Delonghi Dragon 4 oil filled radiator worth the money?

Grenage

ThisIsWeird said:

Grenage said:

I had a dragon heater when I had a parrot; it was about the only model that didn't state that it couldn't be left unattended.

Otherwise I'd of picked the cheapest thing that ticked the boxes.

Did it say it could be left unattended?

It was quite a while ago so I do not remember.  Not staying that it couldn't be used unattended was probably good enough.

[Deleted User]

ThisIsWeird said:

I'd also hope that the temp thermostat would be accurate, so it's good to have that confirmed. And if it's digital, with an actual 'degree' display, then that is clearly superior to a manual unmarked 'set it there when the room is warm enough' type.

It offers a range of 10c to 28c, plus a 5c frost protection setting. 

I have little temp monitors around the house and they confirm it’s accuracy; when the room gets to, say, 20c, the dragon, also set at 20c, then does it’s cycling thing to maintain that temp, which it also does very well. On the display is a simple bar chart which show what power mode it’s in, low, med, high, eco. 

If I moved into a house with no central heating, no storage heating, cost of energy aside I would trust these to satisfy needs.

ThisIsWeird

[Deleted User] said:

It offers a range of 10c to 28c, plus a 5c frost protection setting. 

I have little temp monitors around the house and they confirm it’s accuracy; when the room gets to, say, 20c, the dragon, also set at 20c, then does it’s cycling thing to maintain that temp, which it also does very well. On the display is a simple bar chart which show what power mode it’s in, low, med, high, eco. 

If I moved into a house with no central heating, no storage heating, cost of energy aside I would trust these to satisfy needs.

Still expensive, but clearly a superior unit. Fair do's.

DanM92

I took the plunge on one a few months back and have zero regrets!

It does take a few minutes to heat up, but once it's in full swing, it sure does pack a punch.

We have ours in a large room that gets quite cold (limited radiators in the room), as shown in the photo below:



We bought this model from reading a recommendation here - https://diyworks.co.uk/best-oil-filled-radiator/ but as well as Amazon, I saw them on offer at Costco!

ThisIsWeird

DanM92 said:

I took the plunge on one a few months back and have zero regrets!
It does take a few minutes to heat up, but once it's in full swing, it sure does pack a punch.
We have ours in a large room that gets quite cold (limited radiators in the room), as shown in the photo below:


We bought this model from reading a recommendation here - https://diyworks.co.uk/best-oil-filled-radiator/ but as well as Amazon, I saw them on offer at Costco!

Yes, they do take a while to get going - that's the whole point. The oil heats up slowly, acts as a heat buffer, and provides heat-output stability, far more consistent and controlled than pretty much any other type of leccy heater.

'Packing a punch' comes down to its kW rating - a 2kW Dragon can output the same heat as a 2kW fan heater, or halogen, or IR. They just do it in different ways. The Dragon doesn't give out more heat than any other heater of the same rating.

So, the Dragon seems to win on its controllability and accuracy. And, fair do's.

Oil-filled is certainly the type of rad I'd recommend to anyone wanting to heat a room using leccy, or to add a wee boost through a cold spell where the CH might not be coping too well. I bought what was probably the cheapest one out there - £50 from Screwfix - at the start of the year for when bro was with us following a motorcycle accident (don't be silly - he was hit by the bike :-(  ), and we wanted to keep his room at a min temp even overnight. Worked a treat. Cannot comment on the 'stat's accuracy, but we just adjusted it to provide the right comfort level.

Mutton_Geoff

https://www.toolstation.com/2kw-oil-radiator-with-24hr-timer/p73102

The Delonghi is on sale now but still £100 more than the Toolstation one. With leccy at around 26.2p a unit that buys you around 380 KWhr of heating, 2Kw for 4 hours a day? That's about 6 weeks of heat.