In 2019, As part of my review of the Zero Breeze Mark II Portable AC Drive, I invoked the sacred name of Tim Curry and one of his most fantastic roles, Herkermer Homolka, in the 1995 camp classic. Congo. (“It’s the lost city of Zinj. I’ve been looking for it all my life.”) No matter the talking gorilla and the fist-sized diamonds that lie on the ground in the jungle, it was a movie about how to stay calm when you’re in the boonies.
As I mentioned three years ago, the Zero Breeze Mark II was a partial manifestation of the portable air conditioners seen in that movie. But at £ 26 with the battery plugged in and costing $ 1,599, the bulky device wasn’t practical for casual or mobile use. It was best suited for more stationary activities, such as cooling closed truck beds or permanent structures such as a hot deck.
Recently, the company contacted me to tell me that things had changed with the Mark II, that the Mark II unit I initially reviewed was actually a prototype, and that the final version is now much better. “In the future, the next generation of off-grid air conditioners will be more efficient and used in more scenarios,” wrote a vague, unnamed company representative. “Now, we’re very happy that Mark II is not only used for RVs, truck stops, motorhomes, etc., but we’re also getting feedback from very specific people.”
I don’t know what that means, but I did say I would look at the updated product to see what has happened to it over time.
In the grand scheme of things, not much. This is not a Zero Breeze Mark III version, but rather a Zero Breeze Mark II.1 version, with some minor aesthetic improvements and a few new features that enhance its usefulness. Otherwise, it’s pretty much the same product as before.
Let’s start with what hasn’t changed much. The overall design remains the same, a silver appliance box and snow blower design that still measures approximately 20 by 13 by 8 inches. A massive 35 Ah / 840 Wh battery attaches to the bottom of the device to keep it moving. As with the original Mark II, the battery still has to be connected to the fan with a small tail cable, a puzzling and unnecessary complexity. When I weighed the system with its battery in 2019, I got a total weight of 26 pounds. Today’s weight reached a staggering £ 30, which is even £ 1.5 more than the unit’s stated specifications.
As for the changes, the biggest one is visible right when you unpack it: the new Mark II can still run without a battery using its A / C adapter, but you no longer need a second power adapter to charge the battery. The same power adapter can work on both devices. No, you still can’t charge the battery and run the air conditioner at the same time, but eliminating the need for two separate adapters is a great solution.
In the box there is a pair of new accessories, including a drain pipe so that condensation does not drip all over the tent and a third extendable ventilation tube in addition to the original pair. Two of these tubes can be used to direct the hot exhaust to the outside; the new third tube joins the cold air outlet and allows you to direct it to another location, so you won’t have to sit right next to the Mark II (still loud but maybe a little quieter) to be in the fresh air blast area. . The battery also includes a USB-C port for charging personal devices, plus two USB-A ports and a 12-volt DC outlet.
But the best news is that Zero Breeze still works pretty well, though I couldn’t tell the difference between the two. If you don’t mind the noise, the system can expel cold air with a fairly healthy clip, and the smaller the space, the more effective the cooling will be. A thermostat on the front shows the temperature of the air coming out of the unit and falling below 60 degrees Fahrenheit at an astonishing rate. Battery life seems to have improved slightly, according to my tests with the new unit. I ran the drive with a fully charged cell and had more than four hours of running time at full power before the drive started to run out, compared to about 3 and a half hours on the 2019 drive. Mark the output level and you will be able to extend the execution time quite a bit, of course.
All this leads us to the big question, and it is the same as before: who will use this thing? Glamping sounds much more tolerable when climate control is on the table, but much less tolerable when the yurt is filled with the equivalent noise of a pair of hair dryers. The $ 100 price cut since 2019 at least reduces some of the sting caused by the entire racket.
