Tested and Approved: The Best Air Conditioners for Staving Off Summer’s Swelter (2024)

Summer can be one of two things: something to endure or something to enjoy. Find and install the right air conditioner and you’re a lot closer to the latter thanks to a cool, dry living space.

High heat and high humidity cause you to feel uncomfortable because they reduce your body’s ability to release heat to its surroundings, and this causes you to sweat. Your air conditioner reduces heat and humidity in the air by cooling and drying it.

Window air conditioners and portable units have their respective advantages and disadvantages, but they both work well in specific spaces. Through testing, research, and expert vetting, we’ve rounded up the best air conditioners for bedrooms, rooms with tall ceilings, and windowless spaces—and lay out everything you need to know before you buy—so you can stay cool and dry all summer long.

• Best Overall: LG LW1517IVSM Window Air Conditioner
• Best Budget: Frigidaire FFRA051WAE Window Air Conditioner
• Best Design: July Window Air Conditioner
• Quietest: Midea U-Shaped Smart Inverter Window Air Conditioner
• Best Modern Features: Windmill Air Conditioner

Cooling Capability

Cooling capability is measured in British Thermal Units, a metric for thermal energy. The more BTUs an air conditioner can remove from a given space per unit of time, the more powerful it is. Put simply, the more space you want cooled, the higher the BTUs you’ll need.

You can determine how strong of an air conditioner to buy by multiplying the square footage of the room by 20—that’s roughly how many BTUs you’ll want in an a/c.

Features

Most air conditioners have a fan mode, which both pushes the cool air provided by the a/c coil filled with refrigerant into the room and functions as a standalone fan when the a/c is off. Some units also have heater and dehumidifier functions.

Multiple fan speeds and cooling settings can help bring down the room’s temperature quickly to get your indoor comfort right where you want it. Fine-tuning features like these can reduce your electric bill, which can be an important consideration if you’re in a part of the country with long or especially hot summers.

Consider the unit’s interface as well. Some prefer simple analog controls like knobs and buttons, while others want to control an air conditioner with a remote or app on their phone.

Energy Efficiency

CEER, or Combined Energy-Efficiency Ratio, is the efficiency rating that applies to window air conditioners—a higher CEER number is better. (Note: This is different from SEER, or Seasonal Energy-Efficiency Ratio, which applies to heat pumps and central a/c systems.)

CEER expresses the ratio of cooling capacity to how much electricity the appliances uses to do its work. It includes the efficiency when the compressor is running and when it’s in standby mode to give an accurate picture of the unit’s overall efficiency.

A few air conditioners still retain the older (but still valid) EER efficiency number, and the same rule applies—a high EER is better than a low one.

Window Versus Portable

Window air conditioners are energy and cost efficient. They cool more effectively than portable units, releasing the hot air directly outside. Portable air conditioners have a hose that directs the air outside, and a good amount of heat typically escapes these hoses before it can make its way out.

Window air conditioners block about half of the view out of the window, and you must carefully install them to ensure they won’t fall out of the window or allow intruders to easily remove them and enter your home. A window bracket is a good way to do this. (Pro tip: It’s best to remove the unit in the fall, clean it, and store it indoors for the longevity of your a/c.) Window air conditioners are heavy, weighing anywhere from 50 to 80 pounds, so you’re best off installing it with another set of hands for help.

Portable air conditioners only require that you mount the discharge hose (or hoses) to the outdoors via a window bracket. This installation is much simpler than a window unit and blocks less of the view through your window. But, while some units disperse the condensation into the discharge air stream, or it may evaporate back into the room naturally, for many portable units, you’ll need to empty the drain pan or route the condensation drain hose to a floor drain. You can also use a condensate pump to drain water outside via a small plastic tube.

To help you pick the right air conditioning unit, we gathered a broad range of these appliances. We installed each unit and noted what extras come with them and how easy they were to install, filing away any pain points during the process. We tested them by running them in a hot room while measuring the temperature of their discharge air and at various places in the room.

We also researched and vetted a few appliances that we haven’t gotten our hands on yet, keeping an eye out for innovative features, sound deadening, efficiency, and cooling capacity. Whether it mounts in a window or sits in the room, the right unit helps you stay cool and comfortable night and day.

The test’s biggest air conditioner was this LG, a hefty slab of an appliance that uses a multi-speed compressor to control cooling. That compressor doesn’t simply run at a constant speed then cycle on and off to cool the space. Instead, it speeds up or slows down to maintain the temperature.

This multi-speed and adaptable design isn’t widely used in window air conditioners, but it’s an effective means to keep the temperature steady and cut down energy use while reducing wear on the compressor. LG calls it a dual-inverter design.

If you’re a light sleeper, we’d recommend you consider this LW1522IVSM or the Midea below—both have sleep modes that scale back cooling from the default setting, saving you money and reducing noise while you snooze. In all other respects, this a/c is a quiet, pleasant, and effective machine, quickly ramping up to temperature and operating at a steady hum that makes it easy to forget the thing is only a few feet away.

We also commend LG as the only manufacturer to include insulated panels that you can install on either side of the air conditioner to reduce energy transfer between the indoors and the outside. Its Wi-Fi capability allows you to turn it on and off from your phone, too, so you can cool and dehumidify the space before you get home.

You have a small bedroom and you need some inexpensive cooling. This Frigidaire window air conditioner has that room covered, and at a reasonable cost, too. While we haven’t gotten our hands on this unit yet, we like that it’s a low-effort, high-efficiency air conditioner designed to get a small, hot, and stuffy space down to a comfortable temperature.

The appliance has a basic two-knob design. The top knob controls the cooling setting, while the bottom knob controls fan speed in two modes: with cooling and without cooling. Set the top knob to the desired temperature, and the appliance’s thermostat cycles the air conditioner on and off to keep the temperature within range.

You can also set the fan speed to high or low so the output feels comfortable and doesn’t get too loud while you’re watching TV, for instance. If you want to schedule its output, you’ll need to run the FFRA051WAE with a third-party appliance timer since this basic appliance has no smart functionality to communicate with your phone or another smart device.

The July unit had one of the easiest setups we tested, as it only required us to drill screws to mount the frame—which has the insulating wings attached—into the window. The unit slid in easily so we didn’t have to struggle to position it, never mind worry about it falling from a fifth floor walk-up apartment’s window.

Once installed, the July is easy to get up and running. The control panel is located on top of the unit rather than on the front so it’s more comfortable to operate than having to crouch down to see which button does what—a minor but appreciated design note. You can also control it from the straightforward app to change modes, fan speed, and schedule automatic on and off times.

The noise level is low to average. I’m a very light sleeper and could hear it when trying to nod off, but it never woke me up in the middle of the night; it’s about as noticeable as white noise. The July is more than capable of cooling down my small bedroom and producing some air flow to the adjoining room where there’s just a ceiling fan.

Its sleek design and customization options make it stand out from other models we tested. Air conditioners are generally eyesores, but the July complements the room it’s in with cover options in different colors and a compact frame. It works well, looks good, and was a breeze to install.

This is the quietest air conditioner we’ve tested. It’s also the only one with a unique “U” shape that allows you to shut the window in its center, better isolating the compressor (which is always on the outside of the building) from the indoor space. This design, which requires a specialized mounting bracket, makes the Midea U Smart Inverter a/c more mechanically complex but also quieter.

The low noise is also helped by the fact that, like the LG, this is an inverter compressor air conditioner. The compressor speed changes to suit demand, rather than simply turning on and off. What’s more, this Midea is the only a/c we tested with auto louvers—they automatically move vertically to better distribute air in the space.

Between that and its high BTU, this window air conditioner brings indoor temperatures down in a hurry. We also like the fact that its air filter is angled, providing far easier access to the filter panel, which tips out to about 45 degrees.

No one is buying an AC for the looks, but this sleek unit from Windmill may impress you with how nice it can be to have one that cools well and is easy on the eyes. It comes equipped with the features you’d expect from its modern design—Wi-Fi and smart home-compatibility, ease of installation, voice command built-in—while having a decent 11.6 CEER rating and minimal noise.

It shoots air up and out at a 45-degree angle, which you may prefer if you have a bed that faces your windows and don’t like having the cold air blasted directly toward you. And the angled direction also helps with better air circulation.

The Wi-Fi capability allows you to set your temperature before arriving home so you can walk into a comfortable space or leave it on eco-mode while you’re away. There are three different cool settings and three fan speeds, all of which are easy to control from the app.

LG’s portable air conditioner is a powerful appliance. We set the temperature and fan speed and, before we could even return to our notes, it was blowing ice-cold air. And the automatic movement of the discharge louvers ensured even temperature distribution at the target. Also, it held its temperature well; that’s important for your comfort.

Given those features and the appliance’s high BTU number, the LP1419IVSM is well suited for large apartments or office areas that might need extra cooling capacity due to hot-running digital equipment. In terms of maintenance, the LG is very easygoing. Two grills cover its twin air filters, and neither requires tools for removal. The top grill is particularly well designed and easy to lift off.

This Black & Decker portable air conditioner is best suited to small-room cooling, perhaps even supplementing a central-air system in a tall condominium or townhouse that has an uncomfortably warm upstairs room.

We liked its air distribution. You manually set the output louver vertical direction to adjust the appliance’s throw (HVAC lingo for how far the air conditioner pushes the air), but behind those louvers is an oscillating louver that moves automatically left to right. The result is smooth, clean, cold air softly delivered over a broad area.

For additional four-season versatility, the appliance also functions as a heat pump and a dehumidifier, for when the emphasis is neither on cooling nor heating but removing moisture vapor from the air.

The portable a/c’s maintenance looks pretty easy to us. The owner’s manual says that you’ll need to drain condensate only under extreme conditions. We concur, as we found no condensate in our test.

Grill removal was not as simple as the other portable air conditioners, but it’s still pretty good. The top grill comes out without you needing a tool; the side grill is held by two thread-forming screws for plastic. The third filter slides out. Three filters, two screws. That’s a pretty good score in our book.