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Researched everything I could find (including the reviews here on Amazon.) It seemed the most consistent complaints were about the over-flowing water pan and the noise. Kinda like a baby: it pees and it howls. So I knew what I was in for.
On the water: I'm not gonna criticize the machine for working so effectively on dehumidifying that it overflows quickly (although the manual does mention once that it has a "small" back-up tank to handle the water that isn't evaporated out the exhaust hose.) My solution was this: first, I placed an old metal t.v. tray with a lip all the way around it (to catch minor leaks at the base, though there haven't been any), on top of a simple step-stool (with a broad base.) The unit sits on the t.v. tray. That elevates the base 12 inches off the ground. This gives enough height to simply plop the drain-hose into the top of a one-gallon jug (I'm using an Arizona green tea jug 'cause it's a thicker plastic and unlikely to deteriorate. Bad for landfills, great for my application.)
Almost good enough, but it easily fills two gallons a day (if I run it constantly), here in Alabama. It only took one overflow when I forgot to check it, & I picked up a 4-gallon clear plastic 16" X 11" X 7"-high Sterilite pan for three bucks. With the gallon jug placed inside the pan (since that's easier to empty when I remember it), I have a couple days of 24-hour running without emptying, before an overflow makes it to my carpet. And I placed a regular school-type ruler between the t.v. tray & the step-stool to provide just enough backward tilt to ensure that the water would flow properly to the rear. Not too much: those wheels roll really well. In my placement, the exhaust hose (nearly at its shortest) stabilizes the unit.
Now, I know all this bucket-and-pan stuff ain't purty. But geez, there's this big ol' humongous exhaust hose right above it, so what's a little bucket or two? And it's clear plastic: if it really bothers me I can put some decals on it, right?
BTW, the hose drains MUCH better when you remember to remove the plug.
For the noise: yup, kinda noisy. But I sit about three feet in front of it while I do online videoconference-tutoring, and I usually can get away with using the speaker on my phone, except for my quieter students. And they don't seem to hear the noise. And it's no louder than my window unit. "Quiet" and "Noisy" are subjective in practice, so that's the most I can say.
About the exhaust hose: First, I really don't see how people can easily move the unit around, because if you're not careful, the hose can pop out of its window connector. That might have happened to me, though, because I was torquing it at awkward angles to try to fit it into my space. The hose is very stiff (a.k.a. seems well made.) Fortunately, nothing broke. I'm a cheapskate and read that the longer the hose, the more electricity portables will use, so I do wish I had a SHORTER hose. And although I'm sure there's more efficient wraps out there, I used what I had on hand, bubble wrap, to thoroughly wrap the hose (since air is a great insulator). It does put out quite a bit of heat along its entire length, so wrapping it well sends all the heat to the outdoors where you want it. I also placed a chunk of rubber insulation between the bottom of the duct where it attaches to the window panel, and my window sill. The exhaust hose puts out so much heat I wasn't sure what it would do over time to the cheap faux-wood on my mobilehome's window sill.
About the window-connector: pretty easy to connect. I only needed the main panel and one extender, which I simply scored at one end to break off the piece necessary to make it fit. (It took awhile to score it deeply enough, but I had a nice phone chat with my sister while I did it. Was too lazy to go fire up my saw.) The base happens to fit snugly down into my window track. I used an insulating wrap for a 1/2" pipe, cut open lengthwise, and fitted it over the top of the panel. This keeps out the water, wind and bugs (since my window doesn't close squarely across the panel, and I wouldn't trust it would be waterproof even if it closed evenly.) It also will still allow me to open the window, not needing to silicon nor tape the junction. The plastic of the window-connectors isn't as thick as a wall, but it's better-made than the cheap accordion gap-fillers I've seen for window air conditioners.
Remote control: works fine, though of course the batteries that come with it didn't work. Neither did the twoto three-year-old batteries I tried first. Fortunately I had a newer pack on hand, and those worked. Don't lose the remote: it provides a couple functions that aren't on top of the unit, such as varying fan speeds.
Modes: 3 basic ones: fan only, dehumidifier only, and "cool" i.e. the air conditioner. If you put it on Auto, it depends on the temperature: below 68 degrees it's fan only. 68-73 degrees, it's fan only IF you'd previously had it on fan only, otherwise it dehumidifies. The dehumidify mode also puts out surprisingly cool air, and makes it much less muggy inside (deep South, remember). 74-79 degrees, it dehumidifies regardless of prior settings. And above that, it goes to air conditioning (which of course also removes water from the air.)
So I can see how people would complain about the fan never shutting off. For THAT, you need to use the timer. You can set the timer to turn the unit on, or to turn it off.
And for the four-million-dollar question: does it work? My workroom is about 13' by 25', and is completely open to the similarly-sized kitchen AND my even bigger living room. I have a powerful computer that puts out a lot of heat and needs to stay cool, and I get hot flashes, myself (I know, TMI.) But I'd only been using a window air conditioner, which by itself helped but wasn't enough on the really hot, humid days here. It still got to 90-95 degrees inside if it went over 100 outside. I need my computer not to fry. So now, my computer and work table are right in front of both air conditioners, and together, they provide excellent cooling both for my computer (I have software that monitors the quad-core temps)and me. I don't use my ceiling fans, so when I stand (I'm 5'7") I can feel the warmer air just above my head. And it's warmer the farther away you get from the sweet spot. But when you walk inside from the 98-degree sunshine, that huge space is noticeably cooler about 85 degrees when farthest from the coolers. That's certainly livable. And sitting at my work table, with them blowing right on me and providing cool air for my computer...I'm in heaven.
UPDATE: 6/12/2012 Still happy with it, though I've discovered that true Alabama humidity (which hadn't yet set in when I wrote the first review) yields about a gallon of water from the hose every 4-5 hours. Have been grateful MANY times for the 4-gallon overflow container mentioned above. Much of the time only need to put the unit on dehumidify, as the air still is so cool from it that it's helpful simply to have all that sweat-inducing water removed from the air. Remote control seems to go through batteries rather quickly, but then, my pack of "new" batteries is nearly two years old.
UPDATE 7/18/12 Okay, I've been using it 12-16 hours or more daily, now. Hasn't failed yet. On truly humid days it pulls out a gallon of water every 3-4 hours. I really like the ease of adjusting the louvers: one set to direct up/down, the second for left-right. Lets me easily choose whether to cool my monitor or me. Still often just run the dehumidifier, but turn on the cooler when it really starts to heat up. I'll try to remember to put one more update in at the end of summer. Toodles, all, and thanks for the nice comments! And no, I don't work for the company! :))
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I purchased 2 of these a couple weeks ago. They were shipped very quickly. They were easy to set up. The units are small but nicely built. They cool very well and are very quite. The remotes are great and the features are better than larger units. My only complaint is the evaporation system really can't handle humid conditions very well. I started it up and within 2 hours the bucket full system went off and I had to empty the unit. After it did it again in the same amount of time,I ended up elevating the unit and puting a bucket behind it so I don't have to empty it as often. This is the only drawback from a fine little unit.
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