Why you should trust us
We’ve been covering space heaters for more than five years now,
and in that time we’ve considered more than 120 different space heaters
and tested nearly 50 of them. We’ve interviewed experts on heating,
including Joel Hawk, principal engineer manager at UL; Linda Hotz,
category director at De’Longhi Home Comfort; a team of representatives
from Vornado; and Gary McCall, former fire advisor to the Office of the
Fire Commissioner for British Columbia’s Vancouver Island Region.
In years past we relied on the testing expertise of physicist Jim Shapiro, who tested heaters at his home in the high desert of Colorado and also served as an expert source during our research. For our 2017 and 2018 updates, we focused more on real-world testing, running the heaters under controlled conditions in cramped apartments in Boston and New York.
We pored through independent testing data and scientific research from Good Housekeeping, the U.S. Fire Administration (PDF), the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, and the National Fire Protection Association. The single most important takeaway from this research is that space heaters are one of the leading causes of house fires in the US. As such, we placed heightened importance on each heater’s safety measures and track record.
Sabrina Imbler, who wrote the 2018 update to this guide, covers heating and cooling for Wirecutter. Tyler Wells Lynch, who wrote the 2017 update to this guide, has written about appliances for about six years, first at Reviewed.com and now as a staff writer for Wirecutter. Séamus Bellamy wrote this guide from 2011 through 2016.
In years past we relied on the testing expertise of physicist Jim Shapiro, who tested heaters at his home in the high desert of Colorado and also served as an expert source during our research. For our 2017 and 2018 updates, we focused more on real-world testing, running the heaters under controlled conditions in cramped apartments in Boston and New York.
We pored through independent testing data and scientific research from Good Housekeeping, the U.S. Fire Administration (PDF), the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, and the National Fire Protection Association. The single most important takeaway from this research is that space heaters are one of the leading causes of house fires in the US. As such, we placed heightened importance on each heater’s safety measures and track record.
Sabrina Imbler, who wrote the 2018 update to this guide, covers heating and cooling for Wirecutter. Tyler Wells Lynch, who wrote the 2017 update to this guide, has written about appliances for about six years, first at Reviewed.com and now as a staff writer for Wirecutter. Séamus Bellamy wrote this guide from 2011 through 2016.
Who this is for
Space heaters can be a handy supplement to a building-wide heating system, especially if your home has a room that receives less heat and needs a boost during cold weather. But realistically, most space heaters struggle to raise room temperatures by more than a few degrees. Plus, they’re not the most electrically efficient way to heat a space, and they’re not meant to stand in for any central or baseboard heating system. Space heaters are most effective when you place them 5 or 6 feet away from your body, such as when you’re hanging out on the couch or doing work at your desk. Because space heaters are a high-wattage, heat-generating appliance, they can pose a risk when used improperly. We cover what kinds of situations space heaters aren’t suited for in our section on space heater care, maintenance, and safety.How we picked
A compact space heater with a fan is one of the safest, least expensive electric heater types that can warm an entire room and still tuck below a desk or table. Compact heaters come in a few subtypes. Most, including the Lasko 754200 and Honeywell UberHeat, have a ceramic-plate heating element, which is a relatively safe design where the heater reduces current to various parts of the element if it reaches a certain temperature, to avoid overheating. Other compact heaters, including the Vornado VH200 and Vornado MVH, instead use an open-coil heating element. These designs put out more heat but aren’t self-regulating, so the casing and grill can get hotter to the touch, which can be a safety risk.
Oil-filled radiators are also popular. They operate in near silence because they don’t employ fans, and they retain heat after powering down. Unlike fan-based heaters, radiators work by heating up a reserve of diathermic oil that transfers heat to the machine’s metal fins. In turn, the hot metal fins radiate heat into the air, which then spreads silently throughout the room via convection. Radiators are also bigger, heavier, pricier, and often slower than compact heaters.
Most heaters we’ve tested in the past do a fine job of emitting heat, but we’ve found a world of difference in what it’s like to use and live with these heaters over time. Some heaters that heat well are infuriatingly difficult to clean, have nonsensical interfaces, or sound like wasps while they run. Others are easy to clean, intuitive to use, and silent, in addition to being effective heaters. So we took careful notes on how it felt to rely on and work alongside these heaters. We also placed great weight on customer reviews, especially those from people who have owned a given space heater for an extended period of time. We pored through reviews at the sites of Amazon, Walmart, and Home Depot, hunting for any patterns of defects or longevity issues.
With all this in mind, we prioritized the following features and performance criteria:
- Adequate safety features: We considered only heaters that offer overheat protection, which automatically shuts the unit off if it begins to overheat. We preferred heaters with a tip-over kill switch, which automatically powers down the heater if it tips over. We also looked for heaters with a stamp from a recognized independent testing laboratory, such as Intertek (whose seal often appears as “ETL”) or UL (Underwriters Laboratories), to confirm that the heater passed a battery of safety tests.
- A 1,500-watt output: The vast majority of heaters meet this requirement, regardless of size or type. Since watts measure power, a higher wattage results in a higher heat output. Some models draw only 750 watts, but they aren’t necessarily cheaper, and they’ll struggle to make a difference on a bitterly cold day.
- Fast to heat up: The sooner a space heater can defrost a room, the better. Oil-filled radiators take over an hour to reach maximum temperatures, whereas most ceramic heaters start pumping out hot air almost immediately.
- Quiet operation: We’ve yet to find an egregiously loud space heater, but some we’ve tested have made enough noise that we’ve found ourselves talking over the heater, which is unpleasant. And whatever noise a heater does emit, however quiet, should ideally be a steady hum—no clicking or erratic whirrs.
- A (relatively) cool exterior: Any heater that is too hot to the touch is a safety risk, and that risk increases with the temperature. Most have plastic housings that won’t even reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit, but their front grilles can get hotter. We docked any model whose grille got consistently hotter than 160 °F, which is the point at which one second of contact burns skin.
- Intuitive controls: Most heaters have a thermostat and at least two heat settings generally marked at a high setting (1,500 watts) and a low setting (750 watts). The thermostat manages the heat output, allowing you to find a middle ground between the heat settings. Although digital controls look high-end, years of testing have convinced us that analog controls are more durable and intuitive.
- Compact size: The heater should be small enough to work well without taking up too much space, as well as to store easily in a closet in the off-season.
- Not ugly: Although no space heater is beautiful, many are quite unattractive. Since space heaters are often highly visible in a room, we tried to find nicer-looking options that wouldn’t be an eyesore for the entire winter.
- Carrying handle: You need to have a way to move an in-use or recently turned off heater without burning your hands.
- Fan-only option: A heater with a fan-only option can conveniently double as a fan for the warmer months.
How we tested
We tested 13 space heaters in an apartment in Queens, New York,
over a week in September 2018, measuring the change in room temperature
each heater created. Although we drew our conclusions from a mix of
observations, including our temperature measurements, we didn’t rely on
those readings alone—the goal was not to attempt to create lab-like
conditions but rather to see how each heater operated, how its heat
felt, and what it would be like to live with over the winter. When we
did rely on temperature measurements, we focused on the overall change
in the temperature, de-emphasizing the beginning and final numbers on
the thermometer, which varied due to slight inconsistencies in the
starting temperature of the test room.
For our tests, we placed each space heater at the same location in a 200-square-foot bedroom with typical furniture and a large rug over a hardwood floor. We closed the windows and door and shut off the forced-air ventilation during each test. We placed two Lascar data loggers 3 feet and 6 feet away from the heater. We ran each heater for an hour while the Lascar loggers took a reading every five minutes. Our subjective observations about the way the heat felt—whether it was room-filling warmth or a blast of hot air directly in front of the heater—led us to view the 6-foot measurements as a better representation of the machines’ performance.
To measure how hot the actual heater felt without burning our fingertips, we used an infrared thermometer gun to take readings (on ceramic heaters) of both the plastic casing and the grille covering the main heating element. For radiators, we took readings of the radiator fins and the plastic control panel. We also measured the noise each heater emitted, taking readings with a decibel meter from distances of 3 feet and 6 feet at waist height. We noted both dBA and dBC weightings—the former cuts off the lower and higher frequencies that most people can’t hear, and the latter picks up higher frequencies.
In addition to this objective data, we took extensive notes on how warm each heater made us feel. We fiddled with dials and buttons, tested timers and automatic thermostats to confirm that they worked, and turned off the room lights to note whether the space heaters’ LED displays were intrusively bright. We also measured the wattage each heater drew, but we found that most used nearly the same amount of power.
For our tests, we placed each space heater at the same location in a 200-square-foot bedroom with typical furniture and a large rug over a hardwood floor. We closed the windows and door and shut off the forced-air ventilation during each test. We placed two Lascar data loggers 3 feet and 6 feet away from the heater. We ran each heater for an hour while the Lascar loggers took a reading every five minutes. Our subjective observations about the way the heat felt—whether it was room-filling warmth or a blast of hot air directly in front of the heater—led us to view the 6-foot measurements as a better representation of the machines’ performance.
To measure how hot the actual heater felt without burning our fingertips, we used an infrared thermometer gun to take readings (on ceramic heaters) of both the plastic casing and the grille covering the main heating element. For radiators, we took readings of the radiator fins and the plastic control panel. We also measured the noise each heater emitted, taking readings with a decibel meter from distances of 3 feet and 6 feet at waist height. We noted both dBA and dBC weightings—the former cuts off the lower and higher frequencies that most people can’t hear, and the latter picks up higher frequencies.
In addition to this objective data, we took extensive notes on how warm each heater made us feel. We fiddled with dials and buttons, tested timers and automatic thermostats to confirm that they worked, and turned off the room lights to note whether the space heaters’ LED displays were intrusively bright. We also measured the wattage each heater drew, but we found that most used nearly the same amount of power.
Our pick: Vornado VH200
Our pick
The Vornado VH200, as well as other Vornado models we tested, proved significantly more effective than most other space heaters in our evaluation. After running on high for 20 minutes, the VH200 raised the temperature by 3 Fahrenheit degrees at 6 feet away, and after an hour, raised it by 5.5 Fahrenheit degrees, more than any other heater (except for our runner-up, another Vornado). This result easily tops the temperature increases we measured on all competitors, including on our other picks.
| Change in temperature (degrees F) | Total change, 20 minutes | Total change, 60 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Vornado VH200 | 3 | 5.5 |
| Vornado MVH | 2.5 | 5.5 |
| Lasko 754200 | 2.5 | 4.5 |
| Honeywell UberHeat | 1 | 3 |
| De'Longhi TRD40615T | 1 | 2.5 |
The Vornado models raised the temperature in a
test space more quickly and by a greater overall amount than other
heaters we tested.
In spite of the hotter temperature readings, the heat billowing from
the VH200 also felt significantly more comfortable to sit beside than
that of the other heaters we tested. That’s because its fan design—what
Vornado calls a “circulator”—distributed a gentle, even heat to every
corner of the room, similar to what we observed in our testing of
Vornado room fans.
The result: an all-encompassing and diffuse heat that felt natural, not
forced. The ceramic-plate models we tested (our Lasko and Honeywell
also-great picks), by contrast, delivered a narrow beam of heated air
that made sweat trickle down our necks when we sat directly in the line
of fire.The Vornado VH200 has every safety feature we look for in a heater. Its thermal cutoff function ensures that the machine automatically switches off in the event it overheats, and its tip-over switch cuts off power automatically in the event it gets knocked over—many less expensive heaters, including one of our also-great picks, don’t offer these features. The VH200’s plastic casing also remained relatively cool, never exceeding 94 °F. And the grille covering the heating element never topped 140 °F, making the VH200’s grille one of the coolest we tested. Although space heater safety largely depends on using the heater correctly, these features are reassuring.
Despite its abundant heating ability, the VH200 operated with a quiet murmur that we didn’t find distracting or unpleasant. We recorded a decibel level of 39 dBA at a distance of 3 feet and 35 dBA at 6 feet at its highest setting, a level that’s quieter than a fan on its lowest setting. And if you use the VH200 at any fan setting below 4, the fan switches off and the machine emits a near-silent heat. But even on high, the Vornado VH200 is significantly quieter than the Lasko 754200, which recorded decibel measurements of 48 dBA at a distance of 3 feet and 43 dBA at 6 feet. This Vornado model is not as quiet as a radiator, but then again, no other kind of space heater is.
The VH200 has a slim, lightweight design that’s easy to tuck below a desk or in a corner. It’s also pleasantly pear-shaped (bottom-heavy heaters are harder to tip over). It’s certainly bigger than most of the personal heaters we tested, such as the Lasko or Honeywell, but it’s dwarfed by any radiator. Weighing about 3.5 pounds, it’s still only about the size of a coffee maker.
We found the controls on the VH200 simple, straightforward, and durable. The heater offers three power settings—one more than the usual low and high—and a thermostat dial with seven settings. Disappointingly, it has no fan-only mode, which is a bummer considering that room fans are Vornado’s primary area of expertise. It has a red LED light that remains on when the heater is on but turns off when the heater is powered down but still plugged in. We preferred this to the Lasko 754200’s crimson indicator light, which blared bright even when the heater was turned off.
The VH200 also contains an internal thermostat with seven settings that can automatically turn on and off to maintain temperature. To use the thermostat, turn the dial slowly counterclockwise after the room reaches your desired comfort level, and when the heat cycles off, stop turning the dial. For example, if the thermostat is set to 7, you turn the dial down slowly, and the heat cycles off when you reach the 3 setting, you should keep the dial set to 3. The heater should then automatically restart when the room drops below that desired temperature. The automatic thermostat worked successfully in our testing, though we did not measure its accuracy to the degree.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
Both the Vornado VH200 and the nearly identical Vornado MVH have
relatively mediocre reviews on Amazon. At this writing, the VH200 has an
overall rating of 3.5 stars (out of five) across more than 20 customer reviews, and the MVH has 3.6 stars (out of five)
across more than 1,640 reviews. Neither rating is stellar, but we
didn’t find any popularly reviewed space heaters (meaning those with at
least 100 reviews) with a rating higher than four out of five stars. We
combed through the three-, two-, and one-star reviews for the VH200 and
MVH to compare them against negative reviews of other heaters we tested,
including the Lasko, Honeywell, and De’Longhi models that make up the
rest of our recommendations. All of the space heaters we seriously
considered had a smattering of negative reviews, and in comparison, we
thought the Vornado VH200’s negative reviews were not as bad as those of
the other fans we liked. Many of the negative reviews of the VH200
complain that the fan did not put out as much heat as the buyer
desired—a fair complaint, but we believe they would be more disappointed
with almost any other heater, as the VH200 was one of the most powerful
heaters we tested.
What really sets the Vornado models’ negative reviews apart is that Vornado representatives actually tend to reply to negative reviews and offer customer support, which is a rare sight on critical reviews for other brands. The most popular negative reviews of the Vornado MVH complain that the machine broke within a few months, and almost every one of those reviews received a response from a Vornado representative. In contrast, we could not find any instance where Lasko offered assistance to customers who had posted negative reviews, and the few people who did attempt to go through Lasko customer service left somewhat disappointed. The VH200 also comes with a five-year warranty, the longest coverage of any space heater we tested.
The VH200 is more than twice as expensive as other portable ceramic heating options, such as the Lasko and the Honeywell. But we believe it’s worth the expense due to its pleasant, even heat and the fact that it can raise the temperature of a room so much more effectively than the other models we tested.
Vornado has recalled another space heater, one that looks quite similar to our pick, in response to more than a dozen reports of overheating and catching fire. The model affected by the recall, the VH101, is about 7.2 inches deep, 7.8 inches wide, and 7.10 inches high. Our pick is a bit bigger, at about 10.4 inches deep, 9.2 inches wide, and 10.6 inches high. If you have a small Vornado heater, check the model number, and if you have the VH101, Vornado will give you a full refund or replace the product—possibly with that model’s replacement, the VH202. The larger Vornado we recommend, the VH200, has improved safety features that the recalled VH101 lacked, according to a Vornado spokesperson: V-0 Resin, a flame-extinguishing plastic; UL 3122 Wire Jacketing, a high-temperature, high-voltage silicone/fiberglass jacketing; and a change in the soldering of the heater’s electronics.
What really sets the Vornado models’ negative reviews apart is that Vornado representatives actually tend to reply to negative reviews and offer customer support, which is a rare sight on critical reviews for other brands. The most popular negative reviews of the Vornado MVH complain that the machine broke within a few months, and almost every one of those reviews received a response from a Vornado representative. In contrast, we could not find any instance where Lasko offered assistance to customers who had posted negative reviews, and the few people who did attempt to go through Lasko customer service left somewhat disappointed. The VH200 also comes with a five-year warranty, the longest coverage of any space heater we tested.
The VH200 is more than twice as expensive as other portable ceramic heating options, such as the Lasko and the Honeywell. But we believe it’s worth the expense due to its pleasant, even heat and the fact that it can raise the temperature of a room so much more effectively than the other models we tested.
Vornado has recalled another space heater, one that looks quite similar to our pick, in response to more than a dozen reports of overheating and catching fire. The model affected by the recall, the VH101, is about 7.2 inches deep, 7.8 inches wide, and 7.10 inches high. Our pick is a bit bigger, at about 10.4 inches deep, 9.2 inches wide, and 10.6 inches high. If you have a small Vornado heater, check the model number, and if you have the VH101, Vornado will give you a full refund or replace the product—possibly with that model’s replacement, the VH202. The larger Vornado we recommend, the VH200, has improved safety features that the recalled VH101 lacked, according to a Vornado spokesperson: V-0 Resin, a flame-extinguishing plastic; UL 3122 Wire Jacketing, a high-temperature, high-voltage silicone/fiberglass jacketing; and a change in the soldering of the heater’s electronics.
Runner-up: Vornado MVH
Runner-up
Also great: Lasko 754200 Ceramic Heater
Also great
The Lasko 754200 is faster at heating up small spaces than most space heaters we’ve tried. As is the case with all ceramic heaters, the warmth comes almost immediately, as the 754200 creates warm jets of air in a matter of minutes. After running on high for an hour, the Lasko raised the temperature of our room from 6 feet away by 4.5 Fahrenheit degrees, a performance close to that of our Vornado picks. But in our gut-check test, its heat did not feel evenly distributed throughout the room. Instead, we felt a concentrated stream of heat in front of the heater and cooler patches of air in areas around and behind the heater—although we could best reap the rewards of the heater by sitting directly in front of it, that position got uncomfortably hot, yet we felt chilly in the far corners of the room.
Reminder: If you are using this (or any) space heater in a home with pets or small children, do not leave it accessible while unattended. Tipped-over heaters tend to overheat. Fortunately, the Lasko 754200 does come with overheat protection, which cuts power to certain areas of the heating element if they get too hot.
However, it’s also relatively cool to the touch. In our tests, the outer plastic casing never topped 85 °F, and the grille, which is situated directly in front of the ceramic plate and receives the brunt of the output, topped out at 153 °F—still hot enough to burn your skin but cooler than the grilles of most other ceramic models we tested.
It’s also appealingly simple to use. In addition to its molded-plastic carrying handle, it has intuitive controls consisting of two physical dials that are easy to grasp and manipulate. One dial controls the power output, the two heat settings (high and low), and the fan-only option, while the other controls the thermostat. Weighing a little over 3 pounds and measuring about the size of a loaf of bread, it can stash pretty much anywhere, too.
The Lasko 754200 was one of the loudest heaters we tested, significantly louder than the Vornado VH200. We measured 48 dBA at a distance of 3 feet and 43 dBA at a distance of 6 feet, results almost 10 full decibels higher than what we got from our Vornado picks at either distance. But the Lasko was discernibly quieter than the Honeywell, which measured around 4 decibels higher at distances of 3 and 6 feet. It’s not an unpleasant noise—it sounds just like a room fan turned on high—but it is noticeable, and you might find it irritating if you’re working alongside this heater all day.
The Lasko 754200’s biggest selling point is that it’s frequently one of the cheapest space heaters you can find. Prices for space heaters can shift dramatically from season to season, but at Amazon, Walmart, or Home Depot, the 754200 rarely exceeds $30—half the price of the VH200. The 754200 is also the most popular space heater on Amazon, with an overall score of 3.9 stars (out of five) across 14,000-plus reviews at this writing. Nearly 60 percent of those owners give it five stars. We found similar, if not better, levels of satisfaction at the Walmart, Home Depot, and Best Buy sites. But a quick dive into the negative owner reviews reveals a number of incidents where the heater overheated even when plugged directly into a wall outlet. Again, it’s not necessarily the space heater that’s dangerous, but how you use it.
As the Lasko was our top pick for five years, we have extensive notes on its long-term durability. Wirecutter staff members have owned the Lasko 754200 for several winters now and have next to no complaints about its long-term operation.
Also great: Honeywell UberHeat Ceramic Heater HCE200W
Also great
One of the Honeywell’s advantages over the Lasko is its safety. Both offer overheat protection, but the Honeywell also features an automatic tip-over kill switch, which shuts the heater off if it gets knocked over. Although you should never leave a space heater in a room unattended, the kill switch can offer some peace of mind in case you really can’t keep your eye on the UberHeat for a short stretch. This Honeywell model also performed well in our surface-temperature tests, as its outer plastic casing remained at a steady 81 °F, a few degrees cooler than the Lasko heater. The front grille reached an average of 165 °F, hotter than the Lasko, but we think the addition of the kill switch offers a much more marked increase in safety than a difference of 10 degrees in grille temperature.
This Honeywell model’s other winning factor is its design. It’s hard to find a space heater you want to look at. But the UberHeat isn’t just inoffensive—it’s actually kind of hip. Its matte, disk-shaped frame and pronged feet feel at home in any living room. It’s also one of the only heaters we’ve found to offer color options (only white and black in this case, but it’s still welcome). At around 10 by 7 by 11 inches, it’s especially compact. It weighs just over 3 pounds, and its indented carrying handle means it’s easy to move. We do wish it had a fan-only setting, like the Lasko.
Like the Lasko 754200, the Honeywell UberHeat has consistently positive reviews. With more than 350 reviews on Amazon, it currently has an overall rating of 4.1 stars out of five, with 62 percent giving it a full five stars. It’s been a pick for three years now (formerly it was a runner-up to the Lasko), and we have no availability problems or long-term reliability issues to report. It can be a bit pricier than the Lasko—we’ve seen it fluctuate mostly between $30 and $40—but we’ve noticed that it can be easier to find than competitors in the winter months.
The best oil-filled radiator: De’Longhi TRD40615T
Also great
Like any oil-filled radiator, the De’Longhi TRD40615T does not produce instantaneous heat. It takes around 15 minutes to heat up, and after running on high for an hour the heater raised the temperature of our test room from 3 feet away by 0.5 Fahrenheit degrees and from 6 feet away by 2.5 Fahrenheit degrees, less than the Lasko, Honeywell, and Vornado models. Within two hours, the De’Longhi almost caught up with our ceramic Lasko and Honeywell picks but still fell behind the Vornado heaters. And unlike ceramic heaters, which cool off immediately after powering down, in this design the oil inside the radiator has a large enough thermal mass that it keeps emitting heat for around an hour even after you turn it off.
Radiators make absolutely no noise, unlike ceramic, open-element, or micathermic heaters. We couldn’t even get an accurate noise reading on the De’Longhi, as our decibel meter picked up more of the noise of the wind outside than from the radiator. If you want a heater you can comfortably sleep alongside, an oil-filled radiator will never wake you up. Our testing showed that cats, also, really enjoy sleeping beside it.
Like any radiator, the De’Longhi is larger than our other picks. It occupies 16 by 6.6 by 25 inches of space, about the same as a full-size suitcase. But if you live in a cramped space, this heater may take up room you can’t spare.
The TRD40615T has manual controls that are intuitive to use, as well as a 24-hour programmable timer that comes in handy. The heater has three different heat options and a thermostat dial that ranges from 1 to 6. It’s also easy to move, as you can roll it around on four retractable wheels. We liked that we didn’t have to install or screw in the wheels on the TRD40615T, unlike on the Pelonis NY1507-14A.
Some Amazon customers have complained about the radiator giving off an unpleasant smell upon initial use, so we recommend running it outside to off-gas before taking it inside. Most other oil-filled radiators initially emit this noxious stench because some of the oil remains on the surface of the heater after manufacturing. Once the oil has evaporated, the smell disappears. A few reviewers have complained that the timer makes an audible ticking noise, but we did not encounter this issue in our testing. If it comes up for you, we recommend contacting the manufacturer. The De’Longhi TRD40615T has a warranty of one year, so it should be covered if this ticking emerges early on.
If you need to warm up a whole room, the Vornado VH200 and MVH are much more effective for nearly half the cost. But if you don’t feel comfortable using an open-element or ceramic heater, the De’Longhi TRD40615T is the best radiator option we tested.
The competition
We tested the Vornado VH10,
which is a glossier, newer generation of the VH200, but nothing set it
apart from our less expensive top pick. It recorded similarly quiet
decibel levels and performed just as well in heating our room. The VH10
offers a few other perks, such as a ledge to coil the cord around on the
bottom of the heater and a deeper carrying handle. But it has only two
temperature settings (one fewer than the VH200 and the MVH) and a
concave dial, which we found much harder to manipulate than our picks’
raised dials.
We also tested the Vornado AVH10, an even slicker version of the VH10. This heater performed comparably to the VH10 (and our Vornado picks) but adds digital controls and an LED screen. We thought it was a hassle to have to repeatedly press the +/- buttons to change the temperature as opposed to just swirling a dial. It’s also around $40 more expensive than our pick.
We looked at a few micathermic heaters (a type of heater where the heating element is covered in thin sheets of mica), the most popular of which is the De’Longhi HMP1500. The biggest perk of micathermic heaters is that you can install them directly onto a wall to save space (De’Longhi conveniently includes a wall-installation kit with the HMP1500). But if you don’t install it on a wall, the heater resembles a flat-screen computer monitor on wheels—a body type just meant to be knocked over. We also found this heater slightly difficult to assemble out of the box. It has an impressive four out of five stars across nearly 2,000 reviews on Amazon at this writing, but it performed disappointingly in our tests, raising the heat in our testing room by 1.5 Fahrenheit degrees from a distance of 3 feet and making no difference at 6 feet—less of an increase than what we saw from the Vornado VH200 and MVH, as well as the Lasko 754200 and Honeywell UberHeat. This heater did not register as loud on our decibel meter, reading at 33 dBA and 32 dBA at 3 and 6 feet, respectively. But we found the micathermic heating noise more annoying than the ceramic heating noise—it sounded more like the electric buzz of a tattoo needle than the faint whirring we found on other heaters.
We also considered the De’Longhi EW7707CM, another oil-filled radiator. This radiator barely warmed our testing room at all after an hour. Unlike our radiator pick, this heater has exposed fins and a ComforTemp button, which, De’Longhi claims, cuts energy costs by maintaining the optimal room temperature. We preferred the TRD40615T’s 24-hour timer over the ComforTemp button, and the EW7707CM’s exposed wings were significantly hotter to the touch. But if our radiator pick sells out, the EW7707CM is just as capable of heating a space.
The last radiator we tested was the Pelonis NY1507-14A. The heater did a decent job of heating our room, performing as well as the other radiators, but the entire thing seemed too cheap to recommend. The analog dials bent and strained against our fingers as we tried to rotate them. We also had to screw the wheels onto the radiator, in contrast to the preinstalled, retractable wheels of the De’Longhi TRD40615T and EW7707CM. That task wasn’t too difficult, but we had to be careful placing the wheel-less radiator on our floor, as the downward-jutting screws could have gouged our floorboards.
We also tested the Vornado AVH10, an even slicker version of the VH10. This heater performed comparably to the VH10 (and our Vornado picks) but adds digital controls and an LED screen. We thought it was a hassle to have to repeatedly press the +/- buttons to change the temperature as opposed to just swirling a dial. It’s also around $40 more expensive than our pick.
We looked at a few micathermic heaters (a type of heater where the heating element is covered in thin sheets of mica), the most popular of which is the De’Longhi HMP1500. The biggest perk of micathermic heaters is that you can install them directly onto a wall to save space (De’Longhi conveniently includes a wall-installation kit with the HMP1500). But if you don’t install it on a wall, the heater resembles a flat-screen computer monitor on wheels—a body type just meant to be knocked over. We also found this heater slightly difficult to assemble out of the box. It has an impressive four out of five stars across nearly 2,000 reviews on Amazon at this writing, but it performed disappointingly in our tests, raising the heat in our testing room by 1.5 Fahrenheit degrees from a distance of 3 feet and making no difference at 6 feet—less of an increase than what we saw from the Vornado VH200 and MVH, as well as the Lasko 754200 and Honeywell UberHeat. This heater did not register as loud on our decibel meter, reading at 33 dBA and 32 dBA at 3 and 6 feet, respectively. But we found the micathermic heating noise more annoying than the ceramic heating noise—it sounded more like the electric buzz of a tattoo needle than the faint whirring we found on other heaters.
We also considered the De’Longhi EW7707CM, another oil-filled radiator. This radiator barely warmed our testing room at all after an hour. Unlike our radiator pick, this heater has exposed fins and a ComforTemp button, which, De’Longhi claims, cuts energy costs by maintaining the optimal room temperature. We preferred the TRD40615T’s 24-hour timer over the ComforTemp button, and the EW7707CM’s exposed wings were significantly hotter to the touch. But if our radiator pick sells out, the EW7707CM is just as capable of heating a space.
The last radiator we tested was the Pelonis NY1507-14A. The heater did a decent job of heating our room, performing as well as the other radiators, but the entire thing seemed too cheap to recommend. The analog dials bent and strained against our fingers as we tried to rotate them. We also had to screw the wheels onto the radiator, in contrast to the preinstalled, retractable wheels of the De’Longhi TRD40615T and EW7707CM. That task wasn’t too difficult, but we had to be careful placing the wheel-less radiator on our floor, as the downward-jutting screws could have gouged our floorboards.
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