So starting off, this Summer has been BRUTAL with EVERY single day in July/August over 100f and May/June being high 90 and low 100’s. The AC systems in our homes were struggling and racking up the bill with us spending often $9-11 a day to cool with both helping each other. We also have poor insulation which is something we’ve had to try and tackle ourselves.In the end we got fed up of running the homes existing AC system because it was simply too expensive and opted to get a Window/Portable AC. The windows on our home are very flimsy and not at all suited for window units sadly and frankly we weren’t too keen on having to drill into things, worry about them falling out and having the hassle of having to bring them in every other season. So we opted to go for a portable.Now there’s two different kinds of portable AC units. Single Hose and Dual Hose. Single hose units suck in air from the room which creates negative pressure in the room and pulling in hot air from either gaps/cracks in the doors/windows and blows all the hot air out the single hose. The single vent hose gets very hot - so between the negative pressure pulling in heat and the hot hose these single hose units have to try and fight those two things to keep the room cool which can REALLY lower their efficiency. Hence why you’ll see units advertise 14,000 BTU’s then in brackets have a lower BTU usually half of the first BTU rating. The second BTU number is the SAAC rating which basically takes into account the heat pulled into the room from the negative pressure and the hose and tells you how efficient it is. So units that advertise 14,000BTU typically use the power of a 14,000 BTU unit but are only really equivalent to a 7000 BTU unit with those other things taken into account.Dual-hose units (like this one) pull air in from the outside eliminating much of the negative pressure issue (where heat is sucked in from cracks/windows/doors) hence why the secondary SAAC BTU rating is much higher. And in my experience the vent hose is actually much cooler.This dual-hose design on the Midea/Toshiba is quite unique. They have decided to combine both hoses into one big wide unwieldy thing which sucks if you want to angle your portable AC to face it in a certain direction, but the benefit of it is that it goes vertically up from the back of the machine and bends up then down meaning you can shove it closer to and up-against the wall/window which you cant do on other units. Kudos to them. So it has its pros/cons. Pro: Being able to shove it against the wall / Con: not being able to angle it.Now we first decided to buy the Toshiba version of this AC from Home Depot for our living room. It’s the exact same machine as this but in white. Midea and Toshiba are the same company. We set it up as soon as we received it and had it set up in minutes! I recommend cutting the foam seal tape down the middle so you have two strips and instead of sticking it on the window-sill, stick it around the window vent plate for the AC. That way you can remove the plate and shut the window in a jiffy if you decide to move the unit!We set it up with the app straight away and I love all the features and control I have over the unit from the app. It’s awesome. Just to be clear the Toshiba app is what I use to control both my Midea and Toshiba unit (yes I bought a Midea after the Toshiba since I loved the unit so much!) The app allows you to remotely turn on the unit, set the temperature, the swing function, turn on/off the LED display, make schedules and more! I can’t go back to a different brand after having this (yes I tried to cheap out with my second portable - I’ll explain soon).Anyhow we have a large openspace ground floor which merges into the upstairs hallway w/ high ceilings and despite this portable AC being rated for 550sqft it does an pretty good job of cooling the downstairs living area. Our master bedroom is downstairs and granted, that doesn’t get much cooling since its well out of the way but that’s fine. Since getting this portable AC we’ve been able to turn off our MAIN downstairs AC system from MORNING (when we get up and out the bedroom) till BED TIME when we go to bed. And this little guy keeps the downstairs living area VERY comfortable the entire day on its own during these 100-110f days in Texas. This has saved us a fortune in electricity.Also this portable AC, not only does it have remote smartphone control, google home/alexa smarthome functionality BUT it also uses something called a smart variable inverter technology. So unlike other bog standard portable ACs which loudly turn on and run at full power/volume then shut off abrubptly when they meet the desired temp - then ramp up again when the temp creeps up. The Midea and Toshiba are able to gently ramp up and down the power depending on the situation. Other portable AC’s turn on and draw a full 1300W whereas the Midea/Toshiba can run and drop to as low as 50w when the fan is running, maintain temps at a low 300-500w or work a little harder and stay at 900w or if its really working hard ramp up to 1300w. This works brilliantly to save on the noise and power usage. It’s not running at all or nothing all the time. It’s smart, it can adjust the power and power draw to suit the conditions. This like I said helps conserve energy and keeps noise at a minimum. THAT BEING SAID, it would be nice if Midea/Toshiba added the ability in the app to allow us to force it to run at full power if we so wished rather than let it decide when to conserve power etc.Overall, for our downstairs, this unit (at least the Toshiba we got) was WELL WORTH the investment.NOW - Onto PART 2. Cooling the upstairs (specifically my home office) which I work in every day.Despite the Toshiba version of this Midea doing an amazing job of cooling the downstairs. The upstairs and my office was like a damn oven. I came to the conclusion that if i wanted to get ANY work done in my office upstairs I had the choice of running the main upstairs AC which effectively couldn’t keep up and would run FULL blast the entire day costing us a fortune OR invest in another portable AC.I decided to purchase another portable AC and instead of buying another Toshiba/Midea dual-hose unit I decided to cheap out and try the Black and Decker 14,000BTU(7000BTU SAAC) since it was well reviewed on Amazon despite it being a single hose unit with no smart features. Well…. BIG MISTAKE. As I said earlier in the review, the single hose was like a damn oven defeating the purpose of cooling the room if it has a hot burning heater of a hose behind it. I can’t talk about the negative pressure/leaking in hot air since I can’t measure that. But despite it being in a 100sqft office room and the unit was rated for 450sqft, it would run CONSTANTLY and STRUGGLE to keep the room at a comfortable temp. I asked myself “What’s the point of this thing” it cost me $500 after taxes and it was doing nothing. It also rumbled on and off and consumed max power at all times at some times going as high as 1800W almost tripping my breaker! Worst of all was I missed the app and smart controls I enjoyed on my downstairs Toshiba/Midea.So… after a few days I bit the bullet and said screw this, filed a return on the Black and Decker and pulled the trigger on the Midea 14,000 (12,000btu saac) which essentially was just a couple of hundred dollars more with better efficiency and many more smart features/remote control.I REALLY missed being able to turn the AC on in advance downstairs via the app and set schedules.Well the Midea arrived, I liked the black as opposed to the white of the Toshiba but it’s essentially identical. The Midea app wasn’t compatible with my Z Fold 3 for some reason so I had a go at setting it up with the Toshiba app and to my surprise - the Midea AC works just fine with the Toshiba app as the Toshiba AC does! They are all essentially the same app with minor differences.Well, weeks later I am THOROUGHLY impressed with the Midea as much as I am with my Toshiba downstairs. They are both on the same app so I can control both seperately using the one app which is nice.I’ve not had any issue with the fan inside ripping itself apart or shaking the machine. It’s running perfectly. Just make sure its sitting on a good flat level surface :)The Midea can cool my office down to the low 60’s if needed making it like a darn fridge. It’s awesome, I’ve had fun pushing it to its limits. It feels like magic on a 105f day, walking into my home office and it’s actually chilly cold lol.I now have no need to use EITHER the main downstairs or upstairs AC systems LOL.Anyhow, to round off my review I just want to share how ecstatic I am about this unit and have NO QUALMS about recommending it to others. Now as for the issues I have read, they could potentially be from dodgy delivery issues (from being bumped/knocked around or dropped during transport.) So I guess it really comes down to whether you get lucky and your unit moves through the delivery/courier system delicately or not. I saw some pictures where peoples boxes were all bashed in, dented and the rotating fan part was bashed into the unit. I suppose that could be why many of the people with issues have had such a bad experience - their unit was damaged in transport. But it seems I was lucky enough to receive my two units in good shape.Now the Toshiba variant of this (in white) is actually selling for $649 on Home Depots website right now but they go in and out of stock on a regular basis and can be hard to buy (I guess they are popular) but if you can, why not save 50bucks. Plus I’d probably trust Home Depots delivery people more than Amazons for big fragile items like this. But if you get the Midea (providing the delivery/transport goes well) you’ll be just as happy.My wife is now tempted to get one for her office upstairs and hell I wouldn’t mind getting one for our master bedroom downstairs too if budget permits one day. But I am VERY happy with my two units I have right now and I hope Toshiba/Midea keep supporting this unit because it is an absolute gem!Pros:- VERY ENERGY EFFICIENT- Great for space (can tuck it closer to the wall/window) because of the hose design- Much better SAAC BTU rating- Decent noise- LOTS of Smart Home functionality (APP and Google Home/Alexa support)Cons:- Can’t angle it left/right very much because of the dual-hose in one design- Not as quiet as they advertise (but what can you expect when the condenser is inside the room with you)JUST BUY IT ALREADY (and good luck with the delivery/shipping) :D