Help me find a all metal space heater with a high quality thermostat

November 25, 2013 11:56 PM

I have found that space heater with plastic anywhere on it starts to smell like burning plastic if you run it alot. I have also found that the thermostats on a lot of space heaters do not work well. example you set it to 73 but it just runs and never turns off or turns off before reaching 73.
posted by john123357 to Home & Garden (13 answers total)

I only own two space heaters anymore. I've chucked a lot in the garbage. I've had several melt down.

The two i still have are this, which is all metal like you wanted. It's also pretty cheap. However, it's more than a bit loud and doesn't circulate air super great.

However, this one is superior in every way. The metal one sits in my storage unit and is only ever used for drying things out anymore. It doesn't smell like plastic ever because it has a low ~120f exhaust temperature controlled by relays. Mine is actually an older revision of that model and it has lasted for goddamn ever. I've had it since college and i bought for $12 at a thrift store right after i got my first real job.

The thermostat isn't perfect, but it's decent. If you want one with a perfect thermostat get this, which my mom used to have at her house(vaporized in a move, was replaced with the non-digital model) and has spot on temp control and infinitely variably fan speed by the little computer. it's always idling at a very low speed to keep the room temp even, and slowly cycles up and down with temp.

They do make an all metal one in this, but i'd honestly never bother. The very cheapest one will do what you want, and you'll have it forever. I'm pretty sure mine is from the mid 90s.

You can't break them, they can't overheat, and they even get hot enough internally for the coils to glow. Mine has gotten wet, clogged with dog fur until i had to open it and clean it, it's been dropped, crushed, kicked, and is currently stored in a damp basement with tons of stuff piled on it squishing it. When i pull it out in a couple days it will turn on and run perfectly like it was just removed from the box.

$80 might seem like a lot, but meh. I'd rather buy one $80 thing than a $20 thing 4 times at this point.
posted by emptythought at 1:21 AM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Breed problem with most space heaters. They are commodity products, and almost all use bi-metallic strips to do temperature control. because of the ON/OFF nature of these switches, they tend to poor operation. most lack hysteresis, which is a tendency to stay in a state (either on or off) after transitioning to it. so when they cool, they repeatedly try and come back on and it's aggravating. i have 5 space heaters. they all suck in this regard, though i do have one whose design seems slightly better.

i have had to work on ALL of mine. they are as cheap internally as you can imagine and all have the same design. different fans and cases, but cheap is the most important criteria, apparently.

a solid-state thermostat would be better for this, but since the units can be kicked over by cats, kids, drunks, and dogs, the bi-metallic supplemented by a tilt switch can prevent a fire. these units also usually have non-resettable thermal fuses for when air flow is blocked.

so safety and economics are the reasons behind the problem. emptythought's vornado is different. it uses modulated fan control and is more sophisticated and probably has solid state or thermistor sensing. it may solve your problem, or may just present different ones to complain about. seems worth a try.

almost anything with a knob will be bimetallic and suck. almost anything with a keypad will have solid state and is worth looking at.
posted by FauxScot at 1:42 AM on November 26, 2013

Nthing the Vornado models, and fwiw lost my remote in a personal move and they sent me a new one for free.
posted by buzzman at 4:57 AM on November 26, 2013 [2 favorites]

I had a DeLonghi oil filled metal heater that had a timer and a thermostat. I didn't buy it from this store, but this is what I had. Hope that helps.
posted by Yellow at 5:31 AM on November 26, 2013 [2 favorites]

ceramic space heaters?
posted by angrycat at 6:06 AM on November 26, 2013

BTW.... this hysteresis issue.... if you want to test it on a unit you are thinking of buying, turn its temp control knob (not the fan switch/power switch) to the exact point where it switches. If it takes very little movement (1-2 degrees) to make it click back in the other direction, that's worse than if you get say.... 5 degrees. The former will work, but do lots of false starts. The latter will give a wider temperature range in the room it's in, but will run for a while, then be off for a while. I find the latter better, personally.
posted by FauxScot at 7:30 AM on November 26, 2013

Seconding the DeLonghi radiant oil heater that Yellow linked to. We have those in our bedrooms. They're perfect. They're silent, and they don't get too hot so we don't have to worry about dogs and kids touching them. They are programmable, so we have them set to come on (at a temp we specify) overnight and be off during the day. They don't smell like anything. I love them so much.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 7:31 AM on November 26, 2013

Oh, and as to the reliability of the thermostat: I've found that if I set the one in my kid's room to 58 degrees, the baby monitor consistently says it's 63 degrees in there, all night long. So I don't know if the thermometer in the baby monitor is a few degrees off, or if the DeLonghi runs a little hotter than the thermostat setting, but it DOES provide a consistent temperature.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 7:41 AM on November 26, 2013

Clever and just how I'd approach it. Hackahakcahacka..... hackkkkk..

OK, maybe not EXACTLY, but the idea is to get rid of the hunting behavior. Pretty cool, though.
posted by FauxScot at 8:31 AM on November 26, 2013

As far as I know, there is no good space heater that includes a decent thermostat. So we split the responsibilities! We have a programmable outlet thermostat like this one, and then we plug a "dumb" space heater into that. The heater just has to worry about the heat, and the thermostat decides when it should be on. We have an oil-filled metal DeLonghi heater, so it isn't that noisy when it turns on and off.
posted by steveminutillo at 8:55 AM on November 26, 2013

Response by poster: I actually bought the thermostat you recommenced because of your post but when I opened the package it had a very strong "plastic odor" to it, did your thermostat smell like that too? Are there any other brands of external thermostats like the one you mentioned?
posted by john123357 at 6:01 PM on December 31, 2013

Plastic parts often smell platic-y. The outgassing stops, usually, after a while. Does it work?

I happen to have to de-activate a space heater whose tilt switch melted. It's unsafe. So now, I'm going to add a burst-mode PWM controller to the heating coil and a solid state temp sensor and tilt switch for the thermostat, just for yuks. Parts will cost maybe $200 for the experiment, but I bet it won't have any plastic-y odors. If this thread remains open, I'll post results.
posted by FauxScot at 6:19 AM on January 1, 2014

Response by poster: Sometimes PVC plastic has a distinct odor but this doesn't smell like PVC. It is a very strong and unpleasant odor.
posted by john123357 at 10:16 AM on January 2, 2014