Best portable air conditioners UK 2026

If you want the short answer: for most UK homes the strongest all-round portable air conditioner is the MeacoCool Pro 9000 CH, which cools a medium room quickly, heats in spring and autumn and costs around £400. If you will run it most days, the De'Longhi Pinguino PAC EX100 Silent costs noticeably less per hour, and if quiet matters more than price, the Midea PortaSplit keeps its compressor outside and is the quietest portable we review (our MeacoCool Pro 9000 vs De'Longhi Pinguino PAC EX100 comparison sets the first two head to head). These are genuine refrigerant units that vent hot air through a hose out of a window. They cool a real room, unlike the cheap "no hose" gadgets that are usually evaporative coolers and barely move the temperature in a humid British summer.

This guide ranks the portable models you can actually buy in the UK by use case and budget, gives the honest indoor noise figure for each on quiet mode, and then cuts through the marketing so you buy the right thing once.

Prices and availability were checked in October 2026, when a lot of portables are sold out until the spring restock, so check the retailer before buying. Portable air conditioner prices swing sharply between off-season and heatwaves, and the energy price cap changes quarterly, so always confirm the live price first.

Our top picks at a glance

Noise figures are indoor sound-pressure dB(A) on the lowest or sleep setting where the maker publishes one. Where only a sound-power dB figure is available it is labelled as such, and that number is not comparable with the dB(A) figures (see the noise section below). Prices and stock correct as of October 2026; re-check before buying.

Do "no hose" portable air conditioners actually work?

This is the single most important thing to understand before you spend a penny. A genuine refrigerant air conditioner has to send its waste heat somewhere, and that means a hose out of a window. It pumps heat out of the room. Run the same unit with the hose disconnected and it will heat the room, not cool it.

So a "portable air conditioner with no hose" is almost always something else: an evaporative air cooler. That is a fan blowing over a wet pad. It adds moisture to the air and drops the temperature by only a few degrees, and it works poorly in humid UK summers. AirconCentre states air coolers "are not suitable for extremely humid environments or areas with temperatures that exceed 30°C" and lower a room "by a maximum of a few degrees". Meaco puts it plainly: air coolers "work best in arid countries but are not very effective in Britain, where we have humid summers".

The handful of genuine no-hose compressor units, such as the Coolzy-Pro, get around the laws of physics by being tiny personal spot coolers (roughly 1,100 to 3,500 BTU), aimed at cooling the person rather than the room. The £30 to £40 "mini AC" and USB desk gadgets are evaporative coolers too, not air conditioners. If you want to cool a hot room, you want a hosed refrigerant unit. For the full breakdown, see our guide to portable air conditioners without a hose.

The best portable air conditioners, reviewed

MeacoCool Pro 9000 CH (best overall)

Meaco is a UK brand, and the MeacoCool Pro 9000 is the portable we would point most people towards: it cools a medium room quickly, you can switch it on from your phone before you get home, and the CH version heats as well. The cooling-only model has gone, so the CH is the one to buy.

Best for: living rooms, home offices and spare rooms of around 16 to 26 m2, where you want one unit to cool in summer and take the chill off in spring and autumn.

• It is a 9,000 BTU (about 2.6 kW) single-hose unit with 8,100 BTU of reverse-cycle heating on the CH model (MC9000CHRPRO), plus dehumidify and fan modes. It is self-evaporating in cooling mode, so it rarely needs draining.

• Meaco quotes 52 to 54 dB(A) indoors, which is fine in a living room but noticeable on the high fan, so it is not quiet enough to sleep right beside.

• Energy rating A, R290 refrigerant, Wi-Fi with the Meaco app, Alexa and Google, and both a sash kit and a flexible window kit in the box.

Pros: cools quickly and holds the temperature well, cheap to run for a portable at roughly 21p to 26p an hour, and it heats as well as cools.

Cons: not bedroom-quiet, the app works but feels clunky, and at around 24 kg it is a unit you wheel rather than carry.

Price: around £400, from about £370 at Costco to £410 at Air Con Centre, which had it in stock. Last checked October 2026.

Pro Breeze 4-in-1 14,000 BTU (best for large rooms)

If you are trying to cool an open-plan space or a large, south-facing room, raw output matters, and the Pro Breeze 4-in-1 14,000 BTU is the most powerful conventional portable we review.

Best for: large living rooms, loft offices and open-plan spaces of up to around 30 m2.

• 14,000 BTU (about 4.1 kW) of cooling from a single-hose R290 unit that also dehumidifies and runs as a fan, but does not heat.

• One retailer quotes 54 to 62 dB(A), and the 65 dB in the manual is probably sound power, so use night mode if it sits near a bed.

• Energy rating A, a Wi-Fi app that works well with Alexa and Google, a 24-hour timer, and both sliding and hinged window kits included.

Pros: strong, fast cooling for big rooms, smart control that is genuinely useful, and self-evaporating with an optional continuous drain.

Cons: heavy at about 29 kg, audible on full power, no heating, and about 41p an hour to run flat out.

Price: around £740 to £770. It was sold out direct from Pro Breeze, with stock expected back in March 2027. Last checked October 2026.

De'Longhi Pinguino PAC EX100 Silent (most efficient one-piece)

De'Longhi's Pinguino is the best-known portable range in the UK, and the PAC EX100 Silent is the one to buy if you will run it a lot, because it costs less per hour than almost anything else here.

Best for: medium living rooms, offices and main bedrooms that you want cool most days through a hot spell.

• 10,000 BTU (2.5 kW) single-hose unit with R290 that cools, dehumidifies at up to 32 litres a day and runs as a fan, but does not heat.

• From about 49 dB(A) in silent mode, rising into the low to mid 50s at full power, so it is quieter than most one-piece portables without being silent.

• Energy rating A++ with an EER of 3.6 on a rated 700 W, which works out at roughly 18p to 23p an hour at full cooling.

Pros: unusually efficient for a portable, solidly built, with simple controls and a clever Real Feel auto mode.

Cons: premium price, heavy at about 30 kg, and no Wi-Fi or heating.

Price: around £870 to £950. It was sold out almost everywhere in October 2026 and may be leaving the range, so check availability before you set your heart on it. Last checked October 2026.

If you want a De'Longhi for occasional heatwave cooling, the cheaper Pinguino PAC EM82 (9,400 BTU, A rated, quoted by De'Longhi at 47 to 50 dB(A)) is around £550 to £600. It costs more per hour than the EX100 and its 1.2 m hose is short, but for a few weeks a year the lower price wins.

Russell Hobbs RHPAC11001 (best value)

The pick when you want plenty of cooling for the money and can live with a heavy unit and a fussy window kit. The Russell Hobbs RHPAC11001 sells well for a reason.

Best for: living rooms, offices and bedrooms of up to around 21 m2 on a tighter budget.

• 11,000 BTU (about 3.2 kW) single-hose unit that cools, dehumidifies at up to 1.5 litres an hour and runs as a fan; there is no heating on this model.

• Energy rating A and R290 refrigerant. It draws about 1.23 kW, so it costs roughly 32p an hour at full cooling.

• The label gives 65 dB(A) of sound power and no quiet-mode figure, but it is quieter than many single-hose rivals, and the night mode dims the display and slows the fan enough to sleep with.

Pros: lots of cooling for the price, a night mode that genuinely helps, and a capable dehumidifier for damp months.

Cons: heavy at 31 kg, a window kit that only suits UPVC windows opening on three or four sides, no heating and a short guarantee.

Price: around £300 to £380, with new units nearer £380 on Amazon and repackaged stock around £300 when clearance sellers have it. Last checked October 2026.

If app and voice control matter on a budget, the Devola DVAC10CW (10,000 BTU, Wi-Fi with Alexa and Google, and a sash window kit in the box) is worth knowing about. It is loud at 54 to 55 dB(A) and after-sales support is its weak spot, and at around £450 on pre-order until December it makes far more sense in a summer sale.

Midea PortaSplit (quietest)

The Midea PortaSplit is the portable that behaves like a fixed split. The compressor sits in a small outdoor unit, joined to the indoor unit by a pre-sealed line that runs through a part-open window, so the noisy part of the machine stays outside.

Best for: renters, flats and anyone who cannot have a fitted split but wants quiet cooling and proper heating in one room of around 16 to 30 m2.

• 12,000 BTU (3.5 kW) of cooling and 11,000 BTU (3.2 kW) of heating, with R32 refrigerant in a factory-sealed circuit and a 2 m line between the two parts.

• Indoor noise runs from 39 dB(A) on silent to 49 dB(A) on high, well below any one-piece portable; the outdoor unit is about 56 dB(A).

• A SEER of 6.1 and SCOP of 4.0, A++ for cooling and A+ for heating, which is unusually efficient for something that plugs into a 13 A socket.

Pros: quiet indoors, efficient, heats well, and needs no engineer, drilling or planning application.

Cons: roughly three times the price of a conventional 12,000 BTU portable, two heavy parts that stay in one room, and you need a spot outside for the outdoor unit.

Price: around £950 to £1,175 for the 12,000 BTU heat pump model. Last checked October 2026.

Meaco Cirro 12000 (quieter 12,000 BTU)

The Meaco Cirro 12000 has taken over from the MeacoCool MC Series Pro 12000, and it is built around a Super Quiet mode for anyone who wants to run a bigger portable at night.

Best for: bedrooms and home offices of about 20 to 30 m2, and light sleepers who would find most 12,000 BTU portables too loud.

• 12,000 BTU (about 3.5 kW) single-hose unit, sold cooling only or as a CH version that adds 10,000 BTU of heating, with R290 refrigerant.

• Meaco quotes 45 to 51 dB, the lower figure in Super Quiet mode; at full cooling it is still clearly audible.

• Energy rating A, Wi-Fi with the Meaco app, Alexa and Google, and both a sash kit and a flexible window kit.

Pros: one of the calmer portables for night-time running, cools a bedroom quickly, and comes with a heating option.

Cons: heavy at 28.45 kg with no carry handles, no inverter at this price, and hard to get hold of.

Price: around £520 for cooling only and £540 with heating. Both were sold out in October 2026, with Meaco expecting the CH model back in October and the cooling-only model in March 2027, so a stock alert is your best bet. Last checked October 2026.

EcoFlow Wave 3 (best for small rooms and garden rooms)

The unusual one: the EcoFlow Wave 3 is a small dual-duct portable that cools, heats and can run from an optional clip-on battery, which makes it handy for box rooms and garden rooms where a standard portable is awkward to vent.

Best for: box rooms, small home offices and garden rooms of up to about 12 m2, plus the odd power cut or trip away with the battery.

• 6,100 BTU (1.8 kW) of cooling and 6,800 BTU (2 kW) of heating with R290, and two insulated ducts so it does not pull warm air in from the rest of the house.

• An optional 1,024 Wh battery gives two to eight hours of cord-free running and charges from the mains, solar panels or a car.

• EcoFlow quotes 44 dB in sleep mode and up to 58 dB at full power. It carries no standard UK energy label.

Pros: quiet in sleep mode, cheap to run as a heater for its size, light at 15.6 kg, and it works off-grid.

Cons: expensive for modest cooling, only suits small rooms, two ducts to route and seal, and the battery adds about £500 and 9.7 kg.

Price: around £799 for the unit and £1,299 with the battery. Stock is patchy, with some sellers back-ordered into the new year. Last checked October 2026.

How to choose a portable air conditioner

A few decisions get you to the right unit quickly.

• Match the BTU to the room. As a rough guide, convert BTU to kilowatts by dividing by 3,412 (so 9,000 BTU is about 2.6 kW). Portables vent some waste heat back into the room and are less efficient than fixed splits, so add roughly 10 to 15% to the figure you would use for a fixed unit. Our air conditioner BTU and room-size guide walks through the sizing, or our BTU calculator will do the sums for your room.

• Single-hose vs dual-hose. Single-hose units (almost everything sold here) push room air out, which draws warm air back in through gaps and makes them a little less efficient. Dual-hose units take and return condenser air from outside and avoid that, but are rarer in the UK.

• Check the noise scale, not just the number. A unit listed at "65 dB" is usually quoting sound power, which sounds dramatic; the indoor sound-pressure figure on quiet mode is the one you actually hear, and it is much lower. See the noise section below.

• Decide if you need heating or smart control. Reverse-cycle models heat as well as cool. WiFi and app control are worth having if you want to start the unit before you get home.

• Self-evaporating saves hassle. In cooling mode most current mid-range units recycle condensate and vent it as vapour, so there is rarely a tank to empty. You only collect water on dehumidify mode.

What the noise figures really mean

Two different noise scales appear on portable air conditioner listings, and retailers often quote the higher one without saying so.

• Sound pressure dB(A) is what you hear at a normal distance. On quiet or sleep mode, good portables sit around 46 to 53 dB(A).

• Sound power dB is the total acoustic energy the machine produces and reads higher, typically 63 to 65 dB for the same unit.

They are not interchangeable, so never compare a 50 dB(A) sound-pressure figure with a 65 dB sound-power figure and conclude one is louder. Throughout this guide we have used the indoor sound-pressure dB(A) on quiet mode wherever the manufacturer publishes one, and flagged the units where only a sound-power figure exists. If low noise is the deciding factor for you, our round-up of the quietest portable air conditioners in the UK ranks the leading models by their verified quiet-mode figures.

How much does a portable air conditioner cost to run?

A typical 9,000 BTU portable draws around 1 kW. Using the Ofgem price cap of 26.32p/kWh (the Oct to Dec 2026 cap), the maths is straightforward:

• 1 kW for 1 hour = 1 kWh = 26.32p per hour.

• Run for 8 hours a day, that is about £2.11 a day, or roughly £63 a month at daily use.

AirconCentre quotes a broader real-world range of about 30 to 40p an hour for a 9,000 BTU unit once you account for higher-draw models and warm-up cycles, which works out at roughly £70 to £100 a month at 8 to 9 hours a day. An evaporative cooler, by contrast, draws around 0.1 kW and costs only a few pence an hour, but remember it barely cools a humid room. There is more detail in our air conditioning running costs guide.

Running costs updated in October 2026 using the Ofgem cap of 26.32p/kWh (Oct to Dec 2026). The cap changes quarterly, so check the current rate before budgeting.

Do you need planning permission or an installer for a portable unit?

No, and this is a genuine advantage of portables over fixed split systems.

• No F-Gas installer. Plug-in portables are sealed, self-contained refrigerant units (usually R290 propane), so you do not need an F-Gas certified installer. You plug them in and vent through a window. That makes them well suited to renters.

• No planning permission. There is no external condenser fixed to the building, so permitted-development and planning rules for fixed units do not apply.

• No notifiable electrical or building work. A plug-in appliance does not trigger Part P or Part L.

The trade-off is performance and tidiness: a wall-mounted split system cools more effectively, runs more quietly and looks neater, but needs a qualified installer and, if it heats as well as cools, may need planning permission. If a portable is a stop-gap and you are weighing up the permanent option, compare local installers for a fixed quote. To see how portables stack up against fixed and split systems, our guide to the best air conditioning units of any type covers the whole market.