Hot, hot, hot! Equip yourself with an air conditioner in anticipation of possible strong heat waves and summer heat waves? Many think about it. Increasingly, summer temperatures are reaching peaks. Difficult to resist when you live in an apartment, when you have a bedroom under the roof, young children or when you want to ensure the comfort of an elder. Before the thermometer panics, 20 minutes was able to test the Electrolux ChilFlex Proan air conditioner suitable for rooms up to 36 square meters.
Mobile, but quite heavy
Like most devices in its class, it’s the size of a small piece of furniture. Measuring 71 cm high by 48 cm wide and 38 cm deep, the Electrolux ChilFlex Pro is massive. Not unsightly, but difficult to say that it will participate in the decoration of your interior! It is a mobile model, mounted on wheels. A good thing, since it will be easy to move from room to room. On one condition: not having to make him climb the floors of a house. Its weight (around thirty kilos) limits its movements.
Who says “mobile air conditioner”, also says “extraction duct”. Unlike fixed air conditioners (usually hung at the top of a wall) in contact with the outside to evacuate hot air, mobile air conditioners require the use of a large ventilation duct. It is a constraint. Because fixed to the back of the device, this sheath will have to be wedged against the leaf of a window left ajar. And the air conditioner will have to find its place near an opening to the outside.
Reversible and programmable
Reversible, the ChilFlex Pro offers several modes of use: “Cool” to cool, “Fan” to ventilate, “Dry” to dehumidify and “Heat” to heat. The device can therefore be used all year round, acting as an auxiliary heater in winter. It also has four speeds to adapt to your needs.
The ChilFlex Pro is controlled using a remote control. It is possible to access all of its functions, but also to program a delayed start or stop, or an operating time. We regret the absence of an application which would have allowed more precise programming than with the simple timer propose.
The French of Netatmo understood this well and launched a few days ago their “Smart remote control for air conditioners”. Sold 119 euros, wireless, it allows you to take control of any of these devices. The product is interesting, which notably allows remote triggering. You can thus turn on your air conditioner 15 minutes before arriving home and not run it unnecessarily if you decide to come home from work later than at the previously scheduled time.
Effectiveness that can be heard
Simple to use, easy to live with, but above all very effective, the ChilFlex Pro that we tested when the temperatures had not yet reached peaks, gave us satisfaction. By 25°C, in the middle of the afternoon, in the Paris suburbs, the device brought the temperature of a room of about forty square meters down to 20°C in about twenty minutes with its ventilation speed set to halfway.
With a noise level of 64 dB (A), the device is not really noisy, but nevertheless asserts its presence. This noise level corresponds to that of most mobile air conditioners on the market. However, it is difficult to watch television without being inconvenienced by its operation if you do not have a sound bar to partially cover the noise of the ventilation. And difficult, too, to consider using it in a small bedroom. This noise level will nevertheless be lower if we opt for a gradual cooling of the room, rather than a rapid one.
Caulking required
Obviously, there is the question of the environment. The device, which benefits from an “A” energy label in refrigeration, uses R290 gas, which has a much lower impact on the planet than other refrigerants. This is a preferred criterion. In operation, its power consumption is similar to that of a washing machine. Our Ecojoko sensor has thus gone from 200 W of average power consumption (computer on and objects on standby) to more than 1,400 W once the air conditioner is on.
Finally, the ventilation duct raises questions. Indispensable, it requires caulking the part of the window left ajar (6 cm opening required). It is possible to tinker with a headband, or to buy a fabric or telescopic caulking kit sold as an option (from around 45 euros). Because it is impossible to imagine cooling a room while letting hot air continue to enter it…
Sold 649 euros on the site of its manufacturer, the ChilFlex Pro does the job, and quite well. With all the limits that we can – or that we must – impose on the use of this type of device.
The idea here is not to open the debate “should we use an air conditioner or not? “. We know that this type of product is not the best for the planet. We may also not have a choice. If you have to equip yourself, however, be sure to use your air conditioner intelligently, by turning it on only in your presence, when it is really hot (outside temperature from 30°C if possible), but also by respecting a maximum temperature difference of 8°C between inside and outside.