Millennial Yassification Comes for Window Units

Most city dwellers need only look up in actively gentrifying neighborhoods to see a July, Midea, or Windmill air conditioner perched in a window. Unlike their hardware store predecessors, these brands burst onto the market during quarantine in 2020 with the promise of making consumers’ homes colder and cooler with non-eyesore ACs. And while you can scoop any old-fashioned window unit on Amazon for around $150, the low profiles, rounded corners, and “freedom” (really) these ones promise will cost at least double.

To their credit, all three brands have something by way of innovation to offer for their sticker shock: Energy efficiency and wi-fi connectivity are the new non-negotiables. July designs its units for both standard and horizontal windows, and purports to have a wall unit option coming soon. The brand also sells direct to consumer, with a white-glove installation add-on for the Taskrabbit-avoidant among us. Midea, which makes that eyebrow-raising freedom claim, was the first to widely popularize both a super-quiet inverter and U-shaped footprint—the latter of which allows users to open their windows and seize a cross-breeze on temperate days.

Of the three, Windmill seems to be the most polarizing. While appliance reviews and editorial endorsements rave about it, customer testimonies are more mixed. They earn near-unanimous kudos for being nice to look at, but some seem to feel it falls woefully short when it comes to dependably cooling down a room.

Perhaps Dan Medley, a handyman who has firsthand experience with these brands, summed it up best: “These types of things, you’re paying for the aesthetic.”