Do you need to heat a single room without turning on the household heating? Not interested in bending down to change the settings on a small space heater? You might want a tower heater to warm up your room. This is my buying guide of electric tower heaters that rise up above the cold floor to bring warmth to your home.

How do tower heaters heat a room?

Most tower heaters have a ceramic element which become hot when electricity is passed through it. This heat is then transferred to the surrounding air and circulated around the room with a convection fan system.

Very few tower heaters use infrared heating. These heaters do not heat the air directly and therefore do not need a fan. The infrared heat is transferred to solid objects in a room such as skin, clothing and furniture. Infrared heating is the best type to use in poorly insulated areas because it does not have to heat the air. It only heats the objects in the room. It is almost like a tiny sun heating up the room with its invisible infrared light waves.

Which safety features are important for tower heaters?

The first important feature is an internal tip-over protection switch which is built into the base of the appliance. This will turn off the heater and prevent a fire if it falls over by accident. Tower heaters are higher and thinner than space heaters and could fall over more easily. Place the tower heater on a flat, hard and non-flammable surface so that the tip-over switch can work properly.

The second important point is an overheat protection safety feature. This automatically turns off the tower heater if the heating element becomes dangerously overheated.

Another key aspect is a convection fan. This fan sucks in cold air and blows out heated air across the room. After a while, the room will be more evenly heated when compared to a bar heater or radiant heater. A tower heater and fan combination might also have a fan only setting without heating so that it can be used for air circulation in the summer.

A luxury feature is a remote control. A tower heater with a remote control can be controlled from across the room. However, a remote control is not an essential feature when it comes to safety operation, but it can be convenient. Due to the height of a tower heater, you will not have to bend down to operate its controls. Therefore, a remote control is more essential for small space heaters where you have to bend down to change the settings.

Is it safe to use an extension cord for a tower heater?

Do not plug the tower heater into an extension cord or power strip because the cord might overheat. Always plug the tower heater into an outlet on its own. Do not use the outlet for multiple appliances!

The outlet should have at least a 15-amp circuit breaker because the tower heater draws a maximum of 1500 watts. Also, it might be safer to use the tower heater on a low or medium heat setting (750 to 1125 watts) if your house has old wiring. Electric heaters can draw a lot of power and a few people have experienced tripped circuit breakers, melted plugs and burnt outlets.

Keep reading to learn more about popular brand names and tower heater models for heating up a room in your house.

Dreo Ceramic Space Heater With Remote Control

I have included a Dreo tower heater in this review, because I recently added the Dreo Atom One space heater to the space heater gadget guide.

The Dreo Solaris Max is a 24-inch ceramic tower heater that is recommended for indoor use in the bedroom, office, or any other room in the house. The remote control can be used to change any of the settings of the tower heater, remotely. Safety features that I like about this ceramic heater are the overheat protection, tip-over protection and enhanced safety plug.

All in all, the Dreo Solaris Max gets good ratings for user-friendliness and safety (buy this heater on Amazon).

Delonghi Ceramic Tower Heater

DeLonghi has a few models on the market. You might consider the TCH7915ER model, which is a 1500-watt (5120 BTU) ceramic tower heater with a fan for heating a small to medium room size. The ceramic heating element provides fast heat safely.

The DeLonghi TCH7915ER has two essential safety features: overheat shut-down and tip-over shut-off. This tower heater does not tip over easily, but it is 24 inches high and could potentially be knocked over.

The TCH7915ER tower heater has a LED screen and various buttons. The mode button has two heat modes: mode 1 is for minimum heat, while mode 2 is for maximum heat. It also has plus and minus buttons for adjusting the thermostat temperature.

The ECO button mode adjusts the temperature automatically in order to save energy while trying to keep a constant room temperature. The oscillation function spreads the heated air from side to side instead of just straight ahead.

This DeLonghi tower heater has a 24-hour digital timer function. The included remote control is basically a copy of the buttons on the control panel.

The DeLonghi TCH7915ER is supposed to have a silent fan system which makes it 50% quieter, but it seems to be just as noisy as other tower heaters. Another thing that is easy to forget is that the buttons make a beeping noise every time you push them, so not such a silent heater after all.

The TCH7915ER might have a design flaw, which is the silent fan system. This seems to reduce the amount of air it can move when compared to other units. It might cause the DeLonghi tower heater to keep turning off when used on the highest heat setting. The fan does not blow fast enough to distribute the heated air away from the tower heater housing, causing the unit to shut down prematurely before the room is properly heated.

To sum up, the DeLonghi TCH7915ER tower heater works best on its minimum or eco setting in smaller rooms (check price on Amazon).

Lasko Ceramic Tower Heaters

I first considered the Lasko 755320 which has a lot of reviews, but I did not feel comfortable with it. It seems that it lacks a very important safety feature. It does not have tip-over protection. Also, the thermostat does not seem to work when on the low setting and might cause overheating problems. This eliminates the Lasko 755320 as an option in our opinion.

Next, I looked at the Lasko 5572 which seems like a better option. It comes with a remote control and has an 8-hour automatic shut-off. It has a ceramic heating element and oscillating fan. There are three heat settings to choose: low, high or automatic (controlled with thermostat). It has automatic overheat protection, but not tip-over protection.

Then I considered the Lasko 6462 which has the convection fan at the top of the unit. This allows the tower heater to pull in cold air from the bottom and expel heated air at the top in a full circle. There are three sweep settings available: 90-degree, 180-degree or full 360-degree oscillation. However, it does not turn off when tipped over.

I do not recommend Lasko tower heaters as a result of them not having tip-over protection. Too bad, because they usually cost less than other heaters.

Vornado Tower Heater

The TH1 is one of the few tower heaters that Vornado makes. They are better known for their space heaters. Unfortunately, their space heaters seem to be better value than their tower heaters. Why? Vornado’s tower heaters seem to be less effective at moving heated air around the room when compared to their space heaters.

The Vornado TH1 has a convection fan which distributes the heat across a wide area due to its contoured air vents. It has three heat settings from 750 watts up to 1500 watts and an adjustable thermostat. There are two fan settings: continuous or automatic. The fan turns on and off automatically as needed when on the auto setting.

The TH1 tower heater has both overheat and tip-over protection. The housing is always cool to touch and will not burn your fingers.

The Vornado TH1 is probably not the most powerful tower heater on the market. This might be due to its somewhat lukewarm convection power. Nevertheless, it does have all the necessary functions and safety features.

Dyson Bladeless Air Multiplier Tower Heater

The Dyson AM09 looks really cool, but it can be hot as well! It has a convection fan system, but the fan blades are concealed in the bottom of the unit. The air is expelled through vents inside the large oval part of the appliance. This means that there are no exposed fan blades or heating elements. The sides of the unit might get warm, but the housing does not become hot. The AM09 will also shut off if it is accidentally tipped over.

The bladeless air multiplier system can be used for either convection heating in the winter or for air circulation in the summer. Please note that the cooling function is fan only. There is no heat pump for actually cooling the air! A few people have been confused by the mention of “cooling” in the product description. There are two airflow modes: jet focus mode for concentrated airflow and diffused mode for wider air distribution. You can also choose an oscillation mode, which distributes the air from side to side.

The thermostat can be set for anywhere between 33 and 99 degrees Fahrenheit. The Dyson AM09 will then monitor and maintain the chosen room temperature. The temperature setting is displayed near the bottom of the unit, above the power button. The sleep timer function will turn the heater off after a selected time interval (from 15 minutes up to 9 hours). The included remote control is used to control the settings.

The Dyson AM09 fan heater has a unique design with all the safety features and functions you need. However, a product that looks this hot inevitably has a high price tag. You will have to decide whether you can afford it (view pricing on Amazon).

Duraflame Infrared Quartz Tower Heater

The Duraflame 5HM8000-O142 has a quartz heat lamp which produces infrared radiant heat. This infrared heat is transmitted directly onto surfaces in the room. The element itself does not become hot, and therefore it barely heats the surrounding air. Hence, it seems strange that this tower heater has an oscillating fan because there is so little heat to distribute.

This Duraflame tower heater has tip-over protection, and it stays cool to the touch. It has a digital display with a thermostat and also comes with a remote control unit. However, because it uses infrared heating, the convection fan system does not contribute anything to heating the air in the room.

Conclusion

Which tower heater should you choose? This is a difficult question to answer because these models have similar functions, performance issues and price tags.

Lasko makes a lot of different models, but most of them do not have tip-over protection. You could also buy an affordable heater from popular brand names such as Vornado or Honeywell. In contrast, the Dyson AM09 might simply be too expensive, even though it is probably the hottest looking tower heater on the market.

At the moment, I would probably choose the Dreo Solaris Max ceramic tower heater.

Photo by Alirad Zare on Unsplash.