My daughter recently left home to go to college. She’s not living on campus, though. We decided to rent an apartment for her and she has a roommate that she’s sharing all of the costs with for the next few semesters. The apartment idea just made more sense to her dad and me than the campus living did. We think that she will get lots more studying done off campus than she would on campus with all of the distractions and the parties going on. Anyway, the only issue that we really had with her college apartment was the fact that there was not any air conditioning in her room. Knowing my daughter the way that I do, I was sure that she would be totally distracted by being too hot and sweaty in the warm fall temperatures. That’s why her dad and I decided to go ahead and invest in a portable air conditioner for her bedroom in the apartment. My husband was super busy with work this week, and so it fell upon my shoulders to do the research and figure out exactly which window unit air conditioner we wanted to purchase for our daughter. I ended up going to my favorite place in the world to shop, which is Walmart. I mean, where else can you find three different window unit air conditioners in stock at any given time?
The first unit I looked at was the GE 5,000 BTU Mechanical Air Conditioner, AET05LY. This was a nice little air conditioner that just so happened to be on clearance pricing. This air conditioner delivers 5,000 BTUS that would be able to cool smaller rooms up to 150 square feet of space. Our daughter’s room was around 160 square feet, so I figured that this was close enough size-wise to work properly to cool her bedroom. The air conditioner has something called an easy mount window installation kit included with it, so if we decided to install it ourselves, that would definitely be a plus. It has a mechanical thermostat built into it, which makes it simple to adjust the temperature in the room quickly and easily. It has two separate cooling modes and fan speeds. This particular air conditioner has a slide out air filter for ease of cleaning, although I’m sure my daughter will never even think about cleaning her A/C unit’s air filter when she’s at school. It also has non-ozone depleting refrigerant, which is something my eco-friendly daughter will think is very important. This A/C unit weighs in at 48 pounds, so it’s good to know that if it happens to fall out of the window or something, it’s not so heavy that it will squash anyone who happens to be sitting near it. I know that weird things happen in college dorms and apartments, so the weight was actually something that I wanted to take into consideration! The clearance price of the GE 5,000 BTU Mechanical Air Conditioner, AET05LY was $120.00 when I saw it on the shelf at my local Walmart.
The next unit I looked at was the Haier 5000 BTU Mechanical Air Conditioner. This unit also has two cooling speeds and two fans so that you can customize the amount of cooling you get from it. It also comes with an EZ mount window installation kit. This air conditioner has a removable mesh filter that is able to be cleaned and then reused, so if my daughter ever takes the initiative to clean the A/C unit, it wouldn’t be difficult for her! This air conditioning unit has an adjustable thermostat built into it as well, and it will also cool smaller rooms up to 150 square feet. Like the previous A/C unit, this one has non-ozone depleting refrigerant, so it’s also environmentally friendly. This unit weighs in at a little less than the first one at 43 pounds. This would make it easier for my daughter to move it, if necessary, but otherwise, the first two units were basically quite comparable. This A/C unit was priced to move at $116.99, since it was also on clearance. However, some of the reviews for this product said that the fan blows very weakly, so I wanted to take that into consideration before purchasing it.
The last window unit that I looked at in Walmart was the TCL 5,000 BTU Mechanical Window Air Conditioner; White. This one was a little bit different from the others. First of all, it wasn’t on clearance. It was also able to cool 150 square feet easily and was easy to set up and maintain. This A/C unit also offers two cooling speeds and two fan speeds, plus a built in thermostat that’s easy to program. It contains a removable and washable air filter for convenient maintenance, too. The main difference in this particular A/C window unit is that TCL backs their product with a one year parts and labor warranty, should anything go wrong with it after purchase. The TCL 5,000 BTU Mechanical Window Air Conditioner; White also has 8-way air outlets which would help with consistent airflow throughout the room. The pre-clearance price on the TCL 5,000 BTU Mechanical Window Air Conditioner; White was $149.00, but I honestly got the feeling that paying the extra money for the warranty was probably a good idea in this case.
As you have probably guessed, my husband and I ended up buying option number three for our daughter’s apartment bedroom. The TCL 5,000 BTU Mechanical Window Air Conditioner in white from Walmart just seemed like it was going to be a better fit for our daughter, mainly because of the warranty and the 8-way air flow outlets built into the machine. Even though each A/C unit that I looked at had an easy installation kit, I still hired an HVAC professional to come and install it for my daughter. I just wanted to be sure that we didn’t overlook anything or cause any fire hazards as we were installing it.