A small and quiet portable air conditioner
Written: Apr 17 '05
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Ease of Cleaning: |
|
|
| Style: |
|
|
|
Pros: Small foot print and quiet.
Cons: Somewhat expensive and short window duct hose.
The Bottom Line: A good performer and is simple to operate and move from one place to another.
|
|
|
| tarf's Full Review: Toyotomi TID-2400 Portable Air Conditioner |
I wanted to wait until I had given our Toyotomi TID-2400 portable air conditioner a workout before writing a review. It has been eight months now and it’s time for a review.
The coastal areas of Southern California is known for its very mild climate but from time to time it becomes very hot. This is especially true during the late summer and fall when we get something called Santa Anas. A Santa Ana is when a very strong high pressure builds in the desert areas (typically over Utah and Nevada) and strong winds blow through to the coast. It is actually cooler in the desert than on the coast. It was during a Santa Ana that I decided to buy a small air conditioner.
I really did not want a “window rattler” as I think they are not attractive and putting it in and taking it out would be a bother. Buying a central air conditioner was an option but like some homes in Southern California, my house was not built with air ducts and installation would have been very expensive. Operating an air conditioner is also very expensive as we have some of the highest electricity rates in the nation. All I really wanted to do was to cool off the main living area. It always cools off during the evening hours so it would not be running at night. This left me with one option; a portable air conditioner.
I looked at several models and most were very expensive or were loud when they ran. The Toyotomi TID-2400 has a small foot print, it measures about 11.5”w x 15”d x 33.75”h. It has four casters so moving it about is easy. On the back is the hot air outlet to vent to the outside (more on this later). It runs on standard household power, 120 volts and draws about 9 amps. It has a rated capacity of 8,000 Btu and will cool an area of about 370 square feet.
The controls are very easy to understand and are on the top of the unit. The Toyotomi features a built in thermostat, timer, and controls for the air oscillation. You may choose to have the air point in one direction or have “sweep” the cold air from one side to another. It also has a fan only control.
On the side is a filter which is easy to change or clean and the front bottom cover removes to empty the condensate tank. The controls also will tell you if the tank is full and needs to be emptied.
Since air conditioners also produce large amounts of warm (even hot) air you will need a way to get rid of this unwanted air. The unit comes with a window vent kit. The kit includes a 3 foot flexible hose, plastic fittings, and an adjustable window vent to fit into a window. The one that comes with the unit will adjust from about 18” to around 30” inches and is secured by two thumb screws. Installation is fairly easy and only requires a screwdriver. Toyotomi also sells different window adapters to fit your needs on their website along with parts and accessories.
You hook the hose to one of the fittings and to other end to the window vent. After turning on the unit it takes about 2 minutes for the compressor to start.
As you might have deduced the TID-2400 needs to be close to a window to vent. You can buy longer hoses from Toyotomi and even different window vents. I went to Home Depot and purchased “bag duct.” This is a very flexible duct that is used by air conditioner professionals to run air ducts. It is easy to cut, is insulated, collapses down to a small size and is reasonable in price. I was told that you had to keep the “length of the hose to less than 20 feet.”
We ran the unit all day long and were surprised at how much water had collected in the condensate tank. I going to guess it was about 2.5 quarts. It lowered the temperature in our room by about 15 degrees and that was enough to make it comfortable.
Does it have shortcomings? Yes. The tank is somewhat small and you need to be mindful about emptying it on a regular basis while operating the unit. The duct given is much too short to much good and limits where you can place it. However, this is easily remedied with a trip to Lowe's or Home Depot for a duct. It is also expensive for what you get. Overall, the Toyotomi is well built and the fit and finish was quite high.
Positives? Yes. It is portable and fairly quiet. It also does not use lot of power so tripping circuit breakers is kept to a minimum. I would not hesitate to buy another of these if the need arose. This particular unit was factory "refurbished," came with the original warranty and was purchased directly from Toyotomi's website.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 450.00
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
tarf
|
|
Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 1 member
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.