fgarriel wrote:Facts:
Which one of my assumptions is wrong, or is it just that costly?

I think you're overestimating the amount of usage. Unless you are home all day, every day you probably wouldn't be running it that much. Personally, I would turn it off when I was at work and probably overnight too so I may run it 4-6 hours a day, and probably not every day.

We have 2 as our only source of heat. They work very well. We used to have oil heaters which took MUCH more electricity to run & caused breakers to flip all the time. Even with both of the Vornado's on high breakers don't flip. We think "Oh it's cold in here" and then we walk outside where it is 30 degrees and suddenly realize how warm these little guys have kept the house. They are not bulky and take up only a small bit of floor space and work quickly to warm a room. They are not all that expensive to run, with both on almost 24/7 our electric bill was under 200, so the guy estimating that they would cost 183 per month each to run is wrong. With multiple pets I also like the tip off feature and the blocked vents off feature. Would work well in a home with small children without the fear of burning a child. No hot part are a major positive for this little heater.
Bottom line I highly recommend these nice little heaters.

I thought Vornado implied "tornado" and "vortex." It means..."whisper".
Don't count on being blown away with heat!

Bought a similar Vornado heater earlier this year. It works very well, almost too well. If you put it up high, it will heat up the room. We just used it at my in-laws this past week. We sleep in the attic but it's not heated well. This kept everything very nice and toasty. Again, mine is a slightly different model, but I wouldn't hesitate on this. I'm very pleased with mine and thinking of picking up a second.
Another plus: it stays cool on exterior, and will shut off if overheats.

I bought this a couple woots ago (and it is cheaper now- so an even better deal) and I love it. At my stepdaughter's house there are several unheated rooms. I originally bought it for my bedroom there, to replace the Lasko heater we had (which worked well) which caught on fire (due to misuse I assume by her in another room when I wasn't there). We still had another Lasko, which is still in that room. She stole the Vornado for her daughter's unheated playroom since it is quieter, cooler to the touch and heats up the room so nicely and quickly. She also uses it as supplemental heat in her daughter's bedroom, but it almost gets too hot in there even on the lower settings.

All in all, we love it, and it is also very easy for kids to operate, but light enough and cool enough to place high enough for them to not be able to reach.

Here's the Vornado web page for this model--includes a video. http://www.vornado.com/heaters/VH2-Heater

I've decided to give it a try the year. In the past, as a child, the old fashioned gas space heaters is all we had. But as an adult, I've only used space heaters (electric kind) in an office.

One more question though, can this be placed directly on carpet or do I need to set something between the heater and the carpet?

AVOID***AVOID***AVOID***AVOID***AVOID

Bought this very unit the last time it was Wooted. Piss warm output and it ended up shorting out the plug and receptacle. Vornado customer service not too concerned about the fire hazard.

49.99 about a month ago, during the woot off. I bought one, hoping that it would help keep me warm in the MN winters. Never received it.

USPS and the third party shipping company lost the package. Am thinking about another one today....... Or saving the money and putting it towards the revolver I been eyeing.

lroller wrote:Resistance/electical heating is expensive. I don't recall anyone telling me they wish they had an "all electric" house.

Too true.
I live in Phoenix, north of T-bird and that's all we have (electric.. and.. fireplaces.)
Items like this are for keeping your room warm overnight, turning down the house thermostat.

When needed, we use one of those oil filled radiator looking things. Doesn't blow dust and cat dander around.

I just wanted to chime in that we've had a couple of similar Vornado heaters for many years and they work great. They are quiet, reliable and put out a decent amount of heat. Ours have been used hard through about 10 winters and are still going strong.

Does anyone know how long the cord is on this unit? I know some heaters have very short cords that don't always allow you to put it where you want.
Thanks.

These were just offered on Home.Woot a few weeks ago and didn't sell out. So there may not be that many units left.

Don't sleep or you may be left in the cold.

Many years ago (guessing almost ten years ago) I bought a similar-looking Vornado - Model EH1-0014 * Type VH. Don't remember the price for sure - may have been $59.99?

Anyway, my heater works very well & is still trucking along just fine.

FYI.

Disappointing at best.

I'm sitting in front of mine right now, and I have to say I'm very disappointed in it. I used to have another electric room heater of a similar wattage but different make that did much better in any room I tried it in. It worked so well that I loaned it to my mother to warm up her bathroom in the mornings and don't expect to ever get it back .

I would describe this unit is more of a "room warmer" than a room heater. Heat output is instantaneous, but very mild, even on the high setting (1500 W). The fan moves a fair amount of air, making a nice breeze, and is very quiet, but the heat output doesn't feel nearly as strong as my older 1500 W unit (from Lasko).

I suspect that part of the problem is the fan. It draws so much air across the heating elements that it dilutes that heat considerably. According to the owner's manual, it's designed to circulate a lot of air and eliminate hot and cold spots in a room. Since it's recirculating so much air, though, it's constantly pulling in cold air and reheating it slightly.

My guess is that it works reasonably well in small rooms (bathroom) which can have the amount of draft limited. In larger rooms, with lots of air (especially high ceilings), or drafty areas which get cold air from other areas of the house, or outside, this thing just isn't going to keep up.

I've been using it mostly in a high-roomed office that has one large opening leading to the rest of the house. It has helped some, but not much. Certainly not as much as my old Lasko electric heater did at the same power. If I had to put a number on it, it's probably 1/3 as powerful, though quieter.

josephjj1 wrote:bought this on the last woot-off and must agree with others that it does NOT heat the room very well. I left it on high for two hours in a 15 x 20 living room and the temperature went up only 8 degrees, from 42 to 50 degrees F. Save your money and buy something else.

Actually, raising it 8 degrees sounds like it works well. I have several other space heaters and if they raise it by half that i'd be happy.

KLD wrote:Bought one the last Woot. Disappointed. Have had other space heaters that are much more efficient and effective. This blows the air around but even on high is not very warm. Regret the purchase.

Yeah and it was $10 more!

who uses a hairdryer to heat a whole house?
(cuz that's what it is, just with a bigger fan part and lowerheat.)

Bought one the last time it was up for our Adirondack cabin. I have it in my son's room and it keeps it nice and toasty. The only caveat is that it draws a fair bit of power and throws the breaker every so often. To be fair, the Christmas tree, TV, outdoor Christmas lights etc are on the same line. All I can say is I have the finest cabin built by hillbillies on this side of pond! (They used POOL LINER as flashing but that's a story for another time....)

We use ours all year round. Our bedroom is furthest from the undersized furnace and is cold in the winter and hot in the summer: just like you want a bedroom, or something. In the winter, it keeps our room an even temperature all night long, regardless if the wind is blowing, if we have the furnace on setback, if the cats push the bedroom's doors all the way open, etc., and in the summer, it pulls the air conditioning from the floor vent and circulates it in the room (of course the heat is switched off).

Would I try to heat my un-insulated garage with it? No. If you need to HEAT something larger than an average room more than 5 or 10 degrees, then you need a furnace and not a space heater. If your problems are cold drafts, then you probably need a radiant heater (and certainly some air sealing). And I don't know if you live where it's dry what the best course is (moist air retains heat better, so a fan might not be good unless the air is really hot). But if your problem is not enough heat or inconsistent temps within a room, then this is the ticket!

redndahead wrote:This one is pretty terrible. Bought one on woot a little while back and after about 10 mins it blows cold air. Bought this one at walmart and while it doesn't heat up our living room to really warm it makes it much more comfortable. would be great in a room with a closed door. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Lasko-Electric-Designer-Series-Oscillating-Ceramic-1500W-Heater-6405/17038559

You're doing it wrong. Once it reaches the set temperature, the coils shut off and it just circulates air if you have the switch to Cont. (continuous). Either switch it to auto so it will stop at the right temperature or turn the dial up for a higher setting.

All blow, no glow.

I get much better heat out of the 2for$20 I picked up at a big box a few years back.

Ah ha! Here is the exact model:
http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-Twin-Ceramic-Heater-Packs/dp/B00ACPZJAO/ref=sr_1_fed0_7?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1356798871&sr=1-7&keywords=2+packs

Honeywell has always made damn fine stuff. These little guys will keep me warm from toe to head, even in sub-freezing temperatures. Just point the thing at you, put it on level II, and be comfortable. They also don't trip the circuit breaker like these tornado cold blowjobs do.

lroller wrote:Including generation probably brings it to something around .13 kWh. Yours seems a little high.

Welcome to New Jersey.

lroller wrote:Exactly! You aren't going to heat your entire house with these. They are supplemental heaters.

I've got natural gas with forced hot air. There's just a spot in the kitchen where the breakfast nook is icy cold. We didn't get the windows replaced there because we were anticipating a remodel which hasn't happened - lack of equity due to housing market, plus my wife prioritized a pool over the kitchen. I know, I know.

ruadog wrote:I think you're overestimating the amount of usage. Unless you are home all day, every day

My wife and kids are home all day, every day.

txfam3 wrote:They are not all that expensive to run, with both on almost 24/7 our electric bill was under 200, so the guy estimating that they would cost 183 per month each to run is wrong.

What would your bill be without this running? I estimated $70/month. $183 was worst case scenario of running it full power, always-on, 24/7, 30 days per month at 17 cents per kWh.

Electricity is pricey here.

I don't understand these people who claim these Vornados will heat anything beyond a lukewarm increase in heat. I have one on my feet right now, and it just barely takes the chill off, and the room is already heated to 66ºF. The ONLY way to actually get WARM from the Vornado is to make a "tent" over yourself and the Vornado. After a few minutes, it actually does get warm in there. Not hot, but definitely comfortably warm. So, yeah, if you only need to heat 100'cu. of sealed, insulated space, then these are great. They don't get hot, so you won't get burned, and in <100'cu. you can stay warm. In a regular house, you can JUST keep your toes from freezing off, but you'll likely be cursing your Vornado and wishing you'd spent 1/3 the money for two Honeywells.

PS: I cannot run the vacuum cleaner and the Vornado without tripping the 15amp breaker.

PPS: visualize 100'cu. 5'x5'x4', i.e. a small, one-man, tent size space.

Got this last time around for our studio apartment. The air is warm but it doesn't heat anything up besides the cat that likes to sit directly in front of it. Can't be that hot.

Bought one last time they were offered (not during the woot-off)and it works great and thinking about buying two more.

I use it to heat the bathroom and turn it on about an hour before I jump in the shower. The whole room is heated with no dead spots (even in the shower).

Settings are high heat and auto fan. This heats a whole room and the people that complain probably expect a blast furnace that only heats a specific area. The vortex action of the heater moves the heat around so the entire room is heated with no dead spots.

fgarriel wrote:Welcome to New Jersey.

I live in CT where nothing is cheap. I was quoting the new Jan/June rate schedule from CL&P. As an aside, I have been using Pittsburg based Dominion Energy for about ten years. Once or twice a year I would receive a letter stating what the new generation rate would be. Just got one three days ago telling me my new generation rate for all 2013 would be .0899. For the very first time they left out a phrase that has been in all of their letters "this rate will be lower than the posted CL&P rate." I called CL&P and discovered their rate will be .0789...If you use a supplier different from your distributor, don't assume they will always be cheaper.

I bought one last year. Every time, when first turned on there is a 'burnt' odor. This continues to this day. There were a lot of complaints of this last year. Has it been fixed??

ours works great. will heat average to above average size bedroom. not made to put out hot air, but will make room warm in less than half hour. buying another today as gift.

Bought this last time to replace our useless bathroom heater. It does exactly what we need it to do. We no longer freeze when getting out of the shower.

I purchased mine for $10 MORE (what gives WOOT???) but I still love it. I have it going right now while I sit at my window desk, which is a bit chilly from the adjoining cat window that lets in the cold air.

lroller wrote:Resistance/electical heating is expensive. I don't recall anyone telling me they wish they had an "all electric" house. I am assuming your kWh includes both generation as well as distribution. My kWh is .078. Including generation probably brings it to something around .13 kWh. Yours seems a little high.

I live in NH, and I pay .161 total. Distribution etc. charges account for .09 of that.

Electric heaters are not cheap to operate. But I keep my propane heat set at 55 when I'm home, 52 otherwise daytimes and 50 at night. (50 is the lowest I can set my thermostat.) I keep an electric heater next to me when I'm at the computer, which is several hours most evenings. I think overall I'm saving, but it's not far enough into the heating season to tell for sure.

One caution though for these. My heater is also extremely quiet, and it's easy to forget to turn it off. If it's left on overnight that seems like totally wasted heat.

I got one similar to this a few months ago (same price, similar looking, but not exact), and I use it in an open cubicle area at work, and it does a fabulous job keeping my work area warm all day (due to computers and servers, the AC at work is always set to arctic). Another co-worker got one about a month later, and it works fab for her, too. So not sure what you all are doing wrong, or if you got a bad batch. I love my Vornado.

Well, judging from some of the above, maybe this makes sense for a 100% sealed, R85 insulated, small room. That could be the explanation why I can never get any reasonable warmth from this piece of crap. I found one reference that indicates that this puts out 770 BTU/hr. I probably lose 10x that through air in/egress. That would explain why it does a fine job in a "tent" but is worthless as anything else beyond a cat warmer. :-)

The one thing I really like about it is the BIG fan, which makes it relatively quiet. It's a low pitched noise too, so the ~45dB is very unobtrusive, and the fan angles down, so it's good for warming just my feet--or a cat.

ThunderThighs wrote:Perhaps some people could chime in here to explain this better.

From my own experience, this is not the kind of heater you sit under your desk or directly in front of you to get warm fast. Those are typical blow hot air space heaters.

This is one that you sit in the corner of the room and leave running to gradually bring the room up to a comfortable temperature and maintain that temperature by continually circulating the air in the room.

Does that explain it fairly accurately?

yes it does.