New "High Efficiency" Space Heater vs Vintage Alternatives
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During this time of year, there are a lot of space heaters for sale at the big-box stores. Virtually all of them claim to be safe, durable, and highly efficient. The opposite is true, they are unsafe, cheap, and LESS efficient with each passing year. Even looking past the fact that most modern heaters are plastic, they are unsafe because they have cheap, flimsy switches, thin power cords that are barely capable of handling the current draw, cheap unreliable motors that can fail and cause the entire heater to quickly overheat, and safety switches that have an extremely high failure rate. Not to mention that they are made in a Chinese sweatshop by employees making a dollar an hour and barely surviving. The reason for this is MARKETING. The public LOVES to hear keywords such as "efficient" and "safe" and these words SELL. In today's modern society, people tend to blindly believe whatever they are exposed to as far as advertising, but reject proven facts and absolute test results. *A small personal heater is great for warming yourself while in a cold office or an area in your home where you would like to sit and be warm. This isn't what this video is about. We're talking space heaters that are designed to heat an entire ROOM.* Here are the results of our NEW vs VINTAGE space heater test, where we compared output air temperature to power consumption. We did not test the durability of the heaters, but I think it's safe to assume that one modern cheap heater made of plastic is NOT AS DURABLE as any one of four quality heaters made of sturdy steel. Heater Test Results (best to worst) based on cost per temperature delivered: 1) The Markel, which consumed 7.57 watts per degree air temp 2) The Lakewood, which consumed 8.11 watts per degree of air temp 3) Tie between the Montgomery Ward and Superlectric, both consumed 8.73 watts per degree of air temp 4) Tie between the Montgomery Ward and Superlectric, both consumed 8.73 watts per degree of air temp 5) IN LAST PLACE, the modern "Energy Star" efficient Optimus, which cost the MOST TO OPERATE, at 10.77 watts per degree of air temp. THE MODERN "EFFICIENT" HEATER COSTS THE MOST TO RUN!
Comments
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I'm really getting a chuckle over all the comments suggesting that ANY heater you buy will heat a room JUST AS WELL as ANY other heater while using the SAME energy... I'd like to see that argument with Consumer Reports... why they tested and rated a hundred different space heaters on efficiency, heating ability, safety, comfort, etc. and scored them from a 28 to a 94.
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actually get a vintage heater of any brand
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where could I get one of these older heaters from Montgomery wards
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At least with pvc when it burns it puts off toxic fumes; it would be interesting if the world knew the recorded facts of some of the fumes which I am not privy too. I just know of one man who put out an aircraft fire whose lungs failed as result of pvc type fumes or so that was the scuttlebutt from a very reliable source.
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Your room is getting warmer...
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Today's heater blades should be put on today's fans, and today's fan blades should be put on today's heaters.
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There are better brands of new heaters out there. Stuff like Lasko and DeLonghi, Crane and Honeywell are decent. The Optimus is $15, the vintage models are more the equivalent of a $100 or more unit now.
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Fascinating guys, thanks for the effort!
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I like the idea but different air flow rates will give you different temperatures. If you have a faster blowing fan its going to mix the air faster resulting in a lower temperature reading. A good idea would be to try and heat a small space like a box and start each test at room temperature.
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so please tell me where i can fine a vintage heater???I really need one...
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Resistant heat is same efficiency no matter how cheap or well-built it is or whether it was built in 1970 in USA or 2016 in China. It's always 100% and always a terrible and expensive way to heat any space. 1000w will always equal 3412 BTU with resistant heaters. If you want efficient, buy a heat pump AC with HSPF of >10.0 - Ductless Mini-splits good place to look.
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I have an electrohome fan heater with a 6 inch fan and it will blow clear across the room, electrohome was the number one fan maker in canada at one time
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Just bought an all steel, old Confortair from the 1950's cause its prettier than these plastic ones. Nice to know it will probably suck less energy too.
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idd i juse a real philips heater here in the netherlands thats a norelco heater for the usa friends and it is from the 70s and still works fine. and is my englisch so bad help me to write it better
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People have been brainwashed into unnecessarily spending money on energy star items. I have a Lennox AC unit from 1979 that works perfectly and a boiler as old as the hills which works well. Both are maintained well and inexpensively. Certain people have mentioned how much money I would save upgrading to something new. How much money could I possibly save by spending $5,000 on a new system?
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Older Heaters are definitely better. I have a Hanimex low profile fan heater with centrifugal fan from like 1987 made in Australia & it works well. The newest heaters I have is a upright oscillating Kambrook heater from like 2007 or 2008 with a 3 metal blade fan & 2 low profile Shark brand heaters with centrifugal fans from around 2005. The Shark fan heaters really churn out the heat to at 2,400 watts on high. They put out about 1,200 watt on low. The exit side of those & my Hanimex heaters have a metal grills so they not melt from the high heat output. Also from all the different fan heaters I seen out here in Australia I found the ones with centrifugal fans work best due to the strong airflow since they seem to blow air through the heating element quite easily. The only new fan heater I'd buy today is the Vornado TVH500 due to its metal construction. Harley & Spats Bear, do you guys have low profile fan heaters in America & have you seen heaters that plug into a normal powerpoint that put out 2,400 watts of heat?
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I also feel like I'm throwing money away when I buy a cheap disposable product, it won't last that long, and then I'll have to replace the stupid thing. I'd much rather pay more up front and not worry about replacing the damn thing in a few years or less.
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Generally I find this whole energy efficiency thing to be nothing more than a marketing ploy to convince owners of otherwise good working older appliances to buy new ones. How do you get someone to replace a good working appliance that honestly has no problems, make it seem inferior, convince the customer that their old machine is wasting their money!
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yay! omg I'm honored :3 that made me real happy
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This video inspired me to do some research on space heaters and see if anything has really changed in a couple years since I looked last and it really still looks pretty grim. I noticed the two best sellers on Amazon are these Lasko ceramic heaters, on of them a tower and the other a cube. Many reviews complain of the cubes fan dying (and overheating, naturally) as for the tower heater, someone actually posted pictures of the thing melted into a pile of plastic... I tested both personally and verified my suspicions of them being bottom of the barrel. I've found Vornado to be the best of the fan forced heaters available these days.
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