Ambient Air

Why Portable ACs Need Exhaust Hoses

Why Portable ACs Need Exhaust Hoses - HVAC Ventilation
Why-Portable-ACs-Need-Exhaust-Hoses -HVAC Ventilation

When it comes to portable ACs, exhaust hoses are indispensable. The portable-air-conditioner exhaust-hose is the pathway through which heat exits your room. Essentially, portable air-conditioners intake warm air and replace it with cold air. But, this warm air must have somewhere to go, for if it simply stays in your room, your room will not actually become cooler. The AC unit channels the warm air through a tube, releasing it into an area that is beyond the confines of your room. This tube is attached to the back of your portable AC, and it is through this piece of ductwork that your unit pushes hot air to areas outside of your room. But what happens if you don’t use the exhaust hose on a portable air-conditioner? That is, do you have to use the exhaust hose on a portable air-conditioner? By and large, a portable air-conditioner must have an exhaust hose. Otherwise, the unit will accomplish nothing, and will—perhaps—even be counterproductive. And if you already have a portable-AC with hose-work, you might still want to consider a portable-air-conditioner-exhaust-hose replacement. Your portable-AC-unit hose may be suboptimal—offering poor insulation and flexibility, or suffering from other conditions that are draining your electricity. In other words, it is not enough to have just any hose for exhausting your portable AC. There are multiple variables for you to consider, especially if you want to maximize the efficiency of your unit.

“Air Ventilator Heavy-Duty”

$183.50$597.50
Temperature Range: -20°F to +180°F Sizes I.D. (in.): 6, 8, 12, 14, 16, & 24

“HVAC Ventilation-Flex”

$42.00$121.25
Some Sizes Out of Stock Temperature Range: -20°F to +160°F Sizes I.D. (in.): 4, 6, 8, 10, & 12

“PVC Flexduct Light-Duty Clear”

$66.25$1,819.00
Lead Time 4-6 Weeks Temperature Range: -20°F to +160°F Sizes I.D. (in.): 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2, 2.25, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, & 18

“Thermoplastic Flex Medium-Duty WS”

$73.75$1,915.75
Temperature Range: -40°F to 275°F. Sizes I.D. (in.): 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, & 24

Do You Have to Use the Exhaust Hose on a Portable Air-Conditioner?

Yes, you have to use the exhaust hose on a portable air-conditioner. Otherwise, your portable air-conditioner will not cool your room. The portable-air-conditioner exhaust-hose is what carries the hot air out of your room. If you do not use a portable-air-conditioner duct, the hot air that your unit expels will re-enter, instead of exit, your room. Again, portable ACs work by steadily replacing the hot air in your room with cooler air. This hot air must be displaced somewhere beyond the walls of your room, or your room will not feel colder. However, there are some types of portable air-conditioners that do not require exhaust hoses. These types of portable AC-units are known as evaporative coolers, and—although they do not need exhaust ducting—many of them nonetheless require ductwork for purposes beside exhausting. Mainly, evaporative coolers use hoses to direct the flow of the cool air that they generate. Many users use evaporative-cooling ducts to connect evaporative coolers to their homes’ pre-existing system of ventilation; this effectively extends the reach of their portable AC-units, allowing these units to cool entire homes rather than just single rooms. This is why this kind of ductwork is sometimes also known as a swamp-cooler ceiling-vent. In any case, it is clear that ductwork and portable-ACs tend to go hand-in-hand, regardless of the type of portable AC you have. And given how vital ducting is for portable AC-units, it makes sense that ensuring that your unit has high-quality ducting is one of the main ways to upgrade its effectiveness. By the same token, when your unit seems to be functioning improperly, it is often poor ductwork that is the culprit.

What Happens If You Don’t Use the Exhaust Hose on a Portable Air-Conditioner?

If you don’t use the exhaust hose on a portable air-conditioner, your unit will not function properly. It will not cool your room; without a portable-air-conditioner exhaust-hose, your unit simply wastes electricity, at best. Even worse, without an exhaust hose, your unit will likely heat your room, instead of cool it. How? First off, without a portable-air-conditioner exhaust-hose, your unit has no way of removing hot air from your room. This hot air will merely cycle back into your room, and—in this respect—the unit will have no effect on the net temperature of your room.

This is the best-case scenario for users who choose not to employ a portable-AC duct. More likely than not, though, your unit will actually heat your room if you do not use a portable-air-conditioner vent. Because the heat consumes electricity while it operates, it naturally produces heat in addition to the heat that it attempts to displace from your room. Thus, while your unit does nothing to cool your room, the small amount of heat that your unit generates will slowly accumulate, eventually making your room noticeably hotter than it was before. So, ­­what happens if you don’t use the exhaust hose on a portable air-conditioner?

PVC Flexduct General Purpose Clear - Flex Shot

Nothing good, at best—and bad things, at worst. Your unit certainly will not do anything to cool your room, and it will merely consume energy while providing you with nothing in return. In fact, it may just heat your room. The small amounts of heat that your unit naturally generates from its operation will accumulate, leading to a noticeable rise in the temperature of your room. Thus, it is in your best interests to properly exhaust your portable AC with a high-quality hose. Now, what if you do have a portable-AC vent-hose? Can you run a portable air-conditioner without venting it outside?

Can You Run a Portable Air-Conditioner Without Venting It Outside?

No, you cannot run a portable air-conditioner without venting it outside of your room. You need to connect your portable-air-conditioner vent to a window or some other aperture that connects the area within your room to an area beyond it. But this does not necessarily mean that you need to vent your portable AC outside. It is perfectly fine to connect your portable-air-conditioner duct to an opening that connects your room to, say, a hallway or another room in your home. Of course, the air that your unit exhausts is hot. These other rooms into which you exhaust your portable AC will, therefore, inevitably become hotter. But your portable AC-unit will nonetheless be doing its job: cooling the room in which you place it. The point is that you absolutely do have to vent your portable AC outside of the room it is in if you want that room to become cooler. Now, let us assume that you have everything properly set up. Your portable AC is hooked up to a portable-air-conditioner exhaust-hose. And you have connected it to, say, a window in your room. Is that all you have to worry about? Not necessarily. For, does the exhaust hose on a portable AC get hot? And if it does, is there anything wrong with that?

Does the Exhaust Hose on a Portable AC Get Hot?

The exhaust hose on a portable AC gets hot if the hose is not properly insulated. If you find your portable-air-conditioner tube hot, it is leaking heat into your room, lowering the rate at which your portable AC cools the room and wasting a portion of the energy it consumes. For example, when I bring my portable-air-conditioner hose near me, I might find it hot. Immediately, I know this is a problem. For, when your portable-air-conditioner hose is hot, the heat from within the hose has successfully traveled to the hose’s outermost walls. This heat will then transfer into the air surrounding the portable-air-conditioner tubing. And since portable-air-conditioner hoses are almost always positioned within the rooms alongside their units, the heat that radiates from the portable-air-conditioner tube will counteract the cooling that the unit is doing. In other words, a some of the heat that the unit is attempting to expel outside is instead re-entering your room. Consequently, compared to a portable AC with a cool hose, a unit with a hot hose cools a room less for every unit of energy that it spends.

Thus, if your portable-AC hose is hot, that is a problem, and you should quickly solve it so that your portable AC stops needlessly inflating your energy bill. But how can this problem be avoided? If portable-air-conditioner hoses are meant to transport hot air, how can users stop them from becoming hot? The answer is simple: insulation. An insulated portable-air-conditioner-hose is the ideal solution for preventing a portable-AC hose from becoming hot. And oftentimes, the reason why a unit is operating inefficiently is because the unit’s ductwork lacks the level of insulation that it needs to prevent heat from leaking back into the room.

For the most part, the hoses that come with most portable ACs are poorly made, offering little in the way of durability and flexibility—let alone insulation. These hoses are typically made of polypropylene, a cheap type of plastic that easily tears, kinks, and scratches. Even one, tiny fissure in the walls of a hose can severely diminish the efficiency of your portable AC-unit—so the fact that the ductwork that comes with most portable ACs is vulnerable to this type of damage is harrowing. Thus, one of the best things you can do to enhance the efficacy of your portable AC is upgrade its hose. A portable-AC-hose replacement is not difficult to come by. And these options are often made with industrial-grade materials that will likely outlast your unit itself! For example, our HVAC Ventilation-Flex Duct is a cost-effective, insulated portable-AC-hose that is highly durable, flexible, as well as insulating. It features a PVC outer-wall that protects the hose from tears and abrasions. This outer-wall is also reinforced with a steel helix that spirals throughout the hose’s body. This flexible and compressible frame further enhances hose’s durability, significantly increasing its ability to resist crushes. The hose’s middle layer is composed mainly of PET film, a material well-known for its relatively unmatched insulating capabilities. While other hoses, like our HVAC Insulated-Flex Duct, might instead use glass wool as a middle layer, PET film offers similar degrees of insulation. And finally, portable-AC insulated-duct should feature a material such as aluminum along its interior. Aluminum is one of the best materials for lining the interior of an insulated hose for portable-air-conditioner applications because of the metal’s natural ability to reflect heat. Thus, both our HVAC Ventilation-Flex and HVAC Insulated-Flex Ducts—of course—feature aluminum interior-walls. In sum, if you find that your portable-AC hose is hot, it is more than likely that your hose suffers from poor insulation. The best way to remedy this issue is to obtain a high-quality, portable-air-conditioner exhaust-hose that has insulation features built into its design.

At the end of the day, portable ACs are simple devices. Fundamentally, they displace hot air from your room, replacing it with cool air. But many users forget how important their units’ ductwork is to their AC unit’s proper functioning. The portable-air-conditioner exhaust-hose occupies a central role in the effective operation of a portable AC-unit. Thus, when you find that your unit does not cool your room as fast as it used to, the natural course of action should be to first take a look at its ducting. Oftentimes, damaged or otherwise malfunctioning ducting is the cause of many of a portable AC’s issues.

Furthermore, even if your ductwork is undamaged, it may lack the features it needs to cool your room at the optimal rate. Proper insulation, for example, is a key factor to consider when evaluating your portable-AC-unit exhaust-hose. While there are other ways of insulating your hose beside using a hose that comes with insulation features pre-installed, those solutions are largely short-term options that leave you wishing you invested in a high-quality, long-term solution from the beginning. To get the most out of your unit, use a robust and flexible hose to exhaust the heat from your room.

Thermoplastic Flex Medium Duty WS - Entry Shot

We also know very well that every application is unique. Your portable AC may have specifications that require a very specific interior-diameter and length of ductwork. As you browse our selection of portable-air-conditioner hoses, take note of the different interior-diameter sizes and different lengths in which every hose is offered. If you do not see a hose with the measurements you require, or if you want a certain hose but it does not come in the specifications you need, you can always give us a call. We will happily customize your ductwork for you.