The Vornado VH200 heated a room faster and more evenly than other models we tested, offering the best combination of power, comfort, and quietness. At night, we positioned the fan in the hallway between our two bedrooms, with the oscillation function turned on. It kept air moving through each room — cool but not cold, and with consistent intensity — so that we all slept more comfortably.
It comes with a timer feature that lets you set it to shut off after the timer runs out. This isn’t as sophisticated as having a programmable thermostat – you’ll need to set the timer each time you want it to shut off, and you can’t set it to turn on or turn up when the timer runs out. But it means, for example, you can set it to run at night in your bedroom while you’re sleeping, and it will go off automatically in the morning after you leave.
Unlike most of the other models we tested, the FH500 has three built-in heating settings, so it offers more heating flexibility for maximum comfort. The Dreo Solaris Slim H3 (DR-HSH003) stands out not only for its stylish appearance but also because it’s the rare oscillating heater that actually succeeds at spreading the warm air evenly lasko ceramic heater around the room. It can’t warm you up quite as quickly as some of our other picks can, but its steady arc of motion creates comfortable and uniform heating throughout your space. It also just looks great, with a sleek design and simple controls that let you choose between basic heat settings or a specific, dialed-in temperature.
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 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.
Although oil-filled radiators look classic, they are not as effective as ceramic and open-element heaters at distributing heat throughout a room. They’re bigger, more expensive, and slower to heat up, and most of them are bracingly hot to the touch. But they are better at holding heat than ceramic models, their heat can feel more comfortable than heat directed out by a fan, and lasko ceramic heater some people prefer their all-metal construction to plastic, since they are small machines reaching high temperatures. If this kind of room heater sounds like something you might prefer, our favorite oil-filled heater is the De’Longhi TRD40615T. Priced at $150 (see below for shopping info), it’s more expensive than a floor fan or most portable space heaters sold separately.
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?
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 TRD40615T has manual controls that are intuitive to use, as well as a 24-hour programmable timer, which comes in handy. The electric heater has three heat options and a thermostat dial that ranges from 1 to 6. This model is also easy to move, since you can roll it around on four retractable wheels. If you think you may need a new heater, don’t wait for the cold weather to hit. Retailers usually stock space heaters seasonally, so prices and availability can fluctuate over the colder months.