The Best Window Air Conditioner Bracket of 2023

We’ve removed a reference to a Local Law in New York City that erroneously claimed that AC brackets were legally required on certain buildings.

After more than 20 hours of research and a hands-on look at five window air conditioner brackets, we recommend the Top Shelf TSB-2438. Because it requires no drilling, it's far easier to install than any other model we tested. Plus, you can remove and reinstall it whenever you want, whether in preparation for colder months or for a move—a benefit that drilling-required brackets don't offer. If you don't mind a slightly trickier install using hand and power tools, the Frost King ACB80H is less than half the price.

This expensive but foolproof bracket requires no drilling and can be assembled in less than five minutes.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $129.

The Top Shelf TSB-2438 is far easier to install than any of the standard AC brackets we tested. It requires no drilling or hardware of any kind. You simply click the parts together, then adjust them by hand to lock the bracket into place behind your window frame. The weight of the AC itself then securely anchors it. Unlike any bracket that requires drilling, the Top Shelf can be quickly and easily removed and reinstalled. That's a big plus if you plan to store your AC indoors during the cooler months, or if you expect to move with some frequency (renters, take note). Finally, the Top Shelf can support up to 200 pounds. That's far more than most residential air conditioners up to 12,000 Btu weigh, but the extra peace of mind is welcome.

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If you don't want to spend much on a bracket and feel comfortable installing some hardware, the Frost King ACB80H is the best of the brackets that require drilling.

The Frost King ACB80H is inexpensive compared with the Top Shelf—less than half the price—and was the best of the brackets we tested that required drilling to install, was made of sturdier materials, and came packaged with clearer instructions. If you have multiple air conditioners that need brackets, the Frost King may make the better choice. However, installing the Frost King is more difficult. It requires drilling into your windowsill and tightening several screws and a bolt, so you’ll need access to the necessary tools and the confidence to use them. If you’re renting, you’ll also need permission to do this sort of work. It can support an AC weighing up to 80 pounds, which means it will work for most window ACs of up to 12,000 Btu.

This expensive but foolproof bracket requires no drilling and can be assembled in less than five minutes.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $129.

If you don't want to spend much on a bracket and feel comfortable installing some hardware, the Frost King ACB80H is the best of the brackets that require drilling.

Between the writers and editors on this guide (Sabrina Imbler, Tim Heffernan, and Harry Sawyers) we have more than 30 years of personal and professional experience with air conditioners—researching, buying, installing, and running them. Harry has reported on a broad range of home repairs and upgrades for This Old House, Popular Mechanics, and Wirecutter. Tim is the former president of his 450-unit co-op in Queens, a role that gave him wide experience with the legal and practical concerns of installing air conditioners safely (and of landlord rules regarding ACs). And we have all installed and removed window ACs ourselves, in at least a dozen NYC apartments—even before we knew what we were doing.

A window air conditioner bracket is for anyone who wants to make the unwieldy process of installing and removing a window AC easier, as well as making the unit itself safer for the neighbors, and less likely to make the news for falling from the sky. We’ve all spent summers with our ACs balanced on bricks. This guide is for anyone at the point in life where they're looking for a better brick.

Brackets add a measure of security once the machine is installed, helping support the machine's weight, but where they really come in handy is at the critical moment when you're installing or removing the air conditioner as the seasons change. The window is open, the AC is rocking precariously on the sill, and you're working (hopefully with a partner) to get it into position without dropping it onto the street, into your yard, or on your feet. This is a difficult job, and if you’re doing it alone, it's hard to do safely. If you feel anxious imagining this scene, you may appreciate an AC bracket.

We began our search by shopping online and looking through the fairly limited options for window air conditioner brackets sold by Amazon, Home Depot, and Lowe's. We limited our search to models established and popular enough to have more than a handful of positive reviews and quickly focused in on a half dozen or so strong contenders. At a minimum, we insisted that they came with clear instructions, included the required hardware, had a wide and strong enough support arm to secure a large or off-balance air conditioner, and had enough adjustability to fit a broad range of window sizes and sill depths.

Additionally, we were hoping to find a bracket that worked well without requiring the installer to drill holes or install hardware. Many people who want or need an AC bracket are renters, who often have limited access to tools and little authority to punch holes in the landlord's building.

The problem is that most AC brackets do require drilling: They are mounted to the windowsill with three large screws that require deep pilot holes. And even if you skip the bracket entirely, the safest method of AC installation still involves putting a few small screws into the window sash to anchor the AC (as this video from Lowe's demonstrates). Given the choice, we'd rather go with a sill-mounted bracket, because of the benefits of security and ease of installation, and because at least it's on the outside of the building and doesn't commit you to staring at a bunch of ugly (and maybe drafty) holes in your window sash all winter once the AC is gone. But we held out hope that there was a decent no-drill bracket out there.

We also looked into any legal requirements for window air conditioner support but found that many cities have no such laws. Some exceptions do exist, especially with larger buildings (more than six stories high) or public housing. Many landlords also have a right to enforce certain installation rules or policies; you might want to check your lease if you have any concerns.

Our search left us with a final group of five to test, comprised of two no-drill models and three drilling-required:

This expensive but foolproof bracket requires no drilling and can be assembled in less than five minutes.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $129.

The Top Shelf TSB-2438 bracket makes the annoying task of installing an AC support bracket delightfully simple. It's the only great bracket we found that requires no drilling (or tools of any kind). Instead, it assembles, adjusts to fit, and locks into place by hand via a set of spring-loaded buttons. It can accommodate single- or double-hung windows (the standard, slide up-and-down kind) from 24 to 38 inches in width—which means almost every window that could fit a common window AC. And the horizontal frame the AC sits on can be adjusted to 40 different positions, allowing the bracket to accommodate walls of varying thickness, and letting you finely adjust its angle to the proper, slightly downward tilt (to let condensation drain out of the AC). No other AC bracket we tested offered so much versatility.

Because it's not permanently screwed to your window frame, you can remove and reinstall the Top Shelf easily and repeatedly. That's a big help if you plan to store your AC indoors during the off-season, and/or if you expect to move to a new place (renters take note). By contrast, models that require drilling can't easily be removed and should not be reinstalled in the existing location because the mounting screws can guarantee a tight grip only the first time they’re used. The ability to safely install and remove this bracket without any hardware is a huge convenience—whether you’re prohibited from driving screws into a rental building, or you simply don't want an eyesore sitting on the side of your house all winter. We feel this distinction alone is enough to justify the added expense, particularly for anyone who has sought out a guide to learn more about these products.

The Top Shelf can support up to 200 pounds—far more than most residential window ACs, and more than any AC under 12,000 Btu, typically the largest that would be installed in a home or apartment. You don't need that redundant strength, but it's nice to have the extra peace of mind. (Our budget pick, the Frost King ACB80H, is rated to 80 pounds—also more than enough for most residential ACs up to 12,000 Btu.)

To assemble and install the Top Shelf bracket, you slide two legs and two "wings" into the H-shaped frame the AC will eventually sit on. You then drop it into your window frame, in the slot the window nestles in when closed. Next, you slide the wings open until a tap on each one catches behind the vertical frame rails (where the frame meets the wall). Finally, you adjust the legs until the H-frame is tilted very slightly downward, away from the building. (That's so condensation that collects in the AC will drain away from the wall, rather back into your room.) All of these adjustments are simple and done by hand, using spring-loaded buttons that lock into holes on the bracket.

And that's really it (though for added security you can put a small screw through the hole in each tab and into the window frame, to eliminate any chance of accidentally unhooking them). Once you have the Top Shelf installed and adjusted, the wide H-frame makes it easy to set your AC in place and slide it out the window—a pair of wide-set rails is much more stable than a single rail, like our budget pick's bracket, and requires no balancing act. That's especially welcome if you live on a high floor: Dangling a heavy air conditioner over a busy sidewalk is one of those urban terrors we could all do without.

The instructions don't show details of the window frame, so you’re left to guess the proper placement of the bracket. In most cases it's fairly obvious (it sits in the slot the window rests in when it's closed), but this is a piece of safety equipment—Top Shelf should make sure there's no question of how to properly install it, including on windows that differ from the normal layout. (The company's own installation video is equally unhelpful.) The Top Shelf works on most single- and double-hung windows (the kind that slide up and down), but not on casement (doorlike) and other designs, so check before you buy.

If you don't want to spend much on a bracket and feel comfortable installing some hardware, the Frost King ACB80H is the best of the brackets that require drilling.

If you don't mind drilling into your windowsill and also having to leave the bracket up during the off-season, you can save some money by getting the Frost King ACB80H. It was the clear winner among the drilling-required brackets we tested because it had the most comprehensive instructions and the highest quality materials. Additionally, its design is versatile enough to fit a wider range of windows than many competitors.

Putting in the Frost King is a far cry from the intuitive, no-tools-required installation of the Top Shelf TSB-2438. You’ll need a drill, a screwdriver, and a pair of wrenches, and you must be willing and able to drill holes in your windowsill. If that doesn't turn you off, the Frost King is a much more economical choice than the Top Shelf, at less than half its price.

The Frost King, AC Safe, and Jeacent models we considered all share a basic design that allows them to fit most windows, because the entire bracket mounts on the exterior of the home or apartment, with a pivoting adjustable leg that helps you lock the shelf in a level position. (In fact, the Frost King's packaging says the bracket is manufactured by AC Safe, and we saw no differences between them.) Jeacent felt like a flimsier imitation of these two. All three claim to be able to support an air conditioner up to 80 pounds (our pick in the best air conditioner guide weighs just less than 60 pounds). Our top pick, the Top Shelf TSB-2438, claims to support up to 200 pounds, but we don't think most people will take advantage of that generous weight limit. With so much in common, the decision to recommend the Frost King ACB80H came down to a few key differences in the details.

The Frost King's instructions were more straightforward and easy to follow than those of the competitors. They included a useful parts checklist and detailed diagrams accompanying each step. And they’re offered in Spanish as well as English. The Jeacent's instructions are, word for word, identical to the Frost King's, but are harder to follow because they’re formatted as a list rather than step-by-step, with the diagrams all bunched together to one side. The Frost King's diagrams are more detailed than the Jeacent's, too. The AC Safe didn't come with any instructions at all, despite assurances on the box that they would be found inside.

The Frost King (and the identical AC Safe) have higher-quality smaller parts than Jeacent. In particular, the blocks and spacers you use to mount the bracket to the sill are made of much sturdier, more resilient material—a dense nylon, if we had to guess. The Jeacent's block and spacers are made of a hard, rigid plastic, and seemed more likely to crack after some weathering than the slightly rubbery material of the Frost King. They’re also a third narrower, meaning less contact area with the sill and bracket.

Some Amazon reviews note that the adjustable leg's rubber foot, used to level the bracket's shelf, can slip down on an exterior wall over time. One reviewer solved the problem by driving another screw under the foot to hold it in position. We didn't notice that issue on the rough masonry walls we were trying the bracket on, but it's possible it would be a bigger problem on a smoother material, like vinyl siding.

For a full demonstration of how to install the bracket, watch a how-to video from Frost King, the manufacturer. For another, more real-world perspective on the installation, Jonny DIY's how-to video is a good model to follow. For our part, we’ll provide some support on the the tools you'll need, with links to our guides:

And for ease of reference, here are the printable instructions in English and Spanish (PDF).

The Frost King ACBNT2 is an intriguing design, being no more than a pair of bent tubes that clip together, locking against the inner and outer walls. However, it's limited to walls less than 10 inches thick. That may work on wood- or vinyl-sided homes, but the masonry walls of many apartment buildings are thicker, and the bracket didn't come close to fitting on either of our test apartments in New York, in a large modern co-op and an old brownstone townhouse.

The AC Safe No Tools Needed 2 bracket is identical to the tubular Frost King ACBNT2 we tested, and has the same problem of fitting only narrow (10 inches or less ) walls.

The EZ-AC Air Conditioner Support Bracket is a no-drill design similar to the Top Shelf, our top pick. However, it's incompatible with the Frigidaire Gallery series ACs, which are some of the most widely sold in the US.

The Universal KT-40S is a bracket much like our Frost King pick. We were turned off by numerous reports of customers receiving used brackets instead of new, and of it coming with metric hardware instead of SAE (the fractions of an inch standard used in the US).

The Smart Choice 80-pound bracket appears identical to our pick, but with only a single review at Home Depot, we looked elsewhere for brackets with a lengthier track record.

Most brackets like our pick also come in heavy-duty versions, usually rated to 160 pounds, including models from AC Safe and Smart Choice. These are overkill for most residential window ACs (up to 12,000 Btu, at least) so we dismissed them.

Install a Window Air Conditioner, Lowe's

Aleksander Chan, You Will Not Be Killed By Falling Air Conditioners, Gawker, April 11, 2014

Harry Sawyers

Harry Sawyers is the senior editor covering home improving, HVAC, and gardening at Wirecutter. He previously worked at This Old House and Popular Mechanics magazines; before that, he restored historic houses and mowed lawns for a living. He lives in a house in LA with his wife, three boys, a dog, and a lot of Wirecutter recommendations.

Sabrina Imbler

Sabrina Imbler is a former staff writer for Wirecutter, where they covered kitchen tools and HVAC.

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