BLACK+DECKER Smart Portable Air Conditioner, 14,000 BTU, BPACT14WT, White

After doing quite a bit of research, I decided to purchase the Black & Decker 14,000 BUT Portable AC. This unit is fantastic. I bought it for use in my 12' x 14' office. The office has two persons (my wife and I) and many computer systems (7 large servers, a couple of desktop systems, numerous battery backup units, numerous monitors, etc). To make matters worse, the office unfortunately gets full sun for more than 5 hours throughout the day. Though we have a central AC, the thermostat is in the family room ... so either the office is comfortable and the rest of the house if 68 degrees ... or the house is comfortable and the office is 86 degrees. Moreover, cost goes way up if we keep the office cool ... even if we were OK with the rest of the house cold like the north pole. Before this unit ------------------ Before we received this unit, the office would run anywhere from 82 - 86 degrees many times higher during summer. With this unit, we were able to keep the office easily at 72 degrees (much colder if we wanted). Shipping & Packaging ------------------------- Shipping was great. The unit arrived in perfect packaging and was free from any scratches, dents or any other marks. Unpacking was very straight forward. As a reminder, the unit needs to be upright. Per the documentation, they suggest the unit be left upright for at least 6 hours before use ... preferably 24 hours. I decided to wait the 24 hours since I did not know how the unit was handled during the shipping process. Operation ------------ The unit pushes some seriously cold air. Like all AC units, when it starts-up, cold air does not come out immediately. But within 30 seconds of starting, it was blowing freezing cold air. Within 5 minutes the room cooled down and during the day, it maintained the temperature with ease (we set it for 72 degrees). In fact, we did set it down to 65 degrees and it would run until the room reached that temperature ... that was just simply too cold for us. Quiet ------- This unit was much quieter than we expected. Even when on video conference calls using speaker-phone, there was no issue. Others on the call could not tell the unit was running. I am not saying the unit is stealth quiet, but the noise level was surprisingly low ... on-par with the fans from my computer servers. Why Returning? -------------- If the unit was so great, they why would I return it? Well there were two issues with the unit I did not like: 1) Placement and 2) Security Placement ---------------- Based on the layout of our office along with the servers, desks, multiple monitors, etc ... there was no real convenient location to put the unit. So how did we know the unit works well? I temporarily moved desks / computers out of the way so I could mount the hose and pass-through to the window. Originally, I had planned on drilling a hole in the wall (this is a 6" diameter hose!!!) and putting a one-way flange & baffle with a fine screen mesh to ensure no outside critters could get in. I bought this with the intent of installing it somewhat permanently. Even with this in mind, where I could place the unit would not be close enough to the flange for the exhaust hose. I could buy additional hose extensions but because of the diameter of the exhaust hose, I just could not easily run the hose behind desks, etc. Keep in mind the hose does not make 'right-angle' turns either. Also, the exhaust hose is rather sturdy - which is actually a good thing. Security ---------- The window mounting assembly is actually quite easy and seemed to work well for the intended purpose. As a reminder, I only ran the unit for a few days so not sure what the long-term durability of the hose and mounting assembly would be like. In any event, I am very security conscious. I did not feel the window mounting option allowed me to secure the window effectively enough to prevent someone from pushing the baffles in and then getting inside the office and our home. Who is this unit for ? ------------------------ This unit works exceptionally well especially for someone that needs to cool down a reasonably large room quickly and quietly. This probably would work great for 2nd floor (or higher floors) homes where outside access to the window would be limited or non-existent. I have decided to order a Mini Split AC instead. It will allow me the flexibility of placement and will enable me to maintain the security aspect.

2026 update: I'm on my third summer. It's still working well. I'm sitting in front of it now feeling very chill air coming out of it and cooling me off. The only complaint that I have about it is that the vent which expel the cold air in the air upward. It's odd that they didn't design them so that they could send them straight out to cool someone sitting in front of it. I have to stand over it to feel the cool air. The only way I can feel the cold air if I'm sitting in front of it is to put a little table, literally on top of it to direct the air. This does work, but the vents facing upward is an odd designed decision. And the "I have to stick a table in front of the air conditioner to direct the air" solution is a little funky. I bought this portable air conditioner in July 2024 and use it for three months, then used it again last summer for four months. I've just set it up again to use this summer. I'm not sure why it has gotten so many negative reviews; mine has been operating well. The way these models work, they are not as effective as window units; that goes with the territory and is a built in shortcoming. On the other hand, they don't have to be professionally installed; you just plug them in and push a button. Mine puts out a continuous stream of chilled air that I appreciate on hot days. It isn't perfect. One thing that I find irksome is that the vents point upward rather than straight ahead. So if you're sitting on a couch, the cold air will blow up over you and not on you. I fixed this by attaching a little piece of hard plastic (taped to the top of the unit) which protrudes a few inches and helps to direct the air toward me. Having the vents quitting upward is frankly a stupid design decision. But all in all of the air conditioner itself works great so far.

Purchased this unit (14k BTU) in late June 2025, now it is July 2026. We live in upstate NY and only use the A/C for about 2 months a year. Last summer it seemed to work nicely, aside from the fact that the water had to be drained often, which I thought may be a normal side effect of the humidity. This summer, the water coming out started to look greasy. Then yesterday we came home to a hot house, after being away for several days and the unit was off and unplugged. Turned it on and the compressor wouldn't go on, it just blows room temp air out of both ends (vent and outside duct). Later the compressor went on for a few minutes, but the room wasn't cooling at all. Ice also built up on the coils in the back behind the filter. The thermostat wasn't working either; I had to have it on 64 for the compressor to activate at all (it was 76 in room). The unit is also very noisy. Reached out to Black & Decker today and they don't seem to be doing much for me. Their warranty is only for a year, which is preposterous. First, they wanted me to send in videos and pictures but then they admitted that if it is over the year they won't do anything. Unless you live in Florida, nobody is using it for a full year. We only had 3 months of use out of this junk unit.

To start things off, I'm not usually a real big B+D fan. I know well enough to know that, like most GIANT name brands, the name doesn't actually necessarily indicate who built the unit, but rather who's marketing and supporting it. For all I know, this has 90% of the same guts as an LG unit. (LG is regarded as the leader in portable/window AC units, as well as Frigidaire). The product arrived in the retail box, which looks to be able to serve double duty as a shipping container because it is very sturdy, and it's assembled in such a way that it would just about collapse if it were shipped any way other than "this side up", and it's clearly marked as such on the box in many spots so you shouldn't run into the issue some reviewers talking about where they need to let it stand vertical for 24 hours prior to plugging it in and letting the pump go to work. I'm not exactly stupid, but there's a few things about this product that don't make a whole lot of sense, or are done in a needlessly complicated (cost saving) way. To be fair though, this is my first time dealing with a portable AC unit so maybe they're all like this to one degree or another (get it?!) First, the window vent blocking plate situation... I'm in an older house with small windows, so I had to cut one of the panels so that it would give me the correct length. This is some pretty heavy plastic, and I don't think it's reasonable to expect the typical consumer to even have the means to be able to cut one of these pieces of plastic. A hacksaw worked fine. Then you need to secure each of the telescoping panels (just shallow "C" channels, essentially) into eachother with screws so it becomes one unit.... this is supposed to be a PORTABLE AC unit. If I really did buy this with the intent of moving it from one room to another, I'd be screwed since it's doubtful that each window is exactly the same size, and changing the size of the plate is not exactly a breeze. I expected to see a more well thought out design for the window plate. Luckily, this thing is staying upstairs in my attic-bedroom that easily reaches very warm temps on even a slightly warm day, and the central AC cannot keep up with it. Another gripe is the remote, and overall interface of operating the machine. The top/face of the machine has the love-em-or-hate-em capacitive touch buttons that provide no tactility, but instead a beep. Whatever, it works. Doing anything beyond turning it on and off and up and down requires the remote, which seems to send discreet commands for each incremental increase or decrease in temp, so that the temp displayed on the remote is never "out of sync" with the unit, as long as you change the temp at least once with the remote. It's just an infrared send-only type of signal. The real confusion comes in setting the sleep/wake timer. I read the directions and I can't figure it out. I just operate it manually when I wake up and before I go to bed, which leads me to another gripe The thing is loud! I understand that in order for an AC unit to work, it has to move air, but even with the fan on low (which is useless because it does not push the cool air far enough towards me) the unit makes too much noise to sleep with running. I could probably get around this by moving it to the other side of the room, but I don't want to (just yet) so I just put up with it. Most of the marketing graphics/information on this product's Amazon listing are either glossed over, or just plain incorrect. The picture that shows the exhaust vent is wrong, since it gets connected to an ovular shaped thing, and then goes out the window, and the filter does not slide out, you snap the holder out of the back, and snap the filter out of the holder. Another instance of Marketing Gone Wild. But, it blasts out pretty cool air pretty quickly, and it's working to keep a somewhat large, low-ceiling attic bedroom at a comfortable 74 degrees even when it's hovering around 100 outside, so I have to give it some credit. The "AirSwing" feature is nice- you can position the unit at an angle (in my case, the only way to get it closer to the wall and deal with the unwieldy hot-air hose coming out the back) and pitch the vents so it's still blowing as if it were positioned straight ahead. I suppose in a more open space, it would be helpful to share some of the cool air with your visitors or other house dwellers. So, why buy this instead of a window unit? I can yank out the plate and roll it into a closet at the end of our 2 month summer and let it sit for the other 10 months or so, instead of futzing with big drippy, rusty rectangles and angle brackets or 2x4s screwed into the stucco. We'll see how well the atomization of water goes as far as its ability to dehumidify. The manual promises that emptying moisture from the unit only needs to be done at the end of the season, once, but it also says the sleep timer works. UPDATE After living with this unit for a couple VERY hot weeks, one season after another, I've learned a few things * It's pretty likely that the built in water tank will fill up, causing the unit to stop producing cold air. I remedied this by keeping the included clear plastic tube attached to the back/bottom and elevating the unit onto a sturdy little platform with the casters removed. Now it's free to drip-drop the water it collects down the tube into a sawed off orange juice container, which needs to be emptied every couple days (!!!) Best to put that inside a small trash can just in case you forget to check it and it overflows all over your floor, not that that could ever happen... * Rather than having it vent out a window, it's now venting out of a hole in the wall that was once for the exhaust port of a heater that was mounted to the wall. This enabled me to get it very close to the wall and even cut the collapsible hose down to 1/3 the size... the hose radiates heat, and now there's less of it. Also it's easier for it to discharge warm air since the path is shorter. * Periodically it will apparently draw a large spike of power and trip the breaker. Granted my old home has some pretty skuzzy wiring. It's not done it while I'm there to watch it, only while I'm away, so I come back to an 85 degree, muggy bedroom. The built in GFCI has not yet tripped. * The fact that these single hose units actively discharge cooled air and create negative pressure bothers me and I'm trying to find a not-entirely-inelegant way to provide this thing with a source of fresh outside air, effectively converting it to a dual hose unit... more to come on that But, still running strong after several heaves and hoes into and out of the closet and sitting unused for months and months at a time.

2nd Edit: This AC has been going STRONG for 3 summers in a row! This is the one to get. Also got another one from this brand with less BTU for our bedroom and this is the second summer it's going strong! Edit: Reviewed June 21st, it is now August 14th and it is still working AMAZINGLY. I found that since it is so humid in the summer in MN that the water accumulation needed to be drained constantly so we have ended up just keeping the drainage hose in the unit and having it empty continuously into a large container that we just dump out daily and sometimes twice daily. I think it could probably break the machine to have too much water accumulate in it, I’m not sure what would happen if it was full and was worried that would happen and it could leak into other parts of the machine so for now in these humid months we are just letting it drain 24/7. This is a great ac unit and dehumidifier, you definitely need it. It is very powerful and has literally saved my spouse and I from having to move in with my mom during the super hot weeks because we can’t afford $5000 for a new ac unit. It is amazing that on 100 degree days my living room is actually COLD! This is a really good AC unit, it works perfectly. I got it for our downstairs (we live in a smallish townhouse) living room/kitchen area. Not sure how many square feet our downstairs area is but I would guess less than 700. We got the 14,000 BTU unit that covers up to 700 sq ft. It runs constantly and yes is loud but I really don't care as long as it works, and it does. We have been keeping it set at 68 degrees and it basically just runs for a while then shuts off for a while and runs again, continuously throughout the day and night to keep it at that temperature. The only window we have in the downstairs of our townhouse is a sliding door, so we had to get a kit for the hose to run out of and for the whole height of the door opening to be covered. It is soooo hot and humid outside, but inside our house it is crisp and cool. We had to get this because our regular AC unit is completely broken and unfixable, its just too old and it quit on us. I bought this on 6/7 and it's now 6/21, I know that's not a super long time to know if it's going to keep working but I absolutely will edit my review if it stops working for any reason or becomes less effective. The remote is nice, I like having that option to change it, but I really don't have to use it much. From 6/7 to 6/21 with it running nonstop, we checked the water drainage compartment and it only had a small amount of water, like basically 1 or 2 shot glasses worth. Not sure how the nonstop use of the unit has effected our energy bill, will have to update on that when I get the bill.

I work from home. My home office, with all its computer equipment, heats up considerably. The office is always 15-20° warmer than the outdoor temp. In the summer, 90° outside can easily mean the office is 100-110°. Ouch. Not only is 100° an uncomfortable work environment, but it's dangerously hot for any computer equipment. Small 12x12 former bedroom -- I originally tried a Honeywell 8,000BTU unit. I gave up on that after a month or so and gave that unit away. It could not cool the room, due to the computer equipment, despite the unit running pretty much constantly. I then upgraded and for the past several years I've been running a Wynter 14,000 BTU portable AC. It was loud, but it did the job of cooling the room. The condenser burnt out about 6 months ago, but it would still blow cooler air and suck the hot air out of the room. So I continued to use it until I found a replacement. It never really got "cold" without the condenser functioning (and no one wanted to repair it) but would easily cool the room to a more livable temp - around 80°. However, it ran almost constantly in summer months. So my electric bills easily climbed by $100+ each month. Naturally, I decided to replace the old unit, which was breaking down, and decided on this Black&Decker 14,000BTU unit. The B&D unit EASILY cools the room in a few minutes and keeps it cool all day (cooling, then shutting off, then kicking back on several minutes later). Overall the B&D unit is much quieter than previous units I've owned. Of course there's the sound of the fan/rushing air when it's running, and there's a loud "ca-chunk" when it starts up the condenser (as expected). But, unlike previous units, I can still talk on the phone 5 feet away without having to first shut the unit off. In addition, the hose attachment on the back of the unit is LIGHT YEARS better than any previous unit I've seen. I do not want to have to install dual hoses for venting. So I will only look at/use one hose units. I always had trouble with hoses staying connected to the units. The "unit-to-hose connectors" other manufactures proved were a COMPLETE joke with no actual "locking" ability.. it was like resting a tissue on an outdoor picnic table and not expecting it to blow off. The hose would fall off then the unit would simply be blow hot air into the room rather than venting it out - actually heating the room as opposed to cooling it. I previously had to wrap the vent hose with a considerable amount of duct tape in order to keep it actually attached to the unit. The hose connection on the back of the B&D unit is SO MUCH BETTER and fool-proof. It essentially locks in place and stays put. No more worries about the host falling off. I like this feature a great deal, even though it's such a minor thing. My ONLY real complaint is the remote control. Not in its functionality, but in its design. The LCD screen REALLY needs some sort of illumination. Forget about reading the remote screen in a dimly lit room. I really dislike how dark the screen on the remote control is. But, it's not like I need to read the remote screen repeatedly or even frequently. I can live with it. But if they wanted to improve anything, it would be the illumination of the remote screen. I can't yet speak about longevity of the unit. I tend to use a portable AC every day, 14-16hrs, from about April through to about October.. and I got this B&D unit in Aug of this year. I would expect it to last at least 5 years, if not much longer. My last 14,000BTU unit lasted a decade before it started breaking down. If I factor in the cost over a 10 year lifespan, it's well worth it when considering at a per-year breakdown. I also can't directly speak about electric costs, as I've not had the B&D unit long enough to make an adequate comparison. However, since the B&D unit shuts off for several minutes after cooling, rather than continuously running, I would anticipate energy costs to be much lower than I've previously experienced. But I do consider any energy costs to be a necessary evil to both keep computer equipment at healthy temperatures and to not have to work in a 90° office. Overall, I'm pleased with the purchase. I was strongly looking at this unit for a few weeks weeks, researching, then it hit some sort of sale at Amazon and I purchased it for much a lower price through Amazon than I could have from ANY other retailer. I did shop around several online retailers for this same model and Amazon had the lowest price by literally hundreds of dollars at the time.

It does not get as cold as they say it does. Certainly doesn't put out 14K BTU's if you get that model. I bought and used this over the past 2 years, and I can tell you that it does put out cold air, but there's no way that it can put out 14K BTU or cool any where near 700 Sqft. I keep the fins cleaned, the condensate line is clear (it does make lot of condensate),so be ready for that. I live in Florida, so that's expected. I would estimate that in the real world, this 14K BTU rated 120 VAC device puts out about 60% to 65% of the advertised rated cooling capacity. So, its good for a 120 Sqft insulated bedroom to keep around 70F on hot day outside; but get another product like a 220VAC split unit at the same rating to get better than than in Florida or similar location. I personally would not buy another one based on the demonstrated cooling ability and the amount of current draw for a device like this. 220VAC is more efficient by far.

I bought this last summer when my AC conked out and I didn't want to immediately shell out the $5K+ it would take to replace it. But it's very hot and humid in my area so some relief was necessary. My brother lives in a house without central AC and uses a combination of window units (which aren't allowed where I live) and a portable unit similar to this one. I looked at number of different models and read a lot of reviews before settling on this one. (And I definitely wanted to order from Amazon because of the fast, free delivery right to my door, and also because of price.) I have to say that I was taken somewhat aback when it arrived in such a big, heavy box. Thank goodness the delivery person got it up the stairs to my door because I had a hard time just dragging it inside. I then let it sit there for a couple of days* while I got my nerve up to unpack it. I shouldn't have worried because the container was designed so the unit could be very easily removed. (But I then had to drag/roll it into the other room. Yes, I'm apparently a weakling.) *My delay was probably a good thing because there was a notation on the box that the unit shouldn't be turned on right away if the box had been turned on its side (the same as with fridges). I had no way to know if it had been turned on its side during shipping, but it was safest to assume it had been. Once in the right location, it was pretty easy to install. Again, I had been expecting something more complicated, but was pleasantly surprised. I didn't need any special tools or jury-rigging. It was literally a matter of minutes to get the vent set up in my window. So, how does it cool? Pretty well. It would probably be great in an enclosed room, but I have it set up in a more open area. It gets the immediate area pretty cool, but, of course, I can feel the temperature rise the further away from it that I walk. I can't fault the unit for that. It cools enough and reduces the humidity to make several small adjacent rooms comfortable/bearable. I left the unit set up in place all all thru the winter--didn't bother to take the vent out of the window--and it was fine even in the cold weather. I've never needed to empty the drip tray, despite the humidity. I don't use the remote since I mostly just set the temp and let it run, so I can't speak to how well it works. (But, eh, a remote's a remote.) When it's getting a workout, it does sometimes shut off because it ices over (there's a warning light that tells you what's happened). No action is required, tho; I just have to wait a few minutes and it restarts on its own when it's ready. It is a bit loud--louder than central AC, but about the same as a window unit. To be honest, I got used to it pretty quickly and don't even notice it anymore. It certainly doesn't bother me when I sleep or anything. I'm very pleased with this unit. It's done a great job, got me out of a bind, and saved me a bundle. It works well enough that I've been in no rush to replace the central AC (although I'll get around to it eventually).

Me llegó el día de hoy, y apenas empecé a hacer algunas pruebas y todo excelente !! Funciona correctamente, enfría bastante bien, a comparación de otro aire que tenía marca Hisense, es un cambio total, lo tengo en una recamara de 4 x 4 y en cuestión de 20 a 25 mins disminuyo 2 grados la temperatura, está bonito, y funciona perfectamente con Alexa !! Actualizaré más adelante, pero por el momento todo excelente !!

Très efficace

Super

Es una maravilla. Muy fácil de instalar. Pesado, robusto y muy práctico. Enfría perfectamente un área de 15 m2. Súper eficiente y económico. La verdad estoy maravillado. Tenía mis reservas y mis espectativas bajas pero realmente me sorprendió.

We have a very small place. It can't even keep a small living room cool. For the price I had higher expectations. Save your money and go buy a different one. I feel ripped off.