Portible Air Conditioner to Cool Garage in Summer

[Todah Tear]

Anyone ever use one of those portible air conditioners to cool the garage in the summer? By summer, I mean in temps above 85 degrees. Here in Texas it is impossible to get any work done in the garage w/o something to address the heat.

Let me know the brand you used, btu, size room that it cooled.

Thanks,

Todah

[jstrubberg]

If you are talking about the 300 to 400 dollar units, they are really meant for boats and such, very small spaces. For a garage, you would be money ahead to mount a 15,000 BTU window unit if that a possibility. If you have to have the portability, I would look at hacking a larger window unit as some have done here for their tears instead of buying a "portable" unit.

The units I'm talking about are generally evaporative, which means they don't work well at all if the humidity climbs. maybe they would work in Texas...they are all but useless here in Missouri.

[Todah Tear]

Thanks for the feedback. I have installed/rigged a wall unit up in my garage already. I haven't tried it yet. Its the one from my camper, and it does nto have a high btu rating. My parents may get a portible unit as a stand-in until the central unit gets repaired. WHen they are done with it, I was thinking about seeing whether I could possibly use it in my garage. I know that I would have to install a better seal around the garage door for starters, otherwise I'd be trying to cool down the great outdoors.

Todah

[pmowers]

I have a Penguino II (deLonghi from Sam's Club)
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/portable-ac-12-000-btu/prod5880055.ip?navAction=,
12,000 BTU in my 2-1/2 car garage. Here in KY, it is not only hot but really humid. I tried it venting out the window, but was not very happy about it or the location so I moved it and cut a hole to vent it through the wall. Last summer, when we were running heat indexes above 120, I was very glad that I had bought it. Although my garage is not insulated, I could really tell the difference when I had it running. I had actually considered installing in my 6x10 CT, but after reading other comments decided not to.
If I put my hand in front of the air being vented outside, I feel like I could cook with it, it is so hot. Inside, the air feels ice cold being blown into the garage. As a bonus, my unit can be set for a specific temperature, has a remote and a timer, that can be set to start up or shut down after a specific amount of time. This is the second summer for it, and I am still pretty happy with the unit.

[Dale M.]

Fellow that runs a auto repair near me runs a old style swamp cooler and just has old ice chest on it for water supply.... If you do not have a high humidity (already) situation one of these may work....His is on rollers so it can be moved about and just sits in garage and recycles "room" air...



Or...

http://www.port-a-cool.com/products.html#.UcOD89iDl2l

Dale

[Ron Dickey]

Just make sure the heat exhaust is outside!!

There are several you might want to check consumer Reports which you can find in your library, or check review on the net.