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List Price: $79.95
Sale Price: $66.85
Today's Bonus: 16% Off
I was looking for a heater that would fit under my desk, and provide slow comfortable heat without popping the circuit breaker. This is an excellent heater for an office or other small area.
The heater is rated at 400W. I tested the current draw a few times by plugging the heater and my computer into the same outlet strip, and turning them on simultaneously. No problems the circuit never tripped (of course in actual use the heater should be plugged into a wall outlet).
When used under a table or desk, I've had to turn it down to near it's minimum setting. It provides enough local heat that I can turn the main furnace down 2-3 degrees. For the cost of a 40-watt light bulb, I can work in comfort!
Although it doesn't get as hot as a fan heater, like other oil heaters it is sometimes too hot to comfortably touch. Be aware if there are toddlers or flammables nearby.
The product page is sketchy on details; heater dimensions are approx. 21.5"L x 15.5 "H. Width ranges from 0.5" at the fins to a 5.25" W at the base. Weight is just under 7 pounds.
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I own several oil filled heaters. We have used them for the baby's room at night, for rooms at the end of the house far from the furnace, bathrooms that need just a little more heat when we turn the furnace down for the night, etc. Generally speaking, oil filled heaters provide that safe, quiet, slow heat that is wonderful for sealed (non-drafty) rooms.
Just bought this 400 watt unit to go "under" a desk for my wife's cold feet. The big oil filled radiators are too big to go under there, she'd have no foot room left. So we sprung for this small unit. The problem is, it MELTED her boot when she touched it with the end of her boot for a few seconds. We are talking "MORE THAN HOT." Because it is so thin, it has almost no fins to distribute the heat through the oil. The result is...less heat output than bigger oil heaters, and the side gets extremely hot. Now..I know and you should nkow....most oil filled heaters get warm to the touch on the side of the fins....but not enough to burn you for any brief touch. This one you can fry an egg on the sides. Not as hot as say....the ceramic or electric wire heaters. But more hot than we wanted! So if you planned on putting it under your desk and touching your shoes to it.....think again! It will burn them. And it puts out nowhere near as much heat as a regular oil filled heater (such as those with 700/800/1500 watt settings).
On this little unit, the legs keep it 2 inches away from the wall, and they do seem delicate and prone to break if you push the heater over.
PROS: It's lightweight. You can carry and move it easily with one hand. It's pretty small. It's dead silent. It uses relatively little power (400 watt maximum). I find we have it on maximum most of the time and we are lucky to get it to raise the 8 by 8 room temperature in that office by 2 or 3 degrees. It uses so little power, however, that it never trips our overloaded breaker. That is one reason we replaced the 1500 watt heater in the room with this one...because when all of the laser printers and computers were whirring, the 1500 watt heater would trip things. But the 1500 watt oil filled never burned us. This one, although hot to the touch, does not raise the temperature much for things that are 2 or 3 inches away. I had it two inches from a chair one day, and the vinyl chair was barely warm to the touch....even when the unit would burn you if you touched it. That says something about the unit....it's hot....but it's not throwing out much heat to warm the room. Kind of like how a soldering iron is really hot to the touch...but it's not heating the air around much. Unfortunately, that is what we have with this unit...it's a thin compromise unit...and the thinness really robs it of convective ability. As long as the legs work, I don't worry about this thing burning things close that it is not touching. I would worry, however, if this unit fell over and touched something...like something plastic.
CONS: I'm disappointed in the heat output. The problem is...lack of fins means the heater gets hot to the touch....VERY...but not as much air flow is generated due to lack of fins. So my wife complained, it burns her feet to the touch, but does not get her under desk area warm. This is the OPPOSITE of what we were hoping to achieve! We wanted something that would heat up the underside of her desk so she could be toasty under there, while being safe for her feet or items down there.
In fairness, this unit might do the trick in an under-desk space, with no drafts and where you have a LOT Of leg room so that you cannot touch it with your feet. Say....a very large under desk space under an L-shaped or U-shaped desk. This would then very gradually radiate heat and raise things around the desk 2 to 5 degrees....desk would be warmer to touch, keyboard warmer, etc if you left it on all of the time. That was our goal with the unit, but it just won't work in my wife's office due to too hot to the touch...will burn tootsies or shoes. But I have another office I'm going to attempt to use it in where the desk is an L...and there is nothing under one side that can touch it.
If you are looking at this unit, please remember that 400 watts is 400 watts. And anything 100 to 300 watts is not going to create much heat at all. And 400 watts is not a whole lot better...especially without big convection fins. If you have a drafty and open space.....NONE of these oil filled heaters are going to work well for you. They work BEST in small sealed rooms, with closed doors, where they can raise the temperature gradually as the hot air rises off of them. If you are looking for FAST heat, you want a heater with a fan...not a radiator. But if you have the room, and wattage ability in your circuit, and you want quiet even heat, your way better off going with a bigger oil filled heater than this unit. Most of the bigger units, you can turn down to 700 watts and then turn that thermostat so it only comes on occasionally or half the time..which would be equivalent of 350 watts per hour and it would give more even, more safe heat than this unit...at the price of more floor real estate. If you must buy this unit, remember it gets hot to the touch...cannot touch things to the side....but it is small and "might" slip between two desks or the desk and the wall and just might make a "niche" heater for you. Some place...where you just don't have room for that big heater. Example....under a sink in a cabinet! To keep pipes from freezing. Or in a garage ...or in a closet in a garage to keep things from freezing. The thinness "Just might" allow you to put it in an odd space.
Signed,
Missouri Guy
December 2009
Buy NewAir AH400 Space Heater With Adjustable Temperature Control Now
The personal heaters I've tried over the years have been noisy, tripped circuit breakers and often gave off burning smells that made me wonder if they were even safe. After trying a large-sized oil-filled radiant heater at home, I wished I could find a smaller version to sit by my desk at work. With some research online, I found the Newair AH-400. It was just what I wanted a radiant-style heater small enough for my workspace. I ordered it hoping it would keep my legs warm at work without causing power problems among the computer equipment. After a month or so of use, I am very pleased. It fits my needs perfectly. My experience with ordering and shipping was good as well. Everything was prompt and correct.
Read Best Reviews of NewAir AH400 Space Heater With Adjustable Temperature Control Here
I bought this as a xmass gift for my wife. I was a little concerned with the dimensions listed thought it would be to wide, but it did fit under her desk. She loves it, not only keeps her feet warm but even when the room is cold she is comfortable.
I had been thinking about one of those radiant underdesk panels but after reading the reviews decided those wouldn't be enough for a climate like ours (Wyoming). This unit works very well.
Wrote the above review in 2008 when we got the heater, now 2013 still working great no problems with it what so ever. It runs under the wife's desk all winter day and night.
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I bought three of these units and all three and developed broken plastic feet in less that 2 years of intermittent use. One of these units was left on low and after a few months both feet cracked and the unit fell over. This ment that neither the thermostat nor the needed air cooling worked and the unit burst from over heating and blackened the carpet unit the heating element tube. Vary Dangerous!!!
