LaskoMyHeat Personal Space Heater, Compact, White

PrefaceI own several of these Lasko 100 MyHeat Personal Ceramic Heaters, all purchased from Amazon, and I LOVE them! Before purchasing the first two for my particular planned primary use, I had first done a lot of due diligence (i.e., research) to determine whether these small 200 watt heaters would actually adequately address my particular needs. Once I had determined, from some research, that they should indeed do the job, I then ordered two of the heaters (I ordered more later for even other tasks....!), and, sure enough, they turned out to work perfectly for the intended primary use!Basic Product Description and Bassic SpecsOne of the big weaknessess of Amazon Marketplace is that it allows many vendors/sellers list products without listing the basic specifications and a full description. The current Lasko 100 MyHeat heater listing is not overly complete, and while the basic product specs would be completely obvious to someone with an engineering background, such as myself, they may not be obvious to certain other prospective buyers. Here are the basics about the heater that I have been able to determine:-- This is a 200 watt electric heater. It draws about 200 watts at 120 VAC. Current draw is about 1.7 to 1.8 amperes (aka amps) at 120 VAC.-- It is equipped with a 5 or 6 foot AC power cord designed to plug into a standard US 2-prong 120 VAC power outlet.-- The heater incorporates a ceramic heating element and a very small internal electric fan to circulate the warm air.-- The heater produces about 200 watts of heat when turned on and operating. This is equivalent to about 682 BTUs (BTUs, International Table, aka BTUIT) per hour.-- The heater is not equipped with a tip-over shut off safety device, but the manufacturer's listing states that it is equipped with an over-temperature safety shut-off device.-- The heater is equipped only with with an on/off AC power switch. It is NOT equipped with an internal thermostat, as are some of the larger 1.5 kW heaters. (The heater can easily be turned on and off as needed to regulate temperature by use of an appropriate external thermostatic switch.)-- No, the heater is not "wireless"! (see note below)-- No, the heater cannot be powered by plugging it into a USB port, nor by plugging it into an Ethernet port! (see note below)-- No, the heater cannot be powered by "batteries", such as AAA, AA, C, or D cell batteries! (see note below)[BTW, I must confess that the kind of people who ask the questions that were addressed in the three previous items really worry me; I wonder about their IQ, and their ability to think clearly, and about their understanding of the basic laws of physics and electricity!]A Cautionary Note About the Whiny Reviews re "Not Enough Heat"I will tell you about my primary use for these heaters in a moment, but first, in light of the abundance of reviews here at Amazon that I have read for this product wherein dissatisfied reviewers have complained that the heater did not, in effect, deliver sufficient heat, I do want to remind all readers of this review that these heaters are plainly and explicitly and clearly stated by the manufacturer to put out about 200 watts of heat; in terms of BTUs per hour, that would be about 682 BTUs per hour (BTUIT/h). So, if your particular heating need requires only 200 watts (682 BTUIT/h) of heat at most, then you should be eminently satisfied with this reliable little heater.On the other hand, if you order this little 200 watt heater from Amazon when you really needed the amount of heat that, in reality, could only be delivered by a 1.5 KW heater (that is, somewhat over 5,000 BTUs per hour), then yes, you are gonna be dissatisfied, and you will likely end up being one of the many cranky reviewers who post inane negative one-star reviews stating that these little heaters did not deliver sufficient heat! Got it? ????The Main Body of My ReviewOkay, now back to my review, where I recall that I had earlier promised to tell you about my primary use for these heaters, and how well they are working in that application (BTW, I also use others to handle cold spots around our large old drafty house):I live on a forested mountainside in the Appalachian mountains. The climate gets pretty cold here in cold weather season (to get an idea of average winter temperatures here, you can check out climate tables for Waynesboro, PA or Chambersburg, PA...). I have an insulated and heated 14' x 12' Amish barn structure up in my backyard that serves as my workshop and laboratory. The Amish barn stands about 10 feet tall, and it contains essentially one floor of workspace plus a very spacious attic/loft for storage. The building is insulated, but not super well.And, since air infiltration is usually the biggest source of heat loss in most buildings, I will note here that this building does tend to have reasonably low air infiiltration, just sufficient for adequate ventilation (adequate ventilaion with these Amish barn structures is REALLY important, since, without decent ventilation, the interior space would -- due to the massive amount of VOCs off-gassing from large amount of pressed fiberboard and plywood-type materials used in the building construction, plus, in the case of my workshop, additional VOCs off-gassing from wall and ceiling insulation foam, and from carpeting -- tend to contain lots of VOCs and related toxic gaseous compounds.So, the workshop/lab Amish barn structure is insulated, and it measures 14' x 12' x about 10' tall. Due to the equipment (much of it sophisticated electronic test equipment) that I keep, and use, in the building, and also due to the fact that I use the workshop/lab year-round, I want to keep it at an interior temperature of at least 63 degress F during cold weather season, although I do not mind very rare dips of interior temperature to about 55 degrees F on the very coldest winter days/nights (i.e., a string of minus-5 degree F days and nights).I designed the building to be heated solely by electric heat. However, there is not much AC power available in the building for heating purposes, and for the following reasons:1) There is only a 15 amp AC line (120 VAC; USA standard) feeding the building.2) Much of that power is needed for those times when I wish to run the drill press or the circular saw: obviously, if there were also a 1.5 kW portable electric space heater running in the building at the same time, I would blow a circuit breaker every time that I turned on the drill press, the circular saw, or any piece of electronic equipment drawing over about 200 watts!So, for heating this building during the cold weather season, I simply cannot afford, for many practical reasons, to employ a standard 1.5 kW electric heater with a built-in thermostatic control, whether on the high power (1.5 kW) setting or even on the half-power (about 800 watts) setting; such a large heater simply draws too much AC power while it is turned on. Rather, I realized that I needed small heaters, either one or two heaters in the 200 watt power range.So, here is the heating setup that I use to keep the workshop/lab buiding at the right temperature during cold-weather season:First, a certain amount of incidental heat, about 160 watts worth, is emitted non-stop, 24 hours per day, by several CFL lamps that are left turned on at all times, and by a few pieces of essential electronic equipment that operate 24 hours per day (this electronic equipment is used to monitor and log various conditions and parameters of a nearby space-time rift, located about 40 feet from the building; based upon popular request, some more notes on this rift in the space-time fabric may be found in a footnote at the end of this review). So, the lamps and the electronic gear emit about 160 watts of heat as a baseline.For the remainder of the heating needs for the building , I use a wall-mounted thermostatic switch (a Suncourt DS100 DuctStat Plug-In Thermostat, purchased here at Amazon), with the thermostat set to 63 degrees F, to control either one or two of these Lasko 100 heaters (they are plugged into the thermostatically-switched AC outlet on the Suncourt device), as follows:If the lowest temperatures for the next two weeks are not predicted to fall much below 25 degrees F, then I leave only one of the Lasko heaters plugged into the thermostat. (The other one is left unplugged and turned off.)On the other hand, if the lowest temperatures for the next two weeks are predicted to fall significantly below 25 degrees F, then I leave both of the Lasko 200W heaters plugged into the thermostat's AC power outlet.Bottom LineThese Lasko heaters, coupled with the thermostatically-controlled switch mounted on an interior wall of the workshop, work perfectly in this application. And, if I need to be work in the building on a cold day, and I therefore want to temporarily raise the interior temperature of the building to the 72 degree F range for my increased comfort, I simply re-adjust the thermostat setting upward by abouty 10 degrees for a few hours, and the heaters kick in to add some extra warmth!So, for my current heating needs in this building, where the floor, walls and ceiling/roof currently exhibit an average R-value of 13, I need two of these Lasko 200 watt heaters (controlled by the thermostat, as needed) to meet my needs during the coldest portions of the cold-weather season (it is helpful to remember, that in addition to R-value related heat losses, there is some heat loss from the building due to deliberate-but-thankfully-limited crossflow ventilation).Some Other PossibilitiesNow, of course, if I were to crank down the already-very-minimal crossflow ventilation (which would not be at all healthful for any persons and/or cats using the building, due to the aforementioned VOCs, and also due to need for fresh oxygen (O2) exhibted by humans and cats....) to almost zero, and if I were also to invest quite a bit of money into increasing the average R-value of insulation in the floor, walls and ceiling/roof from an R-value of 13 to an average R-value of 40, then I would need only one of these Lasko heaters plugged into the thermostat on even the coldest days and nights.And, it is also true that if I were to spend even more money (and time and effort) to increase the average R-value of the insulation properties of the floor, walls and ceiling/roof to an R-value of 400, then I would not need any of these heaters at all, and, instead, the incidental stray heat (~160W) from the CFL lamps and the electronic monitoring equipment alone would be more than sufficient to keep the interior of the building toasty warm during even the coldest weather (i.e., a stretch of minus-10 degree F days and nights)!Of course, on the other hand, if I had never bothered to insulate the building, then the insulation value of the floor, walls and ceiling/roof of the building would be an average R-value of about 1 (R-value=1), instead of the current R-value of 13, and then I would need from 12 to 15 times as much electric heat to heat the building in the cold weather season!FOOTNOTE #1: Information About the Time-Space Rift, in Response to QuestionsThis footnote about the time-space rift in my mountainside backyard has been added due to popular demand, because a number of inquirers wished to learn more about the time-space rift, and also wanted to know why and how it is being monitored by equipment in my workshop/lab building located near it.Briefly, this particular rift in the space-time fabric seems to have existed for at least many thousandes of years, and it's location does not seem to move at all. The main reason that I am paid by various not-to-be-named private and government agencies to use the earlier-mentioned gear to monitor the nearby space-time rift is because periodically, things come through the rift into our world from other worlds, and from other times. You really do not want to know any more than that about these things that come through, and, in any case, I am not allowed to say any more; you may simply consider them to be flotsam and jetsam from across time, space and various dimensional worlds.And, likewise, sometimes various things from our world seem to home in on this rift and then enter it at high speed, after which they seem to disappear permanently from our world.The earlier-mentioned monitoring gear in my workshop/lab is used to monitor and log a number of basic parameters and conditions at the space-time rift boundary, and also to track things (both animate and inanimate) that enter or leave the rift.[END OF FOOTNOTE #1]

UPDATE after one year of ownership: This little heater continues to impress me. I don't know how it would perform in a really cold climate, but here in Northern California, where nighttime winter temperatures rarely go much below freezing, it's outstanding at heating a small space quickly. The room where I now work is unheated; it was converted from being the house's garage. I use a deLonghi oil radiator heater for the main heat in this room, but off course it takes a long time to warm up. The Lasko heats the area around my desk quickly while the deLonghi is warming up. After the deLonghi is warm, I switch off the Lasko. This combination works well for me, and using the Lasko this way allows me to conserve power by using the deLonghi at a lower power setting.I was impressed enough with the Lasko that I ordered a second one (a model 103, identical except for having a red front). I use one in a separate building behind my house and the other in an unheated room inside my house. Neither Lasko is my main heater. They just provide heat while the oil radiators come up to temperature. They also occasionally provide a relatively low power supplemental source of heat as an alternate to using an oil radiator heater at a higher power setting.After a year of ownership, I'm raising my original four star rating to five stars. The price is so low and the heater works so well that the little guy deserves it.My original review:This little guy puts out an impressive amount of heat. It won't heat a large or even medium sized space, but if you need to heat under your desk or very near your person, it definitely puts out the heat. It works well in my 8'x 9' office in a standalone unheated, uninsulated brick building. I've only owned it for two weeks, so I can't attest to its durability, but its three year warranty does offer some assurance.Ironically, I canceled the Lasko after ordering it and ordered a Vornado Personal Vortex 375/750 watt heater instead, but Amazon was unable to cancel the Lasko in time and shipped it. I left it packed in the box for a week, intending to return it... until I became frustrated with the Vornado's pathetic heat and out of curiosity, opened the Lasko and tried it. I was immediately impressed with the heat it generates, so much so that I've returned the Vornado and ordered a second Lasko MyHeat.My main use for the two Lasko's will be supplementing the oil filled heater in my office, which during the winter can be as cold as low forties Fahrenheit when I open it in the morning. The Lasko's will provide immediate heat while the oil-filled heater slowly heats up.A secondary use for one Lasko will be cold weather camping in my truck. The power draw is low enough that I can power it using the deep cycle battery I carry when traveling.My only real complaint about the Lasko is the lack of any tip-over protection. A thermostat would be nice, but for this price, I'm not complaining. However I am knocking off one star for the lack of tip-over protection. This is my one concern about camping with this heater. I don't use heat while sleeping so it won't be a problem for me, but for anyone who camps with it and leaves it on while sleeping, you'll need to be very careful to prevent it being accidentally knocked over during the night and starting a fire. I plan to affix Velcro to the bottom to protect against tipover.Other than that, this is an outstanding little heater. Its looks won't impress people, but it will keep a small space warm while consuming very little power.UPDATE: I've used my Kill-A-Watt meter to confirm the wattage of nine electric space heaters. Virtually all of them have actual wattages that are below the claimed rating. The exception: both of my Lasko MyHeats. Lasko claims 200 watts, but one of mine has an actual wattage of 211 and the other 202. By comparison, the Vornado Personal Vortex Heater, which I originally wanted but ended up returning, claims 375/750 watts, but the unit I had was only 326/696 watts. I don't say this to disparage Vornado. Nearly every other space heater I've tested had lower wattages than claimed, except these two little Lasko's.General information about buying electric space heaters:=============================================I've owned and used electric space heaters since 1988, mostly DeLonghi oil filled radiators. When I recently began looking for a heater that would warm up a room faster, I was frustrated at the lack of hard, objective, facts about electric space heaters. Even the manufacturer websites often fail to mention or makes it hard to learn the most basic information you need to know, such as wattage ratings and warranty lengths. Not even Consumer Reports has enough information to really inform a consumer. Therefore it's up to us as consumers to share what we know. The rest of this review shares some of what I've learned.In case you're wondering what heater I decided on to replace my DeLonghi, I didn't, at least not yet. I tried a Vornado PVH and a Bionaire BH1331-U, but I ended up returning both heaters. I'm sticking with my oil-filled heaters for now.Basic electric space heater facts:1. All electric space heaters are equally efficient. All heaters rated at 1500 watts output the same amount of heat, but may do it very differently. You have to choose the one that heats the way you need it.2. Power consumption is determined by two things: the power setting you're using and how long the heater is actually on. Turning up the thermostat setting doesn't increase the heat or power consumption; it just lengthens the time that your heater will be running.3. To reduce power consumption, use the lowest power setting on your heater that produces the heat you need.4. An electric space heater will save you money only if you turn your central heating down or off and use space heaters to heat only the rooms where you need heat.5. The only kind of electric space heater that's likely to provide adequate heat in a large or draft space is a radiant heater (not to be confused with a radiator heater, which is very different), but radiant heaters pose a fire hazard.Don't take manufacturer wattage claims too seriously. When I used my Kill-A-Watt meter on six space heaters, I found variations of up to 200 watts between the claimed and actual wattage for each space heater. In most cases the actual watts were less than the claimed watts, but one of my DeLonghi's 1500 watt heaters turned out actually to be a 1600 watt heater.Two crucial steps in finding the electric space heater that's right for you:============================================================1. Learn which heater is right for your needs. A huge percentage of complaints by reviewers about space heaters are due to reviewers buying the wrong type of heater for their needs. Your first step should be to decide between the basic types: Ceramic heaters with a fan, oil-filled radiator, micathermic, and radiant. First learn the conditions in which each one works best and works best and then select the type that will work best for your needs. There is no one single "best" heater for all situations. Each one has conditions in which it works well and conditions in which it's terrible.2. Look at the warranties. Warranties on space heaters range from one year to five years. Delonghi and Soleus heaters that I've checked have one year warranties. Other companies, such as Bionaire, Honeywell, Lasko, and Vornado offer three year and five year warranties on many - but not all - of their models. If a company offers only a one year warranty on some models but a five year warranty on others (such as Bionaire), it raises question about the durability of the heater with the shorter warranty. However a long warranty is only as good as the company offering it. Read reviews to learn what experiences people have when their heaters die while still under warranty.In most cases, you'll have to download the manual from the manufacturer's website to get the length of the warranty. It's a nuisance, but it's worth taking the time to do.Don't let anyone tell you that any particular type of heater is "the best". The best type is the one that best suits YOUR needs. The best heater for me might be the worst heater for you. Some heaters heat up a cold room faster, some keep a room at a steady temperature, and some will work better in a large space.Some questions you need to ask yourself before deciding which type of heater to buy- Will it be keeping a room at a steady temperature? (oil-filled radiator or micathermics heaters might be best)- Will it be heating up a cold room? (a heater with a fan or a radiant heater might be best)- Are there children or pets who might be injured by touching a hot surface? (oil-filled radiator and radiant heater might be a problem)- Do you want to heat just a particular spot rather than the whole room? (radiant heaters might be best- Are you concerned about fire risks? (oil-filled radiator or micathermic heaters might be best, though no space heater is completely safe)Oil-filled radiators:These are my favorite heaters. These are the heaters that look like old-fashioned steam radiators. The oil retains its warmth after the thermostat cycles off, which is important if you want to keep a room at a steady temperature. The downside is that the oil takes longer to heat initially, which is why these heaters take so long to warm up.I have two DeLonghi oil-filled radiators; I've been using one of them for 23 years, and the other is about eight years old. I love the heat they provide. It's steady, warm, with no noise and no drying out of the air like with some other types of heaters. They are ideal for maintaining a steady temperature in an enclosed room.Oil filled heaters have a huge drawback, however: they are terrible at heating up a cold room. It can take an oil-filled heater hours longer to heat up a cold room than other types of heaters.The US Department of Energy recommends oil-filled heaters as the most efficient, because the fins generate warmth even when the heater's thermostat cycles off. However this efficiency is only when the heater is continually on, keeping a room at a constant temperature. If you turn the heater on and off frequently, you'll lose most of the efficiency that's inherent in these heaters.If you have children or pets, look into one of the shielded radiator heaters. I prefer the unshielded ones because they radiate more heat laterally, but the surface can get very hot and be a hazard if touched. DeLonghi claims that their shielded radiator heaters circulate heated air more quickly. Both of mine are unshielded, so I have no way of confirming that. My concern about the shielded radiators is that they would direct more hot air up rather than to the side, where I need it.If your electric rates are different for different times of the day, you can use this to your advantage in setting your radiator heater toswitch on and warm the room from cold when rates are low, then let it provide steady heat when rates are higher.A word of warning about oil-filled radiators: if one is poorly made or damaged, it can leak oil and permanently damage rugs and floors or even start a fire. Only buy from a reputable manufacturer and don't accept one that has any visible damage.Ceramic fan heaters:These are great at heating a room quickly, however many people including myself don't like the heat they blow. I don't mind it in my Vornado Personal Heater (375/700watt), which is located under my desk, but I thoroughly dislike it in the old Honeywell ceramic oscillating heater that came with my house. I much prefer the warmth that comes from an oil-filled radiator. Ceramic heaters can be most effective at quickly warming up a cold room.Radiant heatersRadiant heaters (don't confuse them with radiator heaters!) work by heating whatever they are pointed at rather than heating the air in the room. If you have a large, drafty space, a radiant heater might be your best choice, because it doesn't heat the air, only the objects and people it's directed at.Micathermic heatersMicathermic heaters work similarly to oil-filled radiators, except that instead of heavy metal fins filled with hot oil, micathermic heaters have thin sheets of mica that heat up. I've only had experience with one micathermic, a Bionaire BH1331-U, and found that it's exterior surface remained very cool except for a few very warm spots on top. There would be less risk of young children being burned by touching a micathermic heater than an oil-filled radiator. Micathermic heaters are slower heating than ceramic fan heaters, but are faster then oil-filled radiators..Baseboard heatersI have a Lakewood oil-filled baseboard heater I bought five years ago that has many of the advantages of a micathermic heater. It heats faster than an oil-filled radiator but has no hot surfaces and low fire risk. My Lakewood does an excellent job of heating my 12x15 bedroom.However I have not researched baseboard heaters and only have experience with this Lakewood, so I don't know whether others are as good as this one. I was impressed that when I measured the actual wattages of my various space heaters, the Lakewood's actual wattages came closest to its claimed wattages of all the other heaters I tested. Lakewood unfortunately went out of business in 2009 and had a major problem with oil leaking from its heaters a few years earlier. Despite this, it's in many ways my best heater and has the lowest cost of operation.