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(More customer reviews)Shame on Soleus. They designed the drainage function of this machine so poorly as to be virtually unusable. Apparently the unit is supposed to be evaporative, which means it isn't supposed to need draining. However, when hooked up on the humid east coast during a heat wave, the internal tank was filling up every couple of hours. When full, the machine shuts down.
To drain the unit, you have to unscrew a tiny cap which is located at the very bottom of the machine, UNDER the hot air exhaust hose. Picture trying to access this down at the floor. They give you a tiny tray, a 1/2 inch deep, and suggest, I kid you not, that you unscrew the cap, drain into the tiny tray, and then screw the cap back on to stop the flow of water. Since the capacity of the tray is about a 1/2 cup and the capacity of the internal tank is a liter and a half, you are going to have to repeat this process about 16 times to drain the tank. An alternative, they helpfully tell you, is to go to the hardware store and get a hose with an inner diameter of 5/8 inch. Which, unfortunately, does not actually fit on the drainage valve. As far as I can tell, the only possible solution to this is to elevate the air conditioner and attach the correct fitting hose and have it drain into a larger container. Which all just sort of defeats the purpose of a portable unit, doesn't it?
This Soleus unit was donated to my organization by a friend who bought it and couldn't use it because of the drain problems. We are going to use it in a smaller office and will rig up a permanent drain system.
The bottom line is that portable units are ALWAYS less efficient than their window mount cousins because the heat thrown through the exhaust hose radiates into the room and must be compensated for by the btus of the unit. In my office, we have 8000 btu window units which cool our 14 foot ceiling offices very efficiently, whereas a 9000 btu portable unit couldn't lower the ambient temp at all. So, if you can possibly go with a window unit, do it. If you absolutely must have a portable, make sure you get a higher btu than you think you need and do NOT go with the Soleus. It very poorly designed.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Soleus PE4-12R-03 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner, 3-Speed Fan and 60 Pint Dehumidifier
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