What is the quietest window air conditioner in 2024?

One of the biggest complaints that we hear from consumers is how loud some window air conditioners are. This can make sleeping in the same room a very real challenge if you have a loud or noisy window mounted air conditioner.

Luckily manufacturers are very aware of this problem and they are spending a great deal of money, time and effort to make newer window air conditioners as quiet as possible.

The sound level of air conditioners is rated in Decibels. This is a unit of measurement for relative loudness of sound. Typically, a normal window mounted air conditioner will rank between 50 and 60 Decibels. You may have noticed that on our website we try to provide you with the lowest and highest of these number - usually when the air conditioner is set to low and high. Unfortunately, this information is not always available.

Here are a few real world example for comparison:

  • 108 to 114 dB - Rock Concert
  • 100 dB - Lawn mower
  • 80 dB - Garbage disposal/food bender
  • 70 dB - Vacuum cleaner
  • 60 dB - Conversation in restaurant
  • 50 dB - Conversation at home
  • 40 dB - Library
  • 20 dB - A whisper

How loud would you want your air conditioner to be?

So, What is the quietest window air conditioner?

There is one window mounted air conditioner that leads the pack when it comes to being quiet. That honor would have to go to the Perfect Aire 8,000 BTU U-Shaped Window Air Conditioner. This air conditioner measures only 33 dB on its lowest setting and 47 dB on its highest! Now, that is quiet.

How do they achieve such a low sound output?

Well, the key lies in the clever design of this unit. It is built in a U-shape. The condenser (the noisiest part of an air conditioner) is located outside of the window and the fan is located in the room. There is a U-shaped slot that allows the window to close almost all the way so it keeps the noise on the outside.

In addition to the unique design, this air conditioner uses an inverter deign that ramps the fan up and down instead of snapping it on and off. This helps to make the sound inside of the space much more agreeable.

This air conditioner also has many great features. Our favourite is that it is WiFi enabled so you can control it from anywhere where you are connected.

The only downside is that this product is designed for double-hung, vertical sliding windows. It will not fit properly on any other type of window.


What are the alternatives?

Of course there are alternatives. The GREE 8000 BTU Super Silent Window Air Conditioner is a great example.

Although not as quiet as the Perfect aire U-shaped air conditioner, it does provide some pretty impressive numbers starting at only 42 dB on low and 49 db on high. It is also smart phone application compatible.

After that there is the Tosot 12000 BTU Window Air Conditioner. It measures 46 dB on low and 50 on high. This aunt also works as a heater so you could keep it in the window all year round.

After these, we start moving into the rather average 50 to 55 Decibel range so we will stop here.