Air conditioners with app control compared

The benefit lies less in remote start than in planning: schedules that switch the unit on an hour before you finish work, a night mode that lowers the fan speed at 2 a.m., and an overview of operating hours and consumption. For the Midea PortaSplit, besides the manufacturer's app there is the open-source alternative ClimaPilot, which offers scenes, schedules and a mode for a quieter outdoor unit.

Important for setup: almost all units only connect to 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. If your router broadcasts 2.4 and 5 GHz under the same network name, it helps to switch off the 5 GHz band briefly while pairing.

Most manufacturer apps can be linked to Alexa and Google Home – then a voice command is enough. Newer is the Matter standard, which brings devices into Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa and SmartThings without a manufacturer cloud. Midea has announced it for the 2026 PortaSplit; budget monoblocks still lack it.

For the Midea PortaSplit, ClimaPilot is a free, open-source alternative to the manufacturer's app. It offers scenes (such as “After work” with target temperature and fan speed), weekly schedules, a history of temperature and running times, and a “Quieter outdoor unit” mode that makes the unit run more quietly. ClimaPilot runs on Android and Windows and controls the unit over your home network – without a manufacturer account. We developed the app ourselves and maintain it on GitHub.