there seems to be a lot of advertising on Facebook for small portable air conditioning units that thermodynamic principles
4 Likes
Welcome to the community @Gregorio.
Like many advertisements on Facebook, this is a sham product sold by scammers. In effect, it is a small fan with a damp material the air passes through - similar to an evaporative cooler. It is sold by scammers, under a number of different ‘brand’ names.
While it is an evaporative cooler, the claims being made are false. It won’t cool a room and it won’t save huge amounts of electricity. The later is because it is ineffective at cooling anything, possibly with exception of a finger or two if the ambient humidity is low, and using electricity is wasted on a product that doesn’t work.
Facebook has many advertisements from scammers clamming a particular product is designed by a disgruntled software engineer (because the company they worked for was unsympathetic to the new incredible invention) … a world leading engineer who invented a product in their garden shed … or a doctor who worked for big pharma and discovered a cheap treatment for XYZ and because it was cheap wasn’t taken on by big pharma etc etc.
There are scores of derivations on these themes to suck in the gullible to these sham products. Some could even be extremely dangerous to use.
Unfortunately, if one clicks on the advertisement to watch it, Facebooks algorithms will ensure one will be flooded with other scam products and scam services. It is something to watch as some fall for ‘hearing the same thing over and over, they start to believe it is true’… increasing the risk of becoming a scam victim.
7 Likes
Not the first time, with a cycle of promotions recently for similar products to this one.
3 Likes
And in winter you’ll see ads for heaters that just plug in to the nearest outlet and will warm a whole room in just 30 seconds. Or similar. All bultwang.
4 Likes
I feel that a proper portable air conditioner (not evaporative) will cost a minimum of $229 brand new. Anything less than that “tell em they’re dreaming” .
1 Like
No claims made but… why buy from a scam ad when one can buy a similar product from a ‘reputable supplier’? /s
Our local had an entire display of these little gems yesterday.
3 Likes
According to the “ tech experts”? - please note Bill Murray set the gold standard for technically reliable and proven science as demonstrated in the original Ghost Busters movies. Various different brands of similar products offering the miracle of more than 5,000% thermodynamic energy conversion/efficiency in the full fairy tale story (aka advertising). In this instance served up by Google as a top hit asking for high efficiency proratable AC’s. Similar promotions have popped up when accessing news articles on various services such as The New Daily or following articles offered up by Apple News.
Whether Vic Springfield is a real person and wrote the content and can demonstrate in a Choice or NATA registered lab the performance claims of cooling a 400sqft (approx 40 sqm) room in 15 minutes? I’ve next weeks lotto numbers just in case.
3 Likes
Absolutely. The BTU is important too. Larger=better. I have an ebay-purchased Devanti self-evaporative unit which is IIRC 12000 BTU, and in this stinking hot weather it barely takes the edge off, but I thinkk that is about the design too. Units which have the vent on top seem to pretend to cool an entire room, and they might if the room doesnt face west. I’ve been looking for a inverter model, but the only one I have found is at Kogan and I’m not confident enough about it to buy.
Choice review a number of inverter models - cooling only assessed, although some are also reverse cycle. Larger models are around 4kW cooling capacity which according to the Choice guide is suited to a room of approx 4mx6m (24sqm). Note the link to the products reviewed will require a Choice membership for full access. There is no review of a Kogan branded product.
We have had two window mount AC’s. One a Westinghouse, the other an LG with a vertical format. The second mentioned was a reasonable performer for a master bedroom, although noisier than a split system. The Westinghouse came with a mounting kit, although we found it better to install it with an external supporting frame. This reduced the tendency of the unit to transmit operating noise through the window frame and gave a slightly less intrusive operating noise. It’s also possible to install an everyday wall mount AC (includes RC models) in a suitable window using a mounting kit on the external wall and framing to close in the gap. The slightly lower cost of a more effective AC and better efficiency compared to portable units an offset to the added costs to install.
I’ve just been perusing the reviews, but see no comment about whether they are inverter models or not. I know that Window a/cs mostly are, these days,but portables, not so much. I’ve had my Devanti for years, now, and its fine as long as I position it where I can get a bit of a breeze. As a room cooler, its mostly a failure. Costs a fortune to run but isnt too noisy for me, at 59dB on high speed (tested only with an app)
