Window type A/C unit versus portable A/C unit.. whats the difference?

Besides $200? Just the portability? I am trying to decide if I want to spend the $500 on a portable A/C / Heater or if it just makes more sense to make a little place for a window A/C unit to sit so it can blow into my tent and then buy one of those thermostat outlets....

I kinda live where it can be 90 degrees one week and snow the next. Makes managing temps manually kinda a crap shoot. Those thermostat plugs aren't cheap either, like $80, so I'd have to get two of those anyway, one for heater, and one for air conditioner.

Anyway.. any advice folks?

I use window. I hear the portables can let smell out. I'm sure window can too but I don't smell a thing with mine.

Edit.
i also got a portable but it leaks at the bottom and floods and water leaks through the floor

fir3dragon: So you have to fill up the portable units with water? That might be a deal killer.

a single hose portable will def pump the odor right out of the room, even a dual hose will let a little room air slip by, how much depends on the design I suppose. a mini split system is the only way to go if you have the coin to drop.

RonSwanson said:

fir3dragon: So you have to fill up the portable units with water? That might be a deal killer.

Click to expand...

No, water is produced by the unit as condensation from the cooling process of turning the gas back into a liquid.

i used a window a/c and i could smell the grow outside.

RonSwanson said:

fir3dragon: So you have to fill up the portable units with water? That might be a deal killer.

Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean. The portable ac makes water from the humidity in the air. It's so posted to be drained, but even when I drain it still floods the floor so I don't use it. I use a window unit. I can't smell it at all.

Portables are less efficient.A 7000 BTU portable a/c will on average use/require more energy than a 7000 BTU window a/c.

Both can/will leak odors if set up directly in a grow room or tent,but,if you use them to cool the room a grow room has been partitioned off in or a tent sits in (using main room as a lung room) then there should be no odor issues.

The one pro of portables over window units (when not using a lung area,but rather lights in a room,with window unit in window or portable exhausting out a window) is that a portable will not allow any light leaks,where a window a/c will...all you have to do to light proof a window a/c is remove the styrafoam inside the unit (blocking the front of a/c unit from the back of the a/c unit and paint it black.

So as you can see,they both have pro's and con's.