Midea PortaSplit

The Midea PortaSplit is the portable that behaves like a fixed split. Instead of one box venting warm air down a fat hose, it separates into a wheeled indoor unit and a compact outdoor unit joined by a pre-sealed, pre-charged refrigerant line, about 2 metres long, that feeds out through a window kit. That one change fixes the central flaw of a normal single-hose portable: the room stays sealed, so cooling is far more effective and much quieter, and the efficiency figures (SEER 6.1, A++ cooling, where SEER is the seasonal cooling efficiency rating) are the sort you expect from a wall-mounted split, not a plug-in unit. For a renter, a flat-dweller or anyone refused permission for a fixed outdoor condenser, it is the closest thing to real air conditioning you can set up yourself, with no F-Gas engineer and no wall drilling.

It is not flawless, and the name oversells one thing. At around 45 kg across two parts, tethered by a stiff 2 metre line to a window or an outside ledge, it is really a one-room fixture you position once, not something you wheel from room to room each day. It also costs roughly three times a conventional 12,000 BTU portable, and the 42 m² room claim is optimistic; treat it as a unit for a bedroom or a medium living room. Accept those trade-offs and it is the best answer we know of for cooling, and on the 12,000 BTU model heating, a home that cannot take a fitted system.

A normal portable air conditioner is a monobloc: one cabinet in the room with a wide hose to the window. It works, but pushing warm air out lowers the air pressure in the room, which pulls fresh hot air back in through every gap, and the compressor sitting in the room with you makes it noisy. The PortaSplit moves the compressor and condenser out into the small outdoor unit, so the room stays sealed and quiet and the heat is rejected properly outside. Midea's headline claims of six times the cooling and four times the efficiency against a conventional portable are its own marketing figures, but the principle is sound and the real-world results back it up.

Two versions are sold in the UK. The 8,000 BTU (2.5 kW) PortaSplit Cool is cooling-only; the 12,000 BTU (3.5 kW) model is a heat pump that also heats, and is the one most people mean. Both use R32 refrigerant in a factory-sealed circuit, so there is no engineer, no notifiable electrical work and no permanent alteration to the building, which is exactly why it appeals to renters, leaseholders, listed-property owners and anyone whose freeholder or local planning rules a fixed outdoor condenser out. You do still need somewhere outside for the small outdoor unit: a windowsill, a balcony, or the ground just outside the window.

Expect to pay around £900 to £1,200 for the 12,000 BTU heat-pump model; the cooling-only 8,000 BTU version sits lower. That is a steep premium over a normal portable, and the value case rests entirely on the quiet running, the efficiency and the heating, not on it being cheap. Stock is seasonal and sells out in heatwaves, so prices move: at the time of writing several specialist retailers were out of stock, with Amazon and Aircare the more reliable places to buy. Check availability as well as price before you commit.

On running cost, the inverter and high SEER do the work. Drawing on the order of 1 kW when it is working hard, at the July 2026 Ofgem price cap of 26.11p per kWh, eight hours of hard cooling costs roughly £2 a day, and the real-world average is usually lower once the room is up to temperature and the compressor eases off. Midea's claim of about £13 for the whole cooling season is a best-case manufacturer figure under its own test conditions, not a typical bill. As an air-to-air unit that is not permanently installed, the PortaSplit does not qualify for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant, which targets MCS-fitted heat pumps that replace fossil-fuel heating. Prices and rates correct as of July 2026; the energy price cap changes quarterly, so check current rates before budgeting.