Anyone used Rointe heaters?

Cardew,
The reason so many first time posters are registering to argue their point is that people who have actually used these type of heaters ( i say type because rointe are not the only ones to sell in this price bracket and not all of them market in the underhand way that rointe do) are aware of the many advantages of these heaters against your £10 Argos heater, you call this a "vested interest" certainly on my part i call it providing a balanced view against your pure physics analysis, and i make no effort to hide that as an electrical contractor i have fitted Rointe's before. Many of the posters defending (those with half a brain that is) don't disagree with you on the physics, however we do realise there is a real world application for these products, and don't want people to be put off good products by your one sided labratory analysis.

Your analysis that the digital thermostat will never make them more efficient than a heater with a cheap bimetalic stat is a correct statement, however your use of the word efficient is a play on words tantamount to the marketing techniques used by Rointe, as you are talking about electrical efficiency which most of us know is 100% regardless. This is misleading for those who are looking at this forum to acertain if they will cost less to run. So lets answer that question for people and replace "efficient" with "cost effective" and straight away the statement is wrong for 2 reasons. 1. cheap thermostats do not have a numerical temperature range so the tendancy is for people to turn them up higher than required when they walk into a cold room, thus overheating the room and using more electricity, thus increasing the real world cost, this is a problem more common to commercial enviroments where different people using a room are not used to the heaters controls. 2. Because heaters with cheap stats heat in peaks and troughs and it is human nature to turn the stat up during the trough and take a jumper off during a peak, as the room will imediatley start to get warmer when you turn the stat up so thats the easiest thing to do, but will not imediatley feel like its getting cooler if you turn it down so its easier to take your jumper off, this will also overheat the room and cost more. To be absolutley clear about the 2 points made above it will not cost more per KW of heat produced but will cost more to run in the real world because you will produce more heat than you need.

Onto your second use of wording to mislead, you pick up on Tallpaul for saying that "Rointe heaters are more energy efficient", again you are technically correct but if you read all of Tallpauls post, although there are some inaccuracies in his understanding of how the heaters work (sorry Paul, no disrespect intended) he is basically getting at the same point as me about overheating the room and clearly meant cost effective / will use less energy in the real world, he just used the wrong terminology (technically), although in the context of his post it was clear what he meant.

And whilst we're getting anal about peoples wording i can guarantee you that a Rointe will produce more heat/warmth/BTu/Calories/ than a £10 heater from Argos, because Argos don't sell a heater for £10 and you won't get any heat from nothing, you don't even need a GCSE pass in physics to know that. Petty i know, but hey i didn't start it.

I'm sorry if i'm being hostile but you seem hell bent on re-iterating the same point over and over again, which most people on this forum accepted as correct the first time, so please don't post again unless you are going to come up with something new, and stop using wording inaccuracies to try and disprove valid and correct points. You made what you considered a fair assumption, well now i'm going to make one, you have made so many posts because you cannot bear to think that anyone reading might think your wrong. Well congratulations everything you have written is technically correct, one sided and misleading in some cases, but still correct. Well done.

To anyone reading this to try and make up your mind about Rointe heaters, don't beleive the marketing on their website, its misleading in the extreme, and the savings i have identified above would be no where near those stated in the marketing material (exact figures cannot be quoted as it is down to the individual using the heater, i'm sure some of the labrats posting on here will probably come back and tell me to prove my statements with a study or something daft like that, but i can't as i live in the real world like most people, and base my judgements on experience). If you are in a position where on-peak electric heating (be aware its costly to run) is the best option for you for whatever reason, and you like the sound of some of the other more endearing features of these products as pointed out in other posts then don't be put off buying and also if its just Rointe you've looked at, shop around a bit more, there are quite a few other manufacturers who make similar good quality products, which are a bit better priced and in some cases do not make any ridiculous claims on efficiency, quite a few of them are named in various posts.

Speaking for myself its spontaneous, i came accross this thread looking for information on the quality of similar radiators from the "economy radiator company" a similar manufacturer and BS pedeller to Rointe, i posted because other people who are more interested in quality than the economy factor will come across it also and although my posts havent been in answer to the original question i wanted people to get a honest and balanced view and at no point have i tried to validate Rointe's marketing material, if fact quite the opposite.

I have simply been pointing out that they have a multitude of good features (asthetics, maintaining a constant heat, less of a fire hazard, low surface temp for child safety, can be used to hang wet towels etc on like a normal rad) all features which you will not get for £8.49 or even close, all points which i note you havent contested so i assume you agree. In short they are worth paying for - FOR THE RIGHT APPLICATION. Surely you realise the majority of people do not want to heat their homes or offices with cheap plastic heaters stood on the floor pluged into a multitude of adaptors. As long as people are buying for the right reason they're a good product.

I accept that simple heaters with bimettalic stats will do the same job at the same cost if used correctly but the point i was making is this is often not the case, i did a on site survey of the job i was originally researching today, a tenanted property with very old panal heaters, which are tripping the main feed due to overload and are at the end of their life (20yrs+). All of the heaters were set to max, it was 28 degrees in some rooms all because they did not understand them so just turned them on and never switched off until they went home, surely you accept that a properly controled system that the tenants don't need to touch, set to about 22 would offer savings here, this is a the type of real world example i was talking about which you obviously never come accross. Again, minor savings due to less chance of rooms been overheated, do you accept this?

Also if you are genuinely have no axe to grind why comment on aspects you clearly have no idea about, unless you are trying to strengthen an argument. I will correct you again on the price aspect £700 is list with a bit of shopping around, even a man off the street should be able to buy for around £370 at a wholesaler for the largest version of the product in question, this is a money saving website so why continue to mislead when you've been corrected atleast twice already, it undermines the correct and important points you've posted, as does the continuous attempts to use the "vested interest" argument. I could just as easily argue that you have a vested interest in cheap heaters and adaptors, it just confuses the issue for people looking for a unbiased view.

Incidentley i've advised Myson Finesse heaters for the example above, the greater range of sizes allowed me to knock 20A off the total load thus curing the tripping problem, This actually worked out cheaper than Panal heaters as no new submain and dis-board was required. For those of you who are looking for an unbiased view the Mysons are a better option than Rointe, quite a bit cheaper as long as you like the looks, very similar to a conventional Rad.

Thanks Cardwell. You have just saved me 450 euro. I am going to buy the cheapest wall mounted heater I can find. :beer: