Controls - The on-board buttons are soft touch and have LED indicators to show which functions are active. It also comes with a remote control. A portable air con unit uses both a fan and a compressor to cool the air, and that's a noisy process, meaning you're likely to have to turn the TV up quite a few notches if you have one running in a living space. And, if you're a light sleeper, then you may struggle to sleep whilst the air con unit is running.

Overall, if you're looking to invest in a powerful air conditioner that can bring an icy to chill to a room in under 20 minutes, or your willing to pay a little more for white noise over the thundering din of most air con units, the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner is a great buy. You also get a lot of extras with the Pro Breeze 9000 BTU 4-in-1 Portable Air Conditioner considering its price tag, including a remote control, timer, 'night' settings, and WiFi connectivity. Although some reviewers mention its Smart features leave a little to be desired. Similarly, investing in a unit with a timer function gives you the ability to programme the unit to turn off a few hours after you've got into bed, or to turn on during the hottest part of the day to keep the house cool for pets, or reduce the temperature before you get home from work. A unit with Smart functionality can also offer the means to control the unit when you're away from home. Window kit If you're spending this much on an appliance – and one that's going to take up a good deal of storage space in the home – then you might want it to do more than just cool. Beyond that, this air con unit is bulky and heavy. It weighs in at 31.5kg, one of the heaviest units we've tested, so carrying it upstairs is a definite two (strong) person job. But, it looks good. And its curved front, minimal design, and gloss finish all make it far more unobtrusive in a room than you might expect. The build quality is also solid and robust.

Want to take the edge off the summer heat? Get a blast of water-cooled air with these efficient, economical air coolers

Air Flow / Fan Speeds - The Pifco P40014 has three air flow modes - Normal, Natural and Sleep. It also has three fan speeds - Low, Medium and High. An oscillation mode distributes air flow over a wide angle.

It has some downsides, but only in keeping with most portable air con units, in that it's heavy which makes it not quite as portable in reality as its name may suggest.However, the build quality is good, it has easy-to-use controls, and its design is unobtrusive – although we think the AEG Comfort just pips it to the post in the style stakes by offering a sleeker design. You might also want to consider whether you want your portable air conditioner to come with a timer, remote control, or WiFi connectivity. As far as features go, the Honeywell keeps things simple. One dial switches between off and the three fan settings, while the other selects cooling, oscillation or cooling and oscillation. What matters more is that it dishes out a consistently good, cooling airflow, with the louvres shifting side to side to spread it over a wider area. You’ll still need to clean the honeycomb cooling membrane regularly to avoid unpleasant smells, but if you’re keener on keeping cool than faffing around with modes and features, this is the air cooler to buy. However, a higher BTU also means a higher price tag, and likely higher running costs, so it's a balancing act of investing as much as you can for better performance against how much you're willing to pay upfront for a unit. Room size A powerful portable air conditioner that looks good, is easy to use, is relatively quiet in comparison to most, has WiFi connectivity, and – most importantly – can cool down a room fast, as long as you don't mind its slightly higher running costs.

As such, we've rounded up the key features to look out for when sourcing the best portable air conditioner for your home. BTU (British Thermal Units) In summer we can often struggle with poor air quality due to humidity, pollutants, allergens, and toxins. Air purifiers are a useful device which removes any air contaminants or allergens from the air in a room to improve indoor air quality. If you’re someone who suffers with hayfever, our collection of air purifiers will be perfect for sanitising your air quality. It also offers some good functionality, including air con, heater, and dehumidify functions that enable year-round use, plus a timer, 'night' mode, remote control, and WiFi connectivity. A remote control is always a handy feature to have, especially if you're using the unit in the bedroom and don't want to have to get out of bed to adjust settings or turn the unit off.

With some air coolers, there’s a risk of adding to the room’s humidity, which can be a problem if it already suffers from excess humidity. Plus, where water tanks are open inside the cooler, there’s also a risk of spillage – which can be a worry if you’re using a desktop model plugged into your laptop or PC.

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As the name suggests, it also has basic smart features. With the cooler connected to your Wi-Fi network, you can control it from your smartphone or even an Alexa or Google Assistant speaker, although the voice commands don’t cover much more than switching modes or turning the unit on and off. As an electrical appliance, portable air conditioners will cost money to run, with larger and more powerful units (that means a higher BTU) generally using more energy than smaller units.

So whilst the best fans definitely work to cool a person thanks to the breeze they create that does a surprisingly good job of cooling the skin, only an air conditioner can dramatically lower the temperature of an entire room or living space. And only an air conditioner will deliver that fridge-like cold air we all crave in a heatwave. Do portable air conditioners cost a lot to run?

All in all, the MeacoCool MC Series 7000BTU Portable Air Conditioner is a good all-rounder at an affordable price point. We found the the best bet is to run the air con unit in a bedroom for a few hours before you want to go to sleep, and then turn it off once you turn in for the night. This has the effect of dramatically reducing the temperature in the room. In our tests, we found the best portable air conditioners, used in a well-sealed room, could reduce the temperature by up to 10 degrees in under an hour. In an ideal world, all of our homes would be better insulated and able to remain cool in the summer without the additional energy use or expense of an air conditioner.However, for many of us this isn't the reality, and if you struggle to keep your home at a bearable temperature during the summer months, then a portable air con unit could help. The first thing you'll want to consider when choosing the best portable air conditioner for your home is BTU.