My house gets really hot in the Alabama heat. I have central AC controlled by a Nest Learning Thermostat. But the upstairs is decidedly hotter in this 1912 house despite new insulation in the attic. For a few months out of the year, the upstairs rooms need an extra boost to keep things comfy without freezing out the downstairs and making the power bill insane.

I had been using a fridgid air for a few years and decided to put that in a different room and "upgrade" to a tech savvy model: the Quirky + GE Aros Smart Window Air Conditioner. It's been an interesting change with a lot of pro's and con's. Let me lay it out for you:

Pro's:

• syncs to your smart phone for easy-anywhere control.
• the wink app knows when your gone and when your home because of your phone's location and will turn on or off the unit. amazing.
• the wink app keeps track of your budget for running the unit to save you money and energy
• the look of the unit is incredibly more beautiful than normal models
• despite being not functional, the wings on the unit are pretty
• the UI is simple and easy to use

Con's:

• the unit came with two detached parts that were not in the instruction assembly manual. put those on first before installing the unit. they hold the wings in place.
• the wink app keeps logging me out and its a pain to have to enter your password from bed when you want to adjust the unit.
• the unit blows air up out of the top instead of straight into the room. I have made a modification using a Baseboard Register Air Deflector that works pretty well.
• they are pretty, but the wings on the unit are flimsy roller shades that do not seal well and let bugs in
• the unit is louder than my fridgid air
• the blue lights are very bright but seem to auto shut off after a bit

Insane Customer Service

I reached out to Quirky, they have excellent customer service. They are even mailing me more bug-proof wings to install on my machine after telling them about the issue. Quirky even offered to have me speak directly to an app developer/technician because my phone keeps logging out. I don't think I've had such a great same-day response with a product before.

Conclusion

I really think that the model needs some improvements, but this is expected of a first run product. Hopefully they'll improve the unit significantly on the next model. I am not sure if I am happy shelling out the amount of money that I did considering the con's, but I am keeping the unit anyway. Technology makes me happy.

disclosure: this post has amazon affiliate links in it. ;)