The Best Air Conditioners For Keeping Your Cool (2023)

Summer can be one of two things. It can be hot, humid and miserable—something to endure. Or it can be something to enjoy, thanks to a cool and dry living space. Find and install the right window or portable air conditioner, and you’re a lot closer to the latter. Both types of appliances have their respective advantages and disadvantages, but the one thing they have in common is the ability to reduce the temperature and the humidity in your dwelling place, making you more comfortable.

Take a look below at quick info on the best air conditioners from our testing, then scroll down for buying advice and in-depth reviews.

The Best Air Conditioners

• Best Overall Window: LG LW1517IVSM
• Quietest: Midea MAW12V1QWT
• Easiest to Use: Amana AMAP050BW
• Energy Efficient: Haier ESAQ406T
• Great For Large Rooms: LG LW6017
• Best Overall Portable: LG LP1419IVSM
• Most Compact, Portable: Black & Decker BPACT14H
• Best Dual-Hose Air Conditioner: Whynter ARC-14S
• High-Powered Dehumidification: Haier QPCA11YBMW
• Heavy-Duty Portable: HomeLabs HME020235N

How Air Conditioning Works

High heat and high humidity cause you to feel uncomfortable because they reduce your body’s ability to release heat to its surroundings, and this causes you to sweat. And the more sweat that accumulates on your skin and is absorbed by your clothing, the more uncomfortable you feel. Reduce heat and humidity in the air (cooling and drying it), and increase air movement and the more likely you are to feel comfortable.

Selecting the Right Air Conditioner

To help you pick the right window or portable a/c, we gathered a broad range of these appliances and tested them by running them in a hot room while measuring the temperature of their discharge air and the temperature at various places in the room. We also surveyed a few appliances that we haven’t tested, looking for innovative features, sound deadening, efficiency, and cooling capacity. Where we haven’t used the appliance, we make note of that in the review.

Aside from our test results, there are five things you should consider when purchasing an air conditioner. Note that the factors that help you select the air conditioner are all inter-related. In other words, it’s unlikely that the least expensive air conditioner will be the one most built out and capable of cooling a large space. Balance these factors and the appliance’s features to select one that suits you.

1. Price

The two things that most affect the price of an air conditioner are its cooling capacity and its construction. Larger appliances with more cooling power are inherently more expensive than physically smaller air conditioners with less cooling capability. Adding substance to the air conditioner in the form of sound-deadening materials will increase its cost, as will using more substantial motors and a better-built compressor. In most cases, adding features also increases the a/c’s cost.

2. Cooling capability

The larger the space you need to cool or the more intense the heat in it (like seeps through large windows that face south or west), the more cooling capability you need. This is measured in BTU (British Thermal Units, a description of thermal energy). The more BTU a window air conditioner or a portable air conditioner can remove from a given space per unit of time, the more powerful it is. To determine the BTU of the air conditioner you need, measure the floor area (length multiplied by width) and multiply that number by 20.

3. Features

Some people prefer simple analog controls such as knobs and buttons; other people want the ability to control an air conditioner with a remote or their phone. Most air conditioners today provide a fan mode, minus the cooling provided by the cold a/c coil filled with refrigerant. However, a few also have heater and dehumidifier functions and settings that give you more control of the appliance’s operation at night (while you sleep). Multiple fan speeds and cooling settings can help you bring down a room’s temperature more quickly or fine tune the air conditioner’s operation, getting your indoor comfort only where you want it. And, in many cases, this fine tuning can also reduce your electric bill. In parts of the country where the cooling season is a long one (May through October) this can be an important consideration.

4. Energy efficiency

Generally speaking, more energy-efficient appliances are more expensive. Their cost premium is more likely to be paid back if you live somewhere with a long cooling season (again, May to October).

Buy an a/c with the highest combined energy-efficiency ratio (CEER) possible. CEER is the efficiency rating that applies to window air conditioners. (Note, this is not SEER, or the seasonal energy efficiency ratio that applies to heat pumps and central air conditioning systems.) CEER expresses the ratio of cooling capacity measured in BTUs relative to how much electricity the appliances uses to do its work; it includes the appliance’s efficiency when the compressor is energized and running and when it’s not running, in standby mode. A higher CEER number is better. Note that a few air conditioners still retain the older (but still valid) EER efficiency number. The same rule applies, a higher EER is better than a lower one.

5. Window versus portable

Air conditioners that fit in your window or that are a freestanding appliance on rollers have more in common than they have differences. All air conditioners cool by means of cycling compressed gas refrigerant between its gaseous and liquid state. This gas cycles through a coil. At one end of the coil, the refrigerant is in gaseous form and absorbs heat from the air. At the other end of the coil, the refrigerant is compressed into a hot liquid. On the coil’s cold end, air passing over the coil is cooled and discharged into the room. At the coil’s hot end, air passing over the coil is heated and blown outdoors. Between the hot end and the cold end, water vapor is condensed out of the air and drains out the bottom of the appliance to the outdoors or a fan throws it against the hot end of the coil where it’s evaporated and passed outside.

Window air conditioners are heavy, weighing anywhere from 50 to 80 pounds, and in most cases are best installed with two people lifting them in place and fastening them. Once installed, they block nearly half the view out of the window. Also, they have to be carefully installed to ensure that they stay safely put and won’t fall out of the window or allow intruders to easily enter. A window bracket is a good way to ensure a safe installation. It’s best if you remove an air conditioner in the fall, clean it, and store it indoors.

Portable air conditioners only require that you mount their discharge hose (or hoses) to the outdoors. These hoses mount to a window bracket, thus their installation is simpler than window air conditioners, and they block less of the view through the window. On the other hand, you may or may not have to empty the condensation they produce. In some cases, the condensation may simply evaporate out of the pan back into the room or be passed out of the appliance in the discharge air stream. However, in other cases, their drain pan may need to be emptied manually or you will have to rout the condensation drain hose to a floor drain. Still other people use a condensate pump to discharge water outside via a small plastic tube.

Read on to find the right air conditioner for you, whether it mounts in a window or stays in the room. The right appliance will help you stay cool and comfortable, night and day, all summer.

Window-Mounted Air Conditioners

—BEST OVERALL—

LG LW1517IVSM

Cooling area: 800 sq ft | BTU: 14,000 | CEER: 14.7 | Unit dimensions: 23.5 x 29 x 15 in. | Weight: 98 lb | Amps: 12

The test’s biggest air conditioner was this LG, a hefty slab of an appliance that uses a multi-speed compressor to control cooling. That compressor doesn’t simply run at a constant speed then cycle on and off to cool the space. Instead, it speeds up or slows down to maintain the temperature. This multi-speed and adaptable design isn’t widely used in window air conditioners, but it’s an effective means to keep the temperature steady and cut down energy use while reducing wear on the compressor. LG calls it a dual-inverter design. If you’re a light sleeper, we’d recommend you consider this LW1517IVSM or the Midea air conditioner below; both have sleep modes that scale back cooling from the initial setting, saving you money and from being woken up by the cycling.

In all other respects, this a/c is a quiet, pleasant, and effective machine, quickly ramping up to temperature and operating at a steady hum that makes it easy to forget the thing is only a few feet away. We also commend LG as the only manufacturer to include insulated panels that you can install on either side of the air conditioner to reduce energy transfer between the indoors and the outside. Finally, its Wi-Fi capability allows you to turn it on and off from your phone, cooling and dehumidifying the space before you get home.

—QUIETEST—

Midea MAW12V1Q

Cooling area: 550 sq ft | BTU: 12,000 | CEER: 15 | Unit dimensions: 9 x 21.5 x 13.5 in. | Weight: 71.8 lb | Amps: 12.8

This was the quietest air conditioner we tested. It was also the only appliance with a unique U-shape that allows you to shut the window in its center, better isolating the compressor (which is always on the outside of the appliance) from the indoor space. This design, which requires a specialized mounting bracket, makes the MAW12V1QWT more mechanically complex but also quieter. The low volume was also helped by the fact that, like the LG, this is an inverter compressor air conditioner. The compressor speed changes to suit demand, rather than simply turning on and off. What’s more, this Midea was the only a/c with an auto louver swing feature—the louvers move vertically to better distribute air in the space. Between that and its large BTU number, the MAW12V1QWT brings indoor temperatures down in a hurry. We also like the fact that its air filter is angled, providing far easier access when the front panel tips out to about 45 degrees. Making it easier to get to means that you are more likely to actually clean the filter, which means healthier air in the house.

—EASIEST TO USE—

Amana AMAP050BW

Cooling area: 150 sq ft | BTU: 5,000 | CEER: 11 | Unit dimensions: 16 x 15.5 x 12.5 in. | Weight: 39.7 lb | Amps: 3.9

This Amana is the very definition of low-cost cooling. It seemed to us as much a time machine as a cooling machine. Just looking at its two-knob simplicity and hearing it run was enough to transport us back to our first stuffy apartment and the simple little air conditioner that kept its temperature under control­, and that was more than 40 years ago. Call the little AMAP050BW a fancy version of an ice block and a fan. Turn its dial to the large snowflake setting and the dial to number seven (maximum chill and maximum fan speed). In a couple of minutes, you’ve got cold air filling the space. We detected no rattles, though can we say this is whisper-quiet cooling? No. But it’s not annoying either. If you’re a light sleeper, you might need ear plugs. Then again, you may find comfort in the steady white noise it produces, a clear indication that it’s moving heat to the outside. As for maintenance, its air filter slides out to the right, a simple and welcome feature that eases cleaning.

—ENERGY EFFICIENT—

Haier ESAQ406T

Cooling area: 250 sq ft | BTU: 6,000 | EER: 12.2 | Unit dimensions: 21.6 x 18.6 x 12.4 in. | Weight: 56 lb | Amps: 4.4

We haven’t tested this Haier yet, but it has the reputation of being one of the quietest window air conditioners on the market. But the clincher was when a family member who’s a notoriously light sleeper decided to purchase an a/c recently, this is the one he selected. He was so thrilled with it, he called us up to rave about it. As far as he’s concerned, of the many air conditioners he’s owned over the years, the ESAQ406T is the quietest. Among its noise-canceling features is an internal compressor blanket that dampens vibration and sound. From what he told us, when the compressor is running, the a/c is slightly louder than a refrigerator. Its Energy-Efficiency Rating (EER) of 12.2 can help reduce the spike in your electric bill that normally comes with running an a/c all summer.

—GREAT FOR LARGE ROOMS—

LG LW6017R

Cooling area: 260 sq ft | BTU: 6,000 | CEER: 12.2 | Unit dimensions: 14.9 x 19.4 x 12.4 in. | Weight: 49.9 lb | Amps: 6.2

Among the most promising air conditioners we haven’t tested is this appliance from LG, a 6,000-BTU window unit designed to quickly cool large spaces. Some of its many features include an energy-saver mode, a 24-hour on/off timer, a full-function remote control, three cooling settings, three fan speeds, and an auto reset that turns the unit back on once power is restored after electricity is interrupted by an outage. And when indoor air humidity is high, this air conditioner has powerful dehumidifying ability; it can remove up to 2.2 pints of moisture per hour, meaning you’ll feel cooler even without having to use lower temperature settings. That’s a fact of heating and cooling. Dry air that is comparatively warmer feels more comfortable than cooler air that is more moist.

—SMALL-ROOM COOLING—

Frigidaire FFRA051WAE

Cooling area: 150 sq ft | BTU: 5,000 | CEER: 11 | Unit dimensions: 21.6 x 18.6 x 12.4 in. | Weight: 46.5 lb | Amps: 4.5

You’ve got a small bedroom and you need some inexpensive cooling. This (untested) Frigidaire window air conditioner has got that room covered, and at a reasonable cost, too. This isn’t a fully featured window a/c, but it’s designed to get a small, hot, and stuffy space down to a comfortable temperature. The appliance has a basic two-knob design. The top knob controls the cooling setting, while the bottom knob controls fan speed in two modes: cooling and the fan without cooling. Set the top knob to the desired temperature, and the appliance’s thermostat will cycle the air conditioner on and off to keep the temperature within range. Set the fan speed to High or Low so the output (fan only or cooling) feels comfortable. If you want to schedule its output, you’ll need to run the FFRA051WAE off of a timer, since this basic appliance has no smart functionality to communicate with your phone or another device.

Portable Air Conditioners

—BEST OVERALL—

LG LP1419IVSM

Cooling area: 500 sq ft | BTU: 14,000 | CEER: Unlisted | Weight: 79 lb | Hose length, fully extended: 57 in. | Condensate removed: 10 tbsp

LG’s portable air conditioner is a powerful appliance. We set the temperature and fan speed and, before we could even return to our notes, it was blowing ice cold air. And the automatic movement of the discharge louvers ensured even temperature distribution at the target. Also, it held its temperature well; that’s important for your comfort. Given those features and the appliance’s large BTU number, the LP1419IVSM is well suited for large apartments or office areas that might need extra cooling capacity due to hot-running digital equipment. In terms of maintenance, the LG is very easygoing. Two grills cover its twin air filters, and neither requires tools for removal. The top grill is particularly well designed and easy to lift off.

—MOST COMPACT—

Black & Decker BPACT14H

Cooling area: 350 sq ft | BTU: 14,000 | CEER: Unlisted | Weight: 68.3 lb | Hose length, fully extended: 57 in. | Condensate removed: Produced no measurable condensate

This Black & Decker portable air conditioner is best suited to small-room cooling, perhaps even supplementing a central-air system in a tall condominium or townhouse that has an uncomfortably warm upstairs room. We liked its air distribution. You manually set the output louver vertical direction to adjust the appliance’s throw (HVAC lingo for how far the air conditioner pushes the air), but behind those louvers is an oscillating louver that moves automatically left to right. The result is smooth, clean, cold air softly delivered over a broad area. For additional four-season versatility, the appliance also functions as a heat pump and a dehumidifier, for when the emphasis is neither on cooling nor heating but removing moisture vapor from the air.

The portable a/c’s maintenance looks pretty easy to us. The owner’s manual says that you’ll need to drain condensate only under extreme conditions. We can concur, as we found no condensate in our test. Grill removal was not as simple as the other portable air conditioners, but it’s still pretty good. The top grill comes out without you needing a tool; the side grill is held by two thread-forming screws for plastic. The third filter slides out. Three filters, two screws. That’s a pretty good score in our book.

—BEST DUAL-HOSE AIR CONDITIONER—

Whynter ARC-14S

Cooling area: 500 sq. ft. | BTU: 9,500 | CEER: Unlisted | Weight: 73 lb | Hose length, fully extended: Not measured | Condensate removed: Not tested

We haven’t tested this a/c yet, but our colleagues at Good Housekeeping highly recommend it. The Whynter’s amperage and BTU capacity position it firmly in the heavy-duty cooling category (and the heavy category; this portable air conditioner weighs 80 pounds). It’s a dual-hose (intake and exhaust) model, which, theoretically, should reduce the amount of condensate that it collects, since it’s supposed to be removed in the exhaust air stream. A similar model (ARC-14SH) also operates in heat pump/heater mode.

—HIGH-POWERED DEHUMIDIFICATION—

Haier QPCA11YBMW

Cooling area: 450 sq ft | BTU: 11,000 | EER: 7.2 | Weight: 52 lb | Hose length, fully extended: Not measured | Condensate removed: Not tested

If you’ve got a larger space to cool, and especially to dehumidify, this (untested) portable air conditioner from Haier is worth a look. Its BTU rating is impressive for an appliance of this size and weight. But even more impressive is its rated moisture removal—90 pints per day—owing to a separate dehumidification setting. The manufacturer says that, in most cases, the QPCA11YBMW evaporates the condensation into the exhaust air, so you don’t have to empty the condensate tray. Note that it specifies under “most conditions.” Our advice would be to plan on emptying the pan if conditions are really soggy.

—HEAVY-DUTY COOLING—

HomeLabs HME020235N

Cooling area: 600 sq ft | BTU: 14,000 | EER: 7.2 | Weight: 72 lb | Hose length, fully extended: Not measured | Condensate removed: Not tested

Big cooling needs requires a big air conditioner. And with the ability to cool up to 600 square feet, this big appliance, which we haven’t tested yet, should have you covered. It can cool in Auto mode (the thermostat runs the cooling cycle), or you can manually adjust the settings, either by hand or with the remote. It can also operate just the fan or in dehumidification mode to dry out a damp area like a basement or to help bring down the clammy feeling in a room on a rainy day. We like its LED that lights up alerting you to the need to clean its washable air filter. As to its portability, we haven’t tried rolling it around, but it does have two large recessed handles—something many other portable air conditioners noticeably lack. When you have to move an appliance that weighs 72 pounds, handles can make a big difference.