10 Best Heaters 2024 in the United States

If you don't have central heating in your home, you have to decide on some way of heating your house during the winter months. What heater you'll get will depend on how severe the winters are in your area. If you're in an area which gets heavy snowfall, that could knock out power lines. You'd best try some alternative to electric heaters. But you'll also have to consider proper ventilation, and the safety of your family—electric heaters are better in those areas. And the cost of what the heater runs on is also a consideration. Here is a guide to some of the best heaters on the market.  

We can classify heaters by the fuel that they use to operate:

• Gas Heaters: These can be either propane heaters, kerosene heaters, or natural gas heaters. They have the advantage that they can be used during a power outage. Their disadvantage is that if they don't burn efficiently, they can release carbon monoxide or other hazardous gases. They should be used in open areas, or near a vent. You may have to start the heater with a match, whereas some light by means of an electric spark.

• Electric Heaters: These heaters don't have the hazard of not burning efficiently, as do the gas heaters. But they will run up the electric bill—some will find that gas heaters are more economical, costing ½ that of electric heaters.

• Blow Heater: These are fan-forced heaters. They have a high-resistance coil that heats up. A fan then blows the hot air out of the heater. It provides a quick and even heat.

• Radiator: These heaters consist of an oil-filled metal casing with ribs—the more ribs, the more heat it will provide. These radiators take a while to heat up, but they retain the heat a little longer than coil convection heaters.

• Convection Heater/Infrared Heater: These heat up due to electrical resistance. This can come in the following forms:

• Electric coils: These have one or more large high-resistance nickel-chromium coils that heat up.
• Another possibility is the quartz heater, where a tungsten wire is housed in a quartz tube. The quartz tube has a very high melting point, so it can be heated to a very high temperature. They can provide more heat to a larger area than the nickel-chrome coils.
• Another possibility is the ceramic heater. These are conductive ceramics with a very high melting point, which heat up when you run current through them.

In all these infrared heaters, the hot air rises out of the device into your room. They can heat a large area quickly, but the heat dissipates quickly when you turn the device off.

• Panel Heater: This combines the principle of convection and radiation. You can mount these on a wall, and they can manage to heat a large area, such as a living room.

Or we can classify them by the area that they are supposed to heat:

• Portable Heater/Space Heater: These are gas or electric heaters that can be moved from one room of the house to another, to provide heat precisely where you want it. If they are very heavy (such as in oil-filled radiators), they will be on wheels, to ease transport.

• Patio Heater: If you have some sort of outdoors event on your patio, you can use these to direct heat over a large open area. These can be powered either on electric or gas.

• Garage Heater: The garage gets prohibitively cold in the winter—without any heating, you'll just want to go into your garage to get to your car. But a garage heater can turn your garage into another workspace. These typically run on gas heat, since there is less of a concern of harmful gases in an open space.

• Baseboard Heater: These are installed along the wall of a room, and can run on gas or electric.

Based on all the consumers' reviews we've scanned, these are the top things they mentioned about their new stuff:

• Heating for small rooms/large rooms: Heaters that are adequate for small rooms, like a bathroom, will not be able to heat an entire living room. But you can always consider the option of having the heater right next to you, like a small fireplace.

• Noise: The fan-forced heaters tend to be noisy, and heat only small areas. It might not be suitable for your bedroom, unless it doesn't bother you having background noise while you sleep.

• Length of the electrical cord: Since it's not recommended to use an extension cord with these electric heaters, make sure that the appliance has a long-ish cord, so it can reach the wall outlet.

• Cut-off switch: Some of the gas heaters have a shut-off feature if it senses bad air quality (for example, too much carbon monoxide). Others turn off immediately if the appliance is tipped over.

• Energy efficiency: Ask about how much heat the appliance will provide, and for what price. A good reference is the BTU (British Thermal Unit) or the Kilowatt-hour. For example, a 1000 square-foot home in New England will take 24000 BTUs to heat the house for the whole winter.

• Important tip for electric heaters: Plug electric heaters directly into a wall outlet. Don't plug them in using a power strip, splitter, or extension cord. Since they are drawing kilowatts of power, they tend to get very hot, and can melt these extensions.

• Programmable heaters: Some electric heaters can be programmed to go on only for particular hours, or to heat to a particular temperature. Utilize this feature to save energy.

• Dangers of electric heaters: The gas heaters have the concern that the flame might go out, and gas will escape, or that they won't burn efficiently. The electric heaters have the danger of starting a fire as well: If you put something flammable, like a piece of clothing, near an infrared heater, it can catch fire. And if dust collects inside a blow heater, there is a danger of it sparking and igniting the dust. It is best advised never to put anything on top of these heaters that blocks the hot air from escaping—it will cause the heater to overheat and perhaps melt. The oil-heated radiator is the safest in this regard—there is no concern of starting a fire (unless there is an electrical fire, from a short circuit or exposed wires). 

Lasko was founded by Mr. Henry Lasko in 1906 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He first started manufacturing metal products, but then he expanded into small appliances, fans and household portable heaters.

Dyson was founded by the engineer James Dyson in 1993 in Cotswolds, England. He employed innovative ideas to common appliances, and has marketed such devices as a bagless vacuum cleaner and the bladeless fan. They have a full line of air treatment devices, such as fans and humidifiers.

Mr. Heater is a brand of heaters of the Enerco Group Inc., based in Cleveland, Ohio. The Enerco Group has been involved in infrared combustion technology since 1957. They started the Mr. Heater brand in 1984, making heaters based on natural gas, propane, and kerosene.

Smart for Life is a manufacturer of infrared heaters for the home, garage and patio, fireplaces, space coolers, air purifiers, saunas and hot tubs. They are located in Plano, Texas.

Newair has been manufacturing custom-built and luxury home appliances since 2002. They are located in Huntington Beach, California. They make appliances that are stylish yet energy-efficient: heaters, fans, ice makers, water coolers, and more.