Eco-heater 602 High-Efficiency Electric Panel Whole-Room Heater
by Eco-heater
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List Price: Our Price: $83.87 You Save: $36.08 (30%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Home See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Eco-heater 602 High-Efficiency Electric Panel Whole-Room Heater
Customer Review: Excellent, for what it is
Summary: 4 Stars
Based on many of the reviews here, we had purchased 4 of these heaters to supplement our expensive oil heating. I work from a small home office and so heating the whole house during the day was unnecessary. Instead we run the furnace once in the morning, and then once or twice at night, relying on these heaters to maintain the temperature.
We installed one of these heaters in an upstairs 10x10 office, another in an upstairs 10x10 bedroom, and the 2 others downstairs, shared between our living room and dining room (about 12 x 24 in total). They were easy to paint, but as we have old horsehair plaster walls, not all of them were easy to install; it took some creative work and a trip to Home Depot.
In the bedroom and office these work quite well. The bedroom is quite toasty (the only insulated room), and after a few cold New England nights we've found that it has performed very well. Winter air is already dry, so we don't keep the heater on all night, but rather heat up the room before bed and then have it turn on at about 5am (we use appliance timers).
The office heater could only be located all the way on the other side of the room from where I work, but it does a decent--not great--job of maintaining a temperature of around 60 - 65 degrees (and sometimes warmer towards the afternoon after it has been on for a few hours).
The downstairs heaters have a much harder job, because the living/dining areas are open to other rooms (kitchen, foyer), but they do an OK job of supplementing the hot water heat (probably by just a few degrees, though).
Surprisingly, our electric bill was only marginally higher, and far lower than running our A/C in the heat of summer. People really have to remember that these are intended to be ECONOMICAL units, not ultra, super, turbo-charged heaters.
Some notes:
- Yes, you can definitely burn yourself on the surface of this heater. It's not as hot as a red-hot space heater or a stove top, but it'll still leave a mark.
- Placement is really important, so read the safety/installation instructions and make sure that you have a sensible place to put one. ie: Avoid installing near doorways, windows and open entryways.
- If you have horsehair plaster walls like ours, you'd do best to line up one side of the heater with a stud, and then reinforce the other two screw holes before installing (I drilled out a 1/2" hole for each and then used multiple applications of spackling paste over a few days before drilling the final pilot holes).
- It's best to turn on the heaters AT LEAST 2-3 hours before you plan to be in a room. We have all of them connected to appliance timers...and be sure to keep doors closed while the room heats up.
Hope this helps.
Customer Review: The BEST heating option if you have children and/or pets!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have both, twin 4 year old boys and a high strung Weimaraner named Amara. Anyway, we needed a heater for the 2nd largest and furthest bedroom from our forced air furnace. Even though our home is only 6 years old and very well insulated, the furnace just can't keep that room warm enough for true comfort. Earlier this spring our boys moved into this room and I knew that the heat was going to be an issue in the winter. The room has always been a few degrees cooler than any other room in the house during the winter months. The room measures 11x13 (143 sq ft) with a 14 ft tray ceiling and a 52" ceiling fan so it's a little larger than the 120 sq ft the manufacturer recommends but it has done a great job at keeping the room the same temp as the rest of the house. We keep the thermostat at 65 degrees during the winter and so far so good! What we have done thus far is turned the unit on and off but ordered an outlet thermostat to control it more efficiently.
As for installation, it could not be easier! The hardware provided is actually good quality. It came with 4 EZ Anchor style drywall anchors, 4 large drywall style screws and some cheap insert style anchors that I did not use. I aligned my unit next to an outlet so I could sink 2 of the screws into a stud and have the outlet right there to plug it into. I felt better anchoring at least 2 of the screws into a stud. I used the EZ Anchor type anchors for the other 2 screws. The template that was provided worked great! Just level the template, use one of the screws provided to poke a hole through the marked template to mark the wall and hang the unit. I was able to do it myself in about 5 minutes, literally!! I am fairly handy so maybe plan on 10 minutes if you aren't.
Heat output is AWESOME!! It heats up 100% in about 10-15 minutes and you can really feel the difference right away. The unit does NOT get as hot to the touch as one reviewer eluded to but it is definitely sufficient to heat the above mentioned room 2-3 degrees and keep it very comfortable with the door closed. The dog just sniffed the unit and walked away and both of my boys were given a class/lecture/briefing on not touching or playing around with the unit. I did have both of them touch the unit after it was fully heated to show them it will not burn them but to never play with it nonetheless.
Overall I really like the unit and am going to order 2 more for my basement. My dad is also interested for his house as well. Hope this review can help you make a educated decision on this unit. I am really impressed with every aspect and I was skeptical when doing the initial research.
Customer Review: Fantastic but Has Pros & Cons: could be more 'Green'
Summary: 4 Stars
This item is great! We live in a large old farm house with strickly baseboard heat. Both of the bathrooms have NO heaters so we purchased 3 of these units. We added one to each bathroom and a cold spot in our bedroom. The bathroom stays nice and toasty during the day and night now with no temperature difference between rooms.
We love the eco-heater so much we are considering replacing all of our 1500w baseboard heaters with these 400w heaters to save major $$ on our electric bill and lessen our carbon footprint.
There are many benefits to this heater but it is NOT PERFECT. As much as I LOVE this item, it does get a lot hotter than the company would like you to think. Too hot in my opinion to have around small children where they could easily burn their fingers or melt a plastic toy against it.
The heater was simple to install any man or woman cold do it in about 30 minutes or less. The foam packaging doubles as a template for your wall so you know the exact place to put the screw in and mount it. That was handy, however as an environmentalist, I was disappointed that the Eco-Heater used foam padding for shipping and a template rather than a biodegradable or recycled cardboard one. Now I am stuck with all this foam packing that can not be recycled and will NEVER be biodegradable. I feel this is something the manufacturer should consider since it is calling it an 'eco heater'. Shouldn't the packaging and the entire item be totally environmentally friendly?
There is room for improvement like adding a thermostat so it doesn't continuously run unless you manually shut it off. Again, get rid of the foam packaging so it is more environmentally friendly.
The item is made in Africa, and personally I feel that gives it a little more credibility than being made in China.
If and when you do decide to purchase this item, shop elsewhere. I love Amazon and their site, however a place called 'The Andersons', a general type of store has them everyday for $99. We almost purchased them online but would have spend nearly $150. by the time you figured in Shipping & Handling. There are other stores that carry them as well and I encourage you to shop locally in your own home town to help support your community. If your going to be 'green' please do it right and consider all aspects. Do NO Harm in all you do and use conscious thinking. That is being green!
Customer Review: Great heater, but...
Summary: 4 Stars
We needed a supplemental heater to gently warm a room since we keep our entire house temperature set at 55 (to save energy). We were using the portable electric space heaters (with a fan) to warm the room we were in. But we were afraid to leave these things on all day unattended or during the night, so we were constantly turning them off, then on again. Plus, the fans were noisy and irritating.
In our living room, we have an big, old, heavy wood stove that hasn't been used in years since the chimney was removed for another project. The stove is surrounded by brick on both the base and the back, so there is a lot of mass there. We tried one of these Eco Heaters and attached it to the back of wood stove between the stove and the brick. This way, it is invisible and we were hoping it would heat up the mass of the stove and also the brick. It took many hours of running to heat up everything but it works great. Heat is radiated by the stove and the brick backing and the room is kept comfortable. It can also be safely left on continuously, even when not home. With no fans and no visible heating element, it is quiet and safe.
I would have given this product 5 stars, but there is one huge problem. As soon as we removed the product from the packaging we noticed a horrible smell. This thing stunk up our entire home within 10 minutes. You get a slip of paper with it stating that there may be an odor for the first 24 hours of use. We installed it anyway hoping the smell would go away quickly. It was only operating for less than 1 hour when I began to feel a numbing sensation on lips, irritation in my mouth and my sense of smell diminished. Even the cat left the room and did not return. I could not stand the smell any longer and removed the heater from its location and placed it in the garage for 5 days with the door left open. My guess is that whatever ever the smell is, it is toxic and unhealthy. So, if you decide to buy one of these, please beware of the toxic fumes.
Customer Review: Good heater for a specific requirement
Summary: 4 Stars
I first heard about this from another Amazon reveiwer that was reviewing another heater, and they ended up getting this one. I thought I would end up getting an oil filled heater, but there were a lot of reviews of quality problems, noise and fumes. This one seemed to fit the bill for my particular requirements, so I ordered one. It does not have thermostatic controls, just an on/off switch. We control it with a LUX win100 programmable outlet thermostat (see my review). Together the 2 products keep baby's room exactly at 70 degrees from 8:00PM to 7:30AM, allowing us to turn off the house furnace at night. It doesn't get hot enough to catch anything on fire or stink like a lot of higher wattage heaters. I also have a concern with adding a 1500 watt heater (most other heaters) to an already maxed 15 amp breaker. This is only a 400 watt unit. We are in northern california where it only gets down to the 40's or 50's at night outside. It works fine for us in a 10 x 12 room with the door closed. It does not run constantly to keep the room to 70, so I suppose it could keep up with colder weather. We've had no problems so far. It does not stink, make noise or get hot enough to burn you. One concern I had was how it would be when our baby turns into a toddler and finds in necessary to touch everything. It is supposed to be mounted low so the heat goes up and circulates, so it can't be placed out of reach of a child. It won't burn you if you touch it, but you will not want to touch it for more that a second! Hopefully, we can use it through the toddler stage without any injuries. Lastly, I don't quite get why it is so expensive, since it is just a large low wattage heating element (without even a thermostatic control). I would think a product like this would market for about $50.00 or so. Therefore 4 stars....otherwise I would give it 5 stars. Hopefully, it will last for a while... We are happy with it and would recommend it if it suits your needs.
R.