Eric wrote to us this week with a tale of such epic dysfunction while trying to purchase air conditioners from Sears that there’s not much we can add to it. Inside: Imaginary deliveries, super-secret New York City surcharges, and the hazards of daring to order anything over the phone.
air conditioner
Don't Let Your Air Conditioner Torch You This Summer
By 7.7.09
You’re cool with your air conditioner when it’s cooling you off in the summer blaze, but all hot and bothered when you see what it’s done to your electric bill. But there are ways you two can get along. You’ve just got to help the machine out by keeping the curtains closed, checking your insulation and going easy on exhaust fans.
5 Portable Air Conditioners Ranked
By 8.8.07
Portable air conditioners are good when you need to cool only a single room in your home, or when you live in a studio with a crummy wall unit and no central heating/ac, or when you go camping. They also free up the view out your window. On the downside, they recycle “inside air,” require a drainage tube or a bucket, can be noisy, and make it look like you have a dorm fridge in your living room. Slate reviews five mid-range portable units (between 9,000 and 12,000 BTUs, or enough to cool between 350 and 550 square feet).
HOW-TO: Avoid Gelatinated Pedestrians, Make Your Own Air Conditioner
By 6.19.06
Speaking of childish encounters with swarms of insects, I also have a wonderful story about trying to prevent a one hundred pound air conditioner from plummeting out of the window down upon the hunched spine of my aged mother as a hive of wasps inserted their spiny protuberances into every pore of my face. Unfortunately, the full details of this epic tale of boy vs. air conditioner vs. a million angry wasps would far exceed Gawker’s newly instituted post character maximum limit.
