Customer Reviews

DeLonghi DFH480M SafeHeat Fan Heater

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

My husband bought this heater two years ago and we use it 24/7 during our winter months (okay we live in Austin and thats only 4 months...but still :) I hate turning on central heat, we only use this in my baby's room and little girls rooms. It has a temp thermometer on it and you can set the heater to shut off when it gets to a certain temp...so when their rooms are like 60, i can be assured that i can set it for 68-70 and it will turn off. it is POWERFUL and can heat up a large space amazingly fast, yet has so much control and reliability, it will shut off when it gets to the pre set temp. i LOVE this heater. Like i said, we've had ours for 2 years and i'm about to buy another one for the living room. I can't recommend this product enough.

After a bitter cold snap recently where my new apartment's cruddy heat pump couldn't keep up, I ordered this heater -- I wanted something to pick up the slack. I like that I can set my apartment thermostat to 70, set the DeLonghi to 68 and have it kick in when the main heating isn't keeping up. Also makes a nice single room heater, so I can heat up one room to a nice 75 without paying to heat up the whole apartment to 75.

I haven't had a new cold snap since then to say how well it really performs when things get ugly, but so far I like it.

The amount of heat it puts out seems to be measured based on the difference between the temperature you want and the temperature you've got. If I put the heat on the highest setting, see that it's 68 degrees and set the thermostat to 70, it will blow a gentle heat, as if I had set it to the lowest setting.

When the thermostat falls further behind, it will start ramping up the heat output, blowing hotter air.

I originally found this to be confusing, for it seemed that it wasn't blowing hot enough air when I initially plugged it in and tried it, but now I like it. It *does* blow hot air, but only if it's falling behind on the temperature you want. So it won't waste a lot of electricity blowing hot air with full power just to make up 2 degrees of temperature.

It does, as other reviews mention, oscillate independent of anything else. I don't know why they designed it like this. It will be sitting there doing nothing, no fan, no heat (due to the thermostat setting), but it's still gently swinging back and forth. /shrug. I usually just leave the oscillation off anyway since I have a ceiling fan circulating the air, it's just a little odd.

Anyway, I like it. With the thermostat, auto-scaling heat output and other features, it seems like a nice safe heater, and while I haven't been able to put it up against a cold snap, it definiately lets me stay comfortable without having to turn up my central thermostat to heat the whole place. I felt safe enough to leave it plugged in and the thermostat set low while I went on vacation, just so it could help provide heat to the place if it did, for some reason, get too cold while I was gone.


Edit:
1 year later --
I still use this heater and still like it. I see a lot of negative reviews and I'm not sure what to say about that. No doubt there are heaters that will blow hotter air but they don't call this "SafeHeat" for no reason. I'd estimate the hottest air coming out of this heater is in the 100 degree range. It feels warm, not hot. There are no glowing red elements in this heater. If you want hotter air and don't mind glowing red elements, no doubt you can find other heaters that will do it for you. The advantage of this heater is that if it gets knocked over or a curtain blows into it, it doesn't burn your house down.

I bought this heater couple months ago and very happy with it. One of the main reason I choiced this space heater over the others is because the auto timer feature which almost non of other space heaters have as this price range. The timer with double function conveniently allows you to program 2 different times, so you can set it for the morning and night. This allow me to have my bedroom in nice temperature right before I wake up each day. I am surprise Amazon didn't put the timer on feature in the item description since this feature really distinguish this space heater from the others.

I just bought this space heater after going to a few stores and testing different heaters out but most heaters were too loud, the controls were cumbersome, and only a few had antiquated timers. I read the reviews and decided to give this one a try. This space heater has easy to use controls, the automated start times are key, it is wisper quiet, and it heats my attic office space, a 12 x 12 room, in less than 30 minutes from 50-60 degrees in the morning to 70 degrees. I just purchased a 2nd heater for my woodshop. this is a great heater for a regular size room, but beware, I don't think it would work very well in a really big room, it's output isn't strong enough and not designed for it.

I like the thermostat on the heater. The programmable timer on this heater is wonderful for nights and mornings. The annoying thing about the heater is the fact that the oscillate feature is independent of the fan being on. Thus, when the heater is not programmed to be on, it is still oscillating.

I am glad to see that Amazon has included some more information about the heater. When I first looked at the heater on the website, there was NO information. I had to do my own research and email Amazon for additional specifications.

This heater is only OK. Mine broke within 2 months and I had to jump through hoops to get it fix through the warranty. Even before that though I didn't think the heater really pushed out a whole lot of heat. I think there are better one's on the market if you look and probably a much cheaper price also.

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This heater is good for smaller rooms; i use mine in the baby and toddler's rooms. The good thing about this unit is that it has a cool-touch front panel, meaning that if you touch the surface, it won't burn your fingers or whatever else happens to come in contact with it. Great for curious toddlers who have the innate urge to stick their little fingers into everything. The heat coils and fan blades are way back in the machine so the toddlers' short fingers won't come in contact with them. That's good.

I really like the automatic temperature sensor. You just turn the dial and set it to the temperature you want the heater to kick in. When the actual temperature falls to what you set the heater at, it turns itself on automatically. Then it also shuts itself off when the ambient temperature is reached. Make sure you set the fan speed beforehand too.

NOW THE LAME FEATURES OF THIS UNIT ARE:

1. The oscillating feature is independant of the heating features. Meaning, if the auto-temperature kicks in and it stops heating, the fan still oscillates. Also, if you manually turn the heater off, the fan still oscillates. Strange how Delonghi made the two features independent of each other. Is it that difficult for the designers to connect the oscillation and heating together?

2. The clock on the heater keeps blinking after I pull the plug out or turn off the heater. Each time i turn the heater off (and I have it hooked up to a surge protector, so I just switch the power strip off---read on and you will see why I do this), the clock goes cuckoo. Or when I relocate the unit, the clock stops working. I wondering if this heater should've had a battery back-up feature like those annoying alarm clocks that flash 12:00 whenever there's a power failure. Well, anyway, I don't use the timer function, so this clock factor becomes irrelevant for me.

3. You see, the way this heater is designed, there's not a simple button to push in order to turn the unit on and off. You have to go through a whole song and dance to shut this heater off manually. You have to decrease the fan/heat speed 4 notches before you can shut down the heater. So I have to physically look at the NON-back-lit screen to watch the fan speed bars decrease to zero before it shuts off. Now if I continue to push the button, it will turn on again, so sometimes I just mentally count 4 times while I'm pressing the button in order to turn the darn thing off.

4. I wish the heater had buttons that were more ergonomical to push. I seem to have to stablize the unit with one hand, while pushing the fan buttons on and off with my other hand. It's like I need leverage, and when i try to push the buttons, the unit starts to topple back.

5. The control panel should be glow-in-the-dark so I can see what buttons I'm pushing or what fan speed I'm trying to get at in the dark. I always have to use a flashlight (so not to wake the children) when trying to adjust the controls.

Anyway, despite the faults of this machine, it heats well in our kids' rooms so I can't complain that much. But it still gets only 3 stars from me.

The DeLonghi DFH480M oscillating heater is wonderful. It spreads a powerful heat about even large rooms. The automatic timer allows it to be set to turn on and off at specific times.
Absolutely reliable and quiet (except for a mild clicking sound when the unit oscillates). For the money, you would be hard pressed to do better.
In the winter I use it for heat, in the summer I turn the heater off and use it as an oscillating fan.

I sent this item back because of some design problems. First off... the unit is like two totally different appliances welded together: the oscillating section and the heating section. Once you step on the peddle the unit rotates... and rotates... you can even turn off the heater and it continues to rotate... BRILLIANT. Any money you save you can waste on the oscillation feature. You can't have the unit start oscillating if the unit is on and then have it stop once the unit turns off. You have to manually turn the oscillation on and off. It's totally independent which defeats the hold (digital automation.) At first glance I liked the whole Anti-Freeze feature, but after getting the unit and reading the book I saw a little note that if you loose power the unit will totally reset. So, if you have a power spike the unit won't turn on, even if it's bellow freezing. So, you can't trust this little unit in your basement to keep your pipes from freezing.

Over all i wasn't very happy... pretty much the heater is pretty dumb. The plastic interface feels super cheap and isn't good for people with big non-triangle shaped fingers. You can't digitally set the temperature... all that is really digital is the fan speed and the current temperature. Setting the clock is also a pain because of the horrible buttons and poor communication design.

The unit was quite and has a nice visual look but lacks almost any helpful features. Yet again... good marketing and visual design, but poor product. I am just going to get the cheep version as the extra $50 was a total waste.

You can't set a program to run for more than 4 hours. It does not heat as much as you would think in a drafty office, but it will help keep you warm; does not turn off completely after reaching the temperature, fan does not stop; but it's relatively quiet and light (you can move it around).