This heater has worked for me very well for three winters. The heater is about 15 inches high and about 8 inches wide. I usually place it between the two main comfy chairs in my living room and that nicely heats the area for anyone in those chairs. The heater is low, so it does a particularly good job of heating up your toes, which is good for me. When turned on at full strength (800 watts), two bars light up and provide warmth. At this strength, it will get too hot if you are too close, but its very warm if you are 18 inches or more away from the heater. At half strength (400 watts), this heater provides more than enough warmth if it is close to you (about 12 inches). I picked this heater in part because it provides a lot of usable heat for not much electricity. I mostly have it on at 400 watts, so it is only using up 4 times the electricity a 100 watt bulb uses. If I have it on, even on cold days my central heat almost never turns on. If you are thinking of this heater, you should probably decide if there is a good place to locate it so that it will heat your room. I do not think it would do a good job of heating a bedroom because a lot of the heat is low to the ground. The cord is fairly long, about 6 feet. My two cats LOVE it and are almost always cuddled up in front of it. Performance Works very well if you are seated fairly close to this heater. Ease of Use To use this heater, you turn a large nob on the top right corner of the heater. There are 3 options on the knob: (1) off, (2) 400 w or (3) 800 w. The problem is that the writing is a little small on the nob and you have to bend down to see, so it does make it a little annoying to pick the right setting. It may be a little annoying for the elderly to deal with. Durability This heater has worked for me for 3 winters. Safety I don't leave this heater on if I'm out of the house. You can't get drapes or blankets too close to this or there could be a problem--I scorched a blanket once. The heater has tipped over and it did turn off.

PatriciaA

USA

This space heater is an incredible heater. The Optimus Portable Infrared Radiant Heater is extremely light and portable. It comes with a handle on the back for easy carrying and movebility. To ensure maximum safety the Optimus Portable Infrared Radiant Heater has a push in button that is automatically mashed down when sitting on the floor, table or some other flat surface. When the heater is turned on it will only stay on as long as the button is being pushed in. If lifted up the button automatically releases and the Optimus Portable Infrared Radiant Heater shuts off and will not turn back on until the button is down again. This feature is the highest safest precaution, if knocked over the heater will shutdown to prevent a fire. It has two settings, low and high. The Optimus Portable Infrared Radiant Heater will project a stream of heat very powerfully about 3 feet.

ultraknight

Trenton, NJ

We bought this space heater a couple of years ago because we'd bought an older house and it tended to be pretty drafty. So after a couple of winters trying to keep our central heat turned up enough to heat the whole house to a decent temperature making our electric bill between 700-900 a month in the winter, we bought a couple of space heaters. This space heater more than does the job to heating medium sized rooms as a supplement to the central heat. It's relatively quiet and heats quickly, allowing us the ability to not have it running non stop and it helped us lower our electric bills by more than 150 a month. It does get hot to the touch and I worried about my animals and any small children in our home getting too close to it though we never had any incident involving anything with the heater. It still runs great!

krush

Crowley, TX

For what it is, this is a great space heater. It doesn't have a thermostat or a fan or any fancy features. However, it puts out a good amount of heat and is quiet. Because it is an infrared radiant heater, the front grill does get hot. It cools off quickly, though when shut off. I use this space heater to make the kids' room warmer at night, but only do so very carefully since I know the kiddos could get burned if they touch the front of the heater. The plastic sides and knob do not get hot. The heater has a switch on the bottom that must be depressed for it to work (thus the heater must be sitting upright on a hard surface). The heater has three settings: off, 400w, 800w. These settings are on a knob that rotates 360 degrees and has each selection three different times. That means you do not have to turn the knob in any particular direction, but can find the right setting with a few clicks either forward or backward. We find that 400w produces enough heat to warm an 11x12' room about 3 degrees and 800w about 5-6 degrees. I have owned this heater for 3 years and used it consistently for three winters. I have been pleased with it and would definitely buy it again. Design It's simple, but it works well. Safety The shut off switch works and, while the front gets hot, the sides and top do not. The front cools off quickly when the heater is off.

knitt

Tyler, TX

use it in the bathroom and its workd pretty good. only thing that would make it work better would be a fan to push the air out more. Performance Heat the bathroom up nice and quick. Ease of Use just turn the knob and it come on one rod, turn it again and both come on. Durability outside stays cool and is eay to wipe clean Design not too big and fits into a small space with ease Safety will shut off if tipped over

Seabreezz

Saint James, MO

For less than 20 bucks, this is a great heater. Kept in my office, it does the job heating up the space with the door closed. It's quite hot though so don't go near it. Place it with no other furniture nearby as there really isn't anything keeping flammable objects away from the heat. Makes some loud noises which might be due to age as we've had it for a few years. But overall it doesn't cost much in terms of bills and it works quickly. The room quickly heats up. Not sure if large rooms work for my small room, it works perfectly. Performance Good and quick at heating up. Ease of Use Very simple to use. Just turn some dials. Durability Has lasted our family for quite a few years. Design Nothing to look at but it gets the job done. Safety Very hot to go near.

heliac

USA

These heaters use up so much electricity. Gas vs electric wise I think it drains quite a bit of electricity and doesn't quite reach everywhere. Good for average or small rooms. I do worry about dust and my pets getting near it. Overall its an okay product.

PhilipMa

USA

We have one room, my office, that just doesn't get good heat, for whatever reason. If this were a bedroom, I might make a different choice, but this radiant heater really brings the temperature up in a hurry, and the price is really tolerable. I wish it had more settings, but for me the main thing is its heat production. Performance The thing provides heat in a hurry. Very satisfying. Ease of Use Turn it on, make selection, relax. Durability The thing seems like it will last for a long time. Design It's really on the homely side. No points for beauty, but it does work admirably. Safety The thing that I love is also the thing you have to respect: it really does pump out the heat.

Lamanana

Stockton, CA

Here in California, the summers are really blazing hot and, though it might not seem so to other people that live in much much cooler conditions, the winters are quite freakin cold as well. Me and my girlfriend got sick of piling blankets upon blankets onto ourselves while we slept and we got sick of looking like eskimo's when we didn't want to use blankets, so we invested in this little heater. It really works like magic! We still dress like little puff balls out of our room but at least we wake up fresh and not freezing our butts off. It's really lightweight and it wasn't that expensive. I also didn't see a very big jump in my electric bill while I was using it either. I guess the only downfall is it might burn you if you get too close and forget it's their, but if you put it in the right place and are careful, you'll be perfectly fine! All in all its a great machine.

Groundroll

Pomona, CA

Around here, it has definitely been a cold winter. In fact, it's been one of the coldest winters in recent memory. Consequently, my heating bill has gone from being a pain to getting to be just short of ridiculous. After trying to find different ways to manage heating costs, we decided to try the Optimus H-5210 Infrared Quartz Heater. Frankly, it was a great decision. This heater does a nice job of keeping our admittedly not very large bedroom nice and warm. It is cheap, does not weigh very much, and is relatively powerful. However, if you do have a larger bedroom, you might want to turn this thing on for a bit before you head to bed. There are a few drawbacks however, the first is that it's not child proof. Do not buy one of these and put them anywhere your child can reach it or they will burn themselves. Second, if you're not careful, you can burn yourself. Bottom Line: Cheap, inexpensive way to heat a room.

cardinaldynasty

Alhambra, CA