Whynter Elite ARC-122DS (2015) vs Whynter ARC-12S 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner, Dehumidifier, Fan with Activated Carbon Filter

The Whynter Elite ARC-122DS Portable AC is an exemplary product and sets the bar for all other Portable Air Conditioners at the $430 budget.

The Whynter ARC-12S 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner, Dehumidifier, Fan with Activated Carbon Filter, however, is merely passable for its price. We suggest taking a look at some better options if you're considering buying a Portable Air Conditioner in the $360 range.

The Whynter Elite ARC-122DS Portable AC managed to impress reviewers from two reliable and unbiased sources that conduct their own hands-on testing, namely TechGearLab, Reviewed, and Your Best Digs. It performed great in their roundups - it earned the "Best for Cooling Power" title from TechGearLab and "Best Value" from Reviewed, which makes it a product worthy of consideration.

As for the Whynter ARC-12S 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner, Dehumidifier, Fan with Activated Carbon Filter - it wasn't considered to be a good enough purchase to earn a spot in any roundups conducted by sources that perform objective hands-on testing, which typically indicates that a product isn't worth its asking price.

We couldn't find any sources that tested both of these Portable Air Conditioners, so we only analyzed how they performed in reviews from different sites.

We first examined which sources rated each of these best and found that the Whynter Elite ARC-122DS Portable AC got its highest, 10, rating from TechGearLab, while the Whynter ARC-12S 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner, Dehumidifier, Fan with Activated Carbon Filter earned its best, 9, score from Top Ten Reviews.

Lastly, in order to better compare them to the rest of their competition, we averaged out their review scores. The Whynter ARC-12S 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner, Dehumidifier, Fan with Activated Carbon Filter managed to get 9.0 out of 10 - considerably better than the 6.7 review average of Portable Air Conditioners in general - whereas the Whynter Elite ARC-122DS Portable AC earned 10.0 points.

It should be said that doing a direct Whynter Elite ARC-122DS Portable AC vs. Whynter ARC-12S 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner, Dehumidifier, Fan with Activated Carbon Filter comparison might not be entirely fair due to the difference in their prices - some sources don't put much weight on value for money and thus tend to give better review scores to more expensive products.