Techniek Nederland warns of ‘fake air conditioners’ sold online

Consumers are increasingly purchasing so-called “fake air conditioners” that are marketed as full air-conditioning systems but provide little actual cooling. Techniek Nederland is warning consumers about misleading online offers and urging them to be cautious of exaggerated claims about cooling performance.

“Our members are increasingly seeing consumers disappointed after purchasing cheap ‘air conditioners’ online. In many cases, the devices are actually air coolers rather than genuine air-conditioning units, and advertisements do not always make that distinction clear,” the industry association said.

A genuine air conditioner cools a room by extracting heat and expelling it outside. Fixed systems therefore always require an outdoor unit, while portable air conditioners use an exhaust hose to remove the heat. Techniek Nederland said it regularly encounters online advertisements making questionable claims about devices’ performance, energy use and technology.

Maurice Roovers, a Climate Technology specialist at Techniek Nederland, highlights the physical impossibility of these devices performing as advertised to Warmte365. "If a device has no outdoor unit and no exhaust hose, the heat simply has nowhere to go," Roovers explains.

Roovers advises consumers that whenever an online listing sells a hoseless or unit-free device under the guise of an air conditioner, "all alarm bells should go off."

A key reason these misleading listings proliferate online is legal. The term "airco" is not legally protected under Dutch trade or manufacturing law. Webshops exploit this loophole by tagging basic fans and water coolers with the word "airco" to hijack search engine traffic.