I have never owned a real air conditioner before. I count real AC as central air conditioning or a ductless mini split. The closest thing I have ever owned is a window air conditioner unit. I hated the window AC unit when I had it too. The window AC was nothing but a pain in the butt. Installing it in the window so it wouldn’t fall out was a pain. The little cooling device sounded like a waterfall and leaked water all of the time. I cleaned it frequently and it still was covered in mold.
Even at the top of its cooling game I did not like it. I just don’t get the point of air conditioning. This could be because I live in the north. We just don’t get hot weather. The warmest it will get is in the 80s. With pools and shade, you don’t need cooling. Window fans and stand up fans work just as well. I also don’t like that air conditioning naturally dries out the air quality. I already deal with dry air conditions in the winter. My nose bleeds, my lips chap and my skin dries out. I don’t want to deal with this in the summer too. Having the natural outdoor air feels better and fresher. I like that clean outdoor air infecting my indoor air quality. Why would I pay to run a cooling system to ruin my air quality? The cost of electric to run the portable AC was not much. But it is cheaper to just use a fan. I know that I will never own a cooling system as long as I live in the north.