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THE HONEYWELL HZ-709: I'm on my sixth oil-filled radiator heater. It's a Honeywell HZ-709, the only satisfactory one I've found currently on the market. The first Honeywell I bought worked very well for one season. When I began experiencing problems, I found customer service to be very responsive and responsible.
THE OTHERS: I had a Lakewood which worked very well, but Lakewood doesn't make these heaters anymore. I've also tried two different DeLonghi radiators. Both of them continued to put out irritating fumes even after the break in period. Back they went. Likewise for the Holmes I bought. It gave off a low-level odor that I didn't find too noxious at first; but after the first few hours I developed a continuous and worsening headache + nausea that wouldn't quit unless I left the house. It didn't put out as much heat as the Honeywell either. I gave it two days to prove itself, then gave up on it.
THE WARRANTY: So I've purchased a second Honeywell. As I said, the first one worked beautifully for one season. I cranked it up again this fall and it worked fine for a few days. Then, suddenly, the heater started to put out nasty fumes. It smelled like a CFL bulb when they go bad very nasty. It still worked and I couldn't find any leaking oil. I think the problem was in the control panel. I called customer service because, unlike other heaters, the Honeywell has a three-year warranty. Customer service was very thorough and efficient. The guy I spoke to told me he would waive the $10 return fee (?!!), but he wanted me to ship the heater back at my expense. When I objected, he put me on hold for a short time, then came back and told me that this one time I could just cut off the cord and send it. This I did, and I'm waiting on my replacement heater. Meanwhile I bought another because I wanted a second heater of this type anyway.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF HEATERS: I really prefer oil-filled radiators as opposed to forced-air or open-element heaters. They are quiet, slow, even, efficient, and safe. But you have to use them correctly. You can't come into a 60 degree room, crank up one of these radiators, and expect instant warmth. Rather than sending out a fan-driven blast of warm air, it transfers heat to the air and the objects around it by natural convection. Radiator is a misnomer they should be called convectors.
(True radiant heaters, such as quartz heaters, use infrared heat (electromagnetic radiation) to warm objects (and people) rather than the air. This is, in principle, exactly how the sun heats. The air may remain cool, but if you stand in the sunshine you will be warmed by radiation. Infrared heat is great if you can afford it. Quartz heaters will make your electric bill resemble NASA's budget. Apparently, buying a little piece of the sun is a very expensive proposition.)
Back to the oil-filled gadgets. As the heating element inside the convector (aka radiator) heats the oil, a current is generated in the oil because warm oil is more buoyant. The warm oil rises and gives up its heat, via the metal fins, to the colder air. The heated oil constantly rising from the bottom displaces the cooling oil which circulates back down to the heat coil to be heated again etc. etc. Meanwhile, the heated air is rising, forming its own convection current and is circulating throughout the room without any mechanical aids. This gentle current of air ultimately feels warmer than forced air because you are not contending with the "breeze" created by a fan-driven system. The use of natural convection circulation saves money because there is no fan using additional electricity.
If your room cools to, say, 55 degrees for a while, then so do all the objects in it. In a typical room, that's a lot of mass to bring back up to the desired temperature. Until everything reaches the desired temp, all that mass is soaking up the heat from whatever source you use. I find that these convection heaters are best used over a long period of time to warm the room and all the objects in it, then to maintain a comfortable temperature. To that end I wish the timer were set up to turn ON the heater (like an hour or two before I wake up or arrive home from work) rather than to turn OFF the heater at a preset time. That would make much more sense to me.
THE CONTROLS: The only other caveat to the timer is that if you accidentally turn it on by flicking the center button, your heater will cut off unexpectedly in whatever number of hours you unwittingly chose. Some of the "malfunctions" listed in other reviews may be due to accidentally setting the timer. The other controls work very well and the heater puts out a large, consistent volume of heat for a relatively modest increase in my power bill. The thermostat for this heater is apparently located near the floor. My floor is very cold, so the recorded temperature on the heater panel reads lower than the room temp. I monitor the actual room temperature and reset the heater thermostat accordingly. Right now it is 44 degrees outside, a comfy 72.5 inside, but the heater panel reads 68. This is in a very old, drafty, poorly-insulated 600 sq. ft. unit with no other intentional source of heat.
SUMMARY: Oil-filled heaters are quiet, efficient, and safe. The cats can and do sleep right up against it without burning themselves. It will not catch the curtains afire. There is no noisy, inefficient fan. Of all similar heaters, this Honeywell is the best -well worth the additional price. It is obviously made to higher quality standards than the other, cheaper heaters I've tried. It carries a three-year warranty, and the company stands behind its product. It heats the room without poisoning the air. If they made an even better one and charged even more, I'd buy it!
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The Honeywell HZ-709 comes very well packaged with solid styrofoam wrapped around the unit all inside a heavy duty cardboard box. When I opened mine I wasn't surprised that there wasn't a scratch on it. It comes with the radiator unit, four plastic casters, two brackets, two u-bolts, owners manual, and warranty card. There is basic tool-free assembly required to put on the casters, but its so easy a cave man could do it. The instructions to do this are also very easy to understand.
Once the unit is assembled then it is time to plug it in. The digital settings are very easy to adjust with one power button and three two-way switches. One switch is for adjusting the thermostat, which can be set to the max of eighty five degrees fahrenheit. Another is for setting the power low (600 watts), medium (900 watts), and high (1500 watts). The last switch is for setting a hourly timer for shutting the unit off. The temperature switch can also be used to change from fahrenheit to celsius within the first few seconds of powering the unit on. Let me add that this unit is extremely silent, I had to check it a few times to make sure it was on.
I purchased this heater a few weeks ago from Target after we got a blast of cold weather (hovering below and above freezing at night) for a couple of weeks because my home does not have central heat and air and I have about 20 space heaters of which none have ever made my house feel close to warm during the winter. I decided on this unit because it was the most expensive one so I figured it must work for that price and plus I had never tried a oil filled radiator style heater before. I am so glad I decided on this heater.
This heater is in my bedroom which is roughly 700 square feet 26x26. I have a 52" ceiling fan which I set to low on the updraft setting. I tried to place the heater in the center of the room but the cord was too short, but I do have a pretty huge bedroom, so I just put it as far as it would go toward center from the wall outlet. I turned the heater on the highest power setting and highest temperature setting about 5:00pm on an evening that was going to drop below freezing. I have a thermometer on my night stand and the temp in the room read fifty nine degrees. By the time I went to sleep at around 10:00pm the temperature had already raised to seventy two degrees. When I woke up the next morning the temperature was seventy eight degrees. I was shocked!!! It was actually warm in my room. My wife was in shock too. What is amazing is that the unit itself is not extremely hot to the touch like quartz radiant heaters are, while it is still hot I don't feel like it is a fire hazard like quartz heaters are and I feel comfortable leaving it on all the time, even when I am not home. I am still a bit confused on how it does such a great job of heating but it really does. For the past two weeks I haven't been cold in my bedroom at all and I love this heater. It hasn't gone above seventy eight degrees in my bedroom, but I don't want it more than that anyway. It was definitely worth the money. I want to purchase 2 or three more of these units for the whole house now.
I just wanted to update my review a little after a year that I wrote it. It went through another winter and kept us warm, I had since bought a couple more. Still very happy with the units. I had people ask about energy consumption and decided to put a formula on here so you could figure it out for yourself since it would be different for everyone:
It is very easy to figure how any electrical device will affect your electric bill.
Use the formula:
Cost = (watts x hours used x rate per kwh) / 1000
So if you use the unit on high (1500 watts) for 12 hours a day at your electric company's kilowatt hour rate (mine is always changing but usually stays around .02 cents per kwh) then divide that number by 1000 you get your cost which would be:
Cost = (1500 watts x 12 hours x 0.02 kwh charge) / 1000 = $0.36 cents per day or for 30 days: 30 x 0.36 = $10.80
You can use the formula for any electronic device in your home.
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I just bought this unit from Target, and it is great.
First of all, it is very quiet. The only noise is the sound of oil percolating around in metal housing, which is actually soothing. It is powerful enough to heat our average size bedroom (about 15'x15') even on the lowest setting, and it is below freezing outside.
It is really nice to have a thermostat. You can set it and it will keep your room at a constant temperature. The non-digital model is about $20 cheaper, but just get this one. I've used heaters with no thermostat, and you can never get it to hold constant at a nice temperature. You will wake up too hot or too cold.
The Honeywell costs a little more than the cheap-o brand, but it is WELL worth it. The first radiator heater I bought was cheap-o from Walmart. It made a really loud electrical arcing noise every time it kicked on. It was loud enough to wake us up. It sounded like those weapons from War of the Worlds.
Update: Durable too. We've had ours for.. 5 years?? Still works!
Honest reviews on Honeywell 7 Fin Oil Filled Radiator Heater with Digital Controls
We loved ours! A lot of the people who are having problems with it shutting itself off randomly are probably playing with the middle button on the unit it is some kind of timer. We never used it, but realized when we had the same problem.
Our problem is that the oil pan must have burst or something I came into the kitchen one day and there was a brown puddle on the floor and the thermostat was registering 90 degrees. So thankful it didn't catch on fire or anything, but if it hadn't been on linoleum it would have left a nasty mess on the carpet. Returned it to the store no problem, but we were unable to replace it with the same model as it was not in stock.
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I've owned this for a little over a year. I was quite pleased with it until I noticed that my electrical outlet had black around it I pulled the plug and saw that the plug was melting causing it to short. I blamed the outlet only to find another outlet making hissing/sparking noises shortly thereafter (and more melting) the problem is the plug becomes warm either by being close to the unit when on, or from electrical resistance this warms up the rubber/plastic separating the prongs causing the less electricity resistance and voila you have a potentially lethal problem. Even with the unit off the plug will continue to spark/short/melt. Don't know why the circuit breaker didn't blow it must not be enough to trigger. Buyer beware. I'm contacting Honeywell today.
