Kara Zorn on April 29, 2014 17 Comments When choosing the right portable air conditioner for your needs, you will likely notice that there are two types of hose configurations to choose from — a single hose or dual hose. Single-Hose Portable Air Conditioners The most basic is the single-hose design, which uses a compressor to power the cooling system and remove heat from the room’s air. Single-hose units pull air from within the room and expel warmed air and moisture outside. This can create “negative air pressure” because air is constantly being pushed out of the room, and as a result, the air in the room has to be replaced. Subsequently; warm air seeps in around doorways, and through structural cracks and holes, attempting to replace the “missing” air. The unit is then forced to work much harder to keep the room cool. Though single-hose units are effective and provide ample cooling for most spaces, their design is much simpler and less efficient than dual-hose portable air conditioners. Recommended Single Hose: EdgeStar AP12000S Dual-Hose Portable Air Conditioners The dual-hose design utilizes two separate exhaust hoses, one of which will function as air exhaust hose and one that will draw air in from the outside. The air that is taken in from the room is cooled inside the unit and then expelled back into the room. The process of cooling this air generates heat inside the unit, in order to cool the unit, the second hose intakes air from the outside which is used to cool the unit’s compressor and condenser coils. Recommended Dual Hose: EdgeStar AP14001HS The advantages of the dual house design are in its ability to cool an area more efficiently and quickly, while requiring less work for your portable air conditioner. An additional consideration in your choice of hose design is the lifespan of the unit’s filter. In a single hose design more unfiltered air is entering the unit and therefore shortens the length at which your unit’s filter will remove allergens from the expelled air. Though single hose units may tend to be slightly less expensive, the investment in the extra hose is definitely worth the extra cost.
Carolyn says February 25, 2017 at 1:27 pm I want to cool my finished basement which has hinged casement windows several inches from the ceiling. Would a portable AC on the floor with about 4 feet of flexible tubing have enough power to vent through the upper window? I’m looking for no more than 8000 BTUs since the area is only about 300 sq feet and it doesn’t get awfully hot down there. If yes, any recommendations? The simpler the better. Reply
Charlotte says April 16, 2017 at 8:34 pm Hi, I live in a 650 square foot apartment. I would like to know if I can purchase a portable air conditioner that I can insert in one window but be able to move it to another room if needed but keeping it in one window? I would like to move it around the apartment without removing it from window to window. Thank you ! Reply
Tom Wilson says June 13, 2017 at 6:11 pm No, portable AC’s typically have about a 3 foot hose. you can’t run a hose across the room like an extension cord. The problem is that the hoses on these things are rather small diameter, which means high pressure and high resistance, compared to a typical home AC. If you run a long hose, you’ll create enough resistance on the exhaust hose that you’ll fry your compressor. The best thing to do is get something like an 18000 BTU unit and a fan to cool the back room. Reply
Daniel says September 11, 2017 at 1:06 pm I don’t understand why a dual hose A/C is more efficient than single hose A/C. If outside temperature is 100F but indoor is 90F, if you use dual hose, you are drawing 100F air into the A/C for heat exchange while single hose draws inddor 90F air into the A/C for heat exchange. The hotter the air the less heat exchange efficiency. The only way dual hose can be more efficient is outdoor temperature is cooler after sunset, say 85F, than inddor 90F. Please correct me if my understanding is incorrect. thanks. Reply
John says July 12, 2018 at 11:57 am and when it pulls air from inside of your house and creates a vacuum in the house, where you do you think the air comes from to replenish that ? Reply
luis Medina says May 13, 2019 at 7:52 am If I’m reading this right it acts similar to a central air unit. The air pulled in from out side is used to cool the condenser and exhausted back out side while the air pulled from the room is cooled and returned to the room. Similar to how the outside unit on a central ac has a large fan that sucks in air from the sides through the could and blades to cool the compressor and blows the heated air straight up. It’s the same hot “outside” air cooling the compressor. So in my mind at least the heat exchange is similar to a central ac unit the front and back of the portable unit act similar to air handler and outside unit, the room air is cooled while the warm exchange is separate, with outside air only being used to cool the compressor and inside air only being cooled. Reply
Don Boyd says September 5, 2019 at 3:39 am Yes the unit itself may be slightly more efficient if the air flowing over the compressor is cooler, but the air drawn into it thru a single hose system is released outside the house, which creates a vacuum and so the hot air from outside is drawn into the house which causes the unit to work harder thus more than making up for the slight increase in efficiency/ Reply
Jordan says November 6, 2017 at 9:03 pm I’ve been curious about air conditioning hoses for a while, and I think that being able to read about some differences would be good. I”m glad you mentioned dual hose air conditioning, and how they are able to cool an area more efficiently. I’m going to have to see if having multiple hoses would be good for us, or what kind of system we should get! Reply
Mark Atwood says July 24, 2018 at 9:17 am With a single hose air from the outside is drawn in due to air leakage at various places. However, with a dual hose, the intake hose outright draws outside air directly into the hose itself. In either case, warm or hot outside air is drawn in. So what is the difference??? Reply
Bryan Brickson says February 17, 2019 at 8:44 pm The air that is drawn in on a 2 hose, doesn’t effect the inside air. It is only used to cool the condenser, then vented back outside. The hot outside air is not mixed with the inside air. It would require more of the hotter air to exchange the heat but there is plenty of it. It only needs to condense the refrigerant back into a liquid. On a one hose system it is mixing in hot outside air because the outside air is drawn in. If I could draw a diagram the explanation is simple. Reply
Don Boyd says September 5, 2019 at 3:33 am In a dual hose system, the air drawn in from outside is not released into the house, but is blown back outside after it has cooled the compressor, so no warm air is drawn into the house. Reply
Kurt Fitzner says August 5, 2019 at 8:22 pm Whether a single hose or dual hose is more efficient is quite situational. In the heat of the day when the outside temperature is high, or when the AC has been running for a while and it’s maintaining the temperature, then single and dual hose are about equal. The dual hose is using warmer air to pump heat into, but you are not drawing in warm air into the room. The single hose is using cooler air to pump heat into, but it is drawing warm air into the room. It’s about equal. If it’s night and you are just coming home and turning on your AC and the outside temperature is actually less than the inside temperature, then dual-hose have a clear advantage. In some situations the single hose is much better. For example, I use a single hose in my attic workshop. The rest of the house is cooled by two heat pumps. I leave my attic door cracked just a little so the air that my single-hose AC pulls in is cooler air from the rest of the house that is already very efficiently cooled by my heat pumps. In a case like this, a single-hose AC makes a lot of sense and is actually more efficient. In most usage cases, there is little difference in efficiency. Cooling ability vs machine size, though, is another question. For a given size of AC unit, you are far better served increasing the coil and compressor size and having a single fan (a single hose unit) than you are taking up compressor and coil space to shoehorn in two separate fans. If you are clever about placement and air flow, maybe crack a window on the shaded side, open a basement door for a source of cool basement air (the AC unit will dehumidify it), or like me draw air from another, already cooled, part of the house, then a single hose unit is probably your better bet. Reply
Russ says January 26, 2020 at 8:22 pm I have a single hose 14000 btu portable ac that works fine. I’m considering a dual hose portable ac only because we live near a beach community were people love their beach fires and firepits, not to mention the recent summer forest fires. This all results in smokey smells. I’m wondering if the dual hose is worth buying on a budget as replacement to the single hose (that works fine for cooling) simply to avoid sucking smoke in. Any analytical thoughts? Reply
J says June 20, 2020 at 12:09 pm Yes, your concern is valid because the single hose system indeed draws external doors and particles indoors (albeit the solids are generally stopped by the filter). I can smell some cigarette smoke when people smoke outside my window near the unit’s exhaust hose. A two hose system will generally eliminate this byproduct. Reply
Kathi says July 3, 2020 at 10:27 am I live where my outside air is 100+ in the summer months. HOW IN THE WORLD could this POSSIBLY “cool” the compressor? I DON’T think a dual hose would work here. Reply
Dayle says September 12, 2020 at 12:51 pm Does the Whynter ARC-122DS filter air in Fan Only mode? Wildfire smoke is the issue. Reply
