Sharp CV-P10MX

Where I live, the temp only breaks 95 a few times a year. Because of this, it is hard to justify the cost of central air. The better option seemed to be a portable AC. Use it when you need it, stow it when… you don't. This review is not about some of the points discussed in earlier reviews. Yes it is heavy, very heavy, and yes the window attachment is cheap but I am not going to re-hash those issues. For this review I wanted to focus on the unit for bedroom use. My main observation was that, for sleeping, this unit (probably all units) has a lot to be desired. I positioned it right next to my bed thinking that it would quietly maintain a nice cool temp. My first disappointment was how slowly it cooled. I put it on max cool then left the room for about 2 hours. While it was cooler when I returned, it wasn't cold. After settling in to bed, I was presented with my second disappointment. My "library quite" air conditioner was LOUD. Not just the compressor but the bubbling/gurgling of the liquid inside the compressor. Worst of all, when the room reaches temp and the compressor shuts off there is a loud WHUMP sound. Not unlike the sound of someone dropping a box of bricks. It kept waking me up all night and I ultimately had to turn the unit off. In conclusion, this is a solidly built machine with great fit and finish. Once it got up to speed it did do a relatively good job cooling and I like the remote and overall design. However, if you are expecting this to be a whisper quiet cooling machine that will sooth you into restful slumber...think again. You will be disappointed. As for me, I will probably return this unit. The main reason I bought it was for a cool restful sleep and this is something it does not provide. THis

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We love this unit. Our house has a loft that is 10 to 20 degrees hotter than the main floor. As we live in the high mountain desert this can be quite hot! We either lived with the heat by using 4 fans and a… lot of patience or by freezing out the main floor. Our family dubbed the lower floor as Antarctica and our upstairs as the Sahara. After a decade and a lot of worry about energy usage, we decided to try a portable air conditioner. After searching for one that was modestly priced, we purchased a different portable air conditioner. It sounded like a jet engine. Based on reviews, after two days, we decided to exchange it for the Sharp. The difference in the volume is beyond belief. I have a hearing disorder so quiet operation is very important. While we spent nearly twice the amount of money on this unit compared to the previous one, it is more than worth it! I have listed the pros and cons I experienced below. Generally, the cons are more quirks but a few things may require adaptation. Overall, they are things I am more than willing to live with in exchange for the quietness and the cool. Pros -Quiet -Did I mention quiet? The compressor and the high fan mode are louder than the 38 db they advertise but the overall sound is still modest. To me, it sounds like an aquarium pump. -Sturdy look and feel to the unit. The plastic seems strong and the parts fit together well. It does not look cheaply built. -The unit is slick looking. -The mega chill function is nice to quickly start to cool your room off. -The vent includes both horizontal and vertical adjustments. There are two vertical adjustments that can be directed so that they blow air to the left and the right of the unit. The adjustments are similar to how car vents work. Several other brands only have a horizontal adjustment. -We compared the temperature on the remote to three other thermometers located around the room. One thermometer was sitting beside the remote. After three hours of operation, the temperatures were very consistent. One thermometer read 1-2 degrees lower but that one was more in line with the vents even though it was about 12 feet away. -Cools better for the same BTU than the "freight train" model we had. -Parts were well machines making the assembly easy. Cons/Quirks -The remote works across quite a long distance, but has a modestly narrow range. We had to position the unit at an odd angle to be able to work the remote without having to get up and point it at the machine. -As other reviewers have noted the controls are on the remote, not the machine. However, I did discover that you can turn the unit on at the machine and it will default to the automatic mode with a temperature of 68 degrees. -The button marked power does not indicate that the power is on. The LED beside the power button, which is labeled operation, turns on when the machine is operating. -The vent control could be a bit better. The highest position could benefit from being about 15 degrees higher so that the air was directed a bit more towards the ceiling. -The delay setting only operates on a 12 hour clock. I could not figure out how to set an automatic on for the afternoon and off for the morning like I could on the "jet engine" unit. -As others have noted, the rain protector portion of the exhaust hose requires that you remove or alter the screen in your window. Since we live in a pretty dry area we decided not to install this portion and leave our window screen in place. This might not work for those in a wetter climate. -The fit in the window frame could be better. While the included foam window insulation was nice it was not enough. We added more and also ended up using clear packing tape to secure the exhaust. -The exhaust unit has multiple pieces that can be fit together to accommodate different window sizes. As we have a vertical slider, we had to use quite a lot of packing tape to secure the parts together. This was true with the other unit we installed but the plastic on the Sharp seemed "slicker" and thus was more prone to slipping apart.

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I actually thought this was a reasonably good air conditioner before the condenser seized after only a couple of months of use and I had to deal with Sharp's customer service people. What a nightmare. A… simple warranty exchange dragged on for two months and the customer service people made one error after another, slowing the "process" even more. When the replacement unit finally arrived, it was delivered to the wrong address. I'll never buy another Sharp product.

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I appreciate the information given by the other reviewers, especially the noise issue. Had it not been one of the reviews which discussed the noise level, I could have returned this thing because I thought… it was just too loud and something must be wrong with it as it was supposed to be "library quiet". Yes, in the fan and ventilation mode, the fan is pretty quiet, especially on the low fan speed setting. But in the cooling mode, once the compressor kicks in, it is loud. It is absolutely not "library quiet", so the description is misleading if not an outright lie. I cannot understand why others call this quiet. I suspect those reviewers are either talking about the fan or ventilation mode, or living in a noisy environment, or just plain not bothered by any noise at all. But I do believe what the other reviewer said, the Sharp is probably still among the quietest potable air-conditioners. The truth of the matter is that a compressor makes a lot of noise and it's hard to conceal that noise. Central A/C has the compressor unit outdoors to make it quiet for people inside the house or building. With a portable air-conditioners, the convenience you get also comes at a cost: the entire air conditioner including its compressor is right there near by you. Compared to the noise of the other air-conditioners I've seen, I really can't complain about the noise of the Sharp. I was just upset by its misleading advertisement which raised my expectation to an unreasonable level. So I figured I would have to live with it. It sure beats the hot summer. Don't have serious issues with the other aspects of this unit. Very considerate design. Fairly easy to install. The remote control is very intuitive with clear markings annotating the meaning of the symbols, so any user can use it any time without having to first look for the manual to figure out the meaning of the symbols. This is important. At the time of installation, because you have the manual at hand, everything seems rather clear. But in actual use, that's usually not the case. The real user usually does not have a manual in his hand nor does he have any knowledge of the manual. For example, one of the things I hated most of the some hotels and guest places is their LCD-based air conditioning control panels which usually operate based on symbols (not texts). You are never sure what the symbols mean, although you can guess. Messing with an unfamiliar control menu is confusing enough, but not knowing for sure the meaning of the symbols magnifies frustration and confusion by many times. Sometimes even the hotel staff aren't sure. Sharp's remote control has all the major annotations printed right there on the remote. Thank you. But, as pointed out by other reviewers, it is problematic to have every control only on the remote but not on the AC itself. Once you lose the remote, this air conditioner will become dysfunctional. This is potentially a disaster. Anything that stops functioning without a remote control is a bad design. The remote control should always be just an added convenience, instead of an indispensable component.

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I have only had the unit for one day but so far I am very impressed. The unit is way quieter than the 7,000 btu GE unit it replaced. Not bad to look at and easy to roll around. The 2 gripes I do have is… there is no display or controls on the unit so if you lose the remote you are stuck. 9500 btu feels the same as 7000 btu imho. It would have been nice if this unit included a bucket for the times you want to use the dehumidifier. All in All I am pleased with the unit.

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