The Midea MAW12HV1CWT is a window A/C with an inverter compressor designed for medium-sized to large rooms. It's effectively a more conventionally designed version of the Midea U-Shaped MAW12V1QWT: the two units share similar internals and both have an advertised coverage of 550 ft² (51 m²) and an advertised capacity of 12,000 BTU/h. Like that model, it can be operated remotely using the Midea Air smartphone companion app and offers integration with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant devices. However, the MAW12HV1CWT does offer the added bonus of a heating mode.
Our Verdict
The Midea MAW12HV1CWT is a great option for large rooms. Its cooling capacity is sufficient to quickly cool big living rooms or playrooms, and its inverter compressor provides superior energy consumption to non-inverter alternatives while maintaining your desired setpoint. It's also pretty quiet overall, and won't be a distraction if you have it placed next to your television or close to your dining room.
Quiet operation, regardless of setting.
Highly efficient while maintaining setpoint.
Impressive cooling capacity.
The Midea MAW12HV1CWT is a good option for cooling bedrooms or other small rooms. It runs quietly and won't wake you up in the middle of the night. Its inverter compressor can run at a lower speed pretty consistently, so you won't experience any major swings in your desired temperature, even in under-sized areas. However, it is on the bulkier and heavier side for a window unit, making it a bit of a bear to haul into place or stow away in cooler months.
Quiet operation, regardless of setting.
Highly efficient while maintaining setpoint.
Inverter compressor minimizes swings in temperature.
Compressor modulations can generate very minor fluctuations in perceived humidity.
Relatively bulky and heavy.
The Midea MAW12HV1CWT's overall efficiency is very good. Its inverter compressor is quite efficient once it's reached your desired setpoint, as it won't have to constantly cycle off and ramp back up to peak capacity during the maintenance phase. However, it isn't drastically more efficient than some non-inverter models with similar capacities when it comes to actually cooling your room.
Highly efficient while maintaining setpoint.
The Midea MAW12HV1CWT is flexible enough to be used in a variety of room sizes. Thanks to its inverter compressor, it can run at a slower speed to prevent over-cooling undersized areas. While minor compressor modulations can have small impacts on the perceived humidity of a room once it's reached your setpoint, these swings aren't too noticeable.
Inverter compressor minimizes swings in temperature.
Compressor modulations can generate very minor fluctuations in perceived humidity.
The Midea MAW12HV1CWT is amazingly quiet. At lower settings, it's barely noticeable. Even at higher settings, it emits a white noise that will be easily masked by most other sources of ambient noise, whether that be nearby conversation or a TV playing at a normal volume.
Quiet operation, regardless of setting.
Performance Usages
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Midea MAW12HV1CWT is only available in one color variant: 'White.' For those interested, here's the product label.
Let us know in the comments if you come across another variant of this air conditioner.
Popular Air Conditioner Comparisons
The Midea MAW12HV1CWT is a high-end window A/C intended for use in medium-sized to large rooms. Its closest and most obvious competitor is Midea's own Midea U-Shaped MAW12V1QWT. Both models perform quite similarly and are standouts in their class, with very high cooling capacity, impressive energy efficiency, and impressively quiet operation. The MAW12HV1CWT's more conventional design has its own set of strengths and weaknesses: you can't open the window when it's set in place, but the first time installation takes less effort. While this is an impressively efficient A/C overall, it isn't quite the market leader on that front: the Friedrich Chill Premier Inverter CCV08A10A incurs an even lower upfront energy cost, admittedly with a lower overall cooling capacity. Still, the latter is also a good option if you have a smaller room in need of cooling, but don't want to give up on features or efficiency.
Unsurprisingly, the Midea MAW12HV1CWT and Midea U-Shaped MAW12V1QWT deliver all but identical performance, with both being inverter ACs with an advertised output of 12,000 BTU. The main difference lies in their designs. The MAW12V1QWT unconventional u-shaped design makes for a more demanding installation process since you'll need to install additional anti-tip brackets, but also allows you to open the window when it's in place. Beyond that, the MAW12HV1CWT is equipped with a heating mode, which the MAW12V1QWT lacks. It's worth noting that only the U-Shaped MAW12V1QWT is affected by a recall due to mold buildup.
Test Results
This air conditioner offers impressive cooling capacity. It can cool larger living spaces and open-concept living spaces within a relatively short span of time. Thanks to its inverter compressor, it's also a good choice for smaller bedrooms, as it can modulate its capacity output to match the load demands of the room size.
It's worth noting that this unit takes an unusually long time to ramp up to its peak capacity. This phenomenon is magnified when not using the unit's Boost cooling mode, and is visible when tracking both its capacity and efficiency.
When we cut out the ramp-up time, it gets closer to its advertised capacity, albeit at a small cost to overall efficiency.
The Midea MAW12HV1CWT's efficiency while cooling is great. Its upfront energy cost is moderately high, but the unit cools very quickly, so it won't have to run its compressor for very long.
This unit delivers very good efficiency while maintaining a desired setpoint. Its inverter compressor can run at a lower speed rather than having to cycle between binary on and off states. It's worth noting that its compressor modulates slightly during this maintenance phase rather than remaining at a constant speed: this can have knock-on effects on maintaining the set temperature and ambient perceived humidity levels.
The Midea MAW12HV1CWT performs fairly well in maintaining a consistent humidity level while operating. The small modulations observed in the Efficiency While Maintaining Temperature test result in minor fluctuations in the ambient humidity of the room you're trying to cool. These changes won't be very noticeable for most people unless you're particularly sensitive to changes in ambient humidity levels and spend a lot of time in the room where the unit is set up.
High-pitched operating noise from the compressor is a common complaint for inverter A/C units. While this noise can be disruptive if you're standing near the outside portion of the unit, it's completely normal once the unit enters a cooling cycle and isn't a cause for concern.
We observed the same noise while in testing, but this didn't factor into the score for this section of the review, as the score is based only on dBA readings taken from the primary recorded video for this test. Also, this sound would only likely be heard by those standing outside the window.
This is a smart air conditioner with a similar set of features to the Midea U-Shaped MAW12V1QWT. Beyond the remote control, you can operate the unit using the Midea Air app, which also supports Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant devices for making voice commands.
Several buyers have noted that the unit's heating mode isn't particularly effective. We aren't able to verify these claims independently, as we don't currently test an A/C unit's heating performance, but it is worth keeping in mind if an effective heating feature is a must-have in an AC.
