TCL - 300 Sq. Ft. 7,000 BTU 3-in-1 Smart Portable Air Conditioner - White

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The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products or points for an honest, helpful review.

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Easy Install, Effective Cooling, Not So Smart

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 1000 Contributor
  • My Best Buy Premier Silver Review

  I acquired the TCL 7000 BTU Smart Portable Air Conditioner, Fan & Dehumidifier for use in my two car garage. It gets pretty hot in there in the summer and I like to workout in the garage. So I was thinking that this 7250 BTU unit should do the trick nicely. I wasn't prepared for it to be intended for in-window installation as I don't have a window in my garage. So it took me some time to make a cutout and install a piece of duct and a louvred exhaust to vent the hot air. I first tested it in my office and it did fantastic at reducing the temp in the room. There are multiple windows in this room and a gaming PC, so it can get toasty. It very quickly dropped the temp in the room. I got the exhaust put in my garage and got it all connected. Within a few mins it was already dropping the temp in the garage and was making a noticeable difference in comfort level. I'm going to have to jerry-rig a bucket to drain the condenser into. If your primary intent is to cool a room of appropriate size, in this case 300 sq ft or less, then this device will do great. Where it fell just a single star short for me was with the smart features. The app was pretty much garbage. And it took me multiple attempts to get it connected. Every time I started the add device process it would kick open Google Home and attempt to add Matter in there, but then fail to complete the add process. This has to be a bug. Not sure why it wasn't working. I would prefer it work in Google Home because everything in my home uses Google Home. I did however finally get it working in their smart living app and it was pretty basic functionality. I had to cancel out of the attempted google home connect and switch back to their smart living app. After several failed attempts to connect (claiming bad password) it finally connected. Again there was nothing exciting about the app. So I will likely be using the remote more than anything. I will very likely uninstall the smart living app, as I don't want to have to try and deal with yet another smart home ecosystem. Everything you could do with the remote, could be done in the app. So not a lot of value there unless you could get it talking to Alexa or Google Home for voice control. Overall, I am pretty pleased with this unit. It cools quickly, looks nice, and was relatively easy to install. I would recommend to anyone needing a quick and dirty AC unit.

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  Posted 3 weeks ago by GrizzlyD

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  An excellent portable Air Conditioner

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • My Best Buy Premier Silver Review

  TCL 7000 BTU Smart Portable Air Conditioner First impression: My first impression of the TCL 7000 BTU Smart Portable Air Conditioner is that it is an attractive, well-made portable air conditioner. The plastics seem strong, and the wheels roll really easy across carpets and tiles. The automatic vent operates smoothly and seems tight. And the buttons feel firm. The remote is a good size and simple to use. The buttons are clear and easy to determine the function of each one. What’s in the Box: • Air Conditioner • Window Install Kit • Drain Hose • User Manual • Remote Control • 2 Batteries Features: • 3-in-1 AC, Fan, and Dehumidifier • Powerful 7,000 BTU cooling capacity with multiple fan speeds • Smart features allow you to control your unit with the intuitive TCL Home App* or simple voice commands with Alexa and Google Assistant • Cools rooms up to 300 sq. ft. • It has a Dehumidifier mode. • Sets up in minutes with simple in-app instructions (installation kit included) • Glides from room to room with the handles and wheels • Keep your energy bill low with Sleep mode and the 24-Hour Timer • Designed to restart automatically after a power outage with Auto Restart • Includes a washable and reusable filter • Window Compatibility: Vertical sliding and horizontal sliding windows (no casement windows) with up to a 59-inch opening clearance. Technical Specifications: • Name: H7P38W • A/C Cooling Rate (BTU/hr): 7,000 BTU SACC • A/C Coverage Area (sq. ft.): 300 • Product Size (WxDxH): 15.30" x 24.80" x 14.00" • Product Weight: 49.30 lbs Setup: I have set up quite a few of these, and they are all very similar. Set up on the TCL 7000 BTU Smart Portable Air Conditioner follows right along with them. The biggest difference between the portable air conditioners that I see is the window kit. The TCL has a very sturdy hose. That’s good, because that means it will do a much better job staying attached to the hose inlet and outlet adapters. And the Window slider kit is just as rugged as their commercial counterparts, yet is longer than the last one I used, easily fitting a wider window. After verifying that the drain caps are in place and the window kit was in place, the unit is ready to be used. At this point, you can use the remote and/or pair the air conditioner with the app. App: Getting the App set up was a bit of a challenge. TCL’s website says to use the TCL Home App. It even includes instructions with screenshots showing the TCL Home App. I tried using the TCL Home App but was unable to get the device to connect with the Air Conditioner. Then I looked in the User Manual and it said to do a search for “Smart Life – Smart Living.” I found that app and installed it. While I was going through the app, it found the air conditioner and allowed me to install it. The app is very basic, but I like that. When controlling a portable air conditioner, I don’t need all the features I have in my home air conditioner. It controls the power, temperature and fan speed, allows you to change modes, and sets a timer. It has a clean interface and responds instantly. And unlike the TCL Home app which only runs on 2.4 GHz, this app runs on both 2.4 and 5 GHz. Performance: My test started in the Master Bedroom. We turned off our home A/C and let the room warm up to 80°. We closed the door, and within 15 minutes it was comfortable, and at 30 minutes it cooled down to 70°. This air conditioner moved a lot of air for a smaller unit. Then I set the unit to 64°, the lowest temperature it can cool handle. In a short period of time, it got the room down to 64°. Next, we put it in our living room. This area is about 600 sq. ft., twice the size of TCL’s max coverage area. Running on high for 20 minutes dropped the room’s temperature by 1°. This is not a sealed room; it opens into the kitchen on one side and the stairwell on the other. But it was still able to lower the temp, even if only 1°. And while running on high, I could feel the air flow farther away than on some larger units I have used in the past. All of this is way above and beyond the published technical specifications of the TCL H7P38W. I didn’t expect it to budge the temperature, but I was pleasantly surprised. Conclusion: I have used quite a lot of portable air conditioners, from units smaller than this one to commercial units twice as large. Along the way, you get an idea of how a unit will perform before turning it on. But the TCL 7000 BTU Smart Portable Air Conditioner is punching above its weight. It is far more powerful than what I expected from a unit this size. It has amazing cooling, amazing features, a very nice remote, and has built-in Wi-Fi so you can use an app and not have to be close to it. I don’t think there is a better portable air conditioner for the price. Despite the problem I had with the contradictions in the manuals for which app to use. I rate the TCL 7000 BTU Smart Portable Air Conditioner as 5 out of 5. I highly recommend this unit.

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  Posted 2 weeks ago by KB4MTO

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  This AC makes a hot room with a WHEW! so Cooool...

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  The TCL Portable Room Air Condition is a wonderful addition to our home's central AC! How so, you may be wondering? We live in a bit of a valley, as such it can get 30 to 40 degrees HOTTER than the coastal areas and our home just happens to face the West. During the hottest time of day the sun bakes us. The last couple of months have seen low temps in the high 30s to the mid 60s so there hasn't been any real need for the AC to be on but...This week temperatures rose into the mid 80s and we just happen to have a room upstairs that despite having 2 AC vents and tinted windows and dark drapes (the highest temp we have reached in our area is 120 degrees F!!) that room cooks and is a miserable place to try and sleep, especially in the daytime when our son who works evenings is trying to sleep! When we installed the TCL Portable AC in his room, it was 85 degrees outside and 93 in his room. We did not turn on the Central AC during this modest but very real world test of the Unit. Within an hour in this 10 X 12 room with the AC set to cool down to 65 degrees, the temperature had dropped to 73 (and dropped even more later) degrees! This is FANTASTIC real world results and I cannot express how thrilled we are with these results! Within the next 2 or so months we will install it for a weekend day in our garage as this is the location of our workbench and weight room. Nothing saps the strength from a workout like 100+ degree afternoon temperatures so my son, my son-in-law and I are looking forward to this experiment. It is nowhere near that temperature now so there is no real word results to be gained by testing it in there at this moment in time. The TCL Portable AC is very easy to install in our horizontally opening windows and setup took mere minutes to accomplish, even for someone like me, a senior with a physical handicap. However the caveat is that I needed my son to carry the unit upstairs for me as that would prove too much for me to do alone and he did so by himself quite easily! Having said all that I can honestly state without reservation that this Air Condition is highly recommended by me and my family. I can also state that if it cools our garage weight training area in the next couple of months I will be ordering another one from Best Buy to install in there permanently. But given the far greater square footage of our 3 car garage that may not be possible but that does NOT mean this unit does not deserve your attention. It works great in a mid-sized bedroom and we are talking a room that is literally hot enough in the summer months to never cool down enough via our homes Central AC. I am more than satisfied with this wonderful portable AC from TCL and Best Buy and I think if your situation is like ours, you will be too.

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  Posted 1 month ago by SSSS