Trotec AirLock 100 Review, a window kit for portable air conditioners

A portable air conditioner will only work properly if it can exhaust the hot air outside the room where the AC is placed. This is why all portable ACs will come with an exhaust hose, which you can install in an open window. The big downside is that the hot summer air from outside will come back indoors, resulting in a lowered efficiency of the AC.
Trotec has created the AirLock 100 window kit to solve this problem!

The AirLock 100 is a window kit for air conditioners with 1 exhaust hose. It allows you to “lock” the exhaust hose in place trough the window frame, while blockeing the hot summer air from coming back inside.
It’s big brother, the AirLock 200 is designed for two exhaust hosts, while the big AirLock 1000 is created for doors.

Components & Build quality

The AirLock is one big canvas, made of the same fabric as a cheap tent. The canvas is split slightly off the middle with two zippers (to create a gap for the hose). One side of the canvas needs to be mounted to the window frame, and the other side to the inside of the window. This creates a tent-like air gap between the window and the frame.

The built quality of the canvas is pretty sturdy, better then we expected for the low price. When installing, there was never a fear of tearing or ripping. The Velcro straps used to stick the canvas to the window and frame are made of good quality as well.

Installation

It took me a while to fully understand the installation instructions, and the available YouTube videos (mostly in German) weren’t very helpful either. Finally, I got the hang of it and the first step was to stick the Velcro straps to the window frame. Trotec definitely didn’t cut costs on the glue because I immediately got the straps stuck to the window sill!
After some struggeling I finally got all the straps in place!

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Up next were the Velcro straps once more, but now for the inside of the window. After applying all the straps, I got to mount the canvas to the Velcro. This wasn’t very complicated and only took me a couple of minutes to do properly.

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With the installed window seal, the only thing left was to place the exhaust hose between the two zippers! Easy peasy!

Now that we’re using the Airlock we’re satisfied with the product, it does it’s job by blocking the hot air from outside very well. One downside that we noticed is that it’s a bit bulky, so you might have difficulties closing the window. To solve this you can simply remove the canvas from the Velcro during cooler days, but it is a bit of work to reinstall it again.

Other then that, it’s a must for every portable air conditioner that comes with no window kit or seal!

Thank you for reading our review, for more info on portable air conditioners, please have a look at our buyers guide for 2019!:
Portable Air Conditioner Buyer’s Guide 2019 & Easy BTU Calculator