WellHeater guides

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Four pages answer most of what people want to know before they order. If you read nothing else on this site, read these.

• How the WellHeater worksCeramic heating in plain English, warm-up times by room size and what 800W realistically does.
• WellHeater reviewsWhat owners praise, what they complain about, and who should not buy one.
• Running costsA calculator using your own electricity rate, plus cost tables for seven countries.
• The full FAQFifty answers on ordering, delivery, safety, cleaning, returns and the warranty.

What a plug-in heater is actually for

A small plug-in electric heater is a zone heater. It exists to make the one room you are sitting in comfortable quickly, so that the boiler or furnace heating the entire building can be turned down or left off for part of the day. That is the whole idea, and everything sensible written about these heaters follows from it.

It is worth being blunt about the limits, because the adverts rarely are. An 800W ceramic heater draws roughly the same power as a hairdryer on a low setting. That is enough to warm the air in a bedroom, a study or a small lounge within ten to twenty-five minutes with the door closed. It is not enough to heat an open-plan floor, a draughty conservatory or an uninsulated garage, and no plug-in unit from any brand can do those things — the physics is the same whatever the box says.

Electric heating is also 100% efficient at the point of use and always has been. Every watt becomes heat. That means no plug-in heater is secretly cheaper to run than another of the same wattage: a 800W heater costs the same per hour as any other 800W heater. What varies between products is how quickly they get the heat to you, how well the thermostat and timer stop them running when they are not needed, how safe they are, and whether the seller stands behind them. Those four things are what the guides below cover.

The four questions worth answering before you buy

Pick the path that matches where you are. Each one lists the guides in the order they are worth reading.

The fourth question — is it safe to leave running — is answered in space heater safety. The short version: plug it straight into a wall outlet rather than an extension lead, keep three feet clear in front of the grille, and use the timer rather than leaving any heater unattended overnight.

Every guide, by topic

Twenty-four guides, grouped by what you are trying to work out. Each one is written for a specific question rather than repeating the same overview.

The verdict

If you have one or two rooms you actually use in the cold months and a thermostat you are willing to turn down, a plug-in ceramic heater is one of the few heating purchases that pays for itself quickly. Warm air in about a minute, a comfortable small room in ten to twenty-five minutes, and roughly fourteen cents an hour at the US average electricity rate.

If you need to heat a large or open space, or you are hoping to run it alongside unchanged central heating and still see a smaller bill, no plug-in heater will deliver that and we would rather say so now. Ordering from this store gives you thirty days to find out in your own home.