10 Best Room Heaters 2024 in the US

A room heater will allow you to heat individual rooms, without having to employ expensive central heating. You can use a room heater only in the rooms that you are presently using. But the size of the room and the severity of the winter where you live will help determine which room heater to buy.

If you’re concerned about safety features, most hazards are now a thing of the past. Many electric room heaters are engineered with safety features nowadays, to make sure that they don’t overheat. They also are fashioned to heat the room economically as well--both in terms of the cost of the appliance, as well as the expense for running it.

We’ve composed this buyer’s guide to help you make the right decision when selecting a room heater. It'll help you:

• Choose the right type of room heater,

• See useful tips about that type of room heater,

• Read reviews of different room heaters, and what customers are saying,

• Select the right brand of room heater, and

• Compare prices and find the best deals.

We can divide room heaters into two main categories: Convection heaters, which rely on warming air and circulating it through the room, and radiant heaters, that rely on radiating heat outwards, without relying on a fan. Let’s look at a small sample:

• Oil-filled radiator heater: This radiant heater consists of a heating element submerged in oil. The electrical resistance in the heating element causes heat, which is transferred to the oil, which is dissipated out through the radiator. The “fins” or “ribs” to the radiator increase the contact of the radiator with the air, making it heat the air more efficiently. These are considered safe, reliable, and efficient. They take a while to heat up, but they also warm the room for a long time.

• Ceramic heater: These use conductive ceramics with a very high melting point. They heat up when you run current through them.  These heaters have the advantage of even heat distribution in a safe manner. Some ceramic heaters, such as the Lasko Cyclonic Ceramic Heater have an oscillating fan that distributes the heat through the room.

• Blow heater: These also use a high-resistance coil that heats up to red-hot when you run current through the device. The blow heater then employs a fan to blow air over the coil. The heated air is then distributed throughout the room. This has the advantage of providing an even heat quickly--but there are some safety hazards with the fan that develop over time, resulting from dust that collects in the unit. The Vornado Whole Room Heaters have a set of safety features which avoid these hazards, such as tip-over and overheat protection.

• Infrared quartz heater: These are also called “radiant heaters”, and consist of a tungsten wire that is enclosed in a quartz tube. This design uses reflectors to spread infrared radiation throughout the room, providing safe and effective heat. An example is the GoPlus 1500W Electric Portable Infrared Quartz Space Heater.

• Noise: The convection-based heaters can be noisy since there is a fan that blows to distribute the heat. The radiative heaters, such as oil-filled radiators, ceramic, and quartz heaters, will thus operate more quietly. That’s a consideration when heating a bedroom.

• Remote control: Some heaters have a remote control, as well as an LED display to make it easy to see what the present temperature setting it. The Vornado Whole Room Heaters have a remote control and a visible display.

• Settings: There are heaters, such as the Costway Infrared Electric Quartz Tower Heater, that have two settings, "Low" operating at 600 Watts, and "High" operating at 1200 Watts. Some also can run just as a fan, for distributing the heat.

• Portability: Some of the oil-filled radiators can tend to be heavy. But they’ll also be supported by caster wheels. That will allow you to wheel the units from one room to another with ease if you want to heat different rooms in succession.

• Avoid using power strips or splitters: The National Fire Protection Association says that 40% of home fires can be attributed to unsafe use of space heaters. So it’s necessary to exercise caution. Some heaters themselves can reach 500 degrees--so make sure that nothing flammable is placed on or near these heaters. Also, it’s not advised to use an extension cord, power strip, or splitter with electric room heaters. Power strips and extension cords are not equipped to handle high amounts of current. This can cause the power strip to melt--even if the appliance itself has overheating safety features!

• Programmable heaters: Some electric heaters have an internal timer to operate only for a few hours. Also, some models will have a digital thermostat, such as the Vornado VMH500 Whole Room Heater. Once you set the thermostat to the desired temperature, the radiator will go on only within 3-4 degrees of the programmed temperature. These features save energy.  

• Safety of electric heaters: You’ll see room heaters now have several levels of safety features. One example of a feature is protection against overheating, as in the Lasko Oil Heater: if the device goes beyond a certain temperature, the device shuts off. Also, if the device tilts over, it also turns itself off automatically. Also, you’ll see devices with a UL rating, such as V-0, V-1, or V-2. This indicates that, in the event that there is a fire, the plastic casing will stop burning within 10 seconds or 30 seconds. 

• The efficiency of convection heaters: A convection heater distributes warm air, which naturally rises. The Vornado heaters work on this principle, which heats the entire room effectively, more quickly than heaters that run on a radiative principle.

Costway is a product retailer that was started in 2008. Their products include furniture, home and garden appliances, office supplies, sporting goods, and much more. They offer oil-filled radiator heaters, oscillating space heaters, infrared electric quartz heaters, and more.

Vornado Air is a combination of the words “vortex” and “tornado”. It describes the company’s innovative fan design, based on the ideas of Ralph K. Odor (who was actually engineering airplanes). The company’s first fan was created in 1945--and has expanded over the years to heaters, air purifiers, humidifiers, and more.

Lasko was founded by Henry Lasko in 1906 in Philadelphia. The company originally was principally for metal works, but then started with small appliances such as fans, air purifiers, and portable heaters.