Alpine Hardware Premium Heat Pump Drillless Drill-Less Window Air Conditioner & Heat Pump Bracket - Window AC Support - Supports Air Conditioners Well Over 200 lbs. - No Drilling 2023 Model

After struggling with the limited instructions to assemble, the stand was plenty strong for my A/C. Id be quicker to recommend this if they included step by step instructions and better small parts I.D. I had to use two 2×4s nailed together to shim the stand but I felt confident when my friend and I lifted the rather heavy (81 lbs.) unit onto it.

Works as designed and presented.

There are two issues number 1 see photos. Number 2 there is no way to seal the surrounding gaps caused by the designs lack of slot for the STANDARD lower bracket on air conditioners. The value is negated by the entire process we went through - purchase, wait, receive, unpack, layout, gather the tools, assemble, realizing the improper weld, choose to forge ahead regardless to make it work, then realizing the typical window air conditioner lower support bracket that usually sits in the window frame has nowhere to go! We missed that when looking at the design. Our fault but, never the less there is no slot for this in the design. This means you have to come up with an alternative way of closing the gap caused by the air conditioners standard lower bracket that would normally sit inside the window frame for its left and right-side wings. Total pain in the ass...period! The amount of time spent on the process is lost so it was returned. Total bummer, nowhere like the majority of what’s available here, does the ad reveal where its manufactured. We are soooooo over this same story, DECEPTION ABOUND!!!!

So far its been working well

Instructions/Video needs to be redone. I struggled to get the nuts on in the cramped space in the order the video gave until I changed the order in which I put things together. It tells you to put the arms then take it apart again THEN measure then redo all of the steps. So it was very frustrating to struggle to put it together only to have to take it apart. Other than that it works great!

Since the written instructions for the two-arm, heavy duty version (drilling required) of this bracket are almost impossible to follow, a good installation video is needed, but there are a lot of problems in Alpines installation video. Mainly, the sections showing how to install the connector bar are pretty screwed up - it shows the long hex bar being inserted at different locations. Also, in the section for the final installation (at 2:52 of the video), the connector bar magically disappears altogether. More detailed comments, with many of the flaws in the video, can be found at the YouTube version of this video (the two arm, heavy duty, drilling required version). Alpine did a really sloppy job with this video.

I don’t often write reviews. And I normally think people are just being dramatic when they say something was hard to put together because most things are pretty easy. But holy cow, the written instructions for this thing are rotten. I even looked up the YouTube video the company puts out - also not great. The hand putting things together in the video is in the way in many shots. On top of that, the screws and nuts go into such awkward places that it was next to impossible to get some of them as tight as you’d like. It works fine now that it’s put together, but I’d never buy it again or recommend it to anyone.

I bought this because it claimed to be easy to install. It was worth the very high price to me because of the alleged ease of installation. It wasnt that easy. This was made worse by the fact that some of the included hardware (screws, nuts, bolts, washers) was either missing or the incorrect size. This was a huge frustration. I managed to jerry rig the thing together despite the missing parts, but for the exorbitant price they are charging, I shouldnt have had to. Also, they dont include any extra screws, nuts, bolts or washers. I dropped one of the screws that did work in the grass, and had to spend 15 minutes crawling around looking for it because the company is too cheap to throw in an extra screw, nut and bolt of each type, which costs them only a few cents each. Once I cobbled it together, the final result looks nice, seems generally very sturdy (unless it fails at the location of the missing screws or too loose nuts), and as promised, did not require drilling. It fits in the window brilliantly, and the design is extremely clever and looks nice. Bottom line, they really need to review their quality control so customers get the correct number and type of hardware bits. They also need to include one extra of each hardware item in case of droppage, damage or defect.

Once assembled the bracket is very sturdy, so it does the job its designed to do. However, my experience was pretty frustrating, and I reflected this in my rating. Im a pretty handy person with an architecture and engineering background, and a lifetime of DIY projects, so I dont usually gripe about this sort of stuff unless its really warranted. For the price I paid for this item, my experience should have been a lot better. 1.) Item arrived missing about half the fasteners required for assembly. The fastener pouches were factory sealed, so this wasnt an open box/returned item. I would have returned it because of this, but its over 100 degrees where I live and I needed to install my AC ASAP for the health of my family. So I wasted some cash and a couple hours of my time going out and buying the necessary fasteners to complete assembly. 2.) The manufacturing on this product does not live up to the tight tolerances it was designed with. The metal piece (item 8 in the parts list) that is bolted between the main support arms (items 6 in the parts list) did not fit because when bolted to the main adaptor bracket (item 1 on the parts list), the space between the arms was too tight. It required about half an hour of wedging and jamming to get it to line up to the correct holes. Im a grown man and I struggled with this. A weaker person would have struggled much more. 3.) Its almost impossible to bolt the adjustable arms (item 2 on the parts list) to the main adaptor bracket because the space inside the bracket is extremely tight. These are crucial to the function of the bracket, so leaving them loose is not an option. For something as expensive as this, the design should either make the interior side of this hole more accessible , or the choice of fasteners should have been more appropriate for use in tight spaces.

Sturdiness of brace without using screws or nails!