Sharp CV-P10MX 9,500-BTU Portable Air Conditioner, White
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Sharp CV-P10MX 9,500-BTU Portable Air Conditioner, White
Customer Review: Highly Recommended
Summary: 5 Stars
Well I bought this unit at the same time as another 10,000 BTU portable AC unit by Royal Sovereign. The Sharp was about 20% more expensive but it more than makes up for the additional outlay.
This unit is very nicely designed, it's sleek and clean looking and quite small and light. The best bit of the design is the way the the back steps down so that the outlet hose comes out pointing upwards instead of backwards - this is great because it means that the unit can go right back against the wall to optimise space yet the hose is still concealed by the front of the unit. The other thing which makes this unit a much better buy than the R-S unit I bought is the noise of the Sharp is very acceptable (it's about half that of the R-S unit when both are running at their full cooling potential).
I've had the unit for a couple of weeks and haven't needed to drain it at all yet - unlike my R-S unit which I have drained at least 5 times.
I'm very pleased with this and would certainly recommend it to anybody who is looking for a portable AC unit - please bear in mind though that portable AC units do be less efficient than window units and do take up a fair amount of floor space! However if you are looking for a portable unit I'd certainly go with this one. If you have a large room you should consider going for the more powerful version but for a medium sized room this one is pucker : )
Customer Review: Loud but COLD
Summary: 4 Stars
Here's the deal. For 3 years during the summer I lived without this AC unit. I'd toss and turn and be grumpy as hell in the morning.
Last year I got this unit and during the summer I slept like a BABY. Why? because I was in a room with bearable temperature. I'd rather have this thing blasting away the heat than some quiet unit that doesn't do the job.
Customer Review: Not bad,. Could be better given the price. I DO solidly recommend the unit!
Summary: 4 Stars
I just purchased this Sharp CV-P10MX from Bed Bath and Beyond for [...]- 20% coupon + 8.25% tax - 5% bonus CASHBACK rebate for using my Discover card. Total net purchase price for me was about [...]. That's the best deal I could find and I didn't have to wait for shipping. I got the A/C unit today.
The unit is big. Look at the measurements carefully before purchasing. You need enough space right next to your window for this unit. Even though this is a portable unit with casters to move it around, the exhaust hose setup is more or less semi-permanent. Once installed it's not meant to be taken off very easily. So keep that in mind. Once you've installed it, you essentially can't use your window again to bring in fresh air--not without taking down the exhaust hose installation.
Don't get me wrong. I LIKE this portable unit quite a bit. I do solidly recommend purchasing this unit if you need a portable AC. For what it does, it does it well. The cooling performance is SOLID! Don't listen to other users with similar NON-Sharp units complaining about it not working or not bringing the temp down enough. They either have faulty units or didn't install the exhaust hose properly. These kind of AC units WORK and they work quite well for what they are designed to do. BUT there are shortcomings with these designs. For one, we have blinds AND curtains installed on our windows. With this portable AC installed on this set of windows, our blinds and curtains become essentially useless. Please keep that in mind. Also, it's a real pain to install the exhaust hosing contraption properly into your window frame and to make sure the insulation is properly insulated. It's not impossible but a real pain.
Another bad design about this particular SHARP unit is that there's no display on the AC unit itself. ONLY the remote has all the info/stats. So you can't tell what's going on with the unit just by looking at it. For example, you can't tell the current temp--or at least what the AC unit thinks is the current temp. You can only set the desired temp. on the remote unit. Additionally, you can't tell what setting the fan is currently running at just by looking at the unit. You have to go check your remote, and even then, you don't really know what the real fan speed is currently running at, only that you've set your remote to a certain setting. If you don't point the remote directly at the unit, it may show that you're running at high speed but really you're running at low or medium speed. It's a bad design pure and simple. The AC unit itself should have a display with all pertinent info AND it should have buttons to allow you to change the settings of the AC unit. As it stands, you can ONLY turn the unit on and off on the unit itself. Everything else is controlled by the remote. Make damn sure you don't lose your remote or else it essentially becomes useless to customization.
Another bad design is that the louvers ONLY automatically adjust UP and DOWN. For side to side adjustment, you have to MANUALLY adjust it by going to the unit itself and using your hands to adjust it. What this means is that you get auto action of up and down but not side to side. If your room is very small, it may suffice for just this up/down action, but if you have a bigger room, you're going to get frustrated with the lack of automatic side to side movement of the louvers. Again, bad design.
One of the biggest reason for getting the SHARP units is how quiet they are suppose to be in the lowest setting--supposedly 36 db--however that is just the sound of the fan operating by itself--meaning when the compressor isn't working to produce the actual COLD air. When the AC unit has kicked in with the compressor, the sound, even at the lowest setting, is not very quiet. It's definitely not something you can fall asleep to unless you get adjusted to the sound. Having said that, the Sharp will be the quietest of all the portable AC units out there. I've done ample research before purchasing this unit and this is by far the most quiet unit on the market today. So if you want the quietest machine, this is the unit to purchase but don't be fooled into thinking that it's truly quiet. It's NOT. It'll take some getting use to before one can go to sleep without ear plugs with this unit on. (I've been using ear plugs since my college dorm days to fall asleep so it doesn't bother me one bit but it will bother others initially I'm certain.)
All in all, I solidly like this unit and I believe it's one of the best out there. I am quite satisfied with this purchase. It will absolutely cool your room. If it doesn't, you've either installed it incorrectly or you have a faulty unit. If installed properly, it WILL work very well. But there are shortcomings--described above--to these portable AC units, by nature of their design, not isolated to SHARP units only. Realize these shortcomings before purchasing these kind of portable AC machines and you won't be very disappointed once you get it home and installed.
I know when the next heat wave comes this way, I'll be sitting happily in my bedroom surfing the net with a very "cool" smile and appreciating my Sharp CV-P10MX very much. :)
(I would give this machine 5 stars if they improved upon the user design. Otherwise very happy with the cooling performance of this Sharp CV-P10MX!)
Customer Review: Overall good, but definitely not "library quiet"
Summary: 4 Stars
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Good points on design:
Very considerate design. Fairly easy to install (the window part is rather challenging, although not terribly frustrating). The remote control is very intuitive with clear markings annotating the meaning of the symbols, so any user can use it any time without having to first look for the manual to figure out the meaning of the symbols.
This is important. At the time of installation, because you have the manual at hand, everything seems rather clear. But in actual use, that's usually not the case. The real user usually does not have a manual in his hand nor does he have any knowledge of the manual. For example, one of the things I hated most about hotels and guest places is the LCD-based air conditioning control panels which usually operate based on symbols (not texts). You are never sure what the symbols mean, although you can guess. Messing with an unfamiliar control menu is confusing enough, but not knowing for sure the meaning of the symbols magnifies frustration and confusion by many folds. Sometimes even the hotel staff have no clue.
Sharp's remote control has all the major annotations printed right there on the remote. Thank you.
About noise:
I appreciate the information given by the other reviewers, especially the noise issue. Had it not been one of the reviews which discussed the noise level, I could have returned this thing because I thought it was just too loud and something must be wrong with it as it was supposed to be "library quiet". Yes, in the fan and ventilation mode, the fan is pretty quiet, especially on the low fan speed setting. But in the cooling mode, once the compressor kicks in, it is loud. It is absolutely not "library quiet", so the description is misleading if not an outright lie. I cannot understand why others call this quiet. I suspect those reviewers are either talking about the fan or ventilation mode, or living in a noisy environment, or just plain not bothered by any noise at all.
But I do believe the Sharp is probably still among the quietest potable air-conditioners, like what some other reviewers said. The truth of the matter is that a compressor makes a lot of noise, and it's hard to conceal that noise. Central A/C has the compressor unit placed outdoors to make it quiet for people living indoors. With portable air-conditioners, however, the convenience you get also comes at a cost: the entire air conditioner including its compressor is right there near by you, to be heard. So this is where you should place your expectation.
Compared to the noise of the other air-conditioners I've seen, I started to realize that I really can't complain about the noise of the Sharp. I was just upset by its misleading advertisement which raised my expectation to an unreasonable level. So I figured I would have to live with it. And I did. It sure beat the hot summer.
More about the remote control:
But, as pointed out by other reviewers, it is problematic to have every control on the remote and nothing on the AC itself. The problem is that once you lose the remote, this air conditioner will become dysfunctional. Seriously. This is potentially a disaster. Anything that stops functioning without a remote control is a bad design in my opinion. The remote control should always be just an added convenience, instead of an indispensable component.
Customer Review: Recommended With Some Installation Tips
Summary: 5 Stars
I won't repeat the comments in the other reviews, which are generally accurate. If you want a portable air conditioner, well, you must make some compromises. I first used portable air conditioners professionally about twenty years ago, so I was aware that they had ducting requirements. If those are a problem for you, look for another solution.
As background, our 16-year-old central air conditioner had a relay fail, and my wife was ill, so I needed to provide some heat relief fast. We live in a condominium and a window unit - the cheapest solution - was not allowed. I installed this in a couple of hours at night and it has been a blessed relief.
I found that there are a couple of installation tips which may make your life easier. Every situation is different, these worked for me, but you should assess whether these will be useful in your particular circumstances.
1. Duct tape is your friend. Don't scoff - the purpose of duct tape is to seal air conditioning ducts, and guess what, that's what we are doing here. Rather than drill into your window frame to mount the duct opening and cover, duct tape will hold it and seal. Since ours is a temporary installation, this is fine. You may find it useful to fasten the window duct apparatus with duct tape for a week or two, until you decide exactly where you want the product permanently, then go through the drilling later when you are sure of the location.
2. Our window was an aluminum-framed horizontal slider. The instructions call for a security mount by screwing an L-shaped bracket to the sash and window frame. This is a BAD IDEA, since this makes it impossible to use the window for a fire exit. A 1x2 cut to the right length will secure the window, and can be removed easily in an emergency. Use our friend Mr. Duct Tape to secure the duct cover to the sliding window. Leave a utility knife handy to cut the duct tape just in case. In any event, for a high-crime area, consider the security impact of a partially-open window.
3. The plastic window opening cover/duct outlet comprises five pieces: two flat plates, a sliding connector to hold them together, a snap-in duct mount/insect guard, and an internal sliding piece to cover the duct opening when the duct mount is removed. For horizontal sliding windows, lose the internal sliding piece, which is always sliding down during the installation. This will make sense when you actually see the unit.
4. As designed, the snap-in duct mount was too long to fit inside our existing screen. I didn't want to remove the screen, which helped to conceal the duct, so I didn't use that, instead relying on our friend Mr. Duct Tape once more.
5. For horizontal sliding windows, this unit will work best with vertical blinds.
6. Make certain nothing leans on or obstructs the hose between the air conditioner itself and the window. Items leaning on the hose may destroy all your painstaking duct tape handiwork.
The unit draws in air from the room being cooled. Some of this is chilled and returned to the room, and some is used in the heat exchanger portion of the air conditioner and exhausted outside. You will need to draw air into the room being cooled. This was not an issue for us.
We are pleased with the unit, and found it more than ample for a roughly 250 square foot room. Highly recommended, just be aware that the exhaust installation is a bit fiddly. Don't forget the duct tape!