Pros & Cons
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- Excellent cooling power
- Built-in dehumidifier
- Supports voice control
- Offers usage reports
- Quiet
- Easy to move
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- Bulky airflow tubes
- Does not support Apple HomeKit or IFTTT
Zafro 16,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner Specs
| BTUs | 16,000 (ASHRAE), 12,000 (DOE/SACC) |
| Style | Portable |
| Voice Control | Amazon Alexa |
| Voice Control | Google Assistant |
If you’ve had your fill of installing and uninstalling your window air conditioner every year, consider switching to a portable model like the Zafro 16,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner. This versatile AC uses a dual exhaust system and an inverter compressor to cool down rooms of up to 550 square feet and offers a dehumidifier mode, support for app and voice control, and usage reports. It performed well in testing and is relatively quiet, but its dual exhaust tubes are bulky. At $569.99, it’s competitively priced, but you’ll get a bit more cooling power with our Editors' Choice for portable air conditioners, the $499.99 Dreo Portable Smart Air Conditioner AC516S.
Design: Dual Exhausts for Fresh, Cold Air
The Zafro portable air conditioner is advertised as a 16,000 BTU unit, but that rating is misleading as it refers to the older ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers) testing standard. It actually has a 12,000 BTU SACC (Seasonal Adjusted Cooling Capacity) rating. The SACC rating more accurately represents real-world performance and is the industry standard for portable air conditioners. It's also the figure you should use when comparing the Zafro to other devices, like the aforementioned Dreo AC516S, which is rated for 14,000 BTU.
The Zafro portable AC has a 42dB sound rating at its lowest fan setting. It has a dehumidifier mode with an adjustable settings range of 30% to 70% and a fan-only mode. It uses self-evaporation technology to provide up to 72 hours of drainage-free cooling and dehumidification.
The unit has a white finish and measures 27.2 by 16.5 by 14.2 inches (HWD). It weighs 55.6 pounds, but it is easy to move thanks to four casters on the bottom and built-in handles on each side.
(Credit: John R. Delaney)On top of the unit is a backlit control panel, a louver that offers automatic horizontal and vertical swing actions, and a green LED strip. The control panel has buttons for enabling the swing functions, timer, sleep mode (which turns off the LEDs and runs the fan at the lowest setting), adjusting the fan speed (low, middle, high, or auto), and plus and minus buttons for setting temperature, timer, and dehumidifier values. The Mode button lets you choose between cooling, dehumidifier, and fan-only modes, and Power turns the AC on and off. A 3-inch (diagonal) LCD tells you the current target temperature and has icons for the current mode, fan speed, swing mode, humidity level, remaining timer duration, Wi-Fi status, and sleep mode. Here you’ll also find a filter replacement reminder and a child lock icon. The child lock is activated by pressing the time and fan speed buttons at the same time.
Around back are air inlet and outlet ports for the exhaust tubes, a larger air inlet with a removable grill and filter, two water outlets for connecting to a drain tube when the unit is running in dehumidifier mode for prolonged periods, and an AC power plug.
While most portable air conditioners use a single exhaust tube to remove hot air from the room, the Zafro unit uses two tubes: one to remove hot air from the inside and the other to bring in fresh air from outside. This makes for a bulky exhaust system, but the technology enhances cooling efficiency, allowing the AC to provide a balanced airflow and prevent hot air from reentering the room. The Midea Duo ($599.99) uses the same technology and has a similarly bulky exhaust system.
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The AC uses a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi radio to connect to your home network and a Bluetooth radio to connect to the Zafro mobile app, which is available for Android and iOS. It comes with everything you need for a quick and easy installation: An adjustable window panel with cutouts for each exhaust tube, two exhaust tubes, sealing foam, mounting hardware, a remote with two AA batteries, a remote wall bracket, a drainage hose, and a user manual.
(Credit: Zafro/PCMag)The remote offers all of the functionality of the onboard control panel, and you can also control the AC using Alexa and Google voice commands and the Zafro app, but Apple HomeKit and IFTTT applets are not supported. The AC appears in a panel on the app’s home screen with the name and a picture of the device and its current Wi-Fi status. When you tap the panel, it opens a screen with a power button, current room temperature and humidity readings, and the target temperature setting. Here you can also set a timer range, create a timer schedule, set maintenance alerts, view the user manual, and access settings. The settings screen lets you edit the device name, share access, view daily and weekly usage graphs, and link the AC to your Alexa and Google accounts.
When you tap the picture of the AC in the app, it opens a screen where you can turn the unit on and off, set the target temperature, activate sleep mode, change the fan speed and operating mode, disable the LEDs, and enable a swing mode. Tap the Extra button to activate a fast cooling mode that uses the fan’s highest speed and a low target temperature for quick cooling.
Installation and Performance: Simple Setup, Speedy Cooling
Installing the Zafro is fast and easy. I installed the window panel and foam weather stripping, attached the two exhaust tubes to the AC and to the window panel, and plugged in the power cord. To pair the AC with my phone, I downloaded the Zafro app, long-pressed the Mode button on the control panel to activate Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and selected the air conditioner when it was discovered. I selected my Wi-Fi SSID and entered my password when prompted, and assigned the device to a room to complete the installation.
The Zafro air conditioner provided very good cooling performance in my tests. It needed 25 minutes to lower the temperature in my 360-square-foot bedroom from 78 degrees to 68 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s fast but not quite as speedy as the Midea Duo and the Dreo AC516S, both of which needed 20 minutes.
According to the NIOSH Sound Level Meter app, the Zafro operates at 44dB at low speed and 55dB at high speed, which is relatively quiet. By comparison, the Dreo AC516S measured 47dB at its lowest setting and 55dB at its highest setting.
The AC responded instantly to my Alexa voice commands to turn it on and off, and I had no trouble using voice commands to change the target temperature and fan speed. My Alexa routine to have the AC turn on when a Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam detected motion worked well, too.