Close Comfort PC9+

What more can a pensioner with no additional income want, than an air conditioner which won't cost arms, legs, and first born, to run. I received my unit yesterday, after having ordered just the day before. Setup in my bedroom was so easy. My room is small and I only share with a cat, so the personal nature of the cooling is great... he's not very fond of normal air conditioning. The unit weighs about 17Kg and even I, weak as I am, was able to lift it from its box. It rolls easily on its castors and so will be moved from room to room as I need the additional cooling.

Overnight use: it stopped cooling and the light began flashing after about 4 hours... reason being, I had the temp set too high on the unit. I turned it off, set temp to 22ºC and off it went again. Perfect. Tonight, I'll remember to set the temp a couple of degrees lower than expected overnight room temp. I also had bought the cool focus gadget to increase cool flow and that was a matter of plug'n'play, and it works beautifully.

Noise levels are not intrusive. On the highest setting, it is no noisier than my pedestal fan on 2 of 4 speeds. On low, barely noticeable. Some people may find it very noisy, it will depend on what you are used to.

I'm feeling very positive about this air conditioner. I had been researching split system and ducted and apart from the general cost + install cost, the running costs seem to be reported as quite high. For some people that doesnt matter. For me, ongoing cost is a huge issue.

I'm basing this review on one afternoon and night of use, and will update it if anything changes. I don't expect that to happen. 5 stars and highly recommended for those who don't have the budget, space, or location to have anything else.

[edit] Adding a bit more, as my review has so far not yet been published. Another day on, at 36º and the Close Comfort did not falter. I had a very comfortable afternoon.

NB: This is NOT for cooling whole rooms. Its for spot cooling only. That is, you are the spot.

The Close Comfort air conditioner does exactly what it says - and does it well, although it is important to understand that it doesn't work the same way as traditional 'whole-of-room air' conditioners.

1. The cooling works well, and the air flow & speed can be easily adjusted
2. It makes about the same amount of noise as any other portable air conditioning unit
3. It is very portable, and can be moved around very quickly and easily
4. It is compact, and takes up very little space
5. It is very cheap to run.

The key to this product's success is understanding what it can and cannot do - and how it differs from other types of air conditioning.The key difference is that it doesn't attempt to cool the whole room - only the 1 or 2 people it is pointed at, and it vents the warm air that ir produces up to the ceiling. Depending on the size of the room, the height of the ceiling, and the ventilation, this can eventually affect the heat in the parts of the room not cooled by the Close Comfort - so that, for example, if you keep it running overnight in a small room and then turn it off in the middle of the night, the room can end up feeling much hotter than it did without the air conditioning.

However, provided you keep the room in which you are using the Close Comfort, well ventilated, it won't noticeably increase the temperature of the rest of the room.

As I live in a rented house, it has been easy to move it around, although, like ALL portable air conditioners, it is too noisy for me to sleep with at night (I'm a light sleeper).

As I write this, the room I'm in is at 29C, but the Close Comfort it is keeping me nice and cool.

Very nice to have a low energy cost aircon for the summer, plenty of piece of mind knowing you can turn it on and not spend bucket loads. An energy consumption plug is a great addition as you get even more piece of mind, I spent more on the $20 energy monitor than power in the last two months!

Know that this is a personal air conditioner, and won't be adequate for two people unless you use the igloo tent. This fit my use case and I'm very happy with it.