Portable Air Conditioners · Head-to-head
BLACK+DECKER 14,000 BTU + Heat vs. Frigidaire FHPW122AC1: Which Portable AC Should You Buy?
These two portable air conditioners finish at the same overall score - 5.7 out of 10 - and get there from opposite directions. The BLACK+DECKER BPP10HWTB is the cheaper unit at a typical $380, delivers more honest cooling (10,000 BTU SACC against 8,000), and adds a heat mode the Frigidaire does not have. The Frigidaire FHPW122AC1 costs about $429, is rated 5 dB quieter, and is the only one of the two you can run from your phone. Both use a single hose and a fixed-speed compressor, which is why both land at 5/10 for efficiency. Nothing in the architecture separates them. What separates them is what that extra $49 buys.
| BLACK+DECKER 14,000 BTU + Heat (BPP10HWTB) | Frigidaire FHPW122AC1 Smart 12,000 BTU | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 5.7/10 | 5.7/10 |
| Cooling | 8/10 | 6/10 |
| Quiet | 4/10 | 6/10 |
| Efficiency | 5/10 | 5/10 |
| Cooling (SACC) | 10000 BTU | 8000 BTU |
| Marketing BTU (ASHRAE) | 14000 BTU | 12000 BTU |
| Coverage | 450 sq ft | 550 sq ft |
| Noise | 54 dB | 49 dB |
| Hose | Single hose | Single hose |
| Compressor | Fixed-speed | Fixed-speed |
| Heat mode | Yes | No |
| Weight | 65 lb | 68 lb |
| Street price | $380 | $429 |
| Typical price | $380 | $429 |
Cooling: 10,000 SACC beats 8,000, whatever the box says
Portable AC marketing leads with the old ASHRAE number, and both boxes do it: 14,000 BTU on the BLACK+DECKER, 12,000 on the Frigidaire. The DOE's SACC rating is the one that accounts for heat leaking back through the hose and window kit, and on that measure the BLACK+DECKER delivers 10,000 BTU against the Frigidaire's 8,000. That 2,000 BTU gap is why the engine scores cooling 8/10 for the BLACK+DECKER and 6/10 for the Frigidaire - it reads SACC only, never the headline figure. The coverage claims run the other way, and that is worth pausing on. The Frigidaire's listing claims 550 sq ft; the BLACK+DECKER claims 450. Taken at face value that would make the weaker cooler the bigger-room machine. It does not work that way: those numbers come from the manufacturers, not from a common test, and the 8,000 SACC unit is being asked to cover 100 more square feet than the 10,000 SACC one. Size on SACC, not on the square-footage claim. If your room is genuinely near 500 sq ft, gets hard afternoon sun, or has a west-facing window wall, the BLACK+DECKER is the one with headroom - and even it will run near its limit.
Noise: 54 dB vs. 49 dB, and why neither number is measured
On paper the Frigidaire is the quieter machine: 49 dB against 54, and the engine scores quiet 6/10 versus 4/10. Read both figures with care. The Frigidaire's 49 dBA is a quiet-mode number from the listing copy, meaning lowest fan speed, not the setting you will run when the room is actually hot. The BLACK+DECKER's 54 dB is a manufacturer class figure, flagged in our data because it is a category-typical value rather than a unit-specific measurement. Neither is an independent reading, so treat the 5 dB gap as a direction, not a guarantee. The bigger noise problem is one they share. Neither has an inverter compressor. Both cycle a fixed-speed compressor on and off all night: full noise, silence, full noise again. That cycle is what wakes people, and no single dB figure captures it. A quieter rating on a fixed-speed unit still means the compressor slams on at full output every time the thermostat calls for it. So the honest reading is this. The Frigidaire is the less intrusive of two loud machines, and the BLACK+DECKER's 4/10 is a genuinely poor score that should keep it out of a bedroom. But if quiet is your first priority, neither of these is the answer.
Heat mode vs. Wi-Fi: the $49 question
The feature split is clean, and it is the only thing that reliably separates two tied scores. The BLACK+DECKER has a heat mode; the Frigidaire does not. The Frigidaire has Wi-Fi; the BLACK+DECKER does not. Neither feature moves the overall score, because the engine rates cooling, noise and efficiency - so this fork is yours to settle on use, not on rating. Heat matters more than it sounds. A unit that also heats earns its floor space in October and March, exactly when a sunroom, a converted garage or a finished basement is uncomfortable and firing up the central system is not worth it. If you have a room like that, the BLACK+DECKER does two jobs for $380 while the Frigidaire does one for $429. Its listing also states 90 pints per day of dehumidification; no comparable figure is published for the Frigidaire, so read that as a bonus on one side rather than a failure on the other. Wi-Fi matters if you are cooling a room you arrive at. Starting the compressor from your phone twenty minutes out is the difference between walking into a cool living room and waiting for one, and scheduling helps if the unit runs a predictable weekday pattern. If you would walk over and press a button anyway, it is a feature you will use twice and forget.
Efficiency, weight and price: where they genuinely tie
Efficiency ties at 5/10, and the reason is architecture. Both are single-hose units with fixed-speed compressors. A single hose exhausts room air outside, which drops the pressure indoors and pulls warm outside air in through every gap in the building to replace it. You cool air and invite more warm air in at the same time. That is a large part of why the SACC figure sits so far below the ASHRAE one on both units, and nothing about choosing between these two changes it. A dual-hose or inverter design would. Weight is effectively a tie: 65 lb for the BLACK+DECKER, 68 lb for the Frigidaire. Both are two-person lifts up a staircase, and neither is something you will casually move room to room, whatever the casters suggest. Price is where to be careful. The BLACK+DECKER typically sells around $380 and has been seen between $330 and $450. The Frigidaire typically runs $429 in a $380 to $480 band, and that street price is an estimate flagged in our data rather than a confirmed figure. The ranges overlap. On a good day the Frigidaire meets the BLACK+DECKER's usual price; on a bad day the gap is $100. Check both before deciding the $49 premium is real.
Verdict
They tie at 5.7 because each one's strength is the other's weakness. The rule is simple. Buy the BLACK+DECKER if you need cooling output or want heat in the shoulder seasons - it is both the cheaper unit and the stronger cooler, and for most buyers that ends it. Buy the Frigidaire only if you will genuinely use phone control, or if the room is small enough that 8,000 SACC is plenty and 5 dB is worth the $49 premium. If the room is a bedroom, skip both and spend up for an inverter.
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