So let’s carry on with our Challenge 6 Litre Portable Air Cooler review and explore the product’s pricing. However, a higher BTU also means a higher price tag, and likely higher running costs, so it's a balancing act of investing as much as you can for better performance against how much you're willing to pay upfront for a unit. Room size There's no doubt it looks the part, making a very welcome change from the usual portable air conditioners that tend to be white, boxy, and pretty visually pretty unappealing. Instead, the Duux North 9K Smart Air Conditioner's curved grey front looks sleek and modern, and although it's still fairly sizeable, its curved edges help it to feel a lot visually slimmer, meaning it feels less bulky and more unobtrusive in a room. If the brand you buy is important to you, our best advice is to spend some time writing up your own list of ideal brands. That way when you come to the point where you’re comparing product options you can filter to only show the products from brands in your list. It has some downsides, but only in keeping with most portable air con units, in that it's heavy which makes it not quite as portable in reality as its name may suggest.However, the build quality is good, it has easy-to-use controls, and its design is unobtrusive – although we think the AEG Comfort just pips it to the post in the style stakes by offering a sleeker design.

Price is another really important factor for analysing the quality of Challenge 6 Litre Portable Air Cooler vs other products in the Air conditioning category. It’s obvious, but you will need to set your expectations of quality based on your budget and the price of the product you’re looking at, against the price of alternatives.ADDED EXTRAS & 2 YEAR WARRANTY: The Mylek Air Cooler is fully CE/UKCA certified and RoHS compliant to the highest UK standards. Also comes with a handy two year warranty and excellent UK customer service support. Item dimensions D/W/H 26 x 29.5 x 67 Centimeters, WIeight 7.5 KGS Beyond that, this air con unit is bulky and heavy. It weighs in at 31.5kg, one of the heaviest units we've tested, so carrying it upstairs is a definite two (strong) person job. But, it looks good. And its curved front, minimal design, and gloss finish all make it far more unobtrusive in a room than you might expect. The build quality is also solid and robust.

As such, we've rounded up the key features to look out for when sourcing the best portable air conditioner for your home. BTU (British Thermal Units) There's no denying portable air con units are expensive, so if affordability is key then this Pro Breeze 9000 BTU 4-in-1 Portable Air Conditioner is certainly a winner on price. The unit performed solidly during our testing, reducing the temperature in the room by 2°C in 10 minutes. Like most air con units it isn't silent, there's 51-53dB of noise depending on if you opt for the low or high cooling setting, but it's a downside our testers were happy to accept in return for its temperature-reducing powers. In terms of cooling powers this is one of the most powerful portable air con units we've tested, but, that power does comes at a price, with the AEG Comfort 6000 using 3400W of energy compared to the MeacoCool MC Series 7000BTU units 780W. It means running costs for the AEG are higher – as is the initial outlay compared to the Meaco – but, our reviewer did find they didn't need this unit running for as long to cool down a space. We found the the best bet is to run the air con unit in a bedroom for a few hours before you want to go to sleep, and then turn it off once you turn in for the night.TIMER, NIGHTLIGHT & NEGATIVE ION AIR PURIFIER; You can set the unit to operate continuous or 1 - 12 hours according to your needs. Handy nightlight switch for an undisturbed sleep. Turn on the negative ion function to release large quantity of anions which help in the removal of airborne pollutants as small as .01 micron such as allergens, pollen, mold, smoke, pet dander, unpleasant odors, dust, and other airborne irritants. The first is brand. Looking at the brand of the product is often a really good indicator for judging product quality. For example you’d expect a much higher quality product from a brand known for providing excellent quality than you would from an unknown or even a budget brand.