Toyotomi TAD-T38J Portable Air Conditioner

Chill Mill
Reviewed by: Mark on 2009-08-11

A lot of homes, town homes, and condos in my area (Pacific Northwest) don't have A/C, but there are those days it does get hot (85 - 100F / 29 - 38C). I bought this A/C unit to cool my living room on such days, and we have seen 85 - 92F / 29 - 33C degree weather already this season (2009).

I have the TAD-T38J in a living room with its intake & exhaust hose panel in a sliding glass door frame. This installation required the optional panel extension (sold separately) which I ordered along with the unit.

The unit itself is quite sturdy, solid, and has a nicely finished, neutral color scheme as shown in the product photos here. The cooling power of this unit is amazing, and easily maintains 72 when its 92 outside my newer 2 bedroom 3 bath townhouse on the entire first floor. Even the upstairs is cooled down where before it was uncomfortably hot. My place is built into a hillside and my garage is below, plus the roof is all pointy for winter snow so always shaded somewhere.

Im sure other architectures are easier or harder to cool. Plus the heat here is not like the solar infrared death rays of the south west USA. Its more airmass stuff, you know, 90s one day, 60s the next. Use the square footage cooling capacity advertised with the unit as the best expectations guide and go from there.

I was initially worried that I would have to run the unit at maximum power at all times just to have the living room livable on hot days, but it turned out not to be so in my case.

Now about features- The unit supports running as an air conditioner, dehumidifier, or as a fan, or an automatic combination of the three where the unit works out when to run in A/C mode, dehumidify mode, or run the fan. Dehumidify mode runs the fan in automatic mode.

You also have a choice of three manual fan speeds or automatic fan speed.
The automatic and dehumidify modes are poorly explained in the manual, which itself is a marginal translation from Nihongo (Japanese language). I will try to explain them. Please comment if I make a technical error, and by all means skip this section if pseudo-technical mumbo-jumbo makes your eyes water:

All air conditioners dehumidify. The trick that appliances known as dehumidifiers do is reheat the refrigerated air back to ambient room temperature. This unit will work as a dehumidifier, but the manual says to disconnect the exhaust hose (their words: "Remove the exhaust dust(sic) hoses") to accomplish this. This is expected, as such would be needed to reheat the air back to ambient temperature. The manual is unclear, but I would say disconnect both hoses for dehumidification.

The manual further states that any temperature value (desired temperature) commanded of the unit is disregarded ("invalid" is their word) when running in automatic environment (A/C, dehumidify) mode. The only logical explanation I have of this is that automatic environment mode is somehow optimized for dehumidification purposes wherein local ambient temperature stability and reduced humidity are the goals. I say 'local ambient temperature stability' because the general area as a whole will increase in temperature if the unit's hoses are disconnected, though the direct airstream should have stable temperature / humidity characteristics. Maybe that was the design goal of automatic mode. Who knows! I sure don't : )

These are all big guesses on my part, but its why I avoid automatic environment mode when cooling my place and opt instead for the 'snowflake' icon (A/C) and a reasonable set temperature.

Back to features...the airstream is charcoal (not HEPA) filtered. The unit is also very energy efficient, the best I've personally come across, and does not require periodic dumping of collected water or the running of drain hoses. Instead, it evaporates condensation into the hot air exhaust stream of the condenser and shoots it out the exhaust (as water vapor).

I have the unit sitting on carpet and have no noise or vibration issues with it. We watch videos and play games within 6 feet (2 meters) of the unit and its not a factor at all to us.

This is my second Toyotomi, my first being a TID-2400 with a single exhaust hose. That unit fell off an attic hoist about 10 feet onto a concrete tile floor and has worked fine ever since (about 10 years now). These are remarkably rugged, well-built machines that are made in Japan.

BTW, there are single hose and dual hose portable A/C units. I own both, and dual hose units flat out rule for cooling. They do not suck inside air and blow it outside like single hose units do. However, if you have a source of cooler air outside, such as by a green belt or shady area, you can crack a window or vent there and the single hose A/C will help draw in that cooler air plus provide cool air of its own.

The single hose A/C is best where cooling and ventilation are desired, and I have one upstairs in my lab where I sometimes solder projects. They make great exhaust fans and, in my particular case, help greatly in bringing the cold downstairs air from the T38J up to the second floor.

Nothing cools like a dual hose A/C unit, and this T38J is the real deal. My experience with single and dual hose A/C units is to opt for the dual hose unit if maximum cooling is the goal. 5 stars for this most excellent portable A/C unit, the Toyotomi TAD-T38J.

Item#: to1428

Availability: In Stock
Shipping: FREE Shipping
Usually leaves warehouse in 24 to 48 hours

Price: $499.00