Aldi (or other) Ceramic Fan Heaters

grn99

They can be a serious fire hazard (especially with the elderly who’ll put their chair right up against the heater or even themselves)…. They don’t always know there’s a problem once it starts 😞

tux900

Glum said:

Resistive electric heaters are 100% efficient. The only caveat is that a fan is wasting a few Watts to circulate the air rather than heating it.

All of that kinetic and acoustic energy eventually converts to heat too.

TheGardener

Spoonie_Turtle said:

SAC2334 said:

TheGardener said:

SAC2334 said:

Adverising cons as usual .

 Personally I think its better to just use a halogen heater with three settings 400/800 and 1200 ..(No fan ) but a turn switch which rotates it from side to side .and if you are on your own and pretty tight fisted , then just sit fairly close to it on the 400 w setting or 800 w on colder days . 

They re not good at heating rooms up but can heat the person up ok 

Halogens are dreadful if you have children, pets or the elderly who are a bit unsteady on their feet or with compromised eyesight. For safety, I'd go with the oil-filled radiators as they rarely tip over and won't set things on fire so easily.  

All the halogen heaters I have seen have an automatic cut off if they tip over. Incorrect info to say they can set things on fire .They also have that low setting of only 400 watts less than half the minimum setting of an oil filled radiator .

I melted my top on one sitting too close (because it still wasn't warming me up properly, just the part of me closest to the heater - I wasn't a fan of them to start with anyway because they're so useless).  I can well see a stray piece of dangling cloth, large piece of floating lint, or some long fur attached to a pet, starting a fire.

Oh yes, they can - my neighbour dozed off in her chair and the blanket on her knee melted! fortunately, her dog yapping woke her up. Halogen heaters are deadly if something gets too close, I won't have one in a mine or my mother's house. I managed to burn a load of washing on an airer with a fan heater years ago - never had one since. The oil filled radiators have their faults but are way safer than halogens. 

chris_n

Any heater that has the immediate heat source with air as the primary transfer medium is a potential disaster, particularly if it is mobile. Convector heaters, halogen heaters and fan heaters fall into this category. Oil filled radiators and storage heaters are much safer.

SAC2334

TheGardener said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

SAC2334 said:

TheGardener said:

SAC2334 said:

Adverising cons as usual .

 Personally I think its better to just use a halogen heater with three settings 400/800 and 1200 ..(No fan ) but a turn switch which rotates it from side to side .and if you are on your own and pretty tight fisted , then just sit fairly close to it on the 400 w setting or 800 w on colder days . 

They re not good at heating rooms up but can heat the person up ok 

Halogens are dreadful if you have children, pets or the elderly who are a bit unsteady on their feet or with compromised eyesight. For safety, I'd go with the oil-filled radiators as they rarely tip over and won't set things on fire so easily.  

All the halogen heaters I have seen have an automatic cut off if they tip over. Incorrect info to say they can set things on fire .They also have that low setting of only 400 watts less than half the minimum setting of an oil filled radiator .

I melted my top on one sitting too close (because it still wasn't warming me up properly, just the part of me closest to the heater - I wasn't a fan of them to start with anyway because they're so useless).  I can well see a stray piece of dangling cloth, large piece of floating lint, or some long fur attached to a pet, starting a fire.

Oh yes, they can - my neighbour dozed off in her chair and the blanket on her knee melted! fortunately, her dog yapping woke her up. Halogen heaters are deadly if something gets too close, I won't have one in a mine or my mother's house. I managed to burn a load of washing on an airer with a fan heater years ago - never had one since. The oil filled radiators have their faults but are way safer than halogens. 

I was referring to your incorrect info you said  about them being easily tipped over and setting things on fire. They have a built in cut off valve which shuts them off if they are knocked over . You have just taken a section of my sentence out of context and applied it to something I was nt referring to.
Good for you if you think they re useless obviously they re not because like all electric heating they are as efficient as any other form ..
don t use one then if you can t be trusted not to go   close enough to a heating element that you risk being scorched   The heating halogen tubes are protected by a grill which does not allow bits  of loose clothing to contact . 400watts  only is ideal for a very quick and cheap warm up  and thats what I will be using because I trust myself not to be an idiot .

[Deleted User]

SAC2334 said:

TheGardener said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

SAC2334 said:

TheGardener said:

SAC2334 said:

Adverising cons as usual .

 Personally I think its better to just use a halogen heater with three settings 400/800 and 1200 ..(No fan ) but a turn switch which rotates it from side to side .and if you are on your own and pretty tight fisted , then just sit fairly close to it on the 400 w setting or 800 w on colder days . 

They re not good at heating rooms up but can heat the person up ok 

Halogens are dreadful if you have children, pets or the elderly who are a bit unsteady on their feet or with compromised eyesight. For safety, I'd go with the oil-filled radiators as they rarely tip over and won't set things on fire so easily.  

All the halogen heaters I have seen have an automatic cut off if they tip over. Incorrect info to say they can set things on fire .They also have that low setting of only 400 watts less than half the minimum setting of an oil filled radiator .

I melted my top on one sitting too close (because it still wasn't warming me up properly, just the part of me closest to the heater - I wasn't a fan of them to start with anyway because they're so useless).  I can well see a stray piece of dangling cloth, large piece of floating lint, or some long fur attached to a pet, starting a fire.

Oh yes, they can - my neighbour dozed off in her chair and the blanket on her knee melted! fortunately, her dog yapping woke her up. Halogen heaters are deadly if something gets too close, I won't have one in a mine or my mother's house. I managed to burn a load of washing on an airer with a fan heater years ago - never had one since. The oil filled radiators have their faults but are way safer than halogens. 

I was referring to your incorrect info you said  about them being easily tipped over and setting things on fire. They have a built in cut off valve which shuts them off if they are knocked over . You have just taken a section of my sentence out of context and applied it to something I was nt referring to.
Good for you if you think they re useless obviously they re not because like all electric heating they are as efficient as any other form ..
don t use one then if you can t be trusted not to go   close enough to a heating element that you risk being scorched   The heating halogen tubes are protected by a grill which does not allow bits  of loose clothing to contact . 400watts  only is ideal for a very quick and cheap warm up  and thats what I will be using because I trust myself not to be an idiot .

I hope you never need to meet me in a professional capacity.

TheGardener

@SAC2334 I'm sorry but I disagree. I'm well aware there is a tip cut out on most halogen heaters and they have a grill to stop things from getting into them - however, getting close to them is dangerous and can cause fires and burns as several posters have pointed out. I don't think there is any need to dummy spit that someone disagreed with you. Halogen heaters are fine for some people but they can be as dangerous as an open fire in some circumstances. If they work for you then great - but saying they can't cause fires is not a responsible thing to say. 

EssexHebridean

OP - why/how are the storage heaters unreliable? As a rule they either work, or they don't, and while we certainly have experience of them seeming less effective over time, as long as they are still in good working order they should be reliable enough. It might be worth making sure your relative has theirs set up correctly in terms of input and output, and if any simply don't heat up any more an electrician can very likely repair. It might also be worth them considering changing for the more modern high heat retention models which can overcome the issue of heat leakage in older less insulated models.  there is a thread on the board specifically for storage heater questions so if there is anything you want to ask you could post there and we'll see if people can help.