Quick Answer: Costco’s window-AC shelf in 2026 is built around Hisense UltraSlim L-shape inverter units (8,000-12,000 BTU) and Midea smart-inverter window ACs, generally priced $220 to $330 at member pricing. The fact worth knowing before you buy: Midea’s window-AC platform — sold at Costco, Home Depot, Best Buy, and Walmart — was the subject of a June 2025 CPSC recall covering about 1.7 million U and U+ units over slow-draining condensate that could grow mold. If you already own an affected Midea from Costco, Costco’s own return policy doesn’t list window ACs as an exception to its open-ended satisfaction guarantee — meaning a straight return is often faster than running the official recall repair process.
Costco isn’t the retailer most people picture for a window AC, but its member pricing on Hisense and Midea inverter units is real, and the overlap with 2025’s biggest portable-cooling recall is a detail worth understanding before you buy — or if you already own one.
What Costco actually stocks
| Brand / Model | BTU | Notable spec | Typical Costco price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hisense UltraSlim L-Shape (8K) | 8,000 | Smart inverter, Energy Star, Wi-Fi | $219.99-$239.99 |
| Hisense UltraSlim L-Shape (12K) | 12,000 | Smart inverter, Energy Star, Wi-Fi | $269.99-$329.99 |
| Midea smart inverter with heat (8K) | 8,000 | Heat/cool, same inverter platform as the recalled U-series | about $239.99 |
| Midea smart inverter (12K) | 12,000 | Same drive technology as the U, L-shape or U-shape depending on run | $249.99-$429.99 |
That’s a narrower lineup than Home Depot’s window-AC shelf, and it rotates — Costco doesn’t try to stock every BTU size or brand this site tracks. Hisense’s L-shaped body is a different physical design from Midea’s U-shape (it recesses into one upper corner of the window rather than wrapping the full sash), which matters for the recall history below.
The recall, and why it matters at Costco specifically
On June 5, 2025, the CPSC and Midea recalled about 1.7 million U and U+ window air conditioners sold between March 2020 and May 2025 — not just under the Midea name, but also Comfort Aire, Danby, Frigidaire, and Insignia, since all of those brands used the same Midea-built hardware. The recall notice cited 152 reports of mold growth, including 17 with symptoms like respiratory irritation and sore throats, caused by condensate that pooled inside the unit and drained too slowly. Costco was named among the retailers that sold the affected units, alongside Home Depot, Best Buy, Amazon, and Walmart.
Midea’s official remedy is a free repair — a new drain plug plus a bubble level to set the correct installation tilt — or a refund, arranged by running your unit’s serial number through Midea’s recall lookup. That process works, but it takes time: a lookup, a wait for a mailed kit or scheduled technician visit, and in the meantime Midea’s own guidance is to stop using the unit.
If you bought your Midea window AC at Costco and you still have it, there’s a faster path. Costco’s customer service pages name exactly two categories with a fixed 90-day return cap — electronics and major appliances like refrigerators and washers — and window air conditioners appear on neither list. That means a Costco-bought unit, recalled or not, rides on Costco’s general satisfaction guarantee, which has no stated deadline. In practice, a member can return an affected unit at the returns desk for a refund without waiting on Midea’s repair-kit logistics at all. This is the exact same return-policy omission that makes Costco’s portable AC lineup easier to return than most big-box competitors — it just happens to intersect with a real recall on the window side.
Current production, including the Hisense and Midea inverter units rotating through Costco’s 2026 shelf, ships with Midea’s corrected drain design where applicable. Hisense’s L-shaped units were never part of the recall — they’re a separate hardware design — so the overlap is specific to Midea-platform units, not everything Costco sells.
Our picks if you’d rather buy outside the recall history entirely
Hisense UltraSlim L-Shape 8,000 BTU — Never Part of the Recall
- A genuinely different physical design from Midea's U-shape — recesses into one upper window corner instead of wrapping the sash — and was not named in the 2025 CPSC recall.
- Same inverter-efficiency category this site ranks highly elsewhere; see our Hisense air conditioner roundup for how its measured performance compares to Midea's.
Don’t sweat the heat wave — Amazon Prime gets a window unit like this to your door in two days, and you can try it free for 30 days.
Midea U (MAW08V1QWT) — Post-Recall, Corrected Drainage
- If you want the quietest window AC made, this is Midea's current-production U — the same corrected drainage design covered under the June 2025 fix, now standard rather than a retrofit.
- Full lineup decoder in our Midea air conditioner buying guide, including which other brand names share this exact hardware.
How to choose
- Already own a Midea-platform window AC bought at Costco? Check the model against Midea’s recall lookup first — but know that returning it to Costco under the open-ended satisfaction guarantee is usually faster than waiting on a mailed repair kit.
- Buying new and want to skip the recall history entirely? Hisense’s L-shaped design was never named in the 2025 recall — it’s a different physical platform from Midea’s U-shape.
- Want the quietest window AC regardless of recall history? The Midea U’s corrected post-recall production is still the class leader on noise; see our Midea U vs Windmill AC comparison for how it stacks up against a brand with no recall on record.
- Not a Costco member? The same Hisense and Midea models sell on Amazon with Prime shipping and no membership surcharge — see our full window AC rankings for the complete field.
- Shopping Costco for a portable unit instead? See our Costco portable air conditioner guide — same retailer, same open-ended return policy, no recall history on the portable Midea Duo.
- Want to compare retailers rather than brands? Our Home Depot window AC guide covers a wider in-stock selection, but with a far more structured (and paid) installation path than Costco offers.
The bottom line
Costco’s window-AC shelf is smaller than Home Depot’s, but what it stocks — Hisense’s UltraSlim L-shape and Midea’s smart-inverter line — is legitimate, and the return policy is more forgiving than the official recall process if you already own an affected unit. Window air conditioners aren’t named as an exception to Costco’s open-ended satisfaction guarantee, so a straight return at the counter is often the fastest fix. Buying new, Hisense’s L-shaped design sidesteps the 2025 Midea recall entirely, while the Midea U now ships with the corrected drainage fix standard.