Top portable air conditioners are on sale now

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Summer in Canada is well underway. We’ve entered August, which is historically our hottest month of the year. Along with the heat, questions arise surrounding the best ways to cool our homes. We’ve explored the benefits of heat pumps versus air conditioners, and it generally comes down to the size of your space and your budget.

For those with a tighter budget and a smaller space, or those looking to cool down only one room of their home, a portable air conditioner may be the best option. But which of the hundreds of models available is the best?

According to Kayne Masih, senior category leader of small appliances at Best Buy Canada, consumers are looking for compact, energy-efficient units with high cooling capacity.

“A trend we are beginning to see is that AC brands are starting to launch products that are more design-focused so the unit can fit within the home without looking out of place,” says Masih. “Noise levels are also a key consideration as the noise can impact the quality of sleep if the AC unit is too loud.”

Many new portable air conditioner units are app-controlled, giving users the freedom to control their devices from their smartphones or tablets, wherever they are. “This can allow customers to set schedules and control the unit remotely when not at home so that they can arrive home to a cooler environment,” says Masih.

“Self-evaporating ACs are also becoming more common which makes it easier to keep the ACs running at their coolest for longer,” he says. Inverters make newer units more energy efficient and also lower the noise, Masih explains.

To keep your AC in tip-top shape, Masih recommends draining the water of your non-evaporating unit at the end of every season and cleaning the filter at least once a season, too.

We may have another two months of hot temperatures ahead of us, with the Weather Network predicting “warmer than normal conditions”. If you’ve been waiting to purchase that portable AC unit, this is your reminder that you still have time. Many retailers are slashing their prices as summer winds down — the perfect time to snag a deal.

We found a variety of retailers with AC deals, below.

Multiple deals, such as $220 off the TCL Portable Air Conditioner with Wi-Fi – 10000 BTU

Multiple deals, such as $100 off the SereneLife Portable Electric Air Conditioner Unit-900W 8000 BTU

Multiple deals, such as $265 off the Costway 10,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner 3-in-1 Air Cooler

Multiple deals, such as $350 off the 8,000 BTU (ASHRAE) Portable Air Conditioner

Not many deals, but decent stock on some best-selling products, like the DeLonghi 8.7K SACC 3-in-1 Portable Air Conditioner

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