1,500 Watt Portable Electric Radiant Radiator Heater with Mechanical Controls

I was looking for a safe heater for bedrooms. Our home has no upstairs heat currently and we needed something for each room. Since two of the rooms are kids rooms, I wanted something as safe as possible, and while no space heater is 100% safe, I believe the DeLonghi TRD40415T gets very close.I was a bit wary of radiant heat - how good can that be exactly, with no blower or fan? I recalled days of my own youth relying on hot water radiators to heat the house. Suffice to say, this DeLonghi unit is light years ahead of that technology - granted both radiant heat, but just as rotary phones and iPhones are both "telephones", its hardly the same thing. I was very surprised by both the heat output and feel of the radiant heat - it rises mostly from the top and although I know better, you could be fooled into believing it has a fan - but it doesn't. On Medium, the unit noticeably raised the temperature of a 16 X 16 basement room from chilly to comfortable in around 2 hours. On high, the unit easily pushed the room to overly warm, toasty even. I imagine a High setting would cut the time to "comfortable" by about a third. The unit is easy to operate and settings are mostly intuitive. The only potentially confusing part might be the timer, but only if you have never used a mechanical timer like this before, and once you figure it out, its very easy. The timer is also infinitely flexible, enabling you to set multiple on and off periods. I have the heater kick on at 5am, then off at 8am - so heating the room for morning, then it remains off until 6pm and heats until 8:30pm - so heating the room again before bed.The unit is mostly silent - it may click and tap once or twice upon initial startup, but it is not overly noticeable and seems to diminish with use. Otherwise, the only sound is the timer running, and you can only hear that with your ear directly on the unit - which is a bad idea anyway....The unit does get hot to the touch, particularly on top. On Medium, you may get a 3-5 second count before you must remove your finger from the sides or front, on High, I didn't even attempt to touch it. The sides are somewhat cooler, but no so much that they would not burn with prolonged contact. Ultimately, this is a heater, if therefor must get hot somewhere. The advantages are that there is no exposed heating element, no loud fan, little to no chance of catching something on fire due to a brief accidental contact and burns are unlikely to occur unless handled improperly - you'd sort of have to try burn yourself. The trade-off is a slower heat transfer versus a fan driven heater and the unit is heavy - although the weight does somewhat deter inappropriate positioning and helps resist accidental tip-over and similar accidents.I run the units on medium to maximize safety while still putting out enough heat. Although no space heater should really be left unattended, I feel confident that this unit's passive radiant heat and quiet uncomplicated operation, make it a much more reliably safe option versus other space heating alternatives.

This is an excellent radiator that puts out a lot of heat with almost no noise and no smell. I used an infrared thermometer to measure the temp at the top and sides after 30 min on max. The top got to 368F while the sides didn't get over 160F. 368F sounds dangerous but I can still put my hand on top for a few seconds before I have to take it away so I'm not worried at all about burns if someone accidentally touches the heater. The temp difference between the top and sides shows that the thermal chimney design really works well. It draws cold air in from the bottom, dumps all of its heat into the air and then accelerates the air out of the top using only convection. No moving parts but it heats the air so well that there's a noticeable "breeze" of hot air that rises straight up from the heater.I have noticed some very faint clicks that the heater makes as it operates. The thermostat clicks softly when it turns on and off and rarely I'll hear a pop from the metal expanding while it heats or cools down. None of the noises are loud or distracting but I've seen a lot of comments asking if it makes ANY noise. It does, but I don't know how someone could make a quieter heater than this one.I've also seen a lot of reviews asking of there was a smell. I ran mine on high for a few hours when I first got it to burn off any smell there was. If I stuck my face right above the heater, I guess I could smell something like fresh paint/metal but it was very faint and not noticeable in the room. I've been running it for a few days now and nobody has noticed a smell. Definitely better than that "first time you turn it on" smell of a ceramic heater.We use this unit for secondary heat in a very large bedroom with vaulted ceilings that used to be a living room. When used with a fan near the ceiling to circulate air it let's us keep the house pretty cold while our room stays comfortable if we're wearing a light jacket. I let it run on max for a few hours the first day and came back to a 75 degree room when it was 25 outside so it's definitely capable of heating a large room, but the electric bill would probably be insane if this is the only heat source you use.All in all I'm extremely happy with this heater. It's the most I've ever spent on a space heater but it's solidly built, works well and when used with the timer should hopefully pay for itself this year.