For this assessment, we note 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 collecting this objective data, we take extensive subjective notes on how warm each electric heater makes us feel. Even the most perfect, lablike conditions can’t reveal what it’s like to operate the knobs on a heater, how its heat feels, or what it would be like to live with a particular heater over the winter. The Atomi Smart Tower Heater is the first space heater we’ve tested with built-in smart-home capabilities. Unfortunately, those don’t really add anything to the user experience that you can’t get just as easily by pairing the Vornado VH200 with one of our smart plug picks.
The LCD is big and easy to read, and it automatically turns off after about a minute, so you don’t have to worry about that bright glow in the corner of the room keeping you up all night. The VH200 is also quieter than most other ceramic heaters we’ve tried, emitting only a soft, fanlike whir, and it’s compact enough to tuck away in a corner. It’s one of the safest heaters we’ve tested, featuring overheating and tip-over protection, as well as a plastic exterior that stays relatively cool to the touch—so you can warm yourself without having to worry. The VH200 does get mixed reviews from some owners who find it slow to heat a particularly cold space or have problems with the directional airflow, which relies on air circulation rather than an oscillating fan.
The heater offers no place to store the remote control, either—which means, if you lose the remote, you’re left with a useless $300 piece of furniture that resembles a tacky plastic vase. In our heating tests, the Vheat performed near the top of the pack, even if it wasn’t quite as good as the VH200 or the AVH10 space heaters or any of our other, non-Vornado picks. The Vheat was able to raise the temperature in the room by 11 degrees in just 15 minutes, as we measured from 3 feet in front of the fan. But when we measured the temperature at 6 feet away, out of the fan’s direct line of sight, it had risen by only 4 degrees in that same amount of time. By the end of the hour, we saw a 10-degree difference between our measurements at 3 feet in front of the fan and at 6 feet on an angle.
The number of square feet a space heater can warm depends on the strength of its wattage or BTUs. The most powerful outdoor kerosene heaters can warm spaces as large as 8,500 square feet or more. 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 also has only two temperature settings (the VH200 has three), and it has a concave dial, which we found much harder to manipulate than our picks’ raised dials. It’s still a decent option overall, if our other Vornado picks are unavailable.
This model also made an obnoxious high-pitched whirring sound, and its tip-over switch activated only when it was fully horizontal, which is hardly safe. 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 45 dBA at a distance of 3 feet and 44 dBA at 6 feet at the heater’s highest setting, levels that are quieter than those of a fan on its lowest setting.
Overall, it’s a decent tower heater, but you can get a similar (and slightly better) experience for much less money with one of our picks. In our tests, we set the FH500’s bright, easy-to-read digital display to 90 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest possible setting (you can also set the thermostat to display in Celsius). According to our measurements at both 3 feet and 6 feet, the FH500 took about 45 minutes to raise the temperature the 8 degrees necessary to reach our target. Though lasko oscillating fan this was a slower temperature increase than some of our other picks achieved (including the Vornado VH200 and AVH10), we were impressed by how evenly the temperature rose across the room. What was even more remarkable was that as soon as the room reached 90 degrees, the FH500 kept the temperature there for the rest of the hour. As the tower heater oscillated, it emitted a low, gentle whooshing sound that was too quiet for us to measure beneath the hum of the urban streets outside.
For example, if a room is 400 square feet, you’ll need 8,000 watts. We conducted a series of measured tests to obtain some more objective data. We ran one experiment to determine how much temperature change each heater could produce in a small room in one hour. For the small lasko space heater room test, we started with a temperature of 64.7 degrees Fahrenheit in a 161 square foot room and ran the Designer for an hour at its highest setting. Sixty minutes later, the Lasko had brought the room’s temperature up to 74.1 degrees for a total gain of 9.4 degrees.
Bought this heater at Bed Bath and Beyond for a small bathroom. The Lasko 6435 was the most unique-looking product lasko tower heater we tested. It’s only one of two models we tested that could sit on a window sill or a desk, and not look amiss.
It can be set between one and eight hours (in hour increments). I never had to worry about accidentally leaving it on when I left the house. Once you mail the receipts…how can they say that they never got it?
As such, we place heightened importance on each portable heater’s safety measures and track record. Most tower heaters oscillate from left to right to blow hot air over a wider area and warm up more of your space. However, if you only need to warm yourself while stationary, you can turn the oscillation off. One lady called and admitted that the tapes were torn, and, that, likely, a cord and the receipts had fallen out, but, she still had 1 cord… The honest, decent thing to do, would have been to replace the units, and thank us for being such good customers?