TCL Q-series Smart Inverter Window AC review: Super-efficient cooling

Price When Reviewed

$399.99

Best Prices Today: TCL Q-series Smart Inverter Window Air Conditioner (model H8W4MW)

$319

$359.99

The dog days of summer are over, but thanks to global warming, it’s still plenty toasty in many parts of the country. If you’re looking for an affordable means to stay cool without experiencing an unsettling spike in your monthly electric bill, TCL’s Smart Inverter window air conditioner might be just what you’re looking for.

The TCL Smart Inverter has an onboard Wi-Fi adapter, so you can add the appliance to your 2.4GHz home network and control it with TCL’s smartphone app. It can also be controlled with voice commands spoken to a smart speaker (Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, or Google Home), and it’s Matter certified, which means it can be integrated into pretty much any other smart home ecosystem, including SmartThings. It also comes with its own remote control.

Specifications

The TCL Q-series model H8W4MW is a mid-sized window air conditioner designed for rooms up to 350 square feet. It fits in openings 26 to 36 inches wide (645- to 915mm) with at least 14.5 inches of height (368mm). It comes with a pre-assembled frame to block any open spaces on either side, and TCL puts a block of plasticene in the box so you can fill any remaining gaps to prevent leaks, although I found I needed to purchase more of that material to complete my installation. A strip of foam is also provided to fill the gap between the two window sashes.

As is typical of this type of air conditioner, it’s best suited to single- or double-hung windows that open vertically. You can use it in a slider window that opens horizontally, but you’ll need to come up with your own means of blocking the vertical opening that will remain. If you can screw all the supporting parts into firm wood, masonry, or metal, the 61.7-pound unit won’t require additional support outside the window.

TCL provides an L-bracket you can screw into the upper window sash to prevent it from being opened, but this is optional and you can open the window for fresh air without worrying that the air conditioner will fall out (provided its side brackets are secured to the window sill and frame).

Michael Brown/Foundry

Michael Brown/Foundry

Michael Brown/Foundry

TCL rates this unit at 8,000 BTUs, indicating the amount of heat—measured in British Thermal Units—that it can remove from a given room size (up to 350 square feet for this model) in one hour. Much of this TCL unit’s appeal is its extreme efficiency—it has a CEER (Combined Energy Efficiency Ratio) rating of 15—which can be attributed to its use of inverter technology to adjust the speed of its compressor as needed to maintain the desired temperature.

If you have a larger room, TCL offers a 10,000 BTU model for rooms up to 450 square feet ($450), and there’s a 12,000 BTU unit for rooms up to 550 square feet ($500). All three units utilize the more Earth-friendly R32 refrigerant, which doesn’t deplete the ozone layer.

A fine-mesh air filter behind the air conditioner’s front panel traps particulate matter so it’s not recirculated with the conditioned air. An LED on the unit will light up to remind you to clean the filter after every 500 hours of operation. You’ll also get a message to this effect in TCL’s app.

Controls

Michael Brown/Foundry

Michael Brown/Foundry

Michael Brown/Foundry

A control panel on the front of the unit lets you manually turn it on and off, control the desired target temperature, adjust its fan speed, and switch between Cool, Dry (dehumidify), and Auto modes. Pressing a Swing/Oscillation button causes a flap in front of the air outlet to swing up and down to better distribute the conditioned air. You can also fix the angle of this flap by pushing the button a second time when it’s at the position you want.

The TCL Q-series also has an Eco mode (activated with the remote or in the app) that turns off its compressor when the desired air temperature is reached. It will continue to operate its fan for up to three minutes while in Eco mode and will then shut off. The fan will restart and run for one minute at five-minute intervals until the room temperature is above the target temperature, at which point the compressor will turn back on. This feature, combined with the inverter technology, makes for highly efficient air conditioning.

Michael Brown/Foundry

Michael Brown/Foundry

Michael Brown/Foundry

In addition to the front-panel buttons, you can also control the air conditioner with TCL’s Bluetooth remote control, which duplicates all the buttons on the front panel and adds a couple more: one for the aforementioned Eco mode; Display, to turn the air conditioner’s LCD display off and on; and Sleep, which will increase the target temperature by 2 degrees over one hour and then remain constant for seven hours before returning to the target temp. The remote also has up and down arrow keys for dialing in your preferred temperature.

Setup

Michael Brown/Foundry

Michael Brown/Foundry

Michael Brown/Foundry

Given this appliance’s weight, you’ll probably need someone to help you install it, but that’s a given with this type of product. The pre-assembled frame makes installation easier, and I appreciated having the plasticene to block the smaller air gaps. My home, having been built in 1890, has single-hung windows with the same type of aluminum-frame storm windows on the outside that were probably added in the 1960s. The old-growth fir interior frames were more than adequate to support the weight of the unit with the help of a few screws in strategic locations.

I soon realized that I had another problem, however; even though a previous owner had remodeled the kitchen shortly before I bought the home, it has far too few AC outlets. TCL recommends running the air conditioner on its own circuit. There are seven duplex outlets in the room—all on the same 20-amp circuit—but the only one within reach of the air conditioner’s cord is behind the refrigerator. I was able to relocate the refrigerator’s plug to the outlet behind my stove, but that still left both large appliances drawing power from the same circuit.

Michael Brown/Foundry

Michael Brown/Foundry

Michael Brown/Foundry

Fortunately, the refrigerator is a relatively new LG model that’s also based on inverter technology, but when I quizzed TCL as to why the unit keeps dropping off my Eero Wi-Fi 6 mesh network, they pointed to the overloaded circuit as the likely culprit. Most of the times when the air conditioner drops its Wi-Fi connection, turning it off and then on again solves the problem, so it’s a relatively minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things. But the bottom line on that point is it’s probably not the fault of the appliance.

Matter support made it easy to incorporate the air conditioner into my smart home. Once I’d installed TCL’s app, I needed only to scan the Matter QR code on the side of the appliance to connect it to my Amazon Alexa and Apple Home environments (I didn’t test it with Google Home). Now I can turn the unit on and off and set target temperatures using voice commands or any of the three apps (Alexa, Apple Home, or TCL’s own app).

Should you buy the TCL Q-series Smart Inverter Window Air Conditioner?

Portland, Oregon homes aren’t supposed to require air conditioning, but the three summers we’ve lived here have all seen record-breaking heat. My biggest concern over running a window air conditioner was seeing a spike in my monthly electric bill, but that fear didn’t materialize over the four months I’ve been running the TCL Q-series Smart Inverter Window Air Conditioner.

In addition to being very efficient, this air conditioner is also very quiet. I measured just a 6dB increase over the ambient noise level in my kitchen while it was operating.

If you’re looking for an affordable and energy-efficient way to beat the heat, TCL’s smart air conditioner is a cost-effective way to do it.