QUIRKY PAROS WH01 AIR CONDITIONER IMAGE SOURCE: QUIRKY

Quirky.com is a community website for inventors and designers around the world. Through group collaborative projects, this talented collective of ambitious individuals came up with a rather strange, yet ingenious idea; the smart air conditioner. However, lacking the resources and know-how on how to get this product to the shelves, they enlisted the aid of GE Appliances, a behemoth brand that we’ve known and enjoyed, who can boast over 80 years of experience in the air conditioning market. Bringing their engineering knowledge, and manufacturing power to the table, GE Appliances refined the original idea, collaborating with Quirky.com’s innovative community, to bring us the Quirky PAROS-WH01 window-mounted smart air conditioner. Check out our review below for all the details.

Quirky PAROS-WH01 Air Conditioner

Usually, we would talk about the brand we’re reviewing and their reputation/achievements in the HVAC industry before getting into our review, however, believe it or not, Quirky.com has not produced any air conditioning units prior to this, to the best of our knowledge, which makes the Quirky PAROS-WH01 even more impressive. With intelligent design, this unit is making waves in the industry, using smart technology to vastly improve the user’s experience with this device. If you appreciate sleek and modern design principles, and ultra-convenient operation, we strongly advise you to give this unit a look.

Cooling Performance

Providing a middle-range 8,000 BTUs of cooling, the Quirky PAROS-WH01 window mounted air conditioner is capable of providing cooling effects to an estimated area of up to 350 square feet. This makes the Quirky PAROS-WH01 perfect for medium sized living conditions.

Efficiency / Certifications

Unfortunately, the Energy Star status of this unit was unavailable at the time of this review. What we do know for certain, however, is that the Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER) of this unit stands at 10.9. The EER of a unit is an accurate measure of how efficiently it performs. Taking into consideration how much energy is consumed by the unit, as well as its output, the higher the EER of a unit, the more efficiently it will operate. The industry average EER stands at 9.7, with any unit scoring over 10 being considered to be highly efficient. Therefore, the Quirky PAROS-WH01 performs very well in that regard, with its EER of 10.9. Efficient operation is also further included with the inclusion of 3 fan speeds in this unit’s final design. This allows the user to operate their unit on a lowered fan speed when full power is not necessary. Operating your device in this way will save you a surprisingly large sum of money over time.

Convenience

The Quirky PAROS-WHo1 is one of the most convenient units we have come across. GE and Quirky had one mission when designing this product; to bring home air conditioning units into the modern age. Through a free-to-use “Wink” app, you can control this unit from your smartphone wherever you have wi-fi. However, the controllable abilities from your mobile device are not merely an ON/OFF button. Instead, the user is able to input the conditions they want for their room at home. The unit will then maintain the preferred environment automatically. Over time, the Quirky PAROS-WH01 will begin to gather data on your usage, weather conditions, your GPS position, and even your budget, automatically working around you to ensure maintained optimal conditions in your home.

In addition to being smartphone compatible, this unit also comes with an operational timer, allowing the user further control over when their unit operates, and how.

Design

Aesthetically speaking, this unit has a refined and minimalist exterior casing, white, with a touch control panel along the bottom left of the front face. Temperature conditions are shown in a sleek LED display to the right, while the majority of this unit’s front face is taken up with a modern and stylish vent covering. Smooth white in color, there are very few units on the market that look as good as the Quirky PAROS-WH01 smart window-mounted air conditioner.

Weighing 64lbs, this unit is certainly not “light”, and so we would advise our readers to seek assistance when transporting or installing this unit.

While we do not have specific decibel-rating figures, we have noticed that this unit is slightly louder than a lot of the other similar units on the market, our advice, would be to not use this unit in a bedroom if you are a light sleeper.

This unit also features a slide-out washable filter, which is useful as you won’t have to spend money replacing the filter. We recommend washing the filter as regularly as the manufacturer suggests in the user manual, as you will risk losing some of your unit’s efficiency in performance if you allow the filter to become too dirty.

Dimensions (Inches)

Height: 16″

Width: 21″

Length: 24″

Help & Support

This unit is backed by a 1-year parts & labour limited warranty, which is generally industry standard. Oddly enough, as this product is a collaboration between the Quirky community site and GE Appliances, there is no clear customer support section dedicated to this unit, as it is not available on either group’s website. Therefore we direct our readers to GE Appliance’s customer support network, with experienced customer service representatives contactable via telephone, web form through their official website, email, live chat, and various social media presences.

Verdict

Here at Air Conditioners Rated, we’re always excited to see innovation in the industry, and the talented designers of Quirky.com, allied with the predictably high-quality manufacturing power of GE Appliances, has really impressed us. This unit is certainly one to watch if you’re interested in a whole new level of convenient air conditioner operation.