The saviour of the British summer is here – De’Longhi’s Pinguino GentleJet Inverter is cold as ice

Houses in the UK aren’t built for hot weather, but it’s becoming a more common occurrence this time of year. Every time it happens, fans and air conditioners instantly go out of stock. So surely it’s time to prepare in advance?

Unless you can justify a full installation, a portable air conditioning unit is a simple way to get your house or room cool. Looking much like an oversized dehumidifier, they blast out cold air and suck out the hot air, sending it outside through an exhaust hose at the back.

Not all portable air conditioning units are equal, however, and De’Longhi is one of the biggest names around. Its latest flagship model is the Pinguino GentleJet Inverter. Not only is this the brand’s most powerful portable air conditioning unit, but it also employs a unique inverter technology to provide more efficient cooling.

Latest Videos From

Watch full video here:

So how does this king penguin (Pinguino is Italian for penguin) hold up against an English heatwave? I put the unit to the test through the recent hot weather to find out.

Price and availability

The De'Longhi Pinguino GentleJet Inverter is priced at £999.99 in the UK (roughly $1300) and €1049.90 in Europe. Due to high demand right now, units are sold out in most stores, including the De'Longhi website. However, I've been assured more stock is coming soon.

Design and features

The GentleJet Inverter looks almost identical to the standard GentleJet model in that it’s a beautifully designed monolithic unit with a subtle LED display built into the side, so it’s almost invisible when it’s turned off. The top features a curved cover, with a gap underneath from where the air blasts out as standard. However, a vent also lifts from the top to circulate the air more widely around the room.

The unit stands much bigger than I expected, closer to the height of a washing machine than a dehumidifier. For its performance, though, this is pretty small and light. The GentleJet Inverter weighs just under 31kg, so not the lightest to lift, but it has two handles and is mounted on wheels, so you can easily wheel it into position. While I was testing the unit, I moved it to different rooms to cool down, either my office, the living room, or the bedroom.

The inverter technology allows the unit to maintain a constant temperature by adjusting the speed of the compressor. Most air conditioners switch on and off constantly to keep the temperature at a certain level. By reducing the need to constantly do this, the inverter can keep a more level temperature and reduce energy consumption.

The cooling capacity of this unit is 13,000 BTU per hour (British Thermal Units), which is 3.3kW and suitable for rooms up to 130 cubic metres. If you don’t need anything this powerful, a 7,000-9,000 BTU device is more than enough for most bedrooms or office spaces.

With this size of unit, though, there should be no problem cooling almost any room, or having any issues with the 35+ degree heat we were experiencing in Bath.

Installation

As with most air con units, the GentleJet Inverter has an integrated hose attached to the back, which can be extended to reach a window or outlet. It comes with a range of attachments, including a sealable connection if you want to attach it to a permanent vent, and a window kit, which suits a sliding or vertically opening window.

The problem is that most homes in the UK have hinged, outwardly opening windows, and there’s no simple solution in the box for this. You can still place the hose through the open window but the window remains open, reducing the effectiveness of the air con unit.

After a little research, I discovered two options that you can buy. The first is a custom-cut piece of Perspex that covers the full open window, with a hole the exact size for the hose cut into it. The second is a cheaper and more universal option, which creates a sort of tent out of the window opening with a zippable gap, through which you can place the hose. I went for the second option and found it very effective.

In use

Once the air con unit is in place, you simply plug it in and turn on the power. There are controls on the unit for the fan speed and the mode, which switches between cooling, dehumidifying and just a fan. In dehumidifying mode, the unit can remove up to 73 litres per day and will either expel through the exhaust hose or can be connected to a water hose at the bottom of the unit.

Three controls can only be accessed via the included remote control: the raising of the top vent to circulate the air more widely around the room, an eco mode and a silent mode. The silent mode reduces the noise of the device, making it quieter for watching TV, having a meeting, or even sleeping.

There’s also a timer mode, which can be used for all of the modes, to automatically turn the device off again, with settings up to 24 hours. Unusually for a flagship home device, there’s no option to connect this to your home network for remote monitoring or operation, which is a bit of a shame.

The silent mode is far from whisper-silent and still clocks in around 54db, but it’s considerably quieter than with the unit on full power, which is around 64db. I used the unit mostly in the bedroom and had no problem sleeping through the fans in silent mode, though lighter sleepers not used to air con units may struggle.

Unlike some dehumidifiers and fans, there’s no option to turn off the display for a night mode, so it can really light up the room. With this size of unit, it’s more suited to a larger living room area than a bedroom anyway, but it’s worth considering if that’s what you’re planning.

Most importantly, the GentleJet Inverter lived up to its promise and cooled the room in minutes. It did take considerably longer in the larger living room, with the exhaust hose unsealed through an open door. But even then, within the space of an hour, it brought the temperature right down.

When it comes to the amount of power this unit uses, the specs still list a maximum input power of 1035W. Of course, that’s pretty efficient when compared to the air output of 3.3kW, but it’s still similar to other 10-12k BTU portable air conditioners.

Thanks to the inverter technology, however, once the temperature is reached, this device is rarely working at maximum power. And when running at a lower speed or maintaining a temperature, the power usage is much less. De’Longhi claims that this tech makes the GentleJet Inverter up to 45% more efficient. When just the fan is running, the unit only uses around 10W.

Should I buy the De'Longhi Pinguino GentleJet Inverter?

If you need a seriously powerful portable air conditioner unit, the De’Longhi GentleJet Inverter is both efficient and compact for its performance. It’s the ultimate choice if you want the best an air con can offer.

Thanks to the inverter technology, this unit is quieter and more efficient than an equivalent-sized unit. That means it can save you money and cause less of a distraction when in use.

Unless you have a particularly large house, most rooms could probably be served with a smaller air con than this one. However, if you need the extra power or just want the best there is, you can’t go far wrong with the GentleJet Inverter.

I would have loved to have seen a night-time mode (to turn off the screen) and a better UK window kit, but otherwise, this is a winner.