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Best small electric heaters

kaz442
Explorer
Explorer
Looking for a small electric heater. What are the safest models?
Thanks JKaz
1989 26' Jayco class C E350 460cu
46 REPLIES 46

TyroneandGladys
Explorer
Explorer
We use a small ceramic heater and are pleased. We also run an extension cord out to the pedestals 20 amp service. I have a piece of foam pipe insulation cut to the width of the drivers door glass. Roll the window down slide it onto the top of the glass run the extension cord through the window raise the window and there is enough give in the foam around the cord you still have a tight seal for the window.
Tyrone & Gladys
27' 1986 Coachmen

rjsurfer
Explorer
Explorer
pasusan wrote:
rjsurfer wrote:
samandtheduck wrote:
I've had a Vornado since 2005 and it has been the best heater for keeping our 33' heated. I have owned a few cheaper heaters we have used as a second heater when the weather got close to freezing but none of them worked very well. I finally bought a second Vornado and threw all the cheap ones away. The Vornados circulate the air even when the heat is off and if you set the temp. at 70 degrees it stays within a degree of 70 degrees.


By far my best investment in keeping my camper warm.

Vornado moves a lot of air, which is just as important as making heat.

Let's face it ALL 1,500 watt heaters produce the same amount of heat, so moving the air and keeping it at an exact temperature and doing so quietly are the only differences. Vornado excellent in all three.

Ron W
Weez agrees - this is what we have - it is the type that keeps the fan going even when no heat is needed so there is no on and off noise to wake us up at night. The cabinet stays cool to the touch which was important for us as we have 2 cats. And it has the tip over protection - what more could you ask for?


Yes, the fan stays on and is cool to the touch, I don't know about the tip over protection to be honest. Never tried it out, look at their model breakdown on the website, probably will give you all the info.

Ron W
03 Dodge 2500 SRW,SB,EC
2018 Keystone 25RES
DRZ-400SM
DL-650

pasusan
Explorer
Explorer
rjsurfer wrote:
samandtheduck wrote:
I've had a Vornado since 2005 and it has been the best heater for keeping our 33' heated. I have owned a few cheaper heaters we have used as a second heater when the weather got close to freezing but none of them worked very well. I finally bought a second Vornado and threw all the cheap ones away. The Vornados circulate the air even when the heat is off and if you set the temp. at 70 degrees it stays within a degree of 70 degrees.


By far my best investment in keeping my camper warm.

Vornado moves a lot of air, which is just as important as making heat.

Let's face it ALL 1,500 watt heaters produce the same amount of heat, so moving the air and keeping it at an exact temperature and doing so quietly are the only differences. Vornado excellent in all three.

Ron W
Weez agrees - this is what we have - it is the type that keeps the fan going even when no heat is needed so there is no on and off noise to wake us up at night. The cabinet stays cool to the touch which was important for us as we have 2 cats. And it has the tip over protection - what more could you ask for?

Susan & Ben [2004 Roadtrek 170]
href="https://sites.google.com/view/pasusan-trips/home" target="_blank">Trip Pics

cmcdar
Explorer
Explorer
RoyB wrote:
I like to use the oil filled radiator looking 1500 watt heaters here... They do not have the open flame or red hot flame core or make any noise except CLICK every now and then...

I use the low profile model which is perfect to sit one of those O2-COOL fans behind it if you want to move the air around some.



We also like to run a separate extension cord into our trailer forom the campground 20A Pedestal service to run our our portable 1500 Watt heater. This does not take away from the the 30A Pedestal service we are using...

Roy Ken


^^^^
I winter in Florida with 1 small dog and two cats. This kind seems to be the safest if tipped and it works like a champ.

It stores nicely under the dinette for travel.
HTT: 2007 R-Vision Trail Cruiser c191
TV: 2010 Nissan Titan Pro4X Crew Cab

travelnutz
Explorer II
Explorer II
Our 5,200 BTU quartz element LED electric movable fireplace we have in our 5th wheel also has total remote control plus full controls on the front of the unit. Push the remote buttons for on or off, fan only, 3 settings for flame brightness, 3 speeds for flame speed, 3 fan speeds, high and low for heat wattage output, and has digital remote thermostat setting levels by each degree desired. Has a tip over safety switch too. Looks like a piece of fine quality wood furniture and available in several wood grains/stains or even white if preferred, not an add on after thought heater. One negative is that it's a little too large for most slide-in truck campers but I have seen one that had been built in by the owner and it looked like it was OEM manufactured. Very reasonably priced too. What more could you possibly want??? The total pleasant experience in heating and ambiance when inside the RV!

ONE visual appealing functional fireplace unit that does it all and can be moved around in the RV to where wanted anytime and also simply take from RV to RV unit as desired or even use it at home also. Only needs 6" clearance from combustibles on either side or the rear, zero under or on top, and 12" on the front per the printed instructions. Mainly because the heat output is channeled thru a widely dispersed grill and not a small concentrated area of very hot temps.

Did I say that we absolutely love our fireplace in our 5th wheel?
A superb CC LB 4X4, GM HD Diesel, airbags, Rancho's, lots more
Lance Legend TC 11' 4", loaded including 3400 PP generator and my deluxe 2' X 7' rear porch
29 ft Carriage Carri-lite 5'er - a specially built gem
A like new '07 Sunline Solaris 26' TT

GoPackGo
Explorer
Explorer
My oil filled radiator style comes with a remote too.

phays
Explorer
Explorer
No one has suggested the most important option for one of these heaters. How about a remote control? I have one, not sure of the brand right now, but nothing is better than rolling over in bed, hitting the remote power button and laying in bed until the bedroom/bathroom space has heated up before I get out of bed.

I was in Sam's yesterday and they have a heater with a remote. May just go buy one since the one I have is 9 years old and will probably die on me pretty soon.

rjsurfer
Explorer
Explorer
samandtheduck wrote:
I've had a Vornado since 2005 and it has been the best heater for keeping our 33' heated. I have owned a few cheaper heaters we have used as a second heater when the weather got close to freezing but none of them worked very well. I finally bought a second Vornado and threw all the cheap ones away. The Vornados circulate the air even when the heat is off and if you set the temp. at 70 degrees it stays within a degree of 70 degrees.


By far my best investment in keeping my camper warm.

Vornado moves a lot of air, which is just as important as making heat.

Let's face it ALL 1,500 watt heaters produce the same amount of heat, so moving the air and keeping it at an exact temperature and doing so quietly are the only differences. Vornado excellent in all three.

Ron W
03 Dodge 2500 SRW,SB,EC
2018 Keystone 25RES
DRZ-400SM
DL-650

samandtheduck
Explorer
Explorer
I've had a Vornado since 2005 and it has been the best heater for keeping our 33' heated. I have owned a few cheaper heaters we have used as a second heater when the weather got close to freezing but none of them worked very well. I finally bought a second Vornado and threw all the cheap ones away. The Vornados circulate the air even when the heat is off and if you set the temp. at 70 degrees it stays within a degree of 70 degrees.

garmp
Explorer II
Explorer II
Vornado X3, 4 or what ever. Best bang for the buck.
Our 2351D Phoenix Cruiser, Jack, has turned us from campers into RVers and loving it!

mike-s
Explorer
Explorer
RV furnaces typically have efficiencies in the 70-something percent range. So, your 35K probably puts out around 26K in heat. So, ~5 electric heaters.

time2roll
Nomad
Nomad
What percentage of the furnace BTU actually gets into the RV?
Or how do you compare a 35,000 BTU (input) furnace to a 5100 BTU electric?

myredracer
Explorer II
Explorer II
travelnutz wrote:
myredracer,

The total voltage drop in the 6' long 16 gauge power cord (13 amp load rating) stranded copper wire with 1500 watts (12.5 amps) at 120 volts of AC going to the electric heater is only 6/10 of 1 volt. Meaning the heater is getting 119.4 volts of the 120 volts at the outlet. Negligible loss and means the 1500 watts would only drop to 1492.5 watts delivered to the heater's element due to voltage drop! The 16 gauge heater wire is not the issue at all for not getting a 1500 watts reading as claimed of the watts being consumed.

Further, even assuming there's 120 volts actually measured at the RV's entry circuit breaker box from shore power and then having a run of 25' of 14 gauge copper wire to the outlet the heater is plugged into, there still would only be a 1.6 volt drop at the outlet the actual heater wire is plugged into and with the heater turned on high selection. The 120 volts at the breaker would still measure 118.4 volts being delivered to the heater 16 gauge power cord. Check the voltage drop charts for yourself.

These 2 things are not the reason for the electric heater actually only drawing a measured 1300 or 1400 watts rather than the 1500 watts claimed by the manufacturer. Therefore, such heater will not deliver 5120 BTU's nor will it measure to be drawing 12.5 amps either.

Conversely, I can assure you that every 100 watt incandescent light bulb I've ever checked actually draws 100 watts just like is printed on the bulb but never had a claimed 1500 watt electric heater actually draw even as much as 1400 watts or even close to 12 amps of 120 volt AC.


Got my Mythbusters hat out and did a test on two 1500 watt ceramic cube heaters we have at home.

In the US, portable space heaters like these must comply with UL standard 1278 which requires a heater's rated output (as shown on it's label) to be at the voltage shown on the heater's label which for both heaters is 120 volts. Power input cannot be higher than 105 percent of it's rating (1575 watts for a 1500 watt heater). This standard has over 100 pages of very stringent requirements they must meet to become certified. In Canada, these heaters must comply with CSA standard 22.2 no. 46. I couldn't find a free copy of the Canadian standard online, but I would expect it to have the same stringent requirements as UL 1278, and wouldn't be surprised if the requirements are even higher. I am not using a high accuracy voltmeter or ammeter but they do correspond closely with two other voltmeters & ammeters I have.

The 1st heater is branded Comfort Zone and is labelled UL 1278. At 117.0 volts the heater draws 12.26 amps which is 1434 watts. To find the heater's wattage rating at 120 volts, it would be (120/117) x (120/117) x 1434 = 1508 watts. By UL 1278, power input is measured at the cord's plug. I did measure the voltage drop in the cord anyway and it was 0.8 volts.

The 2nd heater is branded Lancaster and it's label says it complies with CSA 22.2 no. 46. At 120.6 volts it draws 12.6 amps which is 1520 watts. At 120 volts, the power (using above formula) would be 1505 watts. The second test was on a different day hence the different voltage. (Our nextdoor neighbor has a manufacturing shop with 3-phase power and I suspect he is dragging the voltage down.)

As far as I can see, heaters should draw close to their listed rating at the listed voltage. There is also no benefit to a manufacturer reducing a heater's output since UL 1278 requires testing voltage to be adjusted until it produces the rating on it's label. It would be interesting to see someone try this on other heater types like say an oil-filled type. BTW, if you have a heater, it must be UL or CSA listed (on it's label) and if not, don't use it.

As a FWIW side note, Nichrome heating wire resistance goes up as it's temp. increases as the 2nd photo shows. I found that the initial current draw of the Comfort Zone heater was around a peak of 20 +/- amps during the first 4-5 seconds after being turned on. It took around 15 seconds or so before it reached a steady state of 12.26 amps. The second photo shows it's current at 19.89 amps (it changed too quickly to get a pic at the peak). This won't trip a circuit breaker because the duration is so short.

DE88ROX
Explorer
Explorer
i have one of these love it!! Keeps the trailer nice and toasty during those cold spring and fall camping trips.

I always prefer to use the CG's electricity before i use my propane.
[COLOR=]TV- 2010 GMC Sierra Z71 EXT. cab
TT- 2012 Starcraft Autumn Ridge235fb