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Lifesmart heaters are sold by just about everybody under the sun.
Yeah, even Walmart. Who happen to have the cheapest price.
Never used one- but have looked at them. I think there are better alternatives on the market.
My dad has one. It seems to be as good as any of the overpriced space heaters currently on the market. You can do much better with the little quartz cube heaters available at home improvement stores for about $40.
Heaters have limits on their power draw and they are basically all the same, the differences are pretty much packaging. If you think that one looks $80 prettier than the cube heaters - go for it.
However do not buy the $300 one they send you mailers about. It also works no better and usually breaks within a year. That is when you discover the warrany is really useless.
As an apartment dwellers, to me, space heaters are a big fire hazzard.
This past winter the stupid old man left his space heater on all night long, (he lived on the 4th floor) obviously because he was cold.Unfortunetely the space heater caught something on fire and now he has no apartment, and the tenants above him lost thier apartment as well, plus the 3 tenants below him all suffered extensive water damage.
so now because of a space heater 3 tenants are now homeless until the LL can fix the apartments.
this happened months ago, and the windows are still all boarded up...
a dam shame.
I would never use a space heater, no matter how cold the dwelling is.
As an apartment dwellers, to me, space heaters are a big fire hazzard.
This past winter the stupid old man left his space heater on all night long, (he lived on the 4th floor) obviously because he was cold.Unfortunetely the space heater caught something on fire and now he has no apartment, and the tenants above him lost thier apartment as well, plus the 3 tenants below him all suffered extensive water damage.
so now because of a space heater 3 tenants are now homeless until the LL can fix the apartments.
this happened months ago, and the windows are still all boarded up...
a dam shame.
I would never use a space heater, no matter how cold the dwelling is.
Some are more of a fire hazard than others. The oil-filled (cool to the touch) ones are pretty safe, as are some of the ceramics and straight convection models. The cheap ones with ribbon elements and a fan can be VERY dangerous. Cursing all space heaters because of incidents with cheap ones used inappropriately is like blaming a car for running down a pedestrian.
Right! The 120 volt plug in models are all the same.
1500 Watts of heat is 1500 Watts of heat. The same amount of heat will come out of each!
I think I paid $26 for one and that puts out the same heat as a $100 model with the same wattage.
There's some caveats to that. The ones with a fan will heat and circulate a greater volume of air but at lower temperature than the radiant ones. The oil filled ones heat up slower but also cool down slower providing a more even temperature, plus they generally have a lot of surface area so again you're heating large volume air but at a lower temperature.
My experience says oil filled ones. They are big and cumbersome and they do take time to warm the room up but they are safe as in church and pets do not seem to mind them. For years I used on a glassed in, unheated porch during the winter. Just had to be sure to turn it on a few hours before we wanted to use the porch.
Last edited by accufitgolf; 08-29-2012 at 03:23 PM..
There's some caveats to that. The ones with a fan will heat and circulate a greater volume of air but at lower temperature than the radiant ones. The oil filled ones heat up slower but also cool down slower providing a more even temperature, plus they generally have a lot of surface area so again you're heating large volume air but at a lower temperature.
While what you state is true, 5118 btu/hr (i.e 1500 watt heater) is just that, independent of how it is delivered. It depends what you want to accomplish. For direct spot heating, pure radiant is fine, though it is relatively line-of-site, and everything else in the room tends to remain cold. Convection (forced air) is partially my favorite, as it heats the entire room, granted air is not exactly the best with thermal mass. Personally, my favorite is something like an oil-filled heater (large thermal mass), with a small fan behind it.
(Not to digress to badly, but a woodstove with a shroud and blower, such as a fireplace insert, gives you large thermal mass, convection and radiation all in one package). YMMV
(Not to digress to badly, but a woodstove with a shroud and blower, such as a fireplace insert, gives you large thermal mass, convection and radiation all in one package). YMMV
Or a coal stove. That's where my username comes from, I've been involved with the home heating industry for 20 years now.
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That's where my username comes from, I've been involved with the home heating industry for 20 years now.
