Tried and tested, AEG's portable air conditioner is powerful, quiet, and cools a room down fast

Our AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner review puts the brand's most affordable mobile air conditioning unit to the test.

AEG is a German brand that specialises in large household appliances – most notably washing machines, ovens, and dishwashers – as well as air treatment products such as air purifiers and portable air conditioning units.

The brand states the 9000BTU AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner will effectively cool a room of 13-18m², making it a good option for lowering the temperature in a smaller home or apartment during the hottest months of the year. 

However, it is on the upper end of the price spectrum compared to majority of the best portable air conditioners Ideal Home has tested so far, so we were eager to see how this AEG model would perform against more affordable options.

As such, I tested the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner in my own home over several summer weeks to assess its performance, noise levels, ease of setup, and ease of use. Read on to find out how it performed.

AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner review

Specifications

• Cooling capacity (British Thermal Units): 9000BTU
• Recommended room size: 13-18m²
• Power consumption: 3400W
• Noise levels: 64dB (max)
• Dimensions: H70.5 x W47 x D38cm
• Weight: 31.5kg
• Speed settings: 3
• Modes: air conditioner, dehumidifier, fan
• Timer: yes
• Remote control: no
• Refrigerant: R290
• Wheels: yes
• Window kit included: no

How I tested

Amy Lockwood

I'm Amy one of the Ideal Home team's Consumer Experts. I put all manner of products through their paces to find the top recommendations for our readers, whether that's finding the best mattress for a better sleep, or the best fans for staying cool. I tested the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner in my own home, comparing it to bestselling air conditioning units from leading brand names to see how well it performed against the best-in-class.

Unboxing

Weighing in 31.5kg, the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner is heavy. In fact, it's one of the heaviest portable air conditioners we've tested at this level of BTU, just pipping the 31kg 11000BTU Russell Hobbs RHPAC11001 Portable Air Conditioner and 27kg 9000BTU GoodHome Malay 9000BTU Air Conditioner to the post as the heaviest-weight unit we've reviewed.

I just about managed to get the box over the doorstep and into the hallway by myself, but it's definitely worth having two able-bodied people around on delivery day if you want to move the box more than a few feet without struggling.

Pretty much all portable air conditioners are heavy due to the compressor and refrigerant they house, but if you're looking for one of the lightest options available then the MeacoCool MC Series 7000BTU Portable Air Conditioner is still our best buy at 20.5kg. The equivalent BTU MeacoCool MC Series 9000BTU Portable Air Conditioner also weighs in less, at 23.5kg.

However, once over the doorstep and into the house, unboxing is made easier thanks to a separate base to the packaging box. This means that once the sturdy packaging ties are cut, the cardboard box can be lifted straight up, leaving the air con unit sat on the polystyrene base – so there's no need to lift that 31.5kg weight straight up into the air to release it from the packaging.

That said, if, like me, you want to use the air conditioner in an upstairs room (rooms above ground level tend to get the warmest in hot weather) then you will still need to negotiate carrying it up the stairs. 

There are recessed handles either side of the unit, and built-in wheels on the base so you can roll the unit when you reach flat flooring, but the unit is still very bulky and heavy, so definitely requires two people with a good amount of strength to lift it safely.

Assembly and set-up

Thankfully, once you've negotiated getting the unit into the room of your choice, there isn't much assembly to be done on the air con unit itself.

Inside the box, along with the air conditioning unit, you get a drainage tube, adaptor ring and exhaust hose.

The exhaust hose must be attached when operating the air con function, and at the back of the air conditioning unit there is a round hole where the adaptor ring screws into place.

You just need to attach the the adaptor to the end of the exhaust hose, and then attach the adaptor to the air conditioning unit.

After that, it's 'just' installing a window kit into the window you want to vent the air con unit exhaust hose out of. This is always the most fiddly part of getting any portable air conditioning unit set up, so make sure to factor in some time for this part of the process.

A little annoyingly considering its price point, the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner doesn't come with a window kit included, so you'll need to make an additional purchase to get the best results from the unit. Potentially, you may be able to use it without a window kit by just sticking the exhaust hose out of the window, but this will mean you're letting hot outside air back inside the room, so the air conditioner will be working very hard to cool the room; not energy efficient or economical. 

A window kit aims to prevent this situation by forming a seal around the opened window that you can poke the exhaust hose through. The air conditioner can then draw hot air from the room into the body of the unit, cool it via refrigerant, blow the cooled air back into the room, and vent the extracted heat out to the outside world.

There's a wide variety of window sealing kits available. Finding the right one for you will be dictated by the type of window you're venting the exhaust hose from. There's a wide selection of Air Conditioner Window Seal Kits on Amazon, including plastic or metal 'sliding plate' designs, and fabric kits that attach via sticky Velcro strips to your window frame and casement. The type that's best for you will be determined by your window's size, opening mechanism, and hinging placement, so make sure to read the fine print before you press 'buy'. 

Design

Appearance-wise, the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner looks sleek and minimal once unboxed. 

It's not exactly stylish, but its glossy white finish and matt black top along with its curved sides do make it much easier on the eye than many. The build quality also feels good, with all components robust and seemingly well made.

Despite its size, its H70.5 x W47 x D38cm build is also made to feel smaller due to those cleverly rounded edges and the gloss exterior that reflects the light to make it feel less bulky and more unobtrusive in a room.

On the top of the unit is a similarly unobtrusive control panel, with touchscreen buttons that allow you to turn the unit on and off, and alter the settings.

Ease of use

Turn the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner on via the controls at the top of the unit and the touchscreen springs to life, lighting up to help you see what to press. 

A little disappointingly for its price point, the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner doesn't come with a remote control, but, there is the option to install the AEG app and operate the unit via phone or tablet instead (which potentially may be better than having an additional remote to lose!). 

This remote-operation is a big plus point if you're using the unit at night and want to be able to operate it without getting out of bed. The App is also useful for turning the unit on if you're downstairs finishing up your evening and want to get started on cooling the top floor, or a separate part of your home, before bed.

However, if you're using the touch control panel, then the whole screen feels intuitive to use and nicely laid out. There's one row of slightly embossed control buttons, and above them a set of lights that show you which settings are currently activated.

You soon get to grips with what does what, and there aren't so many controls that you feel overwhelmed by options. The buttons are also easy to press and very responsive, and the whole panel feels nicely designed.

I would just have liked the symbols and text on the control panel to be a little bit bigger to make things easier for anyone who's eyesight isn't the best. And, although each button is very slightly raised, a little more differentiation between them and the control panel would be a big help to anyone who is visually impaired.

Press the power button and the front half of the top of the unit lifts up to reveal the louver fan grill. 

The Mode button allows you to switch between Auto, Cool, Fan and Dry modes. Higher specced models also offer a Heat function, but the entry level AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner does not. 

You can easily adjust the desired temperature you want by pressing the + and - buttons to toggle up and down. In Cool mode the desired temperature is shown on the digital display, and in Fan mode the display shows the current ambient room temperature.

There are also three fan speeds to choose between – Min, Mid, and Max – as well as Auto mode which in Cool mode powers up the Max fan speed to get the room down to your desired temperature, and then automatically shifts the fan speed down to Min to maintain said temperature making operation more economical (and quieter). Sleep mode, which has its own button, operates similarly. 

There's also the option to set the louver to swing up and down to circulate the cool air around the room a little more and a timer function that can be used to set either the start or end of the unit's operation.

Beyond this there's a light to show if you're connected to the WiFi, a light that comes on if the air filter needs cleaning (AEG says this will occur after 250 hours of operation), a reset button for when you've cleaned the air filter, and a 'calendar' icon that shows a scheduled event from the App is running.

Handily, you can also turn on a child lock to deactivate the controls by pressing the “MODE” button for 5 seconds, until the display shows “LC.” To turn off child lock, you press the “MODE” button again for 5 seconds. Great for peace of mind.

Cooling powers

When it comes to cooling, the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner really comes into its own. 

Switch the unit on and into Cool mode, set your desired temperature – you can choose any temperature between 16°C and 32°C – and the unit immediately springs into action, sending deliciousy refreshing cool air gushing into the room. 

It very easy to notice the difference in the temperature of the air if you switch between Fan mode – which still does a great job of circulating the air to create a cooling breeze on your skin – and Cool mode which switches on the compressor and runs the air over cooling refrigerant to actively extract the heat and vent that heat out through the exhaust hose. 

Stand in front of the unit for few minutes on Cool mode and you'll soon start to feel positively chilly so quick is it to dispense the fridge-cold air.

It only took 10 minutes of operation for the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner to have significantly cooled the rooms I tested it in, and it then did a great job of maintaining that temperature. Impressive stuff. And a very welcome relief if you're struggling to keep your home cool in a heatwave.

As with all air con units, how well it cools, and how economically, will depend on how well sealed and insulated your home is, which is why that window sealing kit is so important. However, the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner is still one of the most powerful portable air conditioners I've tested, sending a strong and steady flow of air gushing into the room whether it's on Min or Max. 

The AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner offers 9000BTU, which means it can draw in 9000 British Thermal Units of heat from the air per hour, and discharge it outside to cool your home. It's important to make sure you've chosen the right BTU air conditioner unit for your room size so that the unit isn't working harder than it has to. The brand recommends this unit for room sizes of 13-18m². However, if you have a larger space to cool then AEG also offers a 12000BTU model that can cool spaces of 24-36m².

Overall, the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner's cooling powers are very impressive, performing in line with the best mobile air conditioners Ideal Home has tested as a team, and definitely excelling itself compared to the other portable air conditioners I've personally tested.

Energy use

Energy use is where you pay the price for the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner's powerful cooling performance. This unit uses 3400W to run – a big increase on the most energy efficient portable air conditioner we've tested, the MeacoCool MC Series 7000BTU Portable Air Conditioner which uses just 780W of power.

This high power consumption enables the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner to make quick work of reducing temperatures, however, it comes at a cost; both in terms of energy usage and cold hard cash. 

AEG doesn't state the differences in power consumption of the different fan speeds, but using 3400W as a guide that means the unit would use 3.4 kilowatts per hour, so at current energy costs of 30p per kilowatt hour of electricity that means fairly hefty running costs of £1.02 per hour. 

A little confusingly, AEG works out the kilowatt usage per hour as 1.3kWh, which would mean a cost of 39p per hour. Either way, that's a fairly hefty sum. 

On the plus side, I found I didn't need the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner running long to cool down a room. Its powerful performance meant an hour was plenty to reduce the temperature down from unbearably hot to cool and refreshing.

However, I have a fairly small home and small rooms that are relatively well insulated in comparison to many buildings. If you have a bigger area to cool, or poorer insulation that means you need to leave the air conditioner running for longer, then it's going to cost more.

Noise levels

Even on its lowest fan speed, there's no denying that the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner makes noise, and that noise increases with each jump up from Min through Mid to Max fan speed, whereby AEG states the unit will max out at a volume of 64dB.

This is a common problem with all portable air conditioners. However, there is noise and then there is noise. 

I've tested several portable air conditoners where the noise they emitted resembled the sound of a train engine chugging – a noisy, mechanical whirring noise that chopped and changed and soon drove me to distraction, making me want to switch off the unit off as soon as I possibly could. Not so with the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner.

If I was in the room with the air con unit, then I definitely found the Min fan speed the most pleasant to be around volume-wise. But, that said, the noise the air conditioning unit makes is purely that of a steady stream of gushing air exiting the appliance. Once you get accustomed to it, it's actually pretty easy to ignore. Because the noise is steady and never changing, I found it very much like having white noise playing in the background whilst you work or sleep. 

It was easier to block out in fact than some of the best fans, such as the popular (and admittedly way more affordable) Honeywell Turbo Force Power Fan with its headache-inducing drone that I couldn't wait to turn off, despite the heat. Plus, in the case of the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner, the payoff for some noise is properly icy cold relief from the heat. 

To me it was a similar volume to the background noise you get in the cabin when you're travelling on an aircraft (minus the chatter of people and crying babies thankfully!) – not something I'd choose to listen to, but something easily enough ignored in small doses.  

As with all air conditioning units, I think the best bet is to switch it on in a room – particularly if it's a bedroom – before you plan to use the room. Let the air conditioner bring the temperature down, either on Min speed or Max if you want to cool it quicker, and then turn the air con unit off when you want to watch TV or go to sleep. However, this is one of the few air conditioners I could manage to get to sleep with whilst it was on – and I'm a pretty light sleeper, so that's high praise indeed.

Portability

As already mentioned, and as is the case with pretty much all portable air conditioners, the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner is heavy. And at 31.5kg, this model is very slightly heavier than most, with 27kg being around the average.

It's portability refers to the fact that it can be 'easily' moved from room to room. However, how 'easy' this is in practice is going to be determined by your level of strength and ability. 

The built-in wheels on the base of the unit definitely make manouevring the unit across wooden, tiled or laminate floors that are all on one level easy. Although pushing the unit on carpet requires much more effort, and ideally would be done by two able-bodied people. 

Lifting the unit to take it upstairs is another matter entirely, and one that it's important to factor in if you want to use this unit on the second floor. There's no way I would have been able to lift this air conditioner up stairs by myself, and I would have struggled with another (average strength) person. I had to enlist two people with 'proper' muscles to do that heavy lifting. 

The recessed handles are a good feature and do help to lift the appliance, but it still requires some brute strength, especially as the unit isn't just heavy but bulky as well. 

If you need a lighter air conditioner, then as previously mentioned, the MeacoCool MC Series 7000BTU Portable Air Conditioner is one of the lightest we've tested that still performs brilliantly. This smaller unit weighs in at 20.5kg. 

If that 20kg+ weight still sounds too heavy to move, then it may be best to consider an air cooler instead of an air conditioner, or even one of the best fans on the market. These appliances won't actively lower the temperature in the room in the same way an air conditioning unit can, but they still help a person to feel a lot cooler, as long as you're within the 'breeze' zone. 

You can read up on pros and cons of the two cooling devices in our air conditioner vs. air cooler article, and find the best fans on the market in our dedicated buying guide.

Verdict

In an ideal world, all of our homes would be better insulated and able to remain cool in the summer and stay warm in the winter, without the additional energy use or expense of an air conditioner. 

However, for many of us this isn't the reality, and if you struggle to keep your home at a bearable temperature during the summer months, then the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner makes quick work of cooling rooms down fast. 

It's also that Holy Grail of portable air con units – one that isn't headache-inducingly noisy to operate. It's not silent in any way, shape, or form, but the noise of the (gloriously cool) air gushing out from the unit is the type of white noise that I at least found easy to forgive, and ignore. 

The downside to this mobile air con unit is that the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner is relatively expensive to buy upfront. Especially compared to similarly well-performing – and more affordable – portable air conditioners, like the MeacoCool MC Series. Thanks to that powerful performance, running costs are also high, with this unit guzzling up 3400W of energy. 

Plus, it doesn't include a window kit or a remote control as standard. Although you can connect it to WiFi and use your phone as a remote device. 

Beyond that there's also the weight of this unit to consider. It's one of the heaviest portable air conditioners we've tested, so if you need to get it upstairs then you'll need a couple of strong pairs of arms to lift it. But, on the flipside, its robustness is a definite positive. The build quality feels good, and it's also relatively stylish and unobtrusive within a room

However, where the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner really comes into its own is its ease of use and cooling performance. 

The touch control panel is well designed and very intuitive to use, and the option to download the AEG app to operate it is a big plus point.  

The air con unit also offers a good range of functionality, including Cool, Fan and Dry modes. This entry-level AEG model just doesn't offer a Heat mode. That may be worth paying a little more for if you want to be able to use the appliance all year round to control your home's temperature. After all, if you're going to have an appliance of this size in your home, you want to get as much use out of it as possible.

Plus, if you do have a smaller home, then this 9000BTU model is a good size; able to cool 13-18m². AEG also offers a range of units with a larger 12000BTU cooling capacity if you need more power.

And, most importantly, once you turn on Cooling mode, the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner can reduce temperature dramatically in a short space of time – perfect for making the next heatwave more bearable. In fact, with this unit turned on, you might not even realise there is a heatwave happening outdoors until you open the door.

Overall, if you want a solidly built, quiet(ish), easy-to-use portable air conditioner that can cool rooms down fast, then I think the AEG Comfort 6000 Portable Air Conditioner performs extremely well compared to most. It's not cheap, but it will prove itself a good investment when the mercury soars and you're otherwise struggling to beat the heat.