Infrared Space Heaters Good Bad and Ugly

So, you've decided on an infrared space heater to keep your house warm. Excellent Choice! Now, you just need to wade through the endless options available for your infrared space heater purchase. I have personal experience with 3 models that I'm going to dish out the goods on for you today.

First, let's discuss the model to avoid at all costs. We happened to wander into our local home and ranch supply store looking for a chimney brush one day. There on the shelf in the entrance was a nice looking infrared space heater. It was a PortaSol Brand which I hadn't heard of before, but it was housed in a nice wooden cabinet and looked very similar to the EdenPure that I'd heard so much about on the internet. It was priced at $249.95 which seemed identical to the prices I'd been seeing on the web (except for the exorbitant WA sales tax of course, which I figured, wouldn't be too much more than the cost of having one shipped from an internet store) so we went ahead and bought it.

We were excited, and as soon as we got our purchase home we unwrapped it and got it plugged in and operational. We felt a bit of heat coming from it, so we figured maybe it would just take a bit of time for the heat to spread. Also, the fan was extremely loud which was kind of annoying, but again we figured once the room was warmed up the fan would shut off.

This heater ran all night and the fan never got quieter, and the room never really heated up the way we felt it should. To say the least I was disappointed, and even a bit dis-enchanted with the whole infrared heater idea. I had my wife return it to the store the next day for a refund, and was not a very happy customer.

The moral of this story is stay far far away from the PortaSol Brand of Infrared heater. BUT, don't give up an infrared yet...read below for a happier story.

After the story above, it's likely you were reconsidering your upcoming infrared heater purchase. But the story isn't over....The warmth is coming!

I didn't want to give up an infrared quite yet. After all, my in-laws had an infrared heater that worked quite well...see honorable mention below. So, with optimism and a great deal of hope in hand, I found an infrared space heater on Amazon.com that had a lot of great reviews, and was even less money than the original heater we tried, so I thought we'd give it a try to went ahead and ordered it. When I went to my Amazon cart, I came to find out the S & H on it was only $3! So, it definitely made me wonder what it was I was going to get.

I believe it was only 3 days later that I got home from work to find a package waiting on our back porch, and it was my Dr. Heater already! $3 S & H and it was already here (almost un-heard of)! I brought it in the house and un-packaged it. The wooden cabinet it was housed in was smaller than the PortaSol heater we had tried previously, and the buttons seemed to be of an outdated sort of style, so I was a bit concerned about what I had bought. I let it warm up to room temperature and then plugged it in to see what it would do.

Immediately upon plugging it in, warmth started emanating forth from it in luxurious waves of wonderfulness. I set the thermostat on it to 68, and within a half hour or so, the whole room felt comfortable and warm. Not only that, but the fan was extremely quiet! (My computer fan is significantly louder than the heater fan!) Needless to say at this point I was exceptionally pleased, and glad I had taken the chance on buying it.

It's been about 3 or 4 weeks now since we began operating our Dr. Heater unit, and we are still in love with it! We've been having single digit and low teen temperatures and our main central heat unit has only kicked on less than a handful of times for really short periods of time. The Dr. Heater unit (set at 68) has been keeping our upstairs area extremely comfortable. (The bedrooms are still a bit cooler, but honestly I kind of like that as it makes sleeping nicer.) Also, on a side note, we do still use a wood-stove to heat the basement (where the kids play and watch TV).

The moral of this story is, of course, if you are looking for a space-heater Look NO Further! Buy the Dr. Heater Infrared Heater from Amazon.com Only $195 + $3 S & H it's an excellent deal, and will keep your area comfortable, while saving you money on your heating bills.

Just click the link below the picture to your right, and you will be taken directly to it at Amazon.

I wanted to give an honorable mention to the Comfort Zone infrared heater that my in-laws are using. They have a smaller condo, but it does an excellent job of keeping everything warm.

The Comfort Zone is distributed by EarthWise Technologies and is just a bit under $300.

Or, you can possibly find a used one at Amazon...

Best of Luck to You! Stay Warm!