Don't forget to setup the drain hose when turning on heat mode. Otherwise the heater stops with P1 error until you manually drain the water. I setup the drain hose to drain into a bucket and it hasn't shown the P1 error all day. A lot of water comes out so I'll likely need to empty the bucket once a day.

Disclaimer: This review pertains to bedroom use. Since bedroom use is in the marketing materials I consider it fair game to complain. People searching for "quietest AC unit" like I did are often looking for a bedroom AC upgrade. The product otherwise has some nice features for daytime use. I would be happy with this unit in a daytime room, but bought it for a bedroom based on the marketing. Short review: While the marketing materials may claim this unit is very quiet on the lowest setting, that is for Low Fan and does not account for the compressor. When the compressor turns on to cool the air the whole unit gets much louder very suddenly which can jolt you awake. And the compressor has a very high-pitched hum which is much more annoying than normal fan noise. This is an inherent problem with all compressors. The only way to mask the compressor noise, both the sudden turning on and the annoying hum, is by running the fan at 100% the entire night. At that point the noise level is very loud, and ironically is louder than most modern window AC units or wall AC units due to the machinery being inside the room and at waist-level. So for bedroom use this unit is false marketing. If you're a fussy sleeper this unit will cause more issues at night than the effort of setup and testing is worth. That's an inherent problem with all portable AC units, but manufacturers shouldn't market them as suitable for bedrooms until they discover an engineering breakthrough for significantly quieter compressors. Longer review: Most AC units use a compressor to generate cold air. These compressors usually turn on with a loud CLUNK and then run with a high-pitched BUZZ or WHINE until enough cold air has been generated and it shuts back off with another CLUNK. This is one of several reasons why permanent AC units keep most of their noisy mechanical parts on the outside of a wall or a window. Portable AC units inherently have their compressor inside the room. So no matter how quiet the air fans can be the compressor that generates the cold air will cause a noise problem, at least until someone invents an engineering breakthrough. Technically a state-of-the-art compressor in 2024 might not be as loud in decibels as an older AC unit's fan. But a compressor's high-pitched buzz and irregular noise pattern makes it feel more annoying than a lower pitched and consistent mechanical drone of an old wall unit's fan. This unit gets some points for not having as loud of a CLUNK as other AC compressors I’ve experienced. But the turn-on noise is still louder than the advertised Low Fan noise level, and the buzz is both louder and more annoying than the Low Fan noise level. Yes, the Low Fan setting on this product is very quiet. But if you want the unit to be more than an expensive air circulator you must endure the compressor noise to get cold air. Ironically the quietness of the Low Fan setting is actually a drawback at night because the compressor turning on is such a loud contrast. You hear the blissful whisper from the air fan then suddenly WHIRRRRR, BUZZZZZZZZ, from the compressor. Again and again, all night. I tried setting the air fan to 75% constant power using the Midea Air app. Not enough to mask the compressor. Then in 5% increments all the way up to 90%. Still not enough, had to go to 100%. Ultimately with almost all portable AC units you need the air fans at 100% at night to do their best at masking the compressor noise as it turns on and off periodically to generate more cold air. At that point the overall volume is not much better than an older wall or window AC unit, which at least house their compressor outside. A wall or window can filter out more of the high pitches of a compressor buzz, while a compressor indoors in a portable unit does not have this benefit. The marketing materials show someone sleeping blissfully in bed while saying the unit can run at 42dB(A). This leaves out the crucial detail that the compressor is definitely louder than 42dB(A), and has a far more annoying type of noise than the air fan. If you want to mask that compressor noise you need to run the air fan louder than 42dB(A), much louder. And if you want cold air, the whole point of having an AC unit, the compressor will always be a part of the equation. So in a strictly technical sense the unit can achieve 42dB(A) on Low Fan, but in a functional sense you won’t have a pleasant time at that setting. If you are looking for a quiet bedroom AC unit, especially a portable bedroom AC unit, this probably isn’t the solution. Most portable AC units probably aren’t the solution for a bedroom, unfortunately. Be careful to read independent reviews of the noise levels, especially the compressor noise. Even then some reputable reviewers like The Wirecutter didn’t seem to do due diligence measuring compressor noise while claiming it was negligible. Despite compressors causing a significantly more annoying quality of noise compared to the air fans. In summary, the marketing materials for the Midea Duo are somewhat deceptive about bedroom use. I’d recommend a window unit of some sort instead. All portable AC units will likely have this inherent problem with compressor noise, at least until an engineering breakthrough is invented. Extra: A few other nighttime annoyances: The Midea Air app has a button to toggle off the setting-change Beep, but the physical unit and the physical remote do not seem to have a button for the same. The physical remote and the app have a button to toggle the LED lights to turn off a few seconds after a setting change, but the physical unit itself does not appear to have the same button. The physical unit has a button to set the air fans to Constant-Auto so that the air fans never turn completely off, but the remote and app do not. Constant-Auto is also a crucial nighttime setting even if the compressor doesn’t bother you, as the air fans have a brief loud noise when they go from off to on. All these oversights with the controls mean that if a setting is wrong at night you might have to fumble around for the app or the remote, or even get out of bed to fix it on the unit. If your spouse has the remote or the unit is closer to their side of the bed you might wake up them up stumbling around looking for the controls in the dark. Having everything on the remote would be preferable at night since it’s dimmer than a smartphone screen, but you only get one remote per unit. Yes, I did look through the manual and didn’t see any hidden settings or buttons for these complaints.

This is an excellent little portable heat pump. It's good for the summer when you need it to cool, and in winter you get about 3500W worth of heating from 1000W of electrical output power which is really nice compared to running a space heater. In heat mode it does produce quite a bit of condensate (water), but there's an internal condensate pump that helps you drain it away. I have an 20ft long x 8mm condensate hose that I run from the unit along the base boards in my apartment to my bathroom where I let it drain out into the shower. The HVAC in my apartment building doesn't work properly, and this unit has been able to keep my 850 sqft condo in Vancouver nice and warm all winter (I have no other source of heat in my condo). This unit also integrates nicely with Home Assistant (open source home automation software) which I run on a Raspberry Pi so I can control when the unit switches on/off based on a few wireless temperature sensors that I have scattered around my apartment. The Home Assistant software control seems to work a bit better than just letting it run on its own. I find that I only need to run it about a quarter or a third of the time using Home Assistant, but if I let it try to use its own internal thermostat it runs basically 100% of the time. The unit isn't that loud. But it's not quiet either. I have it in my spare bedroom / office which allows the rest of my apartment to be quiet even when it's running. The unit will only "pump heat" from outside if the outside air temperature is above 5C. I haven't run into this as a problem yet because I'm in Vancouver and we don't get real winters compared to the rest of Canada. But if you live in a place where the temperature gets properly below freezing, then this unit might not work. My understanding is that this is a limitation due to ice build up on the evaporator coil when the outside air is too cold. If you mount this to a tilt out window, it's really helpful to make a better air splitter to keep the intake and exhaust air streams separated. I found that using the included little plastic splitter wasn't effective and meant that I was basically sucking back in the air that the machine had just exhausted. This is especially important in cooling mode. You can sort of see the air splitter I made from cardboard covered in black duct tape in one of my photos. I found this really improves the unit's performance in summer when you really don't want to be pulling the hot exhaust air back into the unit to cool the condenser coil. I also got an acrylic panel cut and mounted to my window with velcro -- I found the included window kit didn't work with my tilt out windows and the acrylic panel was only around $100 from a local vendor (I'm sure there's a guy with a CNC in whatever city you live in who does this as a side hustle, just search and you'll find him). Finally this unit runs nicely on a standard 15A circuit. I only have a few other small loads on that circuit (some LED desk lamps), but when I tried to have my laser printer on the same circuit I would pop the breaker ever time I tried to print something (apparently laser printers can pull 500W-1000W when they warm up out of sleep mode).

First of all it is most definitely being used in AC mode. Unit would get a P1 error code every 4-5 hours requiring the 77lb unit to be detached from the window, wheeled to the bathroom, lifted into the shower and the drain plug undone from the bottom of the unit to empty the small condensation overflow tray. I tried to get support from Midea Customer support noted in the manual and they INSISTED that this is NORMAL OPERATION. HAHAHA! When I pointed out that the model's included manual specifically says that repeated "P1" error displayed requires a call for service, they said this was only if the P1 error code remained after I drained it ignoring that the condensation is supposed to evaporate out the exhaust hose instead of overflowing, and not have the error AT ALL. I am aghast that they don't know how their own portable AC works! I have no words how poor as a customer, I was treated by uneducated, unhelpful and uncaring support staff at Midea. I had to actually hook up the drain hose (only for dehumidifying - I was cooling!) and drain the constant overflow into a watering can until I could get back my other AC unit. I was formally happy with the smart window Midea wifi AC I had bought a few years ago to use downstairs, and specifically sought out another Midea when my portable from a no-name Chinese manufacturer was too loud to be in the bedroom (after 10+years of service!). Now I will buy anything else. They don't seem to get how the condensation is evaporated through the hose to the window. She actually suggested that there should not be too much humidity for the AC when it's being used! LOL. It's normal btw - I'm in Toronto inside not in the Amazon. When I reiterated that this is not normal operation she just said "Is there anything else I can help you with today?". I just can't explain the idiocy at Midea support. In order to return I must pay the entire shipping costs of $225 for this heavy unit and reinvent how to ship it back as you have to cut the straps from the box that hold the two box pieces together only the first time until you take out the unit upon receiving shipment. Even the box is not designed to make return with bit of ease. I would not only avoid these products that fail to function properly, the company's lack of customer support is reason alone not to buy anything from them. Update: I bought a manual strap banding kit for $100 to secure this 2 part box. It is now shipped!

I like the way it cools efficiently and quickly. It is portable so that I can easily move it from room to room. Great solution

As an air conditioner, the reason I purchased the Midea, the dual hoses seem to work more efficiently than the single hose. The only complaint I have is all the attachments that make up the window kit snap together leaving gaps around all the connections. As the machine is installed in the window hit the hardest in a rain storm, I am waiting to see whether the rain comes in through those gaps! Otherwise, I would recommend this machine as long as you have the money to pay for it as it is the most expensive appliance I have ever bought, fridge, stove, and dishwasher included!

I love this machine for the cooling effect, it's very impressive. BUT the window kit is flimsy, there are large gaps where the hose clips into the window facia. Also the foam for insulation is awful, it's impossible to get off, almost like a liquid. This is a big minus for anyone needing to remove the until for a Canadian winter. I have tried to get through to customer service, almost impossible to find a human, the bot chat won't provide contact info. I emailed a generic email but got no response. I hope the company will read this and do something about the kit, which should be metal not crappy plastic and decent insulating foam provided.