LG LWHD8000R

by K. Thor Jensen
(New York, NY, USA)

The LG LWHD8000R is an excellent, affordable option for cooling a mid-size apartment. We live in a New York City two-bedroom and bought a similar model several years ago for our bedroom. Unfortunately, the intense NY summers proved too much for it, so we needed to purchase a second one for the second bedroom, which we use as an office.

Setting it up was mostly simple - the only problem that we had was attaching the "feet" that keep the unit steady on the outside windowsill. As we live in an apartment building, the exterior sill was not long enough to support them, leaving the box hanging precariously out the window. We adapted by wrapping some books in two layers of plastic bags and placing them on the sill to support the unit's body, which has so far worked fine.

One other complaint I have about the model is the “wall wart” nature of its power supply – for safety purposes, the size of the plug that attaches to the wall is quite large, blocking off two outlets. Honestly, our wiring is so antiquated that running anything else out of that outlet would probably flip a breaker, but it could be a problem elsewhere.

The unit runs fairly cleanly and quietly, and with regular screen cleaning has operated without any problems. Occasionally, water will build up inside the unit after a heavy rain and leak into the interior of the house, but this is a rare occurrence. You do need to be careful when removing the unit from the window for storage, no matter what time of year you do it in, as condensed liquid tends to pool inside of it and sit for quite some time, causing an unexpected mess. In addition, it is somewhat difficult to lift the unit once it has been assembled, as the obvious grip points are rails of sharp metal.

In terms of power consumption, the LG LWHD8000R has been reasonable, and our electric bills have been not that much scarier. We try to not run both conditioners at once, as each can do about half of the house. Overall, I would recommend this model to any apartment dweller with moderate cooling needs.