Gasbye CoolPrime 10000 Dual Hose Portable Air Conditioner

This portable AC is a life saver! We live in south Florida and I swear every summer gets hotter. Our AC cannot keep up and the temperature in the house ends up around 84 degrees. I bought this portable AC to see if it could at least help our house stay somewhat cooler. I went through every portable AC sold on amazon, walmart and sams club. This was the largest unit I could find and figure that the dual hosing would be helpful. We put it in our living room. Our house has a completely open concept with the living room, dining room and kitchen in one large space. We also have a sloped ceiling so the space is very large. We have had this product for about a month and this thing is a beast! I do have to turn it on its "turbo mode" but it keeps the temperature in the living room at 73 degrees when working with our regular central AC. It has a very strong flow of air that comes out of it. The company stands behind their product for 3 years, which in my eyes tells me that this is a durable product. We needed extra window fitting, because our window is very long, and the company responded very quickly and send the needed parts within 5 days. No brainer, get the AC!

Quick and easy to set up, clear instructions, sleek design, and surprisingly quiet.The control panel is great. It allows for a lot of features without being complicated. Switching from turbo mode to inverter mode for instance is simple and obvious, and each has its advantages: turbo for power, inverter for quietness and efficiency.The dual-hose design is the only way to go. Effectively cools without creating a low pressure zone that sucks in air from outside.The manual is clear and straightforward. It is easy to read and not loaded with boring text.I did a lot of research before purchasing this unit, and for portable air conditioners, this really seems to be the best one for your money. I would not buy any AC unit without both an inverter and a dual-hose design.

This is, so far, an excellent unit. With some major caveats.

I am, sadly, a bit of a portable A/C connoisseur, having dealt with many different brands of nominal 14,000 BTU portable A/Cs over the past 4 years. I can confidently say that, in the Inverter mode, this is the quietest I've come across, and it isn't even remotely close. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the unit is whisper-quiet with a near-perfectly consistent white noise pitch when in the inverter operation. I cannot over-emphasize how quiet it is while still producing a nice stream of cold air in this mode. It also produced nearly no excess water (much more on this later) in this mode in my environment, making drainage unnecessary.

The inverter mode, however, is not going to be nearly powerful enough for some people. That may not be a problem, though, because the "Turbo" regular mode has extraordinary cooling power. As compared with other units on the market... This Gasbye has significantly more real-world cooling power than the popular and well-regarded duel hose 14,000 BTU Whytner model; and maybe 3 or 4 fold (truly) the real-world cooling power of the 1 hose14,000 BTU Della model. The 14,000 BTU Humhold (also sold under multiple other brand names) seems to produce a similar force of similarly cold air. However, the 2024 version of that unit sold under the Domanki brand name had serious longevity issues. Additionally, that is a 1 hose unit, making the real room-cooling effectiveness of the Humhold slightly less than of this Gasbye unit due to the negative pressure a 1 hose model creates, pulling outside air in through walls, windows, door frames, and other crevices. This Gasbye unit also has FAR more cooling power than both a 12,000 BTU Amana unit and a 12,000 BTU Haier unit I have used over the past 4 years.

So, what are the caveats? As I said, the inverter mode will not be powerful enough for some applications. And the full-throttle "Turbo" mode which is so awesome at cooling also produces an immense amount of water by-product. During continuous running, without cycling off, in +/- 75% relative humidity outdoors, in a large room in a well-sealed apartment, this consistently produced more than 20oz/hour (0.6L/hour) of water. If you're planning on using this unit continuously at maximum, you will, most likely, want to rig up some form of continuous drainage. Of course, many people will be using this unit somewhere in between the two extremes; but you should be aware this produces more water than any other portable A/C I've recently encountered.

When in the full-blast "Turbo" mode, this unit is also no less noisy than the other units I've mentioned. Not more noisy, just not less.

Finally, I want to mention something about the hose design. The outside air intake hose does not have a screen. This won't be a problem for some people, but for some people not installing this behind a window screen you will need to create a screen of your own to prevent tiny insects from flying into the unit. This is an easy enough do-it-at-home fix. But be aware this issue exists.

Customer service is excellent and responsive. They reached out to ask how I liked the unit and, as promised, responded in less than 12 hours when I asked about the availability of a screen for the intake hose. The unit also comes with a 3 year, rather than 1 year, warranty, which is basically unheard of for a portable A/C.

Overall, my first few weeks suggest this is an excellent unit with some caveats. For most (but not necessarily all) use cases, this is probably worth the price premium over less expensive models; and preferable to similarly priced units, as well.

Perhaps the best thing to say about these folks is that they are super responsive to support inquiries. Before I set the system up, I posed a couple of questions to their support line and received a response in less than 12 hours. Amy's answers were helpful insofar as validating my notions about the system. So, if there are any negatives, they are connected to the window panels, air seals, and hoses. After reading (too darn) many reviews on this and other products, I determined to approach the window panels with a solution of my own. Here goes:

1. Having read a few complaints about the sticky nature of the provided sealing elements, I decided to buy 3/4 inch pipe insulation (closed cell foam) and slip it over the edge of the window brackets. The corners were not perfect, but they were easy enough to seal with some 'cut offs.' This works well and proved quite effective when a cool front blew through last night and dumped hours of moderate rainfall.

2. I bought some "Reflectix" bubble insulation (from the big blue hardware store) to wrap the exhaust hose and it made a huge impact on keeping the heat going where it is supposed to: OUT side!

3. I also placed triple-wraps of the insulation on the outside face of the window brackets to afford a degree of insulation which the brackets are incapable of doing. I used metal foil tape to secure the bubble insulation to the foam pipe insulation. Works like a champ.

4. I cut a segment of the window bracket to create a shield that isolates the hot air discharge from the intake hose. I might cut a longer piece, but for now this seems sufficient. (You can see it in the included photos.)

5. On a pre-installation recommendation, I installed a screen on the intake only; this to avoid potential over heating issues. I also figured I'd get better performance using a domed screen, for which a 6" plastic kitchen strainer proved ideal. I didn't have to modify the strainer frame at all: The fit was 'a natural.'

6. In attempting to limit my investment in this project, I placed a small extant step stool inside a washing machine 'leak tray.' I had a piece of scrap 3/4 inch melamine covered MDO to furnish support (the castors are wider apart than the foot stool), but that was a bit too smooth and the unit could be pushed around too easily. After checking with Gasbye support, they said I could use the foam crate the unit shipped in to provide a slide/roll resistant base.

7. The photos will show that this worked out very well, allowing minimal hose runs, required side clearances (18 inches all around), and sufficient elevation of the bottom water drain to place a small pail or a pot (should that prove necessary) beneath it.

8. The remote works very well as I can adjust operating mode and temperature from over 30 ft away.

9. Performance: I'm going to say, "the jury is still out." I have this installed in an upstairs space that the central air unit is not capable of cooling (without freezing out the downstairs part of the zone). It's a very poor design. I had two days in the mid-90s to test it; if running in the normal Cool mode, it seemed to hold its own. Being efficiency minded, I ran the unit in Inverter mode and found it maintained too low a fan speed to effectively cool my long narrow room (14 ft x 38 ft). The quick cure was to turn on two ceiling fans, which distributed the cool air more than effectively, but that's more energy. It will require more hot days and more practical testing to figure out the best way to operate this unit, but there is no doubt it makes my space usable during hot summer months in central Virginia.

As noted, I've only been in operation for a couple of days, but all seems to be going along well for now. I'll post back when the cooling season is over or maybe after next summer to report on longer term performance. Oh: Value for the money? It's cheaper than the $7-8,000 I was quoted to install a mini-split as a third zone.

P.S. If you employ my solution to sealing the window panel, I've included a picture of the tools that proved handy.

This Air conditioner is amazing. Runs efficiently and quiet, especially in inverter mode. It cools our 800 square foot condo nicely and the unit is build well and very stylish. Works much better than our last 14000 btu Whynter unit. Customer service is also great!