ShopMaster.info

So close and yet so far ….

Another product I really wanted to like. We wanted a silent heater for our baby’s room, so we didn’t have to turn on the heat for the whole house, or use a noisy fan-based heater. I’d almost resigned myself to getting one of those big, heavy oil radiators that click-click-click while they slowwwlllllyy heat up. Then I discovered the mica panel units.

Unfortunately neither of the two units of this model that I’ve tried to use seem to have a functioning thermostat. The first one just wouldn’t shut itself off. The second wouldn’t go on until you set the temp well above the room temperature, and then wouldn’t go off (even if you set the temperature down quite a bit, to below the room temp). So it either underheated or overheated the room. I can’t use it that way - the whole point of a thermostat is to maintain (within reason) a constant temperature. My $15 heater can do that, and so could pretty much every other heater I’ve used.

Which is really disappointing, because this heater has a number of attractive features:
- It’s very quiet, once it’s set. No clicking as it heats up - just a quiet click when it goes on or off.
- No odor, other than a hint of new product smell.
- It’s fairly quick to heat. It doesn’t have to heat up all the oil, as with an oil radiator. Of course, since it relies on air circulation rather than a fan, it’s not going to heat a whole room quickly.
- You can set it to use full power or low power (which turns on only 1 of the 2 heating panels), as well as an Eco mode (which isn’t really explained, but it sounds like it’s supposed to shift from 2 to 1 panels as it gets close to the target temperature). This would also let you have one side shut off, for safety (see below).
- It’s tall and thin, so it doesn’t take up much floor space. You do need some room on either side of it, though.
- Attractive design.
- The remote control would likely be useful for some people.

So I’ll try to find another panel heater.

In case it helps - the manual seems to imply that you do have to turn it up quite a bit to go on. So try that. I wouldn’t really mind that, as long as I could set it back down to a normal temperature and have it run like that.

I also tried to see if the thermostat only worked when it was in Eco Mode - no luck.

But, the manual also says the indicator light goes out when the heating panel turns off. I couldn’t see any visible indication of whether the heat was on - only the clicking sound of it going on or off. So it’s not certain that the manual reflects the actual product.

Most of the heat comes out of the top, but the sides do get quite hot. Probably not hot enough to burn, but certainly too hot to touch for even a second. And you would want to leave several inches of space between this and a wall, furniture, drapes, etc.

Overall it seems safe though, as the grille openings have a sturdy screen over them, and the heater will shut off if it overheats or tips over.

There are some features that aren’t as convenient as they could be:
- The timer will turn the heater off after a set amount of time, up to 12 hours. That’s not all that useful, since you have to set it every time - you can’t have a daily schedule. And it can only be set in 1 hour increments.
- The thermostat range is only 59 to 77. That’s OK for some people, but not enough for all applications. (If you’re trying to leave it in a bathroom of a house while you’re away, so it doesn’t freeze, for example, 59 is higher than you need.) Even if the thermostat worked.
- Really loud beep when you do anything - adjust the temperature, etc.

There’s a big flyer that says “If you have problems, don’t return this item, call us” in the package, so I thought I’d give them a chance. That led to a bizarre customer service experience: I got through pretty quickly to someone; but when I started to explain the problems with the thermostat, it was clear they had no idea what a thermostat does. After they checked with someone else (!), they tried to tell me that when you set the thermostat to 59 degrees, it “puts out 59 degrees of heat”. Maybe they should have the customer service located in a place where people actually use heaters and thermostats? Or at least let them actually see the item in use?

Update (2/8/2012): This item is currently on sale here for the lowest price I’ve seen.

The featured review for this product, Soleus Air HM4-15R-01 Flat-Panel Micathermic Heater with Remote Control Kitchen Jan 8, 2007, was written by snapcrackle.

The average rating for this item is 4 out of 5 stars, according to 3 reviews.