Heaters Reviews

I bought one of these American Harvest beauties from the local farm supply store for $1280. I have had it hooked up and running for about a month now and am thinking about selling it. Here is what I do not like about it:

1. Its noisy.

Today it started to rattle. It sounds like the fan that circulates the heated air.

It makes frequent "bangs". When using corn large "clinkers" form in the burn tray. There is a bar inside the burn tray that rotates and keeps things mixed up. These "clinkers" wedge against the rotating bar and cause the burn tray to lift up and drop back down again...Bang! Luckily I can sleep through anything. The wife on the other hand hasn't slept much since we got this. :-(

2. Requires frequent cleaning.

The burn tray has holes drilled in. Corn is dropped into the burn tray and gets burned. The resulting ash is forced through the holes into the ash drawer, or that is how it is supposed to work anyway. In actuality, the spent corn is forced out of the burn tray into the pit that surrounds it. After a couple of days you need to shut the stove off for a couple of hours then vacuum out the pit. You need to let it rest for a couple of hours to make sure that it is completely burned out or you will start your vacuum on fire. I have tried using fireplace utensils to clean the pit but that doesn't work very well. The manual that comes with the stove recommends adding chicken scrath to the burn mixture to get a more complete burn. That doesn't seem to help mutch. They also recommend buying low-moisture corn. I asked the guy at the farm store what the moisture content of his corn was. You can probably guess how well that worked out.

The window requires frequent cleaning. This stove comes complete with something called "fire wash" technology that is supposed to keep the window clean. It doesn't work.

3. Difficult to regulate tempurature.

The stove has two controls. One controls the heat output and the other controls the blower for the heated air. The winter in my location is generally pretty mild so we usually run the stove somewhere between 1 and 3 (9 is the highest). I think the stove was designed to run at a higher output than this. This morning I was getting ready for work and noticed that it had completely burned out. Evidently, on a setting of 1 it doesn't add corn fast enough to keep itself burning. I relit it and bumped it up to three. Hopefully it will still be burning when I get home.

You also need to be careful what setting you leave the blower fan on. Set it too low and the stove will overheat and make your house smell funny. You really need to keep the fan set on at least 4 or 5. Sure its loud, but at least it smells better.

I have had my stove for a year now. It cost about $300 to heat my 1600 sq ft basement heated. The additional benifit is that because the heat rises, my floors are warm on the first floor, and the air in the family room which is also the room with the stairs to the basement is warmer.

There are a couple issues that you must take into consideration:

Dry corn is a must. I buy corn from a local farmer with a moisture content of about 14 - 14.5%. This is a little higher than recommended by the manufacturer, so I add 2 lbs. of wood pellets per bushel of corn. I also add about 1/2 lb. of oyster shell (chicken scratch) per bushel to virtually eliminate klinkers.

The stove needs to be clean. I shut the stove down once a week for cleaning. Empty the ash bin, vacuum the firebox area, the heat transfer tubes, and the chimney clean-out.

Noise is about equal to a normal box window fan in good condition. The noise I hear is tha actual air blowing more than anything else. The firebox does lift up and drop back down on occasion, but this happens on average about once every hour or so, less immediately after a cleaning, more after 5 or 6 days of running.

Power. You must have electricity to run. If the power goes out, so does the stove. This will not keep you warm during power outages. We have lost power while the stove was running, but all that happened was the stove went out. No fumes seemed to back up into the house, but I had closed the air intake vent immediately. I would imagine that if you didn't close it, it would smell a bit until the fire died out.

It is much more work than just turning up the thermostat, but I have saved more than half the cost of the stove in propane compared to last winter. I am thinking about purchasing another one for the upper level.

This heater did not last a month (with minor use). Don't waste your money. It began making loud rattling noises and then died. A one star rating is generous for this piece of junk!

It is light weight, heats a good sized area & has a remote. What could be better than that?

I bought this heater less than 2 weeks ago, and it is already dead. The heater itself worked great, but the AST plug that it uses for safety is a piece of junk. The instructions recommend you test the plug prior to every use by pressing the test button, then the reset button (similar to a GFCI plug). However, this is what caused the death of my heater.

And I just found it it will cost me almost as much to send it back to Black & Decker to get it fixed as it would to buy another heater (from a different manufacturer, of course). So
I decided to open up the AST plug and find out what was wrong .. and boy am I glad I did...

Inside that plug, the reset button is a piece of plastic that is about a quarter of an inch around on the outside of the plug; but the functional piece on the back of that button that has to press a metal rod down and lock in place is about the thickness of a paper clip. And because it locks in place, it also has to flex back and forth to move notched areas into locking position. Well, this tiny fragile piece of plastic broke because I diligently followed the instructions and tested my unit before every use. About 10 times of pressing that button stressed that thin piece of plastic until it broke... thus rendering the entire heater useless.

I'm just going to throw it in the trash and chalk it up as wasted money; since getting it fixed would probably just result in my being able to use it a few more times before that cheap piece of plastic in the plug would fail again. I'm also never going to buy a B&D product again, as I've had nothing but trouble with their products; usually due to cheap parts.

We purchased this heater about a month ago and it is wonderful. It has excellent features, such as tip over or overheat safety. It automatically shuts down if it gets too warm or tips over. If you pick it up to move it, it also shuts down. It has different settings for room size and/or temp. We use it in a 14 x 14 sunroom and has kept it very comfortable so far (during Dec and Jan). We just love it - and it is inexpensive. What a deal!

I bought this product thinking that it would suffice for my needs and boy was I wrong. All I wanted was a humidifier that would automatically keep the humidity of the room at optimal level. I brought this thing home filled it up at set it to run on high @ 40% humidity. (a common amount), If theory it was suppose to shut off when it reached that level, but insted it ran ALL night (for about 9 hours) non-stop! It never shut off once and when I woke up in the morning, I will admit that the room was humid... Everything was damp. It must have been at least 70% humidity in there, and the tank was bone dry as well. Only buy this if you plan on just leaving it run all the time or you are putting it in a completly sealed off room. (no heating vents). The automatatic shut off and humidity sensors are absolute crap! I am returning this hunk of junk today!

I have had this product for over 6 months now and it has always performed well. Good value for the price

After six years with quiet very effective baseboard heaters we recently were convinced to install these units in a couple of condo's we own. They are basically wall mounted hair dryers. Not only did tenants lose wall space in every room but unlike the baseboard heaters they can't put anything within 3' of the units. Don't put one in a kitchen any place near a garbage can if you can avoid it or you will blow hot air smelly air into your house.

They also off-gas (and set off smoke detectors for the first couple of hours of operation). At night the fan switches on and if you are a light sleeper it will take a few nights to not wake up repeatedly throughout the night. The units are easy to install though and are almost flush to the wall (about 1/2")

These might be the first choice of contractors but they would not be my first, second or third choice for small units or sleeping areas.

It the best wall heater because i have not heard of any recalls unlike Cadet heater. Cadets are really to quiet nice but I like to hear my King heater working

When I picked up this unit from Wal-Mart, the clerk at the register told me to keep my receipt because some of these were coming back. That should have been enough for me to put it back on the shelf. But I brought it home anyway...

It worked fine for a couple of days, and then next thing I knew the temperature on the thermostat was showing me it was 79 degrees -- a reliable thermometer showed 69. But the heater was REALLY hot. I turned it off, let it cool and tried it again. It worked fine until...

The next couple of times I tried using it, I had the timer set for 3 hours. After about 10 minutes, the whole unit shut off.

I should have listened to the clerk and never bought the darned thing. Returned it to Wal-Mart where the service clerk said "I won't even ask why you're returning it. Almost every one of these we've sold has come back."

I've since picked up a DeLonghi unit from Sears. So far, so good with that one. But my advice is to stay away from this Honeywell unit.

I guess there are several lemons of this model, but mine is great. Once you get past the ugly fake wood paneling in front, it is noisless, odorless, and as long as I pay attention to the controls which are easy to use, it does just fine.

There is a control for running the machine on 800, 900 or 1500 Watts, and not trusting my house's old wiring I've always used the 800 which works just fine, even when my room needed to be heated 20 degrees. The thermostat and timer for shutting the thing off have always been functional as well. The digital display is easy to read and use. Additionally, the thermostat keeps the temperature within 2 degrees above or below what you set it to, and when it reaches 2 degrees above, a light comes on and it stops heating, although the unit remains on.

I used this radiator all winter, and there's no sign of damage whatsoever. Contrasting this to my room mate's electric fan space heater ($16) which short circuited and nearly started a fire, I would recommend this as a safe, trustworthy alternative. If you get a lemon on the first try and have kept your reciept, try doing an even exchange, because I really can't say a bad thing about this radiator.

I have an older model of Pelonis Ceramic Heater. This heater keeps the room warm-once its taken the chill out of the air. The compact size and warmth output best features. The noisy fan-is the reason I'm seeking a new heater. And why I wrote this review.

This heater will warm you, but don't expect it to perform the way it's claimed to. It's small, compact, but has a noisy fan, that can be heard above TVs, radios, and is a bit disturbing when trying to sleep; that is, until you get adjusted to it. The thermostat is not very accurate. It runs for long periods of time, and stays off for long periods of time. The Safety features don't work like they should either. If you knock or over-turn this heater, it's supposed to turn off. On the 750 watt setting, it doesn't turn off for several minutes, if knocked over. It will continue to super-heat your carpet, until the safety kicks in, about 5 to 7 minutes, then shuts down. On the 1500 watt setting, it goes off in less than one minute, if over-turned. I owned one briefly, but didn't keep it for it's failure to shut off if tipped over, noisy fan, and inaccurate thermostat. There are no voting buttons; so you must write your own reviews. Want voting buttons, than you need to incorporate them in the "Write a Review area". I actually tried this heater at my home; and it did not satisfy me with it's performance. My reviews of a product are honest, and unbiased. If you disagree with my review, then try one of these heaters for yourself; and write your review. My email is now: JHJR43@prodigy.net

Installing this makes absolutely NO difference at all. The heat doesn't blow out of the heater like you would expect. In fact, it doesn't blow at all. It seems like it cools the heat coming out and possibly deducts from the output. It sure makes a lot more noise, but no difference in the heat circulation. All of the heat goes straight up out of the heater whether the blower is "working" or not. It then continues to collect on the ceilings or the upstairs.

I would not recommend buying this item - it is purely a waste of money and electric. I would have been much better off by buying another natural gas heater.

Bought the blower for my Reddy Garage Heater to see if it could more quickly heat my large 3 car garage. It was very easy to install and seems to cut my heating time in half. Not sure what previous reviewer was talking about when he said it was blowing cold air. It has a built in thermometer that only starts the blower when the temperature of the heater reaches a certain temp.

If you have a Reddy Heater without a blower I highly recommend getting this blower.

Pros: it uses diesel and is bright green

Cons: no wheels, seat, or steering mechanism. Too heavy to push.

When all is said and done, yer looking at zero MPG.

As a respected scientist and the only survivor of a world-wide plague originating in Europe that has transported airborne a mysterious germ that has infected the world's population it is my fortune to report just who useful this device is. It's December of 2009 and yours truly has lived alone in the States for three years, but it has not been easy. At night I'm subject to attacks by vampire ghouls, whom I hold off by mirrors and garlic. These are humans infected by the unknown viral germ. The only perks I gets from living alone in the world, is that everything is free. I prowl the supermarkets for food (especially fresh garlic kept in the freezer) and choose any car I want (a hearse-like station wagon suits me fine). After a half-hour into my desolation row experience, of watching me sharpen wooden stakes on a lathe and replace my glazed mirrors with brand new ones from a city store and a visit to my family's gravesite, I start to reminisce goes into a flashback and I am shown with my loving wife Virginia and young daughter Kathy before the plague hit home. I watch them get infected and die, as does my best friend and work colleague Ben Cortman. The scientist team headed by myself are trying to come up with a vaccine but are stymied, even though Dr. Mercer (the head honcho) is optimistic that they eventually will before it's too late.
I didn't listen to Ben's warnings that this a vampire thing, and Ben becomes my enemy in death--he bangs the loudest on my door at night. Ben's not the only zombie trying to break into my house at night, there are many other infected beings trying to get my blood. But they're all too weak and irrational to accomplish that mission and I am too clever for them.
But as unfortunate as all of this is, without my trusty Stateline Power 200 KW Diesel Generator, SPC-200-J (or Sp as I like to call it) I would not have survived this long. It keeps my garlic refrigerated and my short wave radio working. With its single-phase unit featuring 12 Volt electrics, mechanical governing, tropicalized radiator, industrial muffler & rain cap, rugged steel base, engine block heaters, dry air cleaner and emissions compliant I will not pollute the atmosphere too much (hey, after I die the cockroaches and rats will inherit a clean earth). So this is why I give it five starts. I...hear...something thumping...at...the...door...the...door...is...falling...IA SHUB NIGURATH CTULHU FTAGHN RYALEH IAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

This heater works great in a house with no walls in the dead of winter. But, it will drive you out of anything saller than 3000 sq.ft. The good thing about this heater is that it heats quick enough to dry sheetrock and texture to be ready for paint in a matter of just a few hours.

This heater works great in a house with no walls in the dead of winter. But, it will drive you out of anything saller than 3000 sq.ft. The good thing about this heater is that it heats quick enough to dry sheetrock and texture to be ready for paint in a matter of just a few hours.