I Tested This Portable Air Conditioner in My Stuffy Upstairs Bedroom and Felt a Difference in 3 Minutes

Our 70-year-old home has wonky ventilation that makes our upstairs bedroom feel like a sauna every summer. A friend who lives two doors down in the same split-level layout recently spent big money to get a more powerful air conditioning system that fixed the problem at his place. We’ll eventually go that route, too, but I found a great solution in the meantime that costs $500 at Amazon.

The Dreo 14,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner cut the room’s humidity and temperature in minutes. My son summed it up best when he said the unit makes it feel like you’re sleeping inside a refrigerator.

Dreo 14,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner

On our first night using the unit, I broke out a room thermometer with a built-in hygrometer to see the effect the portable air conditioner had. The thermometer initially read that the air in our room was 82.9 degrees Fahrenheit and 50 percent humidity (this was during the Midwest’s July heat dome).

After turning the unit on at the medium setting, the humidity was cut to 45 percent in just three minutes. That doesn’t sound like much, but trust me when I say it was noticeable. After 10 minutes, the temperature had dropped to 79 degrees and ended up at 75 after an hour. We switched to the high setting overnight and didn’t need either of the two bedroom fans we typically have blasting while we sleep.

The air conditioner weighs about 70 pounds, so you might want help hauling it up a staircase, but once it’s down, it moves around easily on swiveling wheels. Like all portable air conditioners, this one needs to be set up near a window so it can vent the room’s hot air outside. Dreo includes a universal installation kit made to fit windows with openings from 18 to 53 inches wide, using expandable brackets and weather-stripping foam that helps you get an airtight seal.

It took me about 90 minutes to set up. That included moving it to a different window after I realized the initial spot didn’t have quite enough room for the required 20 inches of space the unit needs on all sides. The exhaust hose extends to 5 feet in length and has a sturdy feel to it even when you’ve got it curved in sections. While it is technically portable, I’d recommend keeping it in one spot because moving the window ventilation system is a hassle.

The model I’ve been testing is Dreo’s 14,000 BTU unit, the most powerful in the brand’s collection. It’s rated to cool a space of up to 450 square feet, which is roughly the size of a studio or one-bedroom apartment. It has kept our bedroom more comfortable than ever, but we haven’t noticed the effects as much in the other rooms on the same floor.

Due to the machine’s significant power output, the brand advises against using it on the same circuit as other energy-hungry appliances. Despite making our bedroom light flicker for a second every time we turn it on, the air conditioner only tripped the breaker once during my tests — when my wife used her hair dryer in the upstairs bathroom while it was running. We’ve used it while watching TV and charging electronics on the same circuit with no issues.

I haven’t seen our power bill from the testing period, but we’ve been turning our central cooling system to a much higher temperature overnight since we started using it, so I don’t imagine it will have a negative effect overall. If you’ve got a large room that gets uncomfortably warm during summer, give this Dreo Portable Air Conditioner a try — it made an instant difference in our house.

I’ve also tried numerous fans in my years as a shopping writer and general hot sleeper, and I dropped a few of my favorite models below. The Woozoo fan is ideal for a bedside table; put the Shark TurboBlade at the foot of your bed and it will cover the entire thing in a blanket of cool air; and the Lasko Misto is unbeatable when you’re doing work outdoors on the hottest days.

Iris USA Woozoo Air Circulator Fan

Shark TurboBlade Fan

Lasko Misto Outdoor Misting Tower Fan