Dual Hose Portable Air Conditioner

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raytaylor

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#323498 9-Dec-2025 08:04

I have long said I think single-hose portable air conditioners should be illegal and only dual hose models should be sold in NZ.
The local Delonghi distributor I believe imported a dual hose portable air conditioner about 15 years ago for about 2 months and then discontinued it while only continuing with single-hose models.

And so I have been long waiting for dual hose models to re-appear in the new zealand appliance market.

It appears the Jaycar portable air conditioner model GH1574 is indeed a dual hose model.

Just had to tell someone.

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Dynamic

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#3441884 9-Dec-2025 09:05

What do you see as the advantage of a dual-hose model? I would guesstimate that with a single hose model, hot air is exhausted to the outside world, and replacement air is sucked into the room through gaps in doors and windows?

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ANglEAUT

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#3441894 9-Dec-2025 09:47

Dynamic:

What do you see as the advantage of a dual-hose model? I would guesstimate that with a single hose model, hot air is exhausted to the outside world, and replacement air is sucked into the room through gaps in doors and windows?

Agreed. Also, the replacement air from inside the room should already be cooler instead of pulling in the hot air from outside (30°C+) & cooling cooling it down to 18°C.

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littlehead

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#3441896 9-Dec-2025 09:49

Dynamic:

What do you see as the advantage of a dual-hose model?

Link to the inevitable Technology Connections video.

Every year I do a search on the local market for a dual hose portable AC but never find one. That one did come up as basically the only option apart from an industrial model that Tradetested has. The issue with that Jaycar portable one is it has about half the cooling capacity of a similarly priced single hose unit. I need to look at the forecast for this summer, if its bad i might end up doing the manual duct and duct tape mod to a single hose unit.

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#3441944 9-Dec-2025 10:43

I saw this at Briscoes in Tauranga last week.

Probably not the dual hose you meant, but for the rest of the day all I could think about was this...

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johno1234

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#3441988 9-Dec-2025 13:49

Danger Will Robinson!

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#3441993 9-Dec-2025 13:57

I have to say it was a very effective machine.

Cold air blasting out both arm-tubes kept all the people in the long queue cool as cucumbers.

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timbosan

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#3441996 9-Dec-2025 14:09

This is a very interesting solution! Takes me back to the self-install heat-pump (QuikConnect???) that I put in myself many years ago. Now I am on the lookout for something I can add to my cabin that doesn't costs a couple of grand (not worth it for something that isn't lived in....)

For those interesting, link is here Brass Monkey Portable Air Conditioning Unit - 5100BTU | Jaycar New Zealand
Rated power draw is 600
Rated noise is 44-55db which is very low for a portable unit

They are in stock near me, I might go have a look!

(BTW if I did buy and install I would probably make a semi-permeant install and cut a hole in the wall and seal around the pipe.)

Anyone used one of these units?

tweake

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#3442058 9-Dec-2025 18:13

ANglEAUT:

Dynamic:

What do you see as the advantage of a dual-hose model? I would guesstimate that with a single hose model, hot air is exhausted to the outside world, and replacement air is sucked into the room through gaps in doors and windows?

Agreed. Also, the replacement air from inside the room should already be cooler instead of pulling in the hot air from outside (30°C+) & cooling cooling it down to 18°C.

replacement air still comes from outside, so its heating up the air in the room, which you then cool down. its kinda the opposite version of MythBusters testing the open fire place makes the house colder myth. which it does, the replacement air being sucked in cools down the rest of the house.

dual hose isn't great because it can suck in its own exhaust hot exhaust air. just like many window rattlers. ideally you want the hoses going out different windows.

raytaylor

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#3442168 9-Dec-2025 20:17

littlehead:

The issue with that Jaycar portable one is it has about half the cooling capacity of a similarly priced single hose unit.

I actually think it would still perform better as its not having to work against the negative pressure problem.
Also there are two models - they have a smaller 24v unit geared more for camping. This one is mains powered which can also be used for camping - if mains power is nearby.

I would assume the 24v model has less cooling capability than the mains powered one.

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raytaylor

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#3442169 9-Dec-2025 20:28

timbosan:

Takes me back to the self-install heat-pump (QuikConnect???) that I put in myself many years ago.

Those were also advertised as a "semi-portable" one but i think they became illegal? because you would loose a teeny tiny bit of gas every time you connected / disconnected them.
They were really just a self-install mini-split system.

We actually bought one for my parents house and installed it ourselves. They were great because they only cost about $1500 but it meant you didnt need to pay $600 for an installer if you were capable of doing some basic wiring yourself.

Its still running 15 years later.

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tieke

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#3442178 9-Dec-2025 21:06

I picked up one of the Jaycar Brass Monkey units a week or so ago to provide some cooling in a campervan when at a powered site -used it this past weekend, and it worked pretty well. As with most portable aircon units, directly in front is the best location for getting cool, but it did produce quite a good stream of cold air.

Because I didn't want to annoy neighbouring campers I kept the unit inside the van, venting through the front window, but if you were at home, the most efficient way would be to have the entire unit outside with just the cold hose coming through the window. That way the hot exhaust pipe isn't adding to the room temperature, and the noise of the unit is diminished. I considered having it half in and out of the window like a mini split, but that was basically the worst of both options.

One annoying thing about it is that the ventilation pipe diameter is around 4.5", which is smaller than the standard 5" ducting, and larger than standard 100mm ducting.

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tieke

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#3442181 9-Dec-2025 21:20

It also comes with only two hoses, so if you're intending to use all three vent attachments, you'll need to cut one of the hoses up or buy an additional one.

I've picked up a bit of insulation for the return heat hose, which is designed for a 5" hose but should work well enough. The install was just done quickly with bits and pieces I had lying around, but works OK, although I'll pick up some vent covers.

tieke

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#3442182 9-Dec-2025 21:23

You'll also need a container for the water pipe if you're not letting it directly drip outside - I had it running into a small half litre container, but it produced probably a litre of water over a couple of hours, so I'll change that to a bucket.

kiwirock

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#3442195 9-Dec-2025 23:22

Yeah there's a few outlets selling them. They started selling them in Aussie only a month or two ago too.

I'm thinking of getting one next week. They are only 600W input though (so about 1.5kW cooling).

Having both the inlet and outlet side of the condenser using outside air, they are at least an actual 'room' air conditioner in my eyes.

Those single outside vent units I think are pointless, unless you're happy to cool only the air directly pointed at you from the unit. In which case, you can get higher output (along with more noise) as a personal air conditioner. But I have never seen the point in the condenser side sucking in more outside warm air in, defeats the whole point.

I think the EcoFLow Wave units offer piped condenser inlet as well, along with all the bobs and whistles for smart remote and monitoring.

Cheers,

Gavin.

kiwirock

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#3442196 9-Dec-2025 23:30

To add further to my other reply, the only down side is the LED temp display you can hardly read during daylight, and the condenser inlet adapter will need modified to actually stay on properly.