The 10 Best Space Heater

Best Space Heater
Best Space Heater

Christmas is upcoming, and the weather is cooler and cooler. It is important to prepare for the cold day with a space heater machine. There are various types of machines, yet not all of them are high-quality ones. That said, here are the best space heaters for a large room in 2023 you may want to check out.

Dr Infrared could be a highly recommended space heater. It comes with a number of qualities. The product could heat up a large space of room while functioning on automatic energy-saving mode. The protection is tip-over. The heating system is dual. It features an infrared quartz tube. You could set the auto shut-off function within 12 hours. The product comes with IR remote control. It is quiet because the noise level is just 39 dB super quiet.

The blower also comes with high pressure. The electronic thermostat is between 50 and 86 degrees. There are a lifetime filter and caster wheels as well. Dr Infrared has 12.5 Amps of power and consumes energy of 1500 Watts. It weighs 24lbs.

Lasko has a stylish body. The design of Lasko is like a piece of art. The product comes with three quiet settings and a ceramic heating element. The thermostat is adjustable. The product consumes the energy of 1500 watts. The setting is easy to read because it is an LED display. You can select a temperature between 60F and 85F. The timer is built-in. It could be programmed between 1 and 7 hours. You could easily program the timer by just pressing the button on the digital control panel; thus, the machine will shut itself off at a programmed time. The feature is built-in for safety purposes.

Lasko will not overheat even if it is left to extend the period of time. The product comes fully assembled. You could get your heater work in minutes. You could plug the machine into a wall outlet and enjoy the warmth by just adjusting the temperature the way you prefer.

Lasko Oscillating is designed for tabletop use and floor. It is versatile so that it could warm your space enough. You could also select different heating settings including Low or Fan Only as well as High. All the settings could propel air quietly. The product comes fully assembled so that it is ready to plug in and heat your room.

There are other settings you can consider as well including oscillating heat, warming your feet, or direct heat. The product is fully equipped. There are built-in features for safety purposes. The product comes with a three-dimension size as followed; 5.6 x 5.9 x 16 inches. It weighs 4.6 pounds.

Lasko Digital is made of plastic and metal. You could set an 8-hour timer. The oscillation is wide; thus, the heated coverage is wider. The engineering helps to make you warm while the machine could reduce noise. Warmth could be projected with a patented comfort system. There is a safety feature made of ceramic. The material helps to self-regulate while there is over-heat protection that functions automatically as well.

DeLonghi consumes energy of 1500 watts so that it could offer comfort that covers the whole room. DeLonghi also has a sleek design. It could be mounted on the wall or set on the floor. The comfort could be personalized. There are several heating settings while the thermostat is adjustable. Such functions help you to easily customize the machine. The product is portable as well. It is compact and lightweight. The handle is convenient while the wheels allow you to move the machine easily.

Vornado comes with Vortex technology. Warm air could, therefore, be fully circulated in the entire room. You could adjust the thermostatic temperature with your preferences. The safety features are advanced. Vornado includes a shut-off system for safety purposes and a tip-over protection function. The operation is whisper-quiet. The product comes with a five-year warranty as well. Vornado has a three-dimension size as followed; 9.2 x 10.4 x 10.6 inches. It weighs 3.76 pounds.

LifeSmart offers three heating settings including but not limited to 500 Watt energy-saving mode. You could set a 12-hour timer for the machine to shut itself off in a timeframe. The metal cabinet is stylish. The thermostat comes in a digital display. There is a remote control as well. The product comes with a three-dimension size as followed; 16 x 13 x 16.5 inches. It weighs 21 pounds.

Infrared warmth could be provided for a large room. The product comes with remote control as well. There are three heating settings that you could consider including the eco-friendly one. For the eco-friendly mode, you could set the machine to work within 12 hours and shut itself off automatically, or you could set a stop timer. The product comes in a stylish wood cabinet. As a result, it is cool to touch. The thermostat is digital. 1800 sq ft room is guaranteed for the product to heat up fully. Lifesmart Corp comes in a three-dimension size as followed; 16.2 x 15.2 x 18.5 inches. It weighs 31 pounds.

The Lasko 6462 has a unique design that allows it to oscillate 360 degrees, which means it can effectively heat an entire room without being repositioned.

This 1,500-watt heater can heat most bedrooms, though it can take a while to heat the entire room, as with most space heaters. In addition to high and low heating modes, this model has a built-in digital thermostat that lets you set your preferred temperature. Lasko covers this unit with a three-year warranty, which is much longer than the one-year warranties most space heaters carry.

The heater’s fan puts out about 62 decibels of noise, which is normal for this type of product. Its case is made of plastic, which makes the unit light and easy to lift. Although this space heater has many useful features, it’s missing a few things that would make it even better. In particular, it lacks a fan-only mode, which means you can’t use it during the summer to help you cool off. The Lasko 6462 also doesn’t have a tip-over sensor to turn the unit off if it’s knocked over. However, it does have an overheat sensor to prevent it from getting too hot. Lastly, this model doesn’t have a shut-off timer. The built-in thermostat can perform a similar function, but it’s no substitute for an actual shut-off timer.

The Mr. Heater Portable Buddy MH9BX runs on propane, so it avoids many of the problems you might have with an electric space heater.

In particular, it’s a better outdoor heater than electric models because it doesn’t need power cords or protection from moisture. The heater produces 4,000 to 9,000 Btu, which is enough to warm spaces up to 225 square feet. Because it uses small 1-pound propane tanks, this unit is quite portable and is a good option for camping and hunting trips. You can use larger propane tanks as well, but you need to buy an additional accessory.

To start the heater, you only need to connect a propane tank, turn on the regulator and push it in to set off the built-in ignition. There are a number of safety features built into the Portable Buddy. Since it’s a propane gas heater, the unit comes with an oxygen depletion sensor that turns it off if the oxygen supply becomes limited.

However, this model isn’t rated for indoor use unless you have plenty of ventilation. It also has sensors that turn off the unit and propane supply if the pilot light goes out or the heater tips over. It comes with a one-year warranty. Unlike electric space heaters, this one doesn’t have a thermostat, though you can adjust the regulator to fine-tune the temperature. The Portable Buddy can get hot to the touch and doesn’t turn off automatically if it overheats.

The top performers in our review are the Lasko 6462, the Lifesmart Corp Lifelux, and the Mr. Heater Portable Buddy MH9BX. Here’s more on choosing a product to meet your needs, along with detail on how we arrived at our ranking of top list products.

A portable electric space heater can accomplish the task of heating individual rooms within your home or office, allowing you to cut back on electricity costs. Portable space heaters make it possible for you to spot-heat frequently used rooms to comfortable temperatures without the need to increase the temperature of your whole house. They can also come in handy if you have a room in your home or office that lacks heating ductwork, is poorly insulated, or is otherwise difficult to heat.

Space heaters come in a variety of sizes and styles and use different methods to emit heat. Convection is the method of a space heater with a blower that circulates warm air throughout a room. Often, circulation is assisted by the presence of an oscillator that rotates the unit to provide more even distribution. The other most common method is radiant heating, which emits infrared heat and is better for use in close quarters because there is no fan blower.

Additionally, there are space heaters that operate simply by plugging into a wall socket and others that run on fuels like propane. For our review of the best space heaters for indoor home and office use, we only considered portable electric units that you can plug into any standard wall socket.

The Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t label portable electric space heaters as Energy Star-rated appliances and has no plans to do so. For this reason, you won’t find space heaters categorized by their energy efficiency ratings.

Depending on your home or office setup, using a space heater in place of or in addition to a standard gas or electric furnace may or may not save you money. For example, attempting to use a space heater or a series of space heaters to raise temperatures throughout your entire home may be far more costly than running your furnace. On the other hand, deploying a space heater in a frequently used small room with poor insulation could lower your overall heating bill by not requiring you to overheat your entire home or office just to keep one small space at a comfortable temperature.

You can determine the average hourly, daily, monthly, and yearly cost of running a space heater in your home by visiting the U.S. Department of Energy website and accessing its appliance energy calculator. This calculator requires you to enter in the type of appliance, the unit’s wattage, your local utility rate, the hours you use it per day, and the number of days per year you intend to use it. It then gives you a dollar estimate of how much money in electricity it will cost you to run a space heater in your home.

Using this energy calculator and the average utility rate of $0.12 per kilowatt-hour, we determined that the estimated dollar amount to operate most of the space heaters in our lineup is $0.18 per hour. The Amazon Basics 1500W is the only space heater we tested that costs less to run, coming in at just $0.10 per hour. It should be noted, however, that the Amazon Basics 1500W accomplishes this by putting out significantly less heat than the rest.

CADR, short for Clean Air Delivery Rate, is a rating assigned to units such as air purifiers and space heaters that double as air purifiers. Since none of the portable electric space heaters we reviewed included air purifiers, we did not assign a category to rank the units by CADR rating.

Space heaters are not the same as baseboard heaters. Whereas space heaters in general heat small areas, baseboard heaters are more effective at heating entire rooms and maintaining an even temperature throughout.

Unlike portable space heaters, which plug into a wall socket, baseboard heaters are affixed to a wall and are wired into your home’s electrical system, requiring installation. Space heaters, on the other hand, are designed with portability in mind, so you can move them from one location to another as needed. The installation of a traditional baseboard heater may be better in the long run for large rooms than the continued usage of a portable electric space heater.

Some manufacturers have developed hybrid space heaters that replicate the size and shape of traditional baseboard heaters but are more portable. We included a handful of portable baseboard heaters in our review to compare the performance of these units against standard electric space heaters. However, because none come designed with fan-forced blowers and other features common to electric space heaters, such as oscillation, they failed to rank within the top 10. Read more about these freestanding electric baseboard heaters here.

Portable electric space heaters come in a range of wattages. The higher the wattage of a given space heater, the greater its ability to heat a room. Multiple wattage ratings for one unit indicate that it has separate heat setting levels, such as high, medium, and low. A space heater with a higher wattage capability means it can safely handle higher levels of power output. This means a space heater with higher wattage ranges can potentially achieve higher levels of heat.

Space heaters with lower wattage, such as the Bionaire, emit less heat and are most effective in small rooms or at close range. Ones that can achieve high wattage, like the DeLonghi, are significantly more suitable for rooms with higher square footage.

Before you choose a space heater, you should determine the size of the area you wish to heat. You can use a space heater with high wattage to warm a small room, but such powerful units could make small areas uncomfortably warm quickly. Likewise, a space heater with low wattage may be ineffective for warming up the ambient air in a large room. It could also require you to run the space heater for longer periods of time before achieving the optimal temperature.

To determine the ideal wattage for your living or working space, measure the square footage of the room and multiply that number by 10. For a 150-square-foot room, the ideal wattage is 1,500 watts. A room measuring 80 square feet is best served by an 800-watt space heater. With the exception of the Bionaire, all of the space heaters we reviewed operate at a maximum of 1,500 watts.

The nature of an electric space heater makes it a slightly higher risk for accidental fire than a standard home furnace. Portable electric space heaters are designed to sit on a flat surface, but the lightweight nature of their design makes them likely to fall over and possibly come into contact with flammable materials. For this reason, we strongly recommend seeking out a space heater that has a tip-over sensor, which shuts off the heating function if the heater is knocked over.

Another consideration for safety with an electric space heater is an overheat shutdown, which detects if the unit is reaching dangerously high temperatures. Additional safety features such as a cool-touch exterior can also prevent accidental injury. Timers ensure a space heater shuts down after a certain length of time, which can also greatly reduce the risk of fire.

We compared the portable electric space heaters in our review based on the following factors. Here is a breakdown of how the space heaters we tested earned points.

To determine the space heaters’ ability to adequately heat a room, we tested each unit by turning the fan and heat to the highest setting and timing how long it took for each to raise the temperature in a 150-square-foot room by 5 degrees. We then assigned each space heater a grade ranging from A to F. None of the heaters in our top 10 received a grade lower than D.

Additionally, we tested the spot-heating capability of each space heater with an electronic anemometer, which measures the maximum velocity of the airflow generated. We gave each heater a performance grade to indicate its effectiveness at circulating warm air through a room. We also noted the number of heat settings and fan speeds each heater has. The standard number of heat settings is two, but some space heaters, like the DeLonghi, have more. Most of the space heaters we tested have only one fan speed – the notable exception being the Dyson AM05, which has 10 different speeds.

Safety is always critical with an electrical appliance, so we evaluated the various safety inclusions of all of the space heaters we tested. Cool-touch exteriors prevent you from accidentally burning yourself when handling a space heater, so we included this in our scoring. Automatic overheat shutdown and tip-over sensors are additional safety designs that can lower the risk of fire in the event the space heater is knocked over or left on without anyone around to monitor its performance. A timer is another feature that can prevent a unit from overheating.

Additionally, we performed tests to measure the loudness of each space heater’s fan to help you gauge which model has the right noise level for you. In testing, we found the Holmes Smart Wifi-Enabled WeMo to be the quietest of all the heaters and the Dyson AM05 to be the loudest.

Finally, we measured the total footprint of each of the space heaters we tested to help you determine how well they’d fit into your home. If space is limited, you may want to consider purchasing a space heater with a smaller footprint; however, bear in mind that small units like the Bionaire are less effective for heating big spaces. Since the ideal size is entirely dependent on your needs, we did not rank the space heaters by size and have included that data for information only.

Operating a space heater should require as little effort as possible, so we tested all of the space heaters in our review for their ease of use. We noted the presence of carrying handles to determine each space heater’s portability. We also noted features like adjustable thermostats and remote control operation to rank each heater’s ease of use.

All of the space heaters we tested come with limited manufacturer warranties that cover defects and workmanship. The shortest warranties last one full year, but some space heaters in our top 10 come with extensive warranties, such as the Vornado, which offers protection for five years.

Aside from assigning a higher rating for space heaters with longer warranties, we determined the availability of support from the manufacturer for operating your unit or exercising your warranty. Manufacturers that offer support by email and phone scored higher than those who only offer one resource or none at all.

Top Ten Reviews seeks, whenever possible, to evaluate all products and services in hands-on tests that simulate as closely as possible the experiences of a typical consumer. We obtained the units in our comparison through a combination of retail purchases and direct loans from the manufacturers. These manufacturers had no input or influence over our test methodology, nor was the methodology provided to any of them in more detail than is available through reading our reviews. Results of our evaluations were not provided to the companies in advance of publication.

After comprehensive testing and research, we found the best space heaters to be  the Lasko 6462, the Lifesmart Corp Lifelux, and the Mr. Heater Portable Buddy MH9BX. All three of these units rank high in safety features and ease of use, and they also achieved the highest room-heating performance.

Bear in mind that which is the best space heater for your needs depends on a number of factors, including where you plan to use it, how frequently, and how useful extra features like remote control and carrying handles are to you.

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