Window AC Units Are Loud. This One Masks NYC Noise and Almost Feels Like Central Air. (2024)

You might wonder, as I did, how any window air conditioner might stand out from the rest, or whether an appliance so fundamentally flawed in nature could actually see any kind of significant design improvement. But the Midea U, Wirecutter’s top-pick air conditioner, is designed unlike any other window unit. Instead of requiring a window to remain open, the Midea U—named because it’s shaped like a U when viewed from the side—allows a window to open and close through the middle of it.

Whereas a typical window air conditioning unit is a solid metal box, the Midea U has a notch, roughly the width of a window, that runs the length of its body. As a result, half of the unit sits inside your living space while the other remains outside, with the two halves separated by your window. All the noisy components—the ones that in a standard AC would usually rattle away inside your bedroom in a symphony of growls and screeches—stay on the opposite side of your window, insulating your room from the sound. The Midea U is the quietest (and most energy-efficient) AC unit that Wirecutter has ever tested, and it’s the only air conditioner I haven’t wanted to turn off in the middle of the night.

There is no flimsy, accordion-shaped plastic flanking the AC, letting out the cold air while letting in the noise and the cigarette smoke from the street. At night, in a room cold enough to serve as a walk-in fridge, I sleep uninterrupted by sounds no louder than the crinkling of leaves. I never knew just how much I yearned for quiet until the Midea U hushed the boisterous sounds of the city I grew up in.

I bought two 12,000 Btu units because that’s what Costco had on sale, but you should consider your living space’s square footage when you shop so that you get the right model for your needs. “Typically, you want to make sure you’re not oversizing your AC,” explains staff writer Thom Dunn, the author of our air conditioner guide. “Even an efficient unit like the Midea U can still leave the room feeling gross and clammy if it’s too large for the space you’re in.”

My tiny bedroom is technically smaller than it should be for an AC of that size, but I keep the door open and use the two units in tandem to cool down my entire 1,000-square-foot apartment, which helps me spread the cooling power evenly. The power and efficiency of the machines allow them to deliver a luxurious cooling that feels almost like central air.

As someone who abhors having to download an app to use a specific product, I’ve found that the Midea app has one discernible benefit: I can use it to toggle the temperature for my cat when I’m out of town. (Keeping an appliance on even when I’m out of the house might sound extravagant, but because the Midea U has an inverter compressor, which allows it to throttle down, the effect on my electric bill has been modest.)

The app also allows you to toggle fan speeds to single-digit percentages—a range far greater than the Low/Med/High settings on the appliance itself. The Midea U is not handcuffed to the app, however, and for those who prefer physical controls, the unit has real, pressable buttons and comes with a remote control.

Some owners have reported issues with a high-pitched squeal coming from the machine, and others have noticed mold growing inside the unit. I have not had either of those problems.

But the installation process nearly broke my spirit.

Thom—who has tested dozens of AC units over the years, including multiple versions of Midea’s U-shaped AC across five different houses—writes in our air conditioner guide that “the installation process is a special kind of hell.” I found that assessment to be a tremendous understatement.

Wielding any window AC is never an easy task, especially if you take yours in and out seasonally. But while you can fit a typical AC unit into place in a stressful 10-minute push culminating in a small prayer whispered as you sandwich the machine into the window frame, installing the Midea U is an even bigger ordeal.

Compared with other ACs, the Midea U’s design relies more heavily on a support bracket, such that pressure from the window frame is not as integral to keeping the unit in place. The bracket also needs to be installed at an angle—just slightly less than level—so that water can drain out of the back of the unit. Otherwise, you risk the pooling water and mold that so many Reddit comments warn about. And if you don’t (or can’t) install the bracket correctly, your unit is held in only by the window and isn’t properly seated.

The first 10 minutes of taking measurements and installing the bracket seem fine. Easy, even. Yes, you need to be a little more diligent with the measuring tape, but you’ll think to yourself, “This isn’t so bad, right? It can’t possibly be as bad as that Wirecutter guide and all those online reviews say it will be.”

Do not be fooled. It will get worse. It will get so bad that you will question your intelligence, your ability to follow directions, your resolve, and your commitment to keeping this new AC unit. In a moment of despair, you will call Costco to inquire about the return policy (it’s very generous).

As I learned over the next four hours, the Midea U’s bracket is a particularly poor fit for pre-war New York City apartment windows like mine. Many of these windows have a stone frame with a ledge just wide enough to prevent the bracket’s feet from touching the side of the building exterior, making it impossible to fit the unit at anything less than an extreme slope in either direction. The shape of the bracket also means that installation requires dangling out of a window just a little farther than I’m comfortable with.

What I thought would take an hour became a whole afternoon spent in a non-air-conditioned room futzing around with the bracket, staring at it in disbelief, getting angry, and, in my frustration, accidentally dropping multiple tools and bits and bobs out of the window into the (fortunately inaccessible) corridor between my building and the next. Midea includes extra pins for the bracket, which tells me that I’m not the first person to send things falling out a window during installation.

Eventually, I decided to attach a spare 0.75-inch-thick piece of pine board to the base of the bracket’s feet, giving it enough additional length to meet the building’s exterior at the correct angle. Walking around the city, I occasionally spot similarly jury-rigged Midea U units, sometimes with a brick or even a book raising the AC (see above).

It gets easier. I was able to install my second unit in about 45 minutes. And I imagine that if you live in a house or an apartment building that was not erected over a century ago with a design quirk, the process will be significantly easier and less discouraging.

Having been through it, would I do it all over again?

Without hesitation. I have to strain to think back to that humid afternoon. No sooner had I turned on the AC that day than I began to forget what all the fuss had been about. Since that day I’ve had a year of quiet, uninterrupted sleep and cool breezes.

And then there’s my favorite thing about it: My cat seems to love it as much as I do. As soon as I turn it on, she’ll bound across the room and stick her face in front of the vent, sniffing the cold air with her fur rustling in the artificial breeze.

This article was edited by Catherine Kast and Megan Beauchamp.