SAN DIEGO — Another day of ridiculous heat scorched San Diego County, pushing our run of hot weather to a week.
Some San Diegans, seeking relief, are desperately searching for portable air conditioners. The units, which generally run in the $300-$500 range, can easily be installed without punching any holes in walls and usually can cool one or two rooms.
CBS 8 went searching for portable air conditioners, and the results weren’t good.
We visited:
- Walmart
- Home Depot
- Lowe’s
- Target
Home Depot
At the Home Depot on Fairmount Avenue, they were out of portable air conditioners and fans. An employee said the store had some on Sunday, but customers “were like piranhas” and they quickly sold out.
Walmart
in Lakeside, we met Tamara Coleman who was buying some bottled water. Can she remember San Diego being this hot for this long. “No, not this long,” she said. “Nope. It’s new, definitely new. I'm ready for it to be a cool 70.”
Inside the store, we found several large fans, but no portable air conditioners. Next to the fans, the shelves were filled with portable heaters… apparently, those are not hot sellers right now.
Lowe's
Lowe’s in Mission Valley also has a lot fans, but like Walmart, no portable air conditioners. When we asked an employee, he told us we needed to be there four days ago.
Target
Our last stop was Target in Kearny Mesa. We found plenty of air purifiers, but no air conditioners. We also spotted several shelves with price labels for fans, but all of the shelves were empty.
Online
With no luck finding portable air conditioners in stores, we turned our efforts online.
Home Depot will ship what it calls its “best seller” right to your door, but the earliest it will arrive is next week.
Amazon also has them, but the quickest delivery is September 8. Hopefully this heatwave will finally be over by then.
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