Space heaters are ultra-convenient, but safety experts said they can also be dangerous if not used properly. According to a 2022 National Fire Protection Association report, space heaters cause one-third of home heating fires and 18% of home fire deaths.
Matthew Griffith, fire prevention section chief with the Montreal Fire Department, and Dan Mock, brand manager of Mister Sparky, an electrical services company, said the number one rule for using a space heater is never to leave it unattended.
Griffith said customers should look for a space heater certified by the Underwriter's Laboratory (UL or ULC in Canada) with safety features like an auto-shutoff and tip-over switch. Mock also recommends reading the instruction manual cover-to-cover and inspecting the device before running it. It's also a good idea to keep the packaging to store the heater and keep it dust-free during the warmer months.
Griffith said not to put a space heater too close to walls or flammable materials and keep the backside clear, as the unit can overheat if blocked.
Mock also warns against using extension cords or overloading circuits with these appliances
Most space heaters use 1,500 watts of power. To put that in context, if you were to use your space heater eight hours per day for a month, it would add $50.36 to your energy bill, based on the current average electricity rates. They're typically cheaper to run than trying to heat a whole home.
Modern space heaters have various features that make them safe for prolonged periods (over hours). However, you should still take the above-mentioned precautions and turn the space heater off before sleeping. Designs with auto-off settings are convenient and safe, so you don't have to remember to turn it off.
While many of the latest space heaters are packed full of safety features, you still should not leave them unattended or let them run while you're sleeping. We recommend getting your bedroom all toasty before you go to bed, then turn the heater off when you're about to go to sleep.
Generally, the length of a manufacturer's warranty can tell you how long an item is expected to last. The space heaters in our guide have warranties of 1 to 3 years, but with proper care, they can last you for more than a decade.
With endless snowstorms and chills that won’t quit, winter can be a tough time of year. The best space heaters are the perfect way to keep your toes from tingling without heating the whole house or office, but which one should you buy?
After extensive testing, our data found that the De’Longhi HMP1500 (available at Amazon) is the best space heater because of its high performance and flexible design.
For something smaller, a personal space heater, like the Lasko 754200 is a value-packed choice.
However, there are many space heaters on our list to choose from.
Credit: Reviewed.com / Jon Chan
The Delonghi HMP1500 is the best spot and room heater
Best Overall
If you want a space heater that does it all, this mica model is the best space heater for you. The Delonghi HMP1500 aced our spot-heating and room-heating tests. Our thermal sensors recorded the HMP1500 outputting a maximum temperature of almost 95°F. This Delonghi also raised the temperature of a 1350-cubic-foot room 6 degrees in an hour, more than enough to warm a chilly room.
Performance aside, the HMP1500 also has design elements that can fit any lifestyle. People who want their heater to follow them from room to room can install the included wheels. Where stairs are a concern, a handle on the back lets you easily lift the 8-pound frame anywhere. If you have one room in your home that needs supplementary heating, the HMP1500 can be mounted to a wall as a permanent fixture.
Can be wall mounted
Easy to move
Powerful
Expensive
Credit: Reviewed / Camryn Rabideau
When it comes to a smart space heater, Govee's is a fantastic choice loaded with warmth and smart features.
Best Smart
A smart space heater allows you to use your phone or table as a remote control—a much more convenient (and safer) alternative than having to stand up and do it yourself. With outstanding heat performance and the modern conveniences of a companion app, the Govee Smart Space Heater earns the No. 2 spot in our lab-tested guide of space heaters.
Aesthetically, this smart space heater is way ahead of most other fan-driven space heaters in this power class (1500W). It’s also the only one in our guide that offers smart integration features, allowing you to adjust the temperature from the Govee app on your phone and set schedules and timers. The space heater also works with smart assistants Alexa and Google Assistant for hands-free voice control.
The heater features an 80-degree oscillation and has a 6-foot power cord. This is a good size to use indoors in living rooms, bedrooms, and offices. After 24 hours of continuous operation, the auto shutoff feature turns the space heater off.
Additionally, one of the most useful features for the Govee Smart Space Heater is the integration with the optional remote temperature sensor add-on. The weakness of all thermostat-driven standard space heaters is that the thermostat is located in the device, not necessarily where you want to receive the heat.
Another plus is that the fan is very quiet. Its dBA reads in the mid-30s, indistinguishable from regular background noise in most buildings.
If you’re looking for an easy-to-use space heater that you can manage from anywhere, the Govee Smart Space Heater is a fantastic choice for reliable heater performance.
Read our Govee Space Heater review.
Great smart features
Very warm
Built-in thermostat
On-unit buttons are confusing
Credit: Lasko
The 754200 is portable, powerful and a bargain.
Best Value
When you think of a personal space heater, the Lasko 754200 is what most people typically imagine. It's compact, light, and relatively powerful. However, its power is highly directional. When it's on, you can only heat part of your body. While this Lasko does not have the versatility of our top pick, it's still a good value.
Affordable
Easy to move
Only works as spot heater
Credit: Reviewed / David Ellerby
The AVH10 has a powerful fan and kid-friendly safety features.
Best Fan Heater
The Vornado AVH10 combines a Vornado fan with a heating element to circulate hot air throughout the room.
The powerful fan means that heat circulates quickly. This isn’t surprising given that our favorite desk fan is the Vornado 660. We were concerned about fan noise, but the sound levels maxed out at a modest 44 decibels at a 4-foot distance, quiet enough to fade into the background noise of most rooms.
The AVH10 has an easy-to-read digital thermostat. This lets you dial in and maintain a comfortable temperature for your room without wasting energy.
The plastic housing remains cool to the touch. The cool exterior, plus a tilt shutoff and overheating protection, make this a safe choice if you have kids.
The AVH10, which distributes heat well and has strong airflow, makes an excellent whole room heater. The only downside was that the spot heating immediately in front of the heater was less intense than an infrared heater.
Quiet
Easy to read thermostat
Safe around children
Spot heating was less intense than infrared
When it comes to heating a room, we found the Honeywell HeatGenius to be a bit of a savant. Overall, it came in second place in our tests. This ceramic fan-forced Honeywell showed off its smart engineering with how well it utilized its 1500-watt coils.
On the one hand, the HeatGenius brought all its air-warming prowess to bear during our spot heating tests. Up close it reached temperatures north of 96°F, hotter than any other heater we tested. Should you not want to roast, the HeatGenius has phase heating—a feature that lets you bask in warm, moderate, and high heat in 30-minute chunks.
We liked the HeatGenius’ performance, but its usability left something to be desired. The controls are a bit clunky and complicated. We also found the Delonghi HMP1500 more versatile, able to be wall-mounted or moved on wheels.
Can be set to gradually warm
Powerful
Can be noisy
The Delonghi EW7707CM was a solid performer. This oil-filled convection radiator-style heater had an output max temperature of around 83°F. Over the course of an hour, it brought the temperature in our testing room up 3 degrees. With these kinds of results, we found that the EW7707CM wasn't as good a personal space heater as the HMP1500.
However, you'll sing its virtues if you place it in the basement. Its lowest setting places the EW7707CM on anti-freeze duty, keeping rooms at around 41°F—well above pipe-bursting temperatures.
While other space heaters we tested could serve the same purpose, the EW7707CM was more energy efficient than the average heater. If you're going to keep a heater warming the pipes all winter, this one will dent your wallet the least.
Good for keeping pipes warm
Not very powerful
The Lasko 6435 was the most unique-looking product we tested. It's only one of two models we tested that could sit on a window sill or a desk, and not look amiss. Wherever you place it, make sure it's close. The 6435 was a better spot heater than anything else. This model also oscillates, meaning it has a motor that waves back and forth, so it can warm up everyone sitting on your couch.
Fun design
Oscillates
Not very powerful
Compact, well designed, and powerful, the Capsule nearly toppled our pick for best value. However, it’s about 30% more expensive than the Lasko 754200, but only 6.5% more powerful. We’d suggest that you get this one if you are constantly moving your heater from place to place. We found the Capsule’s strap handle very comfortable to use.
Easy to carry
Powerful
Expensive
The Dr Infrared uses quartz heating elements. While the Dr Infrared was more powerful, it didn't do as well at spreading the heat around the room. During testing, we also noticed that this model dried out the air more than the other infrared heaters. When you combine these two negatives, even the lower price tag keeps the Dr Infrared from claiming a top spot.
Good personal heater
Does not heat rooms well
As wide as the Lasko 5622 is, the path of its warmth isn't actually that great. The outer ring of our sensors barely registered any heat. The sweet spot is dead center, and you could get smaller space heaters for that. The 5622's saving grace is that it works right out of the box. Most space heaters in this size range require you to install legs or wheels.
Low-to-the-ground design is unobtrusive
Not very powerful
Difficult to move
Where the 5622 was the widest heater we tested, the Lasko 755320 is the tallest. Standing nearly 2-feet tall, the 755320 is known as a ceramic tower heater and boasts the same design as a tower fan. It oscillates like one, too.
During testing, we liked how the handle on the back made it easy to move this Lasko from room to room. However, its performance is lackluster compared to other heaters on this list. Even with the oscillation on, we found that the sides of our testing room did not get warm.
Easy to move
Oscillates
Not very powerful
In nutshell, to find the best space heater, we broke down our testing into two categories: performance and usability. To test performance, we placed each heater into a temperature-controlled room, which stayed at 72°F and 50% humidity.
We know that's not necessarily like your living room or the ideal room you'd heat, but that room is the most stable temperature in our entire laboratory and could help us best test whether or not the room would heat to the desired temperature.
During setup, each heater was placed in the center of a 180-square-foot chamber with a 1,350-cubic-foot volume, and plugged into a watt meter.
We then placed two rings of temperature sensors at varying heights to simulate feet and torsos at different distances. These sensors were used to determine spot heating and overall room temperature changes.
Each heater was placed on its highest heat settings and left to run for an hour. After that, we gathered the data from the sensors.
Heaters that could evenly heat both the inner and outer rings of sensors received the highest ratings.
While the best space heaters are compact and cost-efficient, there is a need for concern, as space heaters are a leading cause of house fires.
Most of the space heaters we tested had a mechanism to shut the device off if it got too hot. Nevertheless, it's recommended to always have a 3-foot radius between a space heater and anything even remotely flammable–including blankets and upholstery. Some also included a tip over switch that would automatically turn off the machine if it got knocked to the floor.
Also, never plug an electric space heater into an extension cord. Portable space heaters draw up to 1,500 watts of power, more than enough to cause a dangerous spark.
Finally, be sensible and don't touch a space heater when it is in operation. Some portable heaters have a cool exterior when they are running, but that doesn't mean they aren't dangerous.
Space heaters have various heating methods that can affect the size, weight, and other aspects of the product. There are ceramic heaters, fan heaters, oil-filled convection heaters, and some rely on infrared technology. Which one is best for your home? Here's a breakdown of the types we reviewed:
Mica: Thin, energy-efficient, and frequently wall-mountable, mica heaters are part radiant and part convection. They operate silently.
Ceramic Fan-Forced: Convection heaters that blow warm air out from a fan; ceramic space heaters are good for spot heating but not for large rooms. Expect some fan noise. The plastic shell may be safe to the touch in some models, but the grill is always very hot.
Oil-filled convection: Reminiscent of oil-filled radiators you find in old homes, oil-filled convection heaters work well for entire rooms. Their quiet operation makes it great for living rooms, but they're very hot to the touch on all sides and maybe not the best choice for houses with young children.
Infrared: Sometimes known as "quartz" heaters, these devices don't actually heat the air so much as beam heat directly at you. This is why infrared heaters are often used outdoors, because they are unaffected by wind. Their tops and sides are usually cool to the touch.
Convection Only: Everyone knows hot air rises. Convection heaters simply have a heating element inside a grate. While they are not good for spot heating, they are virtually silent when in operation.
When you’re shopping for a space heater, there are some things you should think about to make sure that it's a good fit for you and your home.
Location: Do you have an area in your home that is both 3 feet away from all flammable objects, and is not in the middle of a walking path? If not, see if you can clear a place in your home where the space heater can be safely operated.
Safety: Does part of the product get hot to the touch while in operation? If so, make sure that kids are aware of what areas are safe to touch on the space heater, if any. With little ones in the house, it may be best to choose a space heater with a protective grate covering the heating unit.
Floor plan: What is the layout of the room(s) you'd like to heat? If you have an open floor plan, and you'd like to heat more than one room, chances are that a single space heater won't cut it.
Space heaters operate best in small spaces and rooms; for large spaces, you may need to safely deploy multiple space heaters in strategic locations throughout your home. If you don't want to buy multiple space heaters, think about picking a space heater that emphasizes whole-room heating over spot heating.
Outlet location: Is there an electrical outlet located near the spot where you want the space heater to live? Most electric heater power cords are not very long, and it is strongly recommended that space heaters should not be plugged into extension cords.
As a safety precaution, do not plug anything into the same outlet into which the space heater is plugged. These heaters use a lot of electricity, so it's best not to overload the outlet.