Sharp CV-P10MX Portable Air Conditioner 9,500 BTU - White Review
Sharp CV-P10MX Portable Air Conditioner 9,500 BTU – White Review from J H Murphy Hank Murphy. Recommended With Some Installation Tips, I won’t repeat the comments in the other reviews, which are generally accurate. If you want a portable air conditioner, well, you must make some compromises. I first used portable air conditioners professionally about twenty years ago, so I was aware that they had ducting requirements. If those are a problem for you, look for another solution.
As background, our 16-year-old central air conditioner had a relay fail, and my wife was ill, so I needed to provide some heat relief fast. We live in a condominium and a window unit – the cheapest solution – was not allowed. I installed this in a couple of hours at night and it has been a blessed relief.
I found that there are a couple of installation tips which may make your life easier. Every situation is different, these worked for me, but you should assess whether these will be useful in your particular circumstances.
1. Duct tape is your friend. Don’t scoff – the purpose of duct tape is to seal air conditioning ducts, and guess what, that’s what we are doing here. Rather than drill into your window frame to mount the duct opening and cover, duct tape will hold it and seal. Since ours is a temporary installation, this is fine. You may find it useful to fasten the window duct apparatus with duct tape for a week or two, until you decide exactly where you want the product permanently, then go through the drilling later when you are sure of the location.
2. Our window was an aluminum-framed horizontal slider. The instructions call for a security mount by screwing an L-shaped bracket to the sash and window frame. This is a BAD IDEA, since this makes it impossible to use the window for a fire exit. A 1×2 cut to the right length will secure the window, and can be removed easily in an emergency. Use our friend Mr. Duct Tape to secure the duct cover to the sliding window. Leave a utility knife handy to cut the duct tape just in case. In any event, for a high-crime area, consider the security impact of a partially-open window.
3. The plastic window opening cover/duct outlet comprises five pieces: two flat plates, a sliding connector to hold them together, a snap-in duct mount/insect guard, and an internal sliding piece to cover the duct opening when the duct mount is removed. For horizontal sliding windows, lose the internal sliding piece, which is always sliding down during the installation. This will make sense when you actually see the unit.
4. As designed, the snap-in duct mount was too long to fit inside our existing screen. I didn’t want to remove the screen, which helped to conceal the duct, so I didn’t use that, instead relying on our friend Mr. Duct Tape once more.
5. For horizontal sliding windows, this unit will work best with vertical blinds.
6. Make certain nothing leans on or obstructs the hose between the air conditioner itself and the window. Items leaning on the hose may destroy all your painstaking duct tape handiwork.
The unit draws in air from the room being cooled. Some of this is chilled and returned to the room, and some is used in the heat exchanger portion of the air conditioner and exhausted outside. You will need to draw air into the room being cooled. This was not an issue for us.
We are pleased with the unit, and found it more than ample for a roughly 250 square foot room. Highly recommended, just be aware that the exhaust installation is a bit fiddly. Don’t forget the duct tape!
You may also want to read Veriton X270 E7300 160GB HD 2G from hashlog.com site.
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2 Responses to “Sharp CV-P10MX Portable Air Conditioner 9,500 BTU – White | J H Murphy Hank Murphy’s Review”
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Great article! One thing that’s worth pointing out though is that duct tape is adequate for a temporary installation, but if in more permanent applications it actually breaks down rather easily, causing leaks and loss of efficiency. Source: http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/myths/duct_tape.html
One of my favorite tricks with a temporary installation (be it a portable a/c or a window unit is to use weather stripping around the unit at all points where the unit meets your window and where the flaps meet the sides of your window frame. Good weather stripping is cheap, easy to apply (some are even magnetic!) and can be found at any hardware store. As an added benefit, it will also reduce vibration too!
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