Midea 8,000 BTU U Shaped Smart Inverter Window Air Conditioner, Cools up to 350 Sq. Ft., Ultra Quiet with Open Window Flexibility, Works with Alexa/Google Assistant, 35% Energy Savings, Remote Control

Heard all the great reports about mini split AC units. And stumbled across these "mini" Mini Split units set up as window A/C. We bought 1 of these as a test, and put it out in our enclosed sun room, which we could never cool down with a conventional window AC. It has performed great!The 8,000 BTU unit only draws about 9 amps max, so you can plug it into regular 15 amp outlet. (as long as you don't have something else big on same circuit). We have a breaker box Energy Monitoring system, and watched the power consumption for a few days. Ours never draws more than 5-6 amps (only when it's first turned on).The unit will slowly decrease power usage as the room cools down. I just looked, and it's only drawing 2 amps now.Our Central AC is 13 years old, and runs constantly in the Florida heat.(we need more insulation, but that's another project)We researched going to ductless mini split unit with 5 indoor units, but they were as expensive as the Central AC quotes we got.So, rather than replace it, we decided to keep installing these units to be able to tame the summer electric bills.2 months later, we have 5 of these units installed, and have turned off our Central A/C unit in August heat!Checked on the Power company website, and we have lowered our electric usage 31%.AND the savings allows us to lower the thermostat another degree so the house is cooler.The another plus is you now have control of what areas your are cooling (just like Ductless mini Splits).We only run the bedroom units at night, and main house units during the day, so we are not having to cool empty areas of house. (more $ savings).Only (slight) Cons are1. The outside drip hole is located on the underside (in the middle), so pay attention to where drip water is gonna land. (Hope Midea changes this on future models). We bought AC drip pans to control where the drip lands.2. When you finish installing AC & supplied window bracket, there is a gap between AC and bracket,but supplied foam, and a tube of window caulk has cured that.3. No heat - I hope that Midea will install reverse heat pump valve on future units.We're gonna have to turn Central AC/Heat unit back on when winter gets here.4. They sell out quickly. We had to wait a month for 1st one to arrive.When the new shipments come in, you can get usually get one in few days.Also, your ceiling fans, and floor fans can interfere this unit's cooling ability. We have one in living room blowing into kitchen and noticed the kitchen was hot. Found out living room ceiling fan was pushing down the cool air, and not allowing it to get into kitchen. Guess this is true for any wall unit.Oh, and by the way.... "eco mode" with both fan & cooling set to "auto" seems to be the most energy saving.In Eco mode the unit will auto change fan speeds, and turn on/off as necessary to keep room at desired temp.Just ordered 3 more units for my Mom's house. Will be here in 4 days.----------------------------- 9/22/20 Follow-up ----------------------------------------------We just got our first full month electric bill running our whole house on Five of the 8,000 btu units.Total $ saving is now 40%. Mom's house first partial month bill showed a 27% savings. We've only installed 3 in her house so far. (2 bedrooms & living room/kitchen)Have now completed the 8th install of this unit. (We are only installing 8,000 btu units due to small room sizes)Still believe this unit is the future of cooling, and so happy we took a chance, and bought the first one.I will say that yes, we have had a couple of units (#2 & #7) show up with signs of rough handling, but even those units worked just fine. I decided I didn't want to go through the time delay of re-boxing and returning the ones with a dent in the cover, and kept those two as well.Out of the Eight Midea 8k units we have bought, most of them make a soft clicking or knocking sound for a few minutes when you first turn them on. The soft knocking sound always goes away after a few minutes.After seeing the way the delivery drivers handled them, I decided that when I received unit #3, I would start doing a "soft startup" by turning it on for about a minute or two then turn off, and wait a couple of minutes, then repeat, I remembered reading somewhere that compressors have oil in them, so maybe it needs to get distributed through the system. Out of the 8 units received, I have found the shipping boxes on my front porch sitting upside down, on the side, and on the ends.I decided to always let the new unit sit overnight (in upright position) to allow the coolant and stuff to settle back down in the compressor before turning it on. No idea if it made a difference, but I now have 8 for 8 running just fine.I occasionally hear a "thump or knock", but its seems to be when the compressor turns off.I am used to hearing the same kinda thump from my old (much louder) window A/C that I had in my office.The inside unit being so quiet must lets some of the machinery noises get through.As for the crickets, yup they all make the sound. I think it's the way this new technology works. You will notice the cricket sound slows down as the room cools down, so I guess it's the compressor rotary pump sound or something. We have 4 units installed in bedrooms, and after a few days most of family don't even notice the cricket sound anymore. When I do notice it from time to time I just smile and say it the sound of me saving money. I'm thinking if your sensitive to high frequency sounds, you may want to look at ways to deaden the sound coming from the outside unit through the glass by adding R3 insulation panel or try installing the AC in a window that puts the left side of unit (if looking at front on AC) away from where you will be sitting/sleeping. This will put the compressor on opposite side of you. We can tell a difference on the units where the compressor is away from where people are.We have tried to install all of the units so they blow toward the room doorways to cool hallways and bathrooms.If you are installing one in a small bedroom you may want to monitor the humidity.Our only "problem child" install is the smallest bedroom. It only measures 10ft x 11ft (110 sqft).This family member keeps their unit set to 73 degrees and the door closed all the time.I remember when we were researching installing a full blown mini split unit, there were warnings about not oversizing the units because they would not run often enough to remove the moisture from the room air.We noticed this room has a 67% humidity in the morning after running all night with the door closed.We first started running the unit in "dry mode" for a hour to get the humidity back down to 45-55%, but decided to take a cheaper approach, and just open the door with the ceiling fan on. This seems to help. Still tinkering with this one.Be sure to measure your window twice, and make sure your window opens approximately 14 inches high so you can get the unit in opening. We had one window that did not open high enough, and had to get a window guy to partial take apart the window until we got the A/C through the hole.Lastly, Definitely a 2 person job. The install can be kinda tuff (balancing the Midea support frame out the window while you adjust the legs, and put the A/C on it . You may want to get a friend, neighbor or relative to help you install it.Make very sure it is leveled the way the install video shows to keep the drip water flowing the right direction to outside unit.------------------------------6/15/22 follow up ------------------------Wow, almost 2 years!1st 8k BTU unit was installed 7/17/20, bought rest of the 8k herd over the next 2 months in 2020.Still have not turned the main central AC back on since 2020.Actually put a cover over the outside unit to keep the leaves out.This week has been very hot, but our five 8k units keep us cool!In the winter we use 5 oil heaters in the same rooms as AC units. (small house)Our electric bills 2 years ago were $300+ peaking to almost $400 in Florida August heat.We now see average bills around $150.Some suggestions...- Clean the filter and front cover when the filter lite turns on.I clean the filter in the kitchen sink running water through the filter 1st, then soap up my hands with dish soap and put the filter between my hands like I am washing my hands, but actually soaping up filter.Then run clean water through the filter to flush soap. I put out 4 paper towels on counter top prior to starting, and then put the clean wet filter on top of the paper towels and use another couple of paper towels to pat dry the filter.I clean the front cover with the wet paper towels.- Resist the temptation to clean the cooling coil, the little foil fins bend even when paper towel brushes against them. I have use a vacuum a few times. I use the nozzle with no brush. Just vacuum the dust as best as you can without touching the coil with the nozzle.- The outside portion of the units are my only complaint. Controlling the drip water is a challenge.I have wooden window frames, and didn't want them to get water damage. We went with the drip pan that fits under AC units and capture the drip water, and funnels the water into a drain hose.Did not find one made for this Midea U-shaped unit. Just measure unit and browsed for one that was approximately same size. I had to drills holes in it, and tie wrap it under the Midea support frame.Also had to cut out space for window support frame legs. "Yea, I know. But it worked"- The outside section keeps a little pool of drip water. For cooling the coil I guess.Well, mosquitoes like it a lot.Had a really big batch of mosquitoes after I started installing these units, and found it was that pool of water in the outside half that they were breeding in!Mosquito Dunks and Bits solved it, but they can be messy too. Had to get creative with straws and a thin hose hooked to a wet/dry vacuum to clean as best as possible. I am debating on trying strips of screen covering the air vents to keep the mosquitoes and leaves out, but would have to be cautious of screen getting clogged and blocking air flow.- A significant r for whether you love or hate this unit is avoiding buying a unit too big for your room size. Especially if you live in a humid area.I live in Florida, its very humid.I was lucky to stumble across an article on Florida Mini Split installation issues, that talked about issues with controlling humidity for comfort, and to some degree black mold.The article talked about keeping you room humidity in the 50's for best comfort and moisture.The article mentioned a common AC install issue is having a unit that exceeds the recommended room size. This AC being too large will cause it to cool down the room quickly, but more importantly the AC fan will not run for sufficient amounts of time to remove the moisture from the room air. I can speak from experience, room humidity in the 60's will feel muggy.If I go to bed at night with bedroom at 53% humidity, and leave the door shut with Midea 8k running all night at 76 degrees, by morning that room will still be 76 degrees, but the humidity will be in the mid 60's, and the room will feel warm and muggy.The great thing is that these units have built in de-humidifiers!Just put the unit in dry mode for 30-40 minutes and it will lower the humidity level.(yes, you will have to do this periodically).As I have mentioned, I have 5 of these Midea 8k BTU AC's through my house, so I tend to have areas that are prone to having higher humidity levels when I run that AC. Also, I have AC units that seem to do a better job of lowering the humidity in "Dry Mode" for an area of the house. Some of the articles suggest installing the AC so that it's fan air is pointed across the room towards a room opening, or doorway. This pointing the AC air towards another area seems to help with humidity.I had a small bed room that we put a 8k BTU unit in, but picked the window that only blew the air towards a blank wall. This bedroom was our biggest issue with excess humidity in the high 60's.I never was able improve the high humidity by leaving door open, or adjusting the settings on the AC.I finally read the article about fan air direction, and moved that AC to another window in the same bedroom, but this window points toward the bedroom door.Now, this room's overnight humidity will only be in lower 60's versus high 60's when the door is open.So room placement does seem to make a difference in performance.I will summarize by saying these Midea U-shape units are the future of AC, and these are the 1st, so as technology improves, so will these Inverter AC units.Yea, I clean and tinker with these AC's a little more than usual, but I am saving approximately 50% of our cooling cost with no changes to attic insulation.The home run will be when they produce these AC's with heating.

We bought the Midea 8000 BTU unit to replace a portable rolling unit we use in the kitchen/breakfast area during the hot Georgia summers. The biggest complaint about the portable unit was the noise which made conversation difficult. I'll start with the pros and cons and then describe our experience so far.Pros:- Much quieter than the portable unit we had. From about 4 feet away with the compressor on and the fan on high, it's about 65 dB. With the compressor off, and the fan on low, it's about 45 dB. I should have tested the sound level on the portable unit first, but I'd estimate that it's about 80 dB.- The Midea puts out some seriously cold air. My wife said "it's too cold", and turned the temperature up :-) It easily keeps our kitchen cold and would work in a much larger room.- The installation is relatively easy even for one person. I watched a Youtube video two times before starting, and it was straightforward. That said, I did take my time and start to finish including cleanup took me about 3 hours.Cons:- There are small gaps where the bracket attaches on the interior side of the window and also where the unit sits on top of the bracket. Not a big deal, but you have to take extra sealing foam strip and stuff it into the gaps to keep out bugs and a small amount of outdoor air. The gaps are maybe 1/4" at most, but you still want to seal those up.- The unit is small but it still takes up some window area. The saddle style does better in that regard but costs almost twice as much.- The unit might be heavy for some for solo installation. I'm a small but fit guy, and managed it fairly easily using a small table to set it on before sliding it into place.We received the Midea unit in 8 days and did not have any issues with the condition of unit or packaging. All good there.I started the installation at about 8:30 am when it was still cool. The window is 23" inches wide and has a wood frame and a storm window. That wood frame point is important because the installation is different than the vinyl frame installation I watched on Youtube. Vinyl windows have an interior lip that helps hold the bracket in place before the bracket has been screwed in. On a wood frame, there's nothing to hold the bracket from sliding out the open window because of the weight of the outside part of the bracket. In fairness, you can unscrew the interior portion of the bracket from the extern part, but the screws were under some insulating foam so I chose not to do that. I ended up taking a 4" piece of scrap 2x4 and wedging it between the storm window frame and the bracket. That kept it in place while I screwed in the bracket to the side of the window frame. The remainder of the bracket install was easy. I setup up the outside supports so it was slightly lower on the outside for proper drainage. The manual describes it as being 1/4 bubble on a level. Ours is probably slightly more than that with the weight of unit on the bracket. Be aware that storm windows can prevent the unit from leveling properly, specifically, sloped toward the interior which you don't want. We did not experience that issue, so we did not have to add a piece off wood on the interior to raise the height.I thought I was going to need help lifting the unit into position. The description says 55 lbs, but it didn't feel quite that heavy to me. I got a small wooden table that was almost the exact height of the window and put that directly next to the window. I put the unit on the table first which was the heavy lifting part. Once on the table, I could line it up with the window with having to hold the weight of the unit. I then carefully slid the unit into position on the bracket with the table bear most of the load until the unit was fully on the bracket. The brackets and the bottom of unit are a durable painted finish and slid easily once the unit was more a less in place on the bracket. What I thought was going to be the hard part was actually the easiest.The last part of he install was getting all the sealing faom in place. This actually probably took the longest and was simple but tedious. Midea recommends cutting the side foam blocks 1/4" over the measured length. I found that hard to fit into the gap and had to cut it back by 1/8". Also, the wood frame requires a second foam block below the main one, and that has to go around the bracket piece that's screwed into the side of the frame. To get that to work, I had to cut some partil vertical slits in the foam block to fit properly over the bracket. The anti-tip brackets have to slide over the side foam, and that was difficult because the foam was too tall despite being firmly seated on the bottom. I had to press the foam down with either my finger or a screw driver, move the bracket a little bit, then repeat the process several times until the anti-slip bracket was in place. Not a huge deal, but it wasn't as simple as just sliding the anti-slip bracket in place. Last, I looked all around the mounting of the unit and sealed up any tiny gaps with some foam stripping I had around. There were pretty small gaps, but if you have a lot insects like we do here in Georgia, you'll want to seal those up.The whole install took me about 3 hours including cleanup. I wasn't in a hurry, and I took my time to make sure I did everything correctly. I looked at the instructions some, but mostly worked from memory from the Youtube video. As with almost every project there are little idiosyncracies that you have to handle. For example, I bet it took me about 10 minutes just to get the storm window screen out. That was annoying. Having another person might have shortened the install time as well. Overall, I'd say the install was pretty easy after figuring out how to hold the bracket in place to put the initial screws in place. Having two people would have really helped with that part.The unit is definitely quiet and puts out significant cold air. My wife said it was "too cold" and turned the temp up from 70 to 73. It got up to 92 today, and the unit has been cycling on and off (mostly off) while keeping the kitchen nice and cool. The remote has a decent sized display and does what you expect it to. We also connected the unit to the Midea Air app, and again, it does what you expect it to. The app also shows the local weather which is a nice feature.All in all, the Midea is a huge improvement over the portable unit it replaced. It keeps the kitchen cool and does it quietly. It's also a good value based on comparisons we did with other brands and styles. We would definitely buy this a/c again and would recommend it to others with similar applcations.