Customer Reviews

Delonghi MG15T Magnum Heavy Duty Oil-Filled Radiator

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Having been through a plethora of space heaters that broke quickly, exploded in a shower of sparks, and just plain underperformed, I came to the conclusion that I was going to have to rethink how I was adding a heat boost to our bedroom in wintertime.

Enter the oil-filled radiator.

Unlike its forced air or "glowing red hot element" cousins, oil-filled radiators work like the steam radiators you'll find in old buildings - with relatively safe, "nondrying" radiant heat. The actual method of heating - circulating oil in this case - is contained entirely within the unit (and unlike some other forms of heating, remains safely warm, rather than scorchingly hot.) There is little worry of being injured by accidentally touching the heater. For anyone with small children, this is the heater to get.

But be forewarned, a radiator is only as good as the air circulation within the room in which it is placed. You will get poor performance from this unit if your air circulation is feeble since it lacks a fan. Our rooms contain ceiling fans making this type of heater a perfect choice. If you lack such a fan, be sure to follow the instructions and place it near a cooler window or wall in order to get proper convection.

The unit itself is remarkably well-made when compared with many heaters on the market in its price range. With virtually no moving parts, there is little to break, too. It has three power settings and a variable setting thermostat. Best of all, it sports an old-fashioned manual timer that is remarkably simple to setup when compared with the similar MG15E model that uses a digital timer you have to program. Finally, the unit is virtually noiseless, the only sound being an almost imperceptible ticking when you get really close to the timer. If you've ever had to withstand the blasting sound of a forced air heater, you'll be pleased by the quiet of this unit, particularly if you use it at night in your bedroom.

My only quibbles are that the power cord could be longer, the casters fall off if the unit is lifted up, and it could be better lit when operating at night. This is not something you want to stumble over making a nocturnal bathroom visit as it is heavy and large. There are LEDs on the power settings, but depending on how the unit must be positioned, they are not necessarily easy to see.

By far the best solution in our case, I can without reservations recommend the DeLonghi MG15T to anyone who wants an effective, quiet, durable, and well-designed heater.

The Delonghi heater has worked exceptionally well for my heating needs. I have the heater in my enclosed workshop in my garage, the room is about 15 by 35 feet, with a 10 foot ceiling. This heater has easily kept the shop at a comfortable 65 degrees when the outside temperature is below 40 degrees. I have only operated the heater on the "medium" setting so far too. I have not turned it on "high" yet.
Another bonus is the fact that I have virtually no worry about a fire. I can let it run 24-7. There are no exposed elements which can ignite a source.
The heater makes no noise while running. SUPER QUIET!

Living in an old drafty house, these sealed oil heaters are super. They are not expensive to run, and surprise you with how much heat they put out. I have used this one for several years and it's perfect for cool autumn nights or early Spring night when turning on the house heater would be too much heat and too costly. They are very economical to run, and are great for deep winter when you want to add a little extra warm to a drafty area. The cats are always attracted to heaters, but I fear them accidentally catching that tail on fire. With this, I never worry about them. Kitty's love the heat, but they are save from cuddling too close.

I have a bad knee that stiffen up on me in the cool, and I sit and write too many hours. This heater keep my office so warm without the dry heat of a furnace, which then gives me headache with dry sinuses.

Very cheap to use, no worries and plenty of soothing heat. What more can you say?

The person below does not understand what sort of product he purchased. I haven't received my 15T yet, but have a lower model that is also 1500 watts that I purchased at another store. This is a RADIATOR. It is meant as a room heater to be left on. It is NOT a spot heater for instant heat. The Delonghi works very well. Depending on the outside temperature and how large an area you have to heat, it can heat a surprisingly large area economically. I have an 750 sq. ft. apartment with three large windows (two of them sliding glass doors. The room it's in (living room) has two of those. Down to about 40, this heater will heat the entire apartment. The bedroom and bathroom are cooler, but still warm. This a from a 1500 watt heater. The central heat in my apartment is 6000 watts and blows air from ducts mouted at ceiling level that heat the air above but still leave you uncomfortable. This being floor standing and a radiator heats not only the air but the walls and furnishings too. It leaves me so confortable I use the central heat as a supplement when the temperature dips below 40. Thats why I bought the 15T. With two, I hope to heat my whole apartment comfortably without having to use the central heat much. And at half the wattage. Great product.

I purchased this for my mother as a Christmas gift. The heater in her otherwise nice apartment is woefully inadequate. We were looking for something she could move from room to room with ease (she's 76), that would provide adequate heat, and not run her electric bill through the roof as many of the small room heaters do.
This turned out to be everything we were looking for, and Mom is VERY happy with the unit. It rolls around easily, the heat output is excellent, and it hardly made a dent in her electric bill! Some people in her complex bought the small 'ceramic' heaters. Their electric bills went up by $...!!! Mom's went up about $... Considering all that and the price I think it's an excellent deal.
She generally uses it for her bedroom/bathroom area, and I'd have to say this is probably way more heater than she needs, considering how well it performs. I would definitely buy this same unit for myself if I ever needed one. Great job Amazon!

I have the 6507L version of this space heater. I actually bought this unit before I even saw any reviews of it. I bought it because I have a DeLonghi electric grill which my wife and I love to use and so we trusted the brand name. Like many people, I've used almost every kind of space heaters under the sun... let me just say that this is the best one I've ever used. Others seem to use too much electricity and make the air dry, but not this. I've read all the negative comments posted here to see what possible gripes people had. Let me try to address some of those concerns:
1. First of all, understand that this is a RADIATOR, not one of those just-a-hairdryer-in-a-fancy-box space heaters that most people waste their money on. That means it takes time to heat the oil in the unit, which in turn heats the surrounding air. This works just like the radiators that all houses came equipped with in the old days, before the super high efficiency natural gas central heating systems were invented.
2. Because it's a radiator, it requires some air movement around it to dissipate the heat. That means you should place it under a window (where the cold air flows to the floor), near a heating vent where air is blowing out, or just next to the coldest wall in the room. If you have a celing fan, then you might want to turn that on to circulate the air in the room. Just remember to reverse the direction of the ceiling fan--don't keep it in the down-flow direction like you would in the summer.
3. If your circuits are being shorted while using this, then it's wiring problems in your house, not because of the heating unit. You probably have too many outlets running from the same circuit. In this case, you might try plugging this unit into a less-loaded circuit (i.e. your bathroom or hallways) with an extension cord, instead of your living room or kitchen where you probably have the most things plugged in.
4. This unit is quite heavy, so doesn't easily fall over like some of the cheap box units. But it does get quite hot. I disagree with the person who suggested that its OK for kids to touch while it's on. No, it's a radiator--it gets hot!
5. The only down side I can think of is the confusing control switches and dial. Switch 1 only = "low"; Switch 2 only = "med"; both Switch 1 + 2 = "high". Then there's also a dial from 1 to 6 that also controls the temperature setting. I just keep it on "6" and then turn it on full power (Switch 1 + 2). After the room feels warm enough, I either: (a) turn down the dial slowly until the unit *clicks* off -- this means that the unit is now set at your desired temperature; (b) leave it at "6" and turn on only Switch 1 or Switch 2, but not both; or (c) turn the whole thing off until the room gets cold again.
In conclusion, this is a great unit. Put one in your bathroom and walk out into a nice, toasty warm bathroom after a shower. Put one in your bedroom when you go to bed and turn down the thermostat on your whole house heater to save on your gas bills. Put one in your workshop in the garage, so you don't have to worry about all the sawdust blowing around. Just get one and try it.

I'm sitting here writing this on one of the coldest evenings of the year, and I just turned down the heater because I'm sweating. :)

I have a 300 sq. ft. cottage with 10 foot ceilings, and it is quite drafty. The only heater was a heat pump that would run day and night just to keep it barely comfortable. The noise was bothering the neighbors and the electric bill wasn't pretty either.

The MG15T arrived today and I quickly put it into service. The first thing that impressed me was the size. It's quite small compared to what I expected from the picture. The small size allowed me to put it in a convenient spot by my workstation. The second thing that impressed me was the very simple timer interface that let me set up an on/off profile. In about 30 seconds I was able to set the clock and program the heater to turn off during the daytime when I am not home.

I was not initially very impressed with the heat output when I fired it up. The heater was hot to the touch, almost hot enough to burn but not quite, but the room didn't feel warm at first. But after running for a few hours, it really heated up the cottage. The place has not been this warm since early Fall. And my noisy heat pump annoys the neighbors no more. :)

We have an addition which didn't have radiant heat installed when it was built. Until we can pull the floor up and have it installed, we were facing another chilly winter in that room. Even this early into the fall, that room is about 10 degrees colder than the rest of the house.

I bought this heater two days ago, and it really does a fabulous job of heating the addition. The heat is even, and you can feel that the floor, walls, and furniture warms up at the same level as the air. There is an odor when you first turn it on, but it's slight and it disappears about five hours after you begin operating it.

My biggest suggestion for efficient use of this heater is to place it in an area where there is adequate air flow, or most of the heat will 'pool' in one area. You could also use a small fan and blow the warm air through out the area.

The outer casing gets uncomfortably warm, I'd say on the verge of hot, so you want it kept away from anything flamable, and be careful about your kids getting too close. I have an almost three year old, so she's very careful around it, but I'd never leave her unattended with it.

Overall, this is an excellent heater for the price, and a great way to supplement your zone heating, without killing your pocketbook.

I live in frozen upstate NY, where we've had several daytime highs of 5-15° and several overnight lows of -5 to -10° the past few weeks. Normally our coldest nights are around 10° and our cold days are 20-25°.
Our utility prices are very high. We keep the house between 58-60° and dress warmly to save money. Fearing an outrageous gas bill, we decided to drop the thermostat to 55°. Obviously you can't shower in 55°! Our bedroom is the master bedroom with it's own bathroom. We don't have kids.

My wife and I have not used the Delonghi since the days we lived in an apartment with lousy heat.
We kept the house very cold, but used the heater to make our bathroom and bedroom reasonable warm. Ran the heater for two hours before bed. The heater stayed warm for more than an hour. When you turn off a fan powered heater, you turn off the heat. Not true with the oil filled. The time it remains warm after shutting it off, think of that as free heat. We turned it on for about 30 minutes in the morning and got along OK.
I don't think it could heat our livingroom. In a small 200 sq. foot room it is fine. In our 450 sq. ft. apartment it was OK. If you are expecting to heat your house with one of these heaters, you are not going to. Should be fine if used for its intended purpose.

I returned the MG15T in favor of the DeLonghi SafeHeat 6507L and a heavy duty appliance wall timer. The 6507L is the same overall size as the MG15T, and also has 7 fins, but it lacks the mechanical timer. The gear noise from the MG15T's timer was noisier than expected, and since my schedule varies from day to day, it was very inconvenient to have to set the timer whenever I needed to operate the heater during the day, and reset the timer when I moved the heater back to the bedroom.

The advantage of the separate timer/heater setup is that I can switch the heater on and off using the timer override switch on the wall timer. If I need to heat another room during the day, I can unplug the heater from the timer and not disturb the timer settings.

The fins on the 6507L have less surface area than the MG15T. The fins do not have a rounded/folded edge around them which, in use, actually seems to make it a better heater than the MG15T.

The 6507L can be found for about half the price of the MG15T.