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The 7 Best Space Heaters For Apartments
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To quickly warm up a drafty room or save on your energy bills, space heaters are a great solution. Using one of the best space heaters for apartments can quickly heat your bedroom, living room, or other space. They’re also portable, making it easy to carry or roll to any room in need of warming up.
Space heaters come in a variety of styles and sizes, and two of the most popular are ceramic heaters and radiator-style heaters. According to CBS, ceramic heaters tend to be relatively safe and energy-efficient. They also work well to distribute heat throughout the room and they are affordable, too. However, since these typically use a fan to circulate air, they can be a little noisier than a radiator-style one.
Radiator-style space heaters are often filled with oil that’s warmed. Cold air is pulled to the outside of the heating surface and then pushed out into the room as warm air. They’re also very quiet, but they tend to take a little longer to heat a room than a ceramic one does. And while almost every space heater can get hot to the touch and it's important to be careful when using them unattended and around kids and pets, radiator-style ones tend to get hotter than ceramic ones so be especially careful.
Many of these heaters have safety options like auto-shutoff and timers, and each one meets Intertek ETL or Underwriters’ Laboratories safety standards. There are also optional features like oscillation and adjustable thermostats to look out for, though these usually cost a little bit more. Some space heaters even come with specialized safety plugs, so you can use them to heat a bathroom, too.
To make finding the perfect heater for your place easy, here’s my roundup of the best space heaters for apartments. All of these top picks are portable and feature-rich to keep your apartment nice and toasty for not a lot of cash.
1The Overall Best Space Heater For Apartments
- Dimensions: 6 x 4.5 x 9.2 inches
The Lasko 5409 Ceramic Portable Space Heater is the best all-around heater for most apartment dwellers. This compact heater with a carrying handle delivers 1500 watts of heat capable of warming up to 300 square feet. It features oscillation to quickly warm up any room and two manual dials to adjust the heat intensity and temperature settings. The ETL-listed heater also has built-in safety features like overheating protection. However, be careful to not tip it over. Its compact size and handle make it easy to place on the floor, tabletop, or desk. Although it’s extremely portable, this heater should not be used in the bathroom or places where it can get wet, and it's not as quiet as some other options, according to a few reviewers.
What fans say: “This heater does the job and heats up fairly large spaces. My central heat isn't working, so I'm relying on space heaters right now. I bought this one because the one I had wasn't enough [to] keep my apartment warm enough. I use this one in my bedroom on low with the temp control to medium and it heats up fast and well. It often gets too hot in the room!”
2The Best Radiator Space Heater
- Dimensions: 16.4 x 10.3 x 26.1 inches
If you want to warm up a small to medium size room with slow, steady heat, the DeLonghi Full Room Radiant Heater is a good option. Since there's no fan, it’s very quiet, making it an excellent choice for bedrooms. This ETL-listed space heater can heat rooms up to 144 square feet. It features an adjustable digital thermostat with a 24-hour programmable timer, multiple customizable heating settings, and an auto-shutoff feature for safety. While radiator-style heaters take a little longer to get going, as one reviewer put it, "Once the room is heated, it stays heated.”
With its narrow, modern design, it doesn’t take up much space and is also rust-resistant to last a long time. Plus, it features an anti-freezing setting to prevent your pipes from freezing during extreme weather. However, it can get hot to the touch so be careful when using this near kids and pets, and it's not appropriate for bathrooms.
What fans say: “I have used Delonghi radiators for over 20 years [..] This model was no exception as to the quality and performance - heats the entire apartment up very toasty.”
3The Best Space Heater For Bathrooms
- Dimensions: 6 x 6 x 7.65 inches
For those times when you need to warm up your bathroom, this Lasko space heater is a great choice. The ETL-listed ceramic heater comes with an appliance leakage current interrupter (ALCI) safety plug, which quickly turns the heater off if there’s a short circuit. Other safety features include overheat protection and a cool-touch exterior, but there’s no tip-over protection.
The 1500-watt heater offers three heat settings, and just one tap of a button provides high heat for one hour. Plus, its compact size makes it easy to place on the counter or floor to keep the bathroom toasty warm while you shower.
What fans say: “It gets incredibly cold in my apartment and especially in my bathroom. I would step out of the shower and shiver and lived this way for all of last winter. This year, I gave this space heater a shot and it has changed my mornings. I don't know see how I lived without it.”
4A Popular Budget Model With A Fan Mode
- Dimensions: 6.2 x 4.74 x 8.3 inches
The Andily space heater is a budget-friendly option that Amazon reviewers love, giving it over 16,000 five-star reviews. It’s a ceramic heater with low and high temperature settings and fan-only mode, and for safety, it has ETL certification and overheating and tip-over protection. The heater has a built-in carrying handle, making it easy to move from one room to the next, and it comes in three colors: black, gray, and white.
What fans say: “I live in a studio apartment (approx 480 sq ft) and this little thing warmed up my place in LA during cold rainy day within a very short period of time. You can feel the heat working right away as soon as you turn it on!”
5The Best Space Heater With Auto Climate Control
- Dimensions: 9.4 x 9.2 x 11.7 inches
This Vornado space heater comes recommended by Consumer Reports and will automatically adjust its heat and air circulation settings to maintain your desired temperature. The forced air heater also features touch controls, two heat settings, a fan-only mode, and a 12-hour timer, and it comes with a remote control so you can adjust settings from across the room. For safety, there’s auto-shutoff, tip-over protection, and a cool-touch exterior. The heater is also ETL-rated and meets UL standards.
What fans say: “Gradually warms up a small 200 sq. ft. office space perfectly. Relatively quiet, and you can feel the warm air circulating throughout.”
6The Smallest Space Heater
- Dimensions: 5.87 x 3.2 x 6 inches
If you’re looking for a compact space heater to warm up your workspace or other small areas, this mini option will easily fit on a tabletop. The 500-watt ceramic heater warms up quickly, but it only has one heat setting. And while the heater has ETL certification and tip-over protection, there’s no auto-shutoff feature. Choose from four colors, including black and white.
What fans say: “I live in a garden apartment that never quite heats up that well. I put it under my desk and it heats my legs and feet up very nicely. Don't expect it to heat a full room, but for what it is it's great.”
7The Best Tower Space Heater
- Dimensions: 7.2 x 7.2 x 22.9 inches
This sleek tower space heater is backed by a 4.6-star overall rating after more than 6,000 reviews. The oscillating heater is UL-listed and offers three temperature settings, including an energy-saving eco mode, and it has tip-over and overheating protection. You can adjust the settings using touch or remote control and set a timer for up to eight hours. Plus, the carry handle makes it easy to move this heater from room to room.
What fans say: “We live in a small two bedroom apartment, and our living room is the largest and most open space. It can get very cold here in the winter (we are in western New York) and the heater has already come in handy several times. It oscillates and warms up the whole living room nicely.”
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