Posted 24 September 2023

Portable Air Conditioner with Heat Pump.

Hi, ive just bought a Wessex 12000BTU air con with heat pump and am currently waiting on delivery. When in HEAT mode does it need to drain continually? The bottom drainage hole looks to be at the base of the machine. For example will I have to stand it on something so it can drain into a receptacle? Don't fancy drilling a hole in my floor for it to drain into. I've looked at online manuals and it doesn't make it very clear. Just wondering if anyone else has a portable AC and heat pump and what they do.
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  1. KodaBear's avatar
    I bought this from Toolstation in the summer of 2021. The first thing I will say is try to run it in a well ventilated area for the first time it runs. I'm not sure what kind of chemicals were used in manufacturing. I've never had issues with other air conditioners in the past. But whatever I breathed in from it left me feeling like I had a chest infection for about 24 hours before it passed. It worked totally fine every time after this.

    To answer your question. No matter what mode it is in, heating, cooling, or dehumidifying - It will cause water to build up. It doesn't need constant drainage, but it will need to have the water tank emptied. I personally do this on a daily basis when it's in use. You can keep the ports on the back plugged and then drain out into a container every so often. It doesn't tend to be more than a few hundred ml per day unless you specifically have it running in 'dry' mode. In that case continuous drainage becomes more appealing as you can potentially be taking litres of water out of the air in super humid conditions.
  2. deleted9453's avatar
    Heat mode won't create any moisture as there is nothing for water to condense as the coils will be warm/hot.
    KodaBear's avatar
    It does on mine. It just runs airflow in reverse kicking cold air out the exhaust vent and hot air into the room. The same levels of condensation liquid builds up in the water tank for me.

    It also lets out a little bit of steam when you switch it on and it starts to push heat out after a few minutes. So there’s definitely moisture in the process somewhere.