Discount Dr Infrared Heater Quartz + PTC Infrared Portable Space Heater

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $249.99
Sale Price: $119.99
Today's Bonus: 52% Off

We bought this heater to use in our living room and kitchen/dining area. We have all baseboard heat and our heating bills are usually through the roof. This heater does a good job and we are very happy, but there are a few things to point out.

1. It is a smaller heater than you might expect. It is half the price of an eden pure...but be advised that it's about half the size of the eden pure my parents have. That said, I think I'd rather have two of these than one eden pure that way I can space them out more.

2. This thing won't heat a 1000 sq/ft area. We use it in a 250-300 sq/ft living room that has an opening to our kitchen dining room that is about 250 sq/ft. It will heat up the room and maintain when it is as cold as the 20's outside...colder than that and we need to use our baseboard w/ this heater to get it up to temp (in about 10 minutes mind you)...and then this heater will do a great job of maintaining that heat on it's own. We did this down to about 4-5 degrees(F) outside and it worked great.

3. Haven't got a clue on heating bill, but it does draw some serious current. I have blown our breaker more than once by using this heater and our vacuum on the same outlet (always forget the heater is on...see 4)

4. Heater is very quiet and you won't even realize the thing is on except for seeing the orange glow back inside of the heater.

5. The wheels are awesome. We usually heat the living room for a few hours, then wheel it into the kitchen dining room for 20 minutes, then back for a couple hours.....super easy to do as you walk by and keeps both rooms at a comfy 71-74 degrees.

Bottom line is it is a great heater. It is drawing a lot of current but probably not more than 2 baseboard heaters that we virtually don't use now.....which have their own breaker each. I'd recommend it highly as it really gives you the cozy feeling that you don't get with those heaters that heat the air....compared to this one that heats you and the objects in the room. You can really tell the difference.

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...you need to invest a little time in thinking about 1) what it is you want it to do and, 2) coming to grips with what it is actually capable of.

A lot of people buy this heater (24%) after looking at the EdenPure portable electric space heater. I am guessing that those who do are looking to save about fifty bucks over the cost of the EdenPure and believe (correctly) that it is a virtual replica of the EdenPure. And that would be just wonderful if the EdenPure portable electric space heater (and this one) lived up to the hype that surrounds it. The problem is neither one does...they are both being promoted with false premises.

In fact, some claims are pure lies. Take this one: "Testing shows, the Dr. HeaterTM has 60% more heat output compared to most other heaters on the market." Ask yourself, what testing and compared to what heaters? You should be highly suspicious anytime a claim such as this is made without reference to the actual testing. Who did the testing? When was the testing done? What heaters were tested in comparison to this one? Odds are that there was never any testing done because the claim they are making is ridiculous. Here's why: Electric heat is electric heat no matter how you slice it or dice it. The only way that a 1500 watt electric heater can have 60% more heat output than "most other heaters on the market" is if "most other heaters" are rated at 938 watts. Period. End of story. It doesn't matter how the electric heat is produced or delivered, if the wattage rating is the same then the heat output is the same.

The makers of this heater also throw around mysterious science sounding stuff like "PTC." So just what is PTC? It stands for positive temperature coefficient and that sounds pretty high tech, too, doesn't it? So what is it? It is a ceramic heating element that is designed to heat to a specific temperature and varies the wattage consumed in order to maintain that temperature. In other words, it's self regulating. That's actually a nice feature and a big improvement over the stupid light bulb in copper pipe design that is employed by the EdenPure. (EDIT: Oops, just noticed that Dr. Heater uses quartz light bulbs with a PTC element so they are nearly as dumb as EdenPure) But does it justify spending two hundred bucks (or more) on the Dr. Heater? Well that depends on what your heating goals are. Let's explore that a little more...

First of all the only way that this heater (or the EdenPure) is going to save you any money at all on your utility bill is if you change your lifestyle. If you, like most of us, live in a house with multiple rooms then you need to realize that this heater is designed to heat ONE room. And, depending on the climate in your location, that might turn out to be a pretty small room. And while this is going on the rest of the house is going to be colder, maybe a lot colder. If you can make it through the winter living in one room in your house then this might be the heater for you. Most of us, however, move about the house from room to room and we enjoy doing so in relative comfort. A portable electric space heater (regardless of brand name) is not going to heat your entire house. And if you did put an electric space heater in enough rooms to make the house comfortable you would absolutely freak out when the electric bill comes due.

Here is a little math to explain that:

Let's say that you have a 10 cent per kilowatt utility rate. Let's also say that the heater is on 50% of the time. There are 720 hours in a thirty day month so that would be 360 hours for 50% operation. 1500 watts x 360 hours is 540 kilowatt hours. Multiply that against a ten cent rate and you get 54 bucks. Think about that for a second or two: 54 bucks to heat ONE room in your house for a month. And remember, that is assuming that it's only on for half the time. What if it's on for 2/3's of the time? Or 3/4's of the time? Yikes! Not good, campers, not good at all. And holy cow, what if you live in New England where it's cold AND the electric rate is over 15 cents a KWH? Double yikes! This is why (with the exception of heat pumps) electricity based heating is your worst heating value. Always has been and always will be.

And if you do live in a place that gets really cold then this "heat one room" strategy could blow up in your face if it results in a frozen and broken water pipe in an area that you aren't heating properly. This could happen quite easily if the electric heater is in or near the same room that the whole house furnace thermostat is in.

So what's the bottom line? First of all remember that electricity is (usually but not always...see below) a terrible value in terms of heating. Then also remember that the only thing that counts with electric heaters is the wattage. The biggest electric heater that you can plug into a standard wall receptacle will be rated at 1500 watts and they all produce the same heat regardless of bogus claims made to the contrary. That is basic science. Third, ask yourself if you really want to live this way: A prisoner to the warmth in ONE room of your house. If these things are okay with you (and if you insist on spending two hundred bucks or more for the same heat that can be had for fifty bucks or less) then go for it. Just don't expect this portable electric space heater to keep your whole house comfortable (it won't) while simultaneously saving you bucket loads of money. It just isn't going to happen.

A better idea would be to invest some money in beefing up the insulation values in your home. Especially look at your floor. You would be surprised how many people live in a home (built over a ventilated crawl space) with an un-insulated floor. Take a look at sealing up cracks and crevices in exterior walls and around doors and windows where warm air leaks out and cold air can infiltrate. These fixes aren't particularly hard and after they are done they last forever. They aren't as sexy as magic electric heaters but they do work.

EDIT/UPDATE: See my comment (dated 3-7-2013 on page 15 of the comments for this review) where I discuss yet another alternative to the overpriced "magical" electric space heater, the PTHP. If you want to spend big bucks on an electrically powered heater then this is THE way to go. It's more than 100% efficient. Seriously, it really is. Best value out there for this sort of thing.

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I received the DR Heater, and so far it is AWESOME. I had another brand of heater, and it's in the basement already. Quiet isn't quite the word for this heater. I have a propane gas insert for our fireplace. I thought it had a quiet fan, until I turned the DR Heater on. The fan in the gas insert drowns out the DR Heater fan. I had to put my ear down to it to tell if it was running or not. The heat output is exactly what they clame it to be. It has twice the features as the $400.00 unit. My house is well insulated, so I am not sure how it will work for everyone else. I can tell you that I highly recommend this Heater. It's should be a money saver. This is an update. Whats nice about this heater is the two types of heat output. This heater has only one bulb in it, so when the bulb goes bad, you still have heat output. I had the bulb go out, and the company sent me a replacement bulb. I received great support from DR Heater. Will buy another one.

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I found that the heater generally does what it claims to do, except for the size of the room it is supposed to heat. We used it exclusively in our basement rec room and it had to struggle to get the room tempurature over 70 degrees running on high. Outside tempurature was normally in the mid thirties to the mid-forties. It ran very quietly, attractive and the remote system is great. The heater did not get hot, as advertised. It would probably work great in a smaller room such as a bedroom.

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While I've only had this heater a few days, it's already become one of my most prized possessions. I've used it to heat both a fairly large area of around 500 sq ft and a single 10x12 room. I believe it may be able to replace all 5 of my 1500 watt oil filled radiator heaters. Running on "High" the electric consumption is about 1.2 Kilowatts per hour as the manufacturer says. This heater heats very evenly. For example if the heater thermometer is reading 65 degrees you can go to the far end of the heating area and get a 65 degree reading there with a digital thermometer. Another big plus it that this heater doesn't adversely affect the humidity. In the large area I started and ended with 47% humidity. In the 10x12 room I started with 47% and ended with 39%, which then recovered back to 47% after the heater shut down. As far as any beefs, it can take several hours to bring the large area up to room temperature, but once you get it there the heater will cycle on and off to keep it there.

I would like to offer a couple of pointers so that you will be able to really enjoy your infrared heater.

1. This heater is a heavy duty 110/120V device and just like your refrigerator it's needs to be on a dedicated circuit. This means that a single line needs to be run from the circuit breaker box to where this heater plugs in. This heater has a very sensitive overload switch, so if the electric line isn't a dedicated line the heater will just shut itself down after a few minutes of use when being used in "Auto Mode" or "High Manual Mode". You may be able to use it in "Low Manual Mode" if there isn't too many other electrical devices drawing current.

2. This heater should be elevated about 18 inches above the floor. As you recall from school, warm air rises. If the heater is placed at floor level then it may run for hours and never show a temperature higher than 50 degrees and never shut down. But if you elevate it you can monitor the rise in temperature visually and the heater will only run when it needs to.