How to keep a Portable Air Conditioner Hose from falling out

Your portable air conditioner hose keeps falling out? The connection of the exhaust hose and portable AC or between hose and window is not secure enough? How do you ensure your portable air conditioner hose stays in place?

In this article, we’re having a look at a few simple things you can do to prevent your air conditioner hose from falling out.

A portable AC hose can fall out at either one of its ends: Either directly at the portable AC connection, or it can slip out from the window.

Quick answer: You can fix your portable air conditioner and stop it from falling out by securing it with temperature and humidity-resistant HVAC duct tape. In the long run, getting the original exhaust hose of your portable air conditioner is the best choice, if it has connection pieces you can plug in without glue.

Why portable air conditioner hoses can fall out

Portable air conditioner hoses can fall out. And that’s something very annoying. Normally, a portable AC only relies on fixed part connectors to connect the exhaust hose to the window.

With fixed part connectors I am referring to the plastic ends of the hose that you can connect to the window or the portable AC exhaust without the need for any glue.

These plastic connectors come with most portable air conditioners. As long as you set everything up correctly, the hose should not fall out.

However, if the situation at your home is not a “standard situation”, connecting the hose might turn out troublesome.

Examples of non-standard situations are:

  • your window sits at an elevated level
  • you don’t have space right below your window so your portable AC has to stand at a further distance
  • you want to protect your portable air conditioner from kids, so you place it on a high surface

In all of these cases, you have to stretch the hose and might not be able to connect the hose without causing it to slip out.

What most people do wrong when fixating the air conditioner hose

Oftentimes people fix the portable air conditioner hose with common duct tape, which does not always work.

The problem is that the hose carries warm air outdoors. This means that the hose itself is heated up whenever the portable air conditioner runs.

The exhaust warmth causes the duct tape glue which attaches the hose and window or hose and portable AC  to melt. The hose finally slips off.

Good quality portable air conditioners come with hoses and built-in connectors that do not rely on friction or glue to hold together. Instead, they come with clever connection mechanisms to plug in the hose tightly. The mechanisms naturally keep the hose from falling out.

How to prevent your portable AC hose from falling out

Now that we’ve discussed all the problems with air conditioner hoses and what causes them to fall out, let’s look at the steps you can take to ensure you don’t have to worry about your AC hose falling out anymore.

Use HVAC duct tape to fixate your hose

The simplest fix is obviously to tape the hose to the air conditioner using duct tape. Here, you have to make sure that you use good quality duct tape which is suited for varying temperatures.

There exists so-called HVAC duct tape for extreme weather, humidities, and temperatures.

Personally, I recommend this professional-grade HVAC tape (click here to view it on amazon). This tape is very sticky, so you might need a friend to help you apply it. But it will be worth it and keep your portable air conditioner hose from falling out!

Use original hose adapters

Taping the hose using HVAC tape works perfectly fine. However, it oftentimes doesn’t look clean and is a “hack”.

If you want a clean-looking solution instead, the best way to fix your problem is to use the original hose adapter (transition piece) of your portable air conditioner.

Of course, this only makes sense if your original hose adapters were working fine, but are broken. If the original connection parts of your portable AC don’t hold the hose firmly, it does not make sense to rebuy them.

The advantage of using original parts is that you don’t need extra gear such as HVAC tape or a hose kit. Also, no shortcut solution will hold the hose as reliably as the original parts (at least usually).

The original parts are designed and built to fit your portable air conditioner and hose exactly. Original parts are specific to each mode, which might make them hard to find.

You can look up your air conditioner brand’s online shop and see if they have replacement parts available. Usually, if you don’t find replacement parts online, the air conditioner companies are willing to help you and place a custom order just for you.

Sometimes, you can even get free replacements! But that’s probably only if you are lucky. It depends on the company you are contacting.

Because these replacement parts fit your portable air conditioner perfectly, you don’t need to use glue or tape. Everything should hold together on its own.

Use an air conditioner hose kit

If your original hose adapters (or other connection parts) are lost or broken and additionally you don’t find the original replacements online, you can use an air conditioner hose kit.

An air conditioner hose or window kit is a generic kit that comes with one-sized parts that should fit most portable air conditioners.

Here’s a well-rated portable AC window kit (click here to view it on amazon) which you can use to set up a new window vent.

Additionally, if your hose is broken, you can get this air conditioner hose (click here to view it on amazon). Just make sure the diameter of 5.9 inches fits your portable AC.

Manufacturers oftentimes produce these hose kits cheaply. Most of the hose kits you find online are of low quality.

You will find a big difference in quality when you compare the original parts with the hose kit parts.

Of course, there are exceptions. It is important to only buy highly-rated hose kits with hundreds or thousands of positive customer ratings. The portable AC window kit and the air conditioner hose are both well-rated and you can’t go wrong with them.

So, if the hose kits I have picked out are not suitable for your portable air conditioner (for example the hose diameter differs), then you should look for something with a similar rating.

Use a bungee cord to hold up your hose

Your portable air conditioner exhaust hose oftentimes falls out because the hose is pulling itself off because of its own weight.

This only happens if one end of the hose is significantly higher than the other end.

You can fix this by tying a bungee cord with both ends to your curtain rod. Alternatively, you can install two metal hooks on the wall on both sides of your window. You can then put the air conditioner hose on top of the bungee cord loop. 

The bungee cord lifts the hose so a part of the “pull-off force” is distributed to the bungee cord instead of the air conditioner hose connection pieces.

This can make a significant difference and might even prevent your portable air conditioner hose from falling out.

The downside is that it looks rather “experimental”. But as long as you are using the portable air conditioner in a room that does not have visitors too often, or in a cabin, looks don’t matter.

There, holding up your air conditioner hose with a bungee cord may be a good, almost free, and glueless solution.

Advanced tips to secure your air conditioner hose

Since we have already covered lots of ground on how to prevent your portable air conditioner hose from falling out, let’s have a look at a few more fine-grained details.

First off, try to avoid stretching the hose too much. Portable air conditioner hoses should always sit loosely in the window and in the connector of the portable AC. There should never be any tensions and pull-off forces.

If you have to stretch your portable air conditioner hose because of length limits, try buying a new, longer hose. Alternatively, change the placement of your portable air conditioner. Hoses under tension will almost always fall out.

Also, always connect the hose to the lowermost part of the window. This reduces the length of the hose necessary to connect the window and AC. And also, using the lowermost part of your window for the exhaust connection ensures that the force pulling down the hose is minimized. The higher your exhaust connection is located, the greater the pull-off force.

Accordingly, the hose should support as little of its own weight as possible. You can accomplish this by using a bungee cord to hold the hose up. It does not even have to be a bungee cord. Anything that prevents the hose from hanging in the air will prevent your portable air conditioner hose from falling out.

Conclusion

The quickest and simplest solution to fix your portable air conditioner hose falling out is to duct tape it with HVAC tape.

This should solve 95% of the issues. If you still have problems with your hose slipping out, try to rebuy the original connection parts or a portable AC hose kit.

Ensure that the hose does not have to support its own weight, so it doesn’t pull itself off.