Test Drive: Windmill Air Window A/C Unit

The appeal of the new Windmill air conditioner is three-fold: design, ease and function. Anyone who has a visceral reaction to the dour 1980s PC design sensibility of most A/C units will be pleased to find that, as far as I can tell, Windmill built an entirely new design from scratch. Gone are the meat thermometer-style screens, mushy Casio buttons and Ford Pinto grills. What takes its place are gentle, large radius curves cast in Hollywood veneer white, an LED screen that only appears when called on, and a perforated screen that looks more “high-end speaker system” than “storm drain.”

The set-up is easy enough that even I (with all the upper body strength of string cheese) was able to install it myself. It took about half an hour with breaks to get it in, but I can say with unwavering certainty: it’s not going anywhere. As an added bonus, the box contained most everything I needed to install it—including a pair of scissors for trimming the vanity covers that hide the extending accordion wings so that the unit looks built into your space.

And it’s not just the good looks separating the Windmill from standard window units. It’s inherently quieter and comes with anti-microbial and activated charcoal air filters, not to mention handy voice and app controls. When it comes to cooling you off, this machine is no slouch, either. In my 200-square-foot living room, I find that air is more evenly distributed in my space, rather than just having a jet stream of cold air pointing outward, surrounded by pockets of humid air. I attribute this to the vents that fan upward rather than forward. Remember in grade school when we learned that cold air sinks? I’m just glad I remembered something other than “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.”