3 heaters to avoid – and a budget one we love
If you’re planning to buy a new heater this weekend, there are three we think you should steer clear of. These cheap heaters might catch your eye, but they are the worst in our test results. However, there’s one budget-friendly heater we do recommend buying. It costs $70, quickly heats a room and passes all the safety tests.
Heaters to avoid
We test heaters in a special room with 81 evenly spaced temperature sensors. Using the readings from the sensors, we create a 3D map to help us measure how effective each heater is. This lets us see how quickly it heats the room and how good its thermostat is at controlling the temperature.
The three heaters that got the worst scores:
Goldair 11 Fin Oil Column Heater GOC1211
Score: 45
Price: $119
This is the lowest-scoring heater we’ve tested. It only got 14 out of 100 for heating speed because it’s so slow.
Arlec OCH110
Score: 47
Price: $65
Avoid buying this cheap Arlec oil heater if you’re at Bunnings. It’s extremely slow to heat a room and we also found it heavy.
Living & Co Oil Heater 11 Fin 2400W YL-B18-11
Score: 55
Price: $60
This model from The Warehouse was good at controlling room temperature – once it finally managed to get it up to temperature. It’s one of five heaters to fail our safety tests (see below).
The budget heater we recommend
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The five heaters that failed the safety test
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We've tested 47 electric heaters .
Find the right one for you.
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