We test and review a portable AC unit for vanlife and tent camping. Watch to see if the Zero Breeze Mark 2 will cool down a small camping trailer, then a ground tent that's about the same size as a RTT, or roof top tent.
Absolutely respect the fact that you gave a 100% complete honest review and did not kiss ass to the company that sent that to you just because they gave it to you for free!
good review, as a buyer who has used the mark 2 for like a year, it indeed can not cool the whole space down, especially in the daytime, but it brings me a good experience when I sleep in the tent or in my van! Treat it as a “spot cooler” LOL
I use this as an auxiliary AC for inside my work van. I own a dog training company and we are constantly having to run the van to keep the pups cool who are inside their crates in the van. This little AC unit allows me to maintain a cool inside without running the van.
Dang you're right. These zero breeze guys aren't looking for customers they're looking for suckers. Ecoflow wave is a better product and same or cheaper price. What is zero breeze doing?
@@DoritosResidue Reviews on the Eco Flow say the same thing "Not much cooling, batt doesn't last long enough, way too expensive" Looks good on paper (if you are wealthy!) but in reality, it is too good to be true. Hard Pass on either product.
@@jeffdana9402 I'm using the ecoflow for my small Japanese flat, it's currently "upstairs", in a sort of loft next to the main room, the cooling takes time to get down into the main room but it's decent enough when it does. My "proper" installed AC cools the main room almost immediately, but the Ecoflow uses about half the power (400w vs 8-900w) even on full blast. I'll probably get better results from the Ecoflow when I can rearrange things and move it down into the main room (need to set up venting first, much smaller windows upstairs). Also it's much quieter than my installed unit on sleep or eco modes. Yes, even though the main unit has it's compressor in a seperate unit outdoors, the Ecoflow is still quieter! And, of course, once I get solar hooked up to it, no brainer. Oh, and there's the usual "how long until it pays for itself" question - when the next typhoon or earthquake knocks the power out. That's when it pays for itself.
We have four outbuildings here in FL that we "temper" and our 11x13 glamping cabin tent is fully AC'd. After trying a number of portable AC units with varying degrees of success the best performance to be had for us is from small 5k btu mechanical window units, our current fav is a Toshiba unit that was $109 at a discount outlet store, we are currently running 5 of them with one more unopened in the box. The issues with any potable/window/wall units that are digitally controlled are many, they do not perform well on a generator and even less so on an inverter two different Haier units would not engage cooling at all on our 3kw inverter. The only mechanical units still in production today are the base 5k window units and these do not care a whit about the volage variations from line to gen to inverter and they actually do whatever the manual control is set to. The main issue with all portable solutions is the separation of hot side to cool side and you simply cannot afford the BTUs of heat they generate inside the cooling/tempering space, the window unit solves this issue, the only parts in the space are supply air return air and controls. If you rig a 5k window unit to a roof top tent I will wager that it will end up being set to low cool and t-stat at less than half of capacity, otherwise you will freeze out, even here in Florida. I will add that we have not tried the new "split" window units and since they do not manufacture them in mechanical controls we will likely never try one, but they certainly avoid the problem of have the condensing and evaporating sides in the space you are trying to cool.
I barrowed my friends Zero and used it in my old truck camper for a weekend. I can tell you this much. after we opened the roof vent to allow the heat to escape(heat rises and cold settles)the little Zero did just fine.
It's the same with those home, "portable" air conditioners that only have 1 exhaust pipe! Sure, the cooling part does suck the room air into the front and cools that, putting it back into the room. So that's good. But the single pipe/hose ones, to keep the condenser cool, also suck the already cooled air from inside the room to cool the condenser and then pushes that outside through the exhaust hose. What a waste and so inefficient. We have a portable to cool our downstairs. When I bought it, there were no 2 hose versions available at the time. But in looking how this was designed, I realized that I could modify it to an an outside "intake" hose to it. I tested it with 1 hose then later with my modification (2 hoses, one inlet, one output). WOW! What a difference. Much cool AND no inside pressure created by having only the exhaust. Now it sucks air from outside to cool the condenser. Most people don't realize this.
At last, an honest product review! 2500 but isn't enough to do the job and as you stated, the battery needs to last for at least 8 hrs. on high! Great review!
Thanks for the honest review. Other overlanders have hyped it up, but I agree with you. For the performance, not worth the price, size, and weight to lug around.
I am all about comfort while camping. This unit doesn't cut it, only because of price. The unit i looked at is $1400 and thats crazy. If you have a camper or trailer you can get a small house window unit and a solar system with batteries for roughly the same price while being able to run other electronics.
There's a flaw with your "test" test. As many will know about AC units, is that, on the cooling side, it sucks in the ambient ROOM air, cools it then pushes it back into the room. As the ambient air gets cooler, the unit sucks in the "now cooler air" and cools that down even more. It's a cycle. But in this test, you left the unit outside the tent, therefore, the unit is sucking in the same 85 degrees and cooling that. In very humid conditions, the unit will be sucking in the external hot air AND the high humidity. It can only dehumidify air that is lowering in humidity. With this test, it's literally going to push more humid air into the tent. If the unit was inside the tent, again, it would suck in the cooling air and dehumidifying that, in a cycle that would be much more inefficient. You should try the test with the unit inside the tent so that as the air cools, it sucks in the cooler air (and less humidity).
I run into this problem a lot with customers and their vehicles here in Texas. The complaint. My AC is not cold. A 30 second inspection reveals the recirculation button was never selected. They keep trying to cool off the vehicle with the same 110 degree outside air. Vs the cooler air inside the vehicle.
Did you try to have the intake on the inside? Why cool the hot air from the outside? Seems like it would be more efficient to cool off the colder inside air
You are correct. I’m an HVAC technician. Removing heat and moisture is the primary function of an air conditioner. If you are not removing heat and moisture from the tent and only adding less hot (cool), dryer air to the tent, you are simply mixing the less hot (cool), dryer air with the warm, humid air in the tent. The result may be less hot (cooler) than the outside air, but will likely be more humid than desirable. 72°F with 85% humidity will feel much warmer and less comfortable than 72°F with 55% humidity.
Thankyou for the very helpful review. Always wondered why the smallest window units "start" at 5000 btu's. I wish someone would make one in the 3000 to 4000 btu range for small vans and or small teardrops. This unit you reviewed may not be the answer, but it did start the interest by other manufacturers to create smaller units like this. Hopefully that will lead to a company figuring out how to make ones that are just a little bit better suited for vans and trailers. Thanks again.
A typical small car ac is already above 10K btu, so don't expect 3-4K btu to cool down the interior space of a small van. The portable 10K btu units can't even keep up in 90 degree weather.
Great info and review guys! I have one of these too and it does work pretty well in my RTT, but I haven't tried it in a bigger space like you did. I will say to make sure that vent tube is attached really well (and that you don't knock it loose) because I did that the first night I ran it in my RTT and woke up in a puddle, :D.
Appreciate the honest review. I've seen too many of them along the lines of your introduction description. Lol I always thought this unit was way too small unless you have a small rooftop tent and even then it probably couldn't be that warm outside due to the fact it doesn't last very long. Being someone who lives in Texas this would never work as you need to have the AC running for at least eight hours since it can be 80° when you go to bed at best in the summer months..
Given what I just saw elsewhere, it cools you in a cart on the golf course! 🤣 I've seen several reviews on this unit, all in the last week! I'm very interested in it.
I have one of these. We use it with our Boreas XT. I agree with your evaluation. We run it during the day using a small generator and on battery at night. It does last most of the night since ambient temps are lower and we run it on eco mode. A lot of money, but space and limited choices were major factors in our decision.
My coworker has the Mk 2 version and it really does work. I borrowed it for my 2 person tent. I would love one myself but the price point is out of my range.
I bought an Ecoflow Wave 2 last week, Pretty good cooling capacity, but still not what I expected to cool my RV, so think about this if it would fit your needs before you buy those portable ACs
Good review, I think I'm gonna go with a mini split. Mounted on the back door of the van. Uses a lot of power, then again. I have a lot of power. Anyway, when it's really hot, I'm usually in a lawn chair in a river.
Thank you for your time and effort to produce this video. Do you think that the test in your camper was fair? I ask because the two tubes for keeping the unit itself cool and bring in the fresh air were dumped right next to each other and share the same window area making it possible for the intake side to draw some of the hot exhaust air to mix with the intake air thus lowering the efficiency the unit?
The video thumbnail display shows incorrect usage; the intake port of the cooling unit should be inside the tent for faster cooling and energy efficiency.
I just checked the Frigidaire 5000 BTU window air conditioner. It draws 4.6 amps at 110 volts. It's also $160 as of July 2023. I'd be curious to see how long you could run one on one of those lithium ion power stations. That little battery AC seems to be very inefficient. Especially for the money.
Thank you for your video ! It was verry detailed and informative , based on what ive learned from your video . This product will not cool our 12 person camping tent and the battery life is kinda short ... Also for the price of $1,500 its expensive !! I will continue shopping for larger BTU and a more reasonable price . Is there any brands you can suggest buying ? Thank you
I bought this unit had for while and agree 100% on your assessment. One way to survive heat is have it blow directly In your face. Only way. The company offers more batteries you can daisy chain.
I had this unit for 3 weeks and was very disappointed. I’ve given the new Wave 2 from EcoFlow a try and the 5100btus makes all the difference in the world. And it’s also a heater!!
Thank you for the video. The characteristics you identified at the end of the video that you wanted are similar to ours. We have a small totally off-grid camper. We'd like the cooling unit to be semi permanently located outside beside or under our camper - so wire to a switch our a remote that would work through the wall would be great. Looking for a straight 12 volt system that could economize power from 12 volt batteries that are part of our solar system. A 10 degree change would be fantastic. Ideas?
I don't get it why some ecoflow guys keep saying that Wave 2 is better because it's 5000btu. window units are more powerful and cheaper than Ecoflow Wave 2. I have both wave and mark 2 units. both work for a regular van. however, mark 2 is a better choice for most of my trips, especially when I travel in a 4x4 vehicle. mark 2 draws out much less power, it's lighter to carry on RTT and it's smaller to put in the trunk.
Seems to me that the name "Zero Breeze" should be all you need to know about this unit. I find that in order to cool down properly, you need a lot of btu's and more than zero breeze to push the cool air around.
When you used it in the Tent... the unit is supposed to go inside the tent, thats why the remote works like that. You said yourself that it takes air in from the front and ejects it out the front. But you left the whole unit outside to suck in 85 degree air. The two hoses are supposed to go out through the tent and the whole unit should be inside.
If you put the suction hose and the cold hose inside your area and put the hot air hose outside. the unit will cool the area you want cold faster and more efficient just like a window unit.
It works really well so far in my 22 Cascadia. I just close off sleeping area with the curtain, for some reason it cools off better if both windows are open rather then trough tubes but depending where you sleeping you probably cannot leave the windows open. My sleeper has no windows so cannot push air out trough there. Also I will usually chill cabin with ac before shutting down for the day, that makes it easier for breeze to sustain the temperature. Keep in mind temperatures are still not as hot as they are going to be in summer but so far it has been a life saver.
One thing I have seen on other videos that if using things like this in a tent it should be insulated. Trying to charge this via the cars 12v power using an inverter would be useless, it is 100w max. You could wire an inverter off the battery directly in the car to get respectable power, but would still take a while.
If I'm not mistaking, one of the rear ports is for exhaust and the other is th intake. Now to have more efficiency I would have the intake inside the space I want to cool. So instead of taking hot air from outside and trying to cool that, I would be cooling the inside air.... Just a thought.
@Wanderlost Overland I have a 2003 Ford E150 conversion van, the ac works well up front but not so much in the rear when you have passengers. What I'm looking for is supplemental system like this. What are your thoughts? Second, why is the intake air plumbed to the outside, would it not make more sense to pull cooler air from inside? Thanks
Should have put the unit inside the tent to get even better cooling. Intaking the tent air and cooling from 72 instead of 85 outside will give a much lower supply temp and dehumidify the tent air some.
With the inlet and outlet air right on top of each other. Without using the supplied outlet hose to raise the outlet cool air away from the inlet warm air, it's just recycling the cool air. Hot air rises, cool air falls. The outlet hose needs to be hung from the ceiling. But then again it is less then a 1/4 ton AC in a 1964 Travel Trailer.
I'm glad I watched this personally I think it's a waste of money, the guy at a off road trailer said oh there good and I wanted a full size air-conditioner...I see in the comments I'll look at some other of these small ones but I'm thinking there s waste of money because if I'm out in the mountains and it's hot I want it down fast
The front of the unit should be inside the camper so as not to create negative air pressure that pulls warm air from the outside and thus reducing the efficiency and cooling effect. Also 2500 BTU isn't enough to cool any space except maybe a closet. If the entire unit is inside the camper, the exhaust hose should be insulated to reduce heat transfer into the space being cooled.
I had mine running the other night with 80% humidity in the air at 30-25 degrees, it took the wagon down to almost 18 degrees through the night. Absolutely amazing in small spaces.
The intake outlet needed to be inside the camper for this review to be as accurate as possible... thats quite a oversight but im sure it would not cool down a lot considering the size of the room and the heat these days is killer
I think you'll find the unit more efficient and the battery last longer if you put the condenser inlet hose inside near the top of your tent, so it's drawing warm air from the ceiling of the tent with the condenser outlet hose of course blowing outside, and then the air conditioned air blowing into the tent down low. The tent will cool down and your condenser will be much more efficient because it'll be cooled by somewhat cooler air from the inside of the tent. It should make a difference in cooling efficiency.
ok i am a huge fan for portable AC units BUT hear me out, they are good for blowing directly over you only, as for an actual room cooler they are not much chop, but like i said blowing directl over you while you sleep so you are in your own little cool atmosphere bubble they give you relief to sleep
yes, the intake should be inside the area that's slowly getting cooler, that way the unit has an easier time. As the air inside gets cooler it doesn't have to work as hard.
@@chancyblain2919 You have to have everything zipped up as tight as you can to minimize that. Even if the inside of the space your cooling is only 5 degrees cooler than the outside, that makes a huge difference. The a/c then cools the cooler air further and over time air inside gets noticably cooler than air outside. Its how your home a/c works, its how portable a/cs work, its how a/c works in general. Its also why insulation is so important.
@@Willriii o man I had it wrong the entire time, I always thought air conditioners had 2 intakes one for pulling in room air to cool across the cold coil and one to pull outside air across the hot coil to get rid of the heat and that the cheap portable ones that don’t have the extra intake that goes outside have the lowest seer rating? Don’t the more expensive more efficient portable ones have the extra intake tube to cool the hot side coil so as to not use the air inside creating negative pressure? No matter how tight an area is sealed if you are pulling air out of the room to cool the hot side that air has to be replaced otherwise you could suffocate if all the air was pulled out, which leads me to believe that the air being pulled out is being replaced with hot outside air
Neat concept however battery life and small capacity better off getting a ice chest with the fan setup and hook it up to a jackery or battery supply with inverter then its only the cost of ice
25K and above is not what I'm talking about, I'm talking about 15,000 to generate at least 4 to 5 Kilowatts a day, during sunlight so the batterys can be filled enough to supply the energy until 9 AM the next day. We are not there yet
