With endless snowstorms and chills that won’t quit, winter can be a tough time of year. Even after the frosty season ends, plenty of people are perpetually cold—and, many times, at the mercy of the communal adjustable thermostat. Getting a space heater is a perfect method for keeping your toes from tingling without having to heat the whole house or office. However, doing a quick search online you’ll find dozens of styles and hundreds of models to choose from. With such an overwhelming number of choices, we decided to find the best space heater by picking some of the top-selling models to test in our labs.
We spent weeks testing the spot heating, room heating, and mobility of each model. We also looked into alternative uses for each space heater, such as keeping pipes from freezing or serving as a fan in the summer months. When all our testing was said and done, we tallied the numbers and the best space heater is the De’Longhi HMP1500 (available at Amazon for $99.95). It's a little on the pricier side, so if you're just looking for a small personal space heater, we'd suggest the Lasko 6435.
Also, if you're getting a space heater to help you power through sickness, we'd suggest checking out our roundup of humidifiers as well.
Here are the best space heaters we tested, ranked in order:
DeLonghi HMP1500
Lasko 754200
How We Tested
What About Safety?
Types of Space Heaters
Things to Consider When Purchasing a Space Heater
Other Space Heaters We Tested
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Can be wall mounted
Easy to move
Powerful
Expensive
Affordable
Easy to move
Only works as spot heater
The Delonghi HMP1500 is the best spot and room heater
Hi, I'm Jon Chan, senior lab technician at Reviewed. The testing team—Kyle, Julia, and I—put all the space heaters through their paces. I first cut my teeth testing heaters on the Dyson Hot+Cool. Playing around with such an expensive heater made me think about what kind of value you can get out of a machine that essentially blows around hot air. My testing philosophy is about finding out which products give the best value.
In nutshell, to find the best space heater, we broke down our testing into two categories: performance and usability. To test performance, we placed each heater into a temperature-controlled room, which stayed at 72°F and 50 percent humidity. We know that's not necessarily like your living room or the ideal room you'd heat, but that room is the most temperature stable in our entire laboratory and could help us best test whether or not the room would heat to a desired temperature. During setup, each heater was placed in the center of a 180-square-foot chamber with a 1,350-cubic-foot volume, and plugged into a watt meter.
We then placed two rings of temperature sensors at varying heights to simulate feet and torsos at different distances. These sensors were used to determine spot heating and overall room temperature changes.
Each heater was placed on its highest heat settings and left to run for an hour. After that, we gathered the data from the sensors. Heaters that could evenly heat both the inner and outer rings of sensors received the highest ratings.
While space heaters are compact and cost-efficient, there is a need for concern. According to the National Fire Protection Association, space heaters are the leading cause of house fires.
All the space heaters we tested had a mechanism built in to shut the device off if it got too hot. Nevertheless, it's recommended to always have a 3-foot radius between a space heater and anything even remotely flammable–including blankets and upholstery.
Also, never plug a space heater into an extension cord. Portable space heaters draw up to 1500 watts of power, more than enough to cause a dangerous spark.
Finally, be sensible and don't touch a space heater when it is in operation. Some portable heaters have a cool exterior when they are running, but that doesn't mean they aren't dangerous. You wouldn't pick up a toaster when it's on, you shouldn't do that with a space heater.
Space heaters have various heating methods that can affect the size, weight, and other aspects of the product. There are ceramic heaters, fan heaters, oil-filled convection heaters, and some rely on infrared technology. But which one is best for your home? Here's a breakdown of the types we reviewed:
Mica: Thin, energy-efficient, and frequently wall-mountable, mica heaters are part radiant and part convection. They operate silently.
Ceramic Fan-Forced: Convection heaters that blow warm air out from a fan; ceramic space heaters are good for spot heating but not for large rooms. Expect some fan-noise. The plastic shell may be safe to the touch in some models, but the grill is always very hot.
Oil-filled convection: Reminiscent of oil-filled radiators you find in old homes, oil-filled convection heaters work well for entire rooms. They're quiet operation makes it great for living rooms, but they're very hot to the touch on all sides and maybe not the best choice for houses with young children.
Infrared: Sometimes known as "quartz" heaters, these devices don't actually heat the air so much as beam heat directly at you. This is why infrared heaters are often used outdoors, because they are unaffected by wind. Their tops and sides are usually cool to the touch.
Convection Only: Everyone knows hot air rises. Convection heaters simply have a heating element inside a grate. While they are not good for spot heating, they are virtually silent when in operation.
Before you put a space heater into your virtual or physical shopping cart, make sure that it's a good fit for you and your home by asking yourself these questions:
Location: Do you have an area in your home that is both three feet away from all flammable objects, and is not in the middle of a walking path? If not, see if you can clear a place in your home where the space heater can be safely operated.
Safety: Does part of the space heater get hot to the touch while in operation? If so, make sure that kids are aware of what areas are safe to touch on the space heater, if any. With little ones in the house, it may be best to choose a space heater with a protective grate covering the heating unit.
Floor plan: What is the layout of the room(s) you'd like to heat? If you have an open floor plan, and you'd like to heat more than one room, chances are that a single space heater won't cut it. Space heaters operate best in small spaces and rooms; for large spaces, you may need to safely deploy multiple space heaters in strategic locations throughout your home. If you don't want to buy multiple space heaters, think about picking a space heater that emphasizes whole-room heating over spot heating.
Outlet location: Is there an electrical outlet located near the spot you want the space heater to live? Most space heater power cords are not very long, and it is strongly recommended that space heaters should not be plugged into extension cords. As a safety precaution, do not plug anything into the same outlet into which the space heater is plugged. These heaters use a lot of electricity, so it's best not to overload the outlet.
Can be set to gradually warm
Powerful
Can be noisy
Good for personal heating
Won't lower humidity of room
Does not heat rooms well
Fun design
Oscillates
Not very powerful
Easy to carry
Powerful
Expensive
Good personal heater
Does not heat rooms well
Low-to-the-ground design is unobtrusive
Not very powerful
Difficult to move
Easy to move
Oscillates
Not very powerful
Fun design
Not very powerful
Jonathan Chan currently serves as the Lab Manager at Reviewed. If you clean with it, it's likely that Jon oversees its testing. Since joining the Reviewed in 2012, Jon has helped launch the company's efforts in reviewing laptops, vacuums, and outdoor gear. He thinks he's a pretty big deal. In the pursuit of data, he's plunged his hands into freezing cold water, consented to be literally dragged through the mud, and watched paint dry. Jon demands you have a nice day.
Kyle Hamilton
Product Tester
Kyle Hamilton is a product tester at Reviewed, specializing in home appliances and technology.
We use standardized and scientific testing methods to scrutinize every product and provide you with objectively accurate results. If you’ve found different results in your own research, email us and we’ll compare notes. If it looks substantial, we’ll gladly re-test a product to try and reproduce these results. After all, peer reviews are a critical part of any scientific process.
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