Handy Heater: Personal and Portable Digital Electric Heater

Product Information

Programmable timer Useful for setting a heater to turn on just before you get home or wake up, so there's no waiting around for the heater to warm up. But that’s not all! Handy Heater also comes with a timer function so you can pre-set the amount of time you want it to heat for, and then it will turn off automatically. Great for warming you while you get to sleep, or just giving you peace of mind that you can set it and forget it and it won’t stay on all night.

The Handy Heater works really well if you have a closed space. This means you will need to make sure all the doors and windows are closed when you start using it. If you have anything open, the Handy Heater will struggle to make any significant difference in temperature. Nearly all have some kind of carry handle for moving about and many have a safety cut-out feature, which will switch off the heater if it gets dangerously hot. Adjustable thermostat Using this function, a portable heater will heat the room and when the desired temperature is reached, it will try to maintain the room at that temperature. Most of the cheaper, simpler heaters we tested have a dial thermostat that doesn't let you choose specific temperatures in °C. You'll likely need to buy a more expensive model for that. Our tests also found that they're rarely 100% accurate and will probably think the room is a couple of °C warmer or cooler than it is. Keen to optimise home heating? See our advice on boiler controls and thermostats , smart meters , and loft insulation

In the motel room, the Handy Heater took some time to really get things going but once it did, it worked flawlessly through the night. I used the convenient timer function to let it run overnight and it provided me with a nice comfortable temperature throughout the slightly chilly November night. Handy Heater pros: Handy Heater is an electric space heater. That heat room up to 250 square feet. It has great Feature like the digital timer and temperature control. You can just plug it any electric outlet and save money on a heating bill.It can be used on a daily basis by any family member. It is convenient and effective. This Heater will shut off automatically using a timer. It consumes 350 watts of energy. The infrared heating element of Handy Heater is incredibly efficient because it uses a lot less energy than standard, larger heaters. Only 500 watts will give you a temperature range of up to 32°C, and it’s fully programmable so you can easily set the perfect temperature on the LED display. Plus, because of the clever way Handy Heater is made, there is a built-in safety cut off to prevent overheating and the outer casing stays cool to the touch so you can unplug it and take it with you, straight away. In the manual, it states: "The plug-in heater is fitted with a thermal safety cut-off device, built in to prevent it from overheating. Should the plug-in heater start to overheat, the thermal safety cut-out system will automatically operate and the heat setting will switch off."

We set up each heater in the centre of our test room and run it on the maximum settings, with the room starting at a cool temperature. We monitor how much the room temperature changed over the course of an hour using temperature probes. We found the most drastic changes happen in the first half an hour and increases in temperature become more incremental after that. Although the comparison might make your electric heater look cheaper to run, bear in mind that it will only be heating a much smaller area, whereas your central heating will be aiming to heat your whole home. It’s not always easy to make your immediate surroundings warm and cosy as the cold winter draws in. In garages, shops, offices and especially if travelling or camping, getting warm and cosy usually means wrapping yourself in chunky layers and gloves - not really ideal for getting things done or relaxing in comfort. This is to be expected though, any space heater will have a lot of trouble when you use it in an open space, and the Handy Heater is exactly the same. As the heater basically heats up the air in the room, if there is a fresh air intake, the temperature won’t go up at all. So make sure there is no active circulation happening in the space you want to heat. The Handy Heater is not bulky at all and won’t sag dangerously when plugged in a wall outlet. Just make sure your pets are kept away from it.In our tests, we set every heater to run at full blast so you can see the maximum amount it cost to heat our medium-sized test room. If you have the thermostat of your heater set to a desired temperature, the heater will toggle on and off once it reaches that temperature – depending on what's needed to maintain it. The heater won't operate continuously, so won't cost you as much to run. Are electric heaters cheaper to use than central heating?