Danby Premiere DPAC11010 Portable Air Conditioner

We bought this 11,000 BTU Danby August 2010 when our downstairs central a/c unit failed. We intended to use it as a temporary solution for a few days until our central air unit could be replaced, but we were astounded at how well it cooled so decided to hold off on spending the $4000-$7000 replacement cost.

While I'm writing this, it's 101 degrees outside in San Antonio TX, but inside our 648 sq ft open living room/kitchen area it's only 79! Current air temp being output by the Danby is 57 degrees. Last August we had temps of 105 and higher, and this unit was able to keep us cool downstairs, although the compressor was running almost continuously to keep up. And when the compressor does shut off, the fan continues to run and circulate the air there is no "auto fan" setting, so it doesn't shut off or turn on when the compressor does. Apparently this is common among many portable a/c units from what I've read.

One thing I've noticed on the temperature settings if we set the inside temp to be 78, the compressor will continue running for a long time even after the room temp cools to 76, perhaps stopping when the temp drops to 75. Likewise, the compressor will remain stopped even when room temp rises to 80, perhaps kicking back on when temp reaches 81. So there's a spread of at least 4 and perhaps 6 degrees between what you set the room temp ie. your actual room temp will vary from 2-3 degrees cooler to 2-3 degrees warmer than what you set.

This is a dual-hose ventilation system (some portable air conditionesr are one hose), and it was very easy to set up the included window kit only took about 30 minutes to get the unit unpacked and running. The window kit works with windows which open up and down, and with those which slide sideways.

It's a self-evaporating unit, so that most condensate from the cooling process evaporates instead of collecting in a reservoir and this appears to work as designed we've opened the bottom drain plug occasionally to check and never had any water drain out.

Comes with a 24 month warranty, but if you register it online and complete a short survey, you'll receive an additional two months!

Overall, we've been extremely pleased with the Danby, and it saved us from making a huge and immediate unplanned expenditure for A/C repairs. We're now able to take our time, shop for the best deal, and replace our central a/c unit at our convenience.

We used this all summer long in our large master bedroom. When we first got it I thought it would take a very long time to cool but it surprised me when we felt a noticeable change in temperature in under 20 minutes. An hour later the room was at the temperature we wanted and we were loving this unit. Then we realized that my husband installed it incorrectly and there was a small gap that was still letting in the hot heat from outside. When we filled the gap it got even cooler faster. Over time we had it nicely setup where we just switched it on and got the room cooled down fast. Does the job, we were happy all summer long...

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EASY TO MOVE ABOUT THE HOUSE WITH THE CASTERS. ONLY TAKES MINUTES TO HOOK UP TO A DIFFERENT LOCATION. PUTS OUT PLENTY OF COLD AIR TO COOL A ROOM. I HAVE FOUND IT VERY DEPENDABLE WITH NO LEAKAGE. A MUST HAVE, IN THIS HEAT, IF YOUR CENTRAL UNIT GOES OUT. IF YOU WANT A PORTABLE AC WITH VERSATILITY AND DEPENDABILITY THEN THIS IS THE ONE I WOULD ADVISE IN PURCHASING.

Read Best Reviews of Danby Premiere DPAC11010 Portable Air Conditioner Here

The folks at Danby apparently never heard of Steve Jobs.

The user interface and usability is horrible and the

manual is even worse. Descriptions of many features are

missing from the manual.

I purchased this air conditioner to cool a small server

room at my school.

This air conditioner never turns off. When the room temperature

goes below the thermostat setting, the compressor turns off

but the fan keeps running. Depending on the fan speed you select,

this will consume 50, 60, or 90 watts all the time.

The next ridiculous feature is the Auto-timer. I expected this

to be a time of day timer but instead it is a on or off duration

timer. Default setting on power-up is 8 hours for on and for off.

This means that when the air conditioner turns on, it will stay

on for 8 hours regardless of how cold the room is. My server room

got down to 60 degrees due to this feature. The manual does not

say how to turn this off but tech support told me I could set the

timer to be 0 hours and then the autotimer mode would be unset.

If I lose power, I'm back to the ridiculous mode of 8 hours of

continuous on -no non-volatile memory in this device. Finally,

there is no way to review your settings. If I'm in timer mode, and

switch to another mode, my timer setting of zero automatically

gets reset to 8 hours. This means that I can't put this air

conditioner on an external programmable timer because, power

cycling will reset the auto-timer. And, of course, the temperature

setting would be reset.

The manual says nothing about how to connect up the intake air and

how it is split. Turns out that the intake air gets split to the

cool conditioned air and the hot exhaust port. This means that if

the exhaust goes outside the room but the intake remains inside the

room, the room will get depressurized. If the intake and exhaust

are connected to the outside, then the room will become pressurized.

This pressurization/depressurization could be a potential health

hazard if there is a combustion source in the room. This isn't really

a big deal but it should be discussed in the manual. I currently have

it connected with intake coming from the room and exhaust (hot air)

going out.

I'm not using the window kit but the intake and exhaust hose dimensions

are incompatible with any standard duct-work. It is very close to 5"

duct but is not quite compatible with anything I can get at my local

hardware store.

There is no way to program the range of temperatures (the hysteresis)

of the thermostat.

The manual refers to a standby mode but there is no light to indicate

that the unit is in standby. I just thought it was off until I called

customer support. This is important because that is how I program the

auto-off setting of the stupid auto-timer.

The air conditioner seems to work fine when in cooling mode. I've

had it for only 3 weeks so I can't say anything about the reliability

of the device.

Because of the usability and lack of non-volatile memory, I definitely

would not purchase this device again.

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