The best space heaters for $100 or less
Space heaters keep you comfortable in one of two ways: warming up the room around you or bathing you in direct heat in a drafty room or chilly office. Consumer Reports tests for both in its space heater tests. Safety and ease-of-use also factor into our scores. Six of our 12 space heater picks offer quick room heating, speedy spot heating or both for $100 or less.
Room heating. Only one space heater on our top picks list got excellent marks for heating a standardized room in 15 minutes—the Ambia ACH-120, $60. It was also very good at spot heating, making it the most versatile heater of this group. But it was so-so for noise, something to consider if you’re putting it in a room where you watch television. The other five were all very good at room heating.
Spot heating. We test spot-heating speed using a test dummy laden with heat sensors and measure how long it takes to directly heat a person sitting in a room for 15 minutes. None of the six heaters in this group earned an excellent score for spot heating but three were very good including the Vornado AVH2, $100, the Crane EE8075O, $90, and the Ambia ACH-120.
Best buys and bargains. The Holmes HFH436, $40, is the lowest priced space heater in our picks. It’s a CR Best Buy. The Lasko 6462 and Bionaire BCH9212, both $75, round out this bargain bunch. All three were better at heating a room than at spot heating. The Lasko and Bionaire were exceptionally quiet as was the Crane.
More choices. When choosing a space heater, keep in mind that electricity is the most expensive kind of heating so the only way to trim your bill is to turn down the heat in other parts of the house while keeping one room cozy. For bigger budgets and larger space heaters, check our full space heater Ratings and recommendations.
—Mary H.J. Farrell (@mhjfarrell on Twitter)
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