If you need fast, efficient heating, but you also don’t have a good heating system installed in your home, then you need to consider an infrared heater.
These useful appliances can quickly heat a larger room in next to no time. However, there are a lot of infrared heaters on the market today, so which one is the best one for you? We are here to answer that question in this article.
We will review around five infrared heaters, which will help you to pick out the one that works best for you. If you want to skip those reviews and get our take on the best infrared heater, we would say that you should give the Dr Infrared Heater Portable Space Heater a try.
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Best Infrared Heater Reviews:
Dr Infrared Heater Portable Space Heater
We are going to be starting this list off right by taking a look at the Dr Infrared Heater Portable Space Heater. Why is this a good way to start off our review list, exactly? Well, the Dr Infrared is one of the best infrared heaters on the market right now.
It doesn’t have really any notable flaws (aside from being very odd and a bit tricky to start) and it offers amazing performance. It is one of the best options around as far as we are concerned.
Let’s start off by talking about the most important aspect of any space heater, which is its heating power. It is pretty obvious why this is the important thing to consider. After all, you want your heater to quickly and easily heat up an area.
The Dr Infrared is equipped with a 1500 watt heating element and it uses upwards of 12 amps of power. While you might be able to search around and find industrial heaters that are more powerful than the Dr Infrared Heater Portable Space Heater, 1500 watts of heating power is still very good and more than enough for even a very large room.
Of course, as you will come to see from other reviews on our best infrared heater list, just producing a lot of heat isn’t enough. A heater can produce a lot of heat, but you aren’t going to be able to take advantage of that heat unless you have a heater that also does well at heat distribution. Thankfully, the Dr Infrared Heater Portable Space Heater does quite well when it comes to distributing the heat.
It is equipped with 7 internal fans that blow the heat out and ensure even heating. Because of these fans, the Dr Infrared Heater Portable Space Heater does just as well at heating larger rooms as it would smaller rooms.
Other big things to consider when dealing with a space heater are safety and durability. Once again, we have to acknowledge the Dr Infrared Heater Portable Space Heater shines in both of these areas.
On the one hand, it comes with overload protection and a 12 hour automatic timer, so if you leave the heater running, it will shut-off before it overheats and causes a fire. In terms of durability, most heaters will eventually burn themselves out, it is just unavoidable. However, you will get a lot more use out of the Dr Infrared Heater Portable Space Heater than you would out of most other reasonably priced heaters.
If you are style conscious, you will also probably appreciate that the heater has this very nice wood finish that really fits nicely into most rooms and it doesn’t stand out too much compared to other wooden furniture.
- Fits nicely into any room thanks to nice wooden finish.
- Very powerful.
- Great at distributing heat evenly.
- Should last for quite a while.
- Comes with helpful safety features.
- Weird starting procedure.
- Might be a bit overkill for smaller rooms.
Air Choice Portable Radiant Heater
Not everyone is in the same boat when it comes to their heating needs and we recognize this. Not everyone necessarily needs to invest in a large, pricey infrared heater. Some of you may need a more compact, more portable, and more affordable option.
That is why the next review on our best infrared heater list is going to be a review of the Air Choice Portable Radiant Heater. This is a well-made, portable heater that is likely to work well for those who are in the market for something that is smaller and more affordable.
To give you an idea of what the Air Choice Portable Radiant Heater brings to the table, let’s look at its wattage. The heating element on the Air Choice is around 500 watts. If you read our last review, then you will remember that the Dr Infrared possessed about 1500 watts of power.
So, the Air Choice Portable Radiant Heater represents about a 1000 watt decrease in power. That may sound bad on the surface, but the Dr Infrared was a large room heater, while the Air Choice is attempting to be better suited for smaller rooms and applications.
While it doesn’t bring much in terms of total heating power to the conversation, the Air Choice certainly has some other great features that are worth noting. For example, despite not being all that powerful, the Air Choice is certainly very quick. With most heaters, you expect there to be a sort of “heating up” period where the heater turns on and slowly gets up to the desired temperature.
On some infrared heaters, this waiting period can be quite excruciating. However, with the Air Choice Portable Radiant Heater, it really isn’t something that you have to worry about. This heater gets up to temperature in the blink of an eye, so you can spend less time freezing.
In terms of both cost and portability, it is hard to imagine any heater beating the Air Choice Portable Radiant Heater. It is extremely compact and very easy to carry around the house thanks to a conveniently placed handle at the top. Furthermore, the heater can be had for an extremely low price.
- Very affordable.
- Easy to carry around.
- Gets up to temperature very quickly.
- Does come with overheating protection.
- Not a good choice for larger rooms.
- Could use more temperature settings (only has 2).
LIFE SMART 6 Quartz Elements Infrared Space Heater
For the next review on our best infrared heater list, we are going to be doing a review of space heater that is a lot more in line with the Dr Infrared Heater Portable Space Heater that we started the list off with. The Dr Infrared Heater Portable Space Heater, much like the Dr Infrared, is a powerful, reliable space heater that you can use in larger rooms to get them quickly heated up to a comfortable temperature.
In terms of power output, the LIFE SMART is actually tied with the Dr Infrared in terms of power. The heat element supports 3 different settings (500 watts, 1000 watts, and 1500 watts). So, with a max power of 1500 watts, you know that the LIFE SMART 6 Quartz Elements Infrared Space Heater is powerful enough to accomplish just about any heating job that you need it to. You can put it in any sized room and trust that it will be up to the task of heating the room.
As we said in the review for the Dr Infrared, it isn’t just about how much heat that the heater can produce, it is also about how the heater does when it comes to distributing the heat. Thankfully, the LIFE SMART 6 Quartz Elements Infrared Space Heater does well at spreading around the massive amount of heat that it creates.
Another thing that we have emphasized the importance of on this review list is the importance of finding an infrared heater that doesn’t have a long start-up.
The 6 quartz heating elements that are in the LIFE SMART 6 Quartz Elements Infrared Space Heater help to eliminate this problem. Even if you turn the heater up to the highest setting, it will get up to temperature in a matter of seconds. You don’t have to wait long for this machine to start producing heat.
One issue that we imagine that some of you will have with the LIFE SMART is that it does tend to stick out quite a bit. When compared to something like the Dr Infrared, which sports a natural wooden finish, the LIFE SMART is just a big, black box. If you care about keeping a certain aesthetic in your house, then this might bother you. However, we also realize that this won’t be a big issue for many of you.
- Starts producing a lot of heat quickly.
- 3 power settings.
- Extremely powerful 1500 watt heating element.
- Programmable timer.
- Turns-off automatically if knocked over.
- Bulky and sticks out in a room.
Unique Heat PTC Personal Home & Office Heater
The next product that we want to review as part of our best infrared heater list is easily the highest-end heater option that we have reviewed so far on this review list. As you can see from the price of the Unique Heat PTC Personal Home & Office Heater, this is a very advanced, high-end infrared heater. So, naturally we had to include it alongside the other great options on this list.
So, what is it exactly about the Unique Heat PTC Personal Home & Office Heater that makes it worthy of being reviewed on this list in the first place? Well to start, this is an extremely powerful heater.
Much like a lot of the other really high-end heaters on this list, it has a heating element that can achieve a maximum power output of 1500 watts. As we have said in so many other reviews, having this much power allows it to be used to heat an extremely wide array of rooms. You can easily use the Unique Heat to handle just about any heating job that you need it to.
Like all high-end heaters, it also does a great job of actually distributing the heat that it produces. This is great as it helps to distribute the heat evenly throughout the room and it helps to prevent the development of annoying hotspots throughout the room. Despite having various fans pushing the hot air out across the room, this is not a noisy, annoying heater. You can put this in your living room, and it won’t stop you from enjoying television or your room.
Now, this is a large and fairly pricey option to be sure. However, the quality of the heater really does help to make up for it. So, if budget isn’t an issue for you and you have enough room to find space for the heater, we would really recommend giving the Unique Heat PTC Personal Home & Office Heater a try.
- One of the more powerful heaters on our list.
- Surprisingly quiet, despite the size and number of fans.
- Distributes heat evenly to avoid hotspots.
- Shouldn’t burn out or die easily.
- Not easy to transport.
- Very costly compared to other infrared heaters on this list.
Heat Storm HS-1500-PHX-WIFI Infrared Heater
For the final review on our best infrared heater list, we are going to be doing a review of the Heat Storm HS-1500-PHX-WIFI Infrared Heater. This is a nice high-tech option that isn’t going to appeal to everyone, but that is otherwise a good option, especially if you have a smart home or are wanting to set one up.
Rather than start with what we usually talk about, which is the power output of the heater (we will get to that in a second), we are going to start with the fact that this is a “smart” heater. As you can see from the product name, the Heat Storm HS-1500-PHX-WIFI Infrared Heater has WIFI connectivity. This means that you can connect it into your smart home system and remotely control the heater from your phone, tablet, or computer.
If you have a voice-operated smart home system, then you can use that as well. Like we said in the beginning of the review, this isn’t going to appeal to everyone since not everyone is interested in setting up a smart home system.
If you don’t have one of these systems or if you don’t plan on getting one, than the value of the Heat Storm HS-1500-PHX-WIFI Infrared Heater goes down to the point where we would recommend going with another model instead.
If, however, you do plan on getting a smart home system, then the Heat Storm HS-1500-PHX-WIFI Infrared Heater is a great heater to go along with it for a variety of reasons. First off, the Heat Storm is an incredibly powerful infrared heater.
It comes equipped with a 1500 watt heating element. A lot of heaters on this list have had a similar power output, so you already have a good idea of what a 1500 watt heating element can accomplish. Because of this, we won’t go into what’s really good about having such a high powered heating element.
Something else that we like about this heater is the fact that it does not get hot to the touch. So, if you happen to have small children in the house, there is no chance that they will accidentally burn themselves on the heater like they potentially could with a different heater.
On the other hand, we should note that this heater can technically only be used by mounting it on the wall. While you could probably jury rig a different configuration up, the proper method requires you to use a wall mount. This is something to consider before investing in the Heat Storm HS-1500-PHX-WIFI Infrared Heater.
- Only smart heater on our list.
- Can be connected to smart home system.
- Very strong 1500 watt heating element.
- Doesn’t get hot to the touch.
- Has to be walled mounted.
How Do Infrared Heaters Work
Before sending you on your way, there is one more thing that we want to cover in our best infrared heater list, which is how these heaters work. The reason that we want to do this is because if you go shopping on your own, you may see different kinds of heaters out there and you may be curious as to why infrared heaters are the best way to go.
Most heaters that you come across, especially in physical stores, are convection heaters. These heaters are classics, but they are also extremely inefficient. They work by heating up air particles and then dispersing them throughout the room. As you can imagine, this process is not quick, and it takes a while.
Infrared heaters work quite a bit differently. An infrared heater works by releasing special heat particles directly into the room. This increases the ambient temperature of the room by heating up objects in the room, as well as the ambient air in the room.
You don’t have to be an expert to see why this is a more efficient way of heating a room. Relying on blown hot air is just too inefficient. The increases in efficiency and heating speed alone are enough for us to recommend only going with infrared heaters. If you have a choice, while shopping, between either an infrared heater or a convection heater, always go for the infrared.
If you have some questions regarding our best infrared heater list, please leave us a comment down below.