Methodology: portable air conditioners

Every portable air conditioner ranking uses the same five criteria and the same fixed weights. The weights are set before any product is assessed, and they appear on every ranking page. Four of them are arithmetic and account for 65% of the score between them: we calculate cooling capacity per cubic metre and price per kW, while noise level and energy label come straight from the stated specifications. The fifth criterion, everyday use in practice, carries 35% and is a judgement. That is deliberately the heaviest part: with an appliance you live with for years, what decides whether you are happy with it is daily use, not the figure on the box. We base that judgement on what the manufacturer documents and on what owners report in reviews at the retailers selling the product. Where those two diverge, practice weighs more. We do not collect those reviews ourselves and cannot verify that a reviewer actually bought the product, so only recurring patterns carry weight and every score states where we read. The total score is the weighted sum of the five sub-scores, and the order of the list follows from that total rather than from an editorial preference. We earn a commission on referrals to retailers, but commission plays no part in this calculation.

Criteria en gewichten

Arithmetic on published specifications decides 65% of the total score. The rest is a judgement, and every judged score names its source.

What we judge on

Everyday use in practice

Beoordeel hoe het apparaat is om mee te leven, uit twee bronnen samen. Ten eerste wat de fabrikant documenteert: meegeleverde raamafdichtingskit, aantal slangen, timer, afstandsbediening of app, en of de nachtstand het vermogen daadwerkelijk terugregelt. Ten tweede wat eigenaren melden in reviews bij de winkels waar het product te koop is, met nadruk op wat pas na weken blijkt: betrouwbaarheid, hoe de raamafdichting zich houdt, of het geluid in de praktijk overeenkomt met de opgave, en hoe de fabrikant reageert bij problemen. Waar documentatie en praktijk uiteenlopen, weegt de praktijk zwaarder. Alleen terugkerende patronen tellen mee, geen losse ervaringen. Bij elke beoordeling staat welke documentatie en welke reviewpagina's gelezen zijn en wanneer. Wij verzamelen deze reviews niet zelf en verifiëren niet of de reviewer het product daadwerkelijk heeft gekocht.

Model version 2, effective from 2026-08-05. Changing a criterion or a weight produces a new version number; earlier versions remain.