Customer Reviews

Holmes HFH2986-U Whisper Quiet Power Heater

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This is a perfect heater for guest rooms, bedrooms, and office type spaces. It has preset temperature settings starting from 60 up to 80 degrees fahrenheit in increments of 5, and automatically turns off and on when the setting has been reached or falls below respectively. Granted, the immediate temperature around the heater may not coincide with the room as a whole, but the differences are small. The heater also has two manual settings (High heat - 1500 watts / Low heat - 1000 watts) that will provide continuous nonstop heat until the user chooses change the setting. These two settings will heat a room to a cozy 85 degrees.

One of the key advantages of this heater over other fan-forced heaters is it's quiet factor. I am able to sleep and study with this heater on 24/7 (I keep it on High most of the time). It does generate minor sound due to the heated air being forced by the fan, but it is soothing, and in fact serves as a nice replacement for external sounds coming from outside the room being heated (for example T.V's, dog barking at night, etc.). There is no noticeable mechanical noise assosciated with its operation. It also has an elegant and compact design.

For anyone concerned, it does not support a seperate 'fan only' button, only heating options. It does not oscillate, does not have a remote control, and does not have a 'tip-over' safety shutoff feature (it has a wide base though).

I own two of these heaters, and I had to return one of original heaters due to a malfunction. But these problems usually crop up within the first 2 weeks of operating any heater, so once you pass the break-in period, the product should work beyond its warranty.

There are much better working heaters out there for the money. I've had the Holmes 'One-Touch' for over a year now, and although it does provide OK heat in manual (constant on) mode, it does not work well at all in thermostat mode. The unit turns on for only perhaps a minute or two, then shuts off for a much longer period of time. It does not seem to have a temperature sensor to control the unit's thermostat, and thus keep an area heated properly. The unit would have been better off if it had a timer, where you could set it to let's say turn on for 5 minutes, then off for 10, or whatever else time intervals you would need to properly keep your area heated. This is a major shortcoming, since you don't want to keep your space heater on constantly for long periods of time (fire hazard), and you must rely on a thermostat or timer mode to keep the unit on in intervals.

Living in MN our below gound family room can get pretty chilly. We are very pleased at how well this heater warms the room and how quiet it is. When the heater is on our family room becomes the warmest room in the house, allowing us to keep the centeral heat turned down lower than we did before we bought the space heater. Worth the money.

This is the quietest space heater ever. Truly quiet (you don't know it's on) and it does heat very well. The thermostat is fine/good (not great), and the controls require you to step through all settings to arrive at the setting desired. I'm here on Amazon looking for a second one - so I do recommend this heater, even if the controls aren't 100% perfect. If you need quiet and warm, this is a fine choice.

I bought this heater about six weeks ago. One morning I turned it on, and saw sparks and smoke pouring out of it. Luckily, I was there and could turn it off. Otherwise, it would have started a fire.

I called Holmes immediately and they seemed unconcerned about this matter.

It is unlikely that mine is the only heater that may catch on fire. Consider yourself warned!

this heater is very quiet, but it never turns on. I basically have to use the manual option. The heater hardly turns on..don't count on the themostat.

I got this fan because I wanted something quieter than the usual rattling jet engine to avoid disturbing the neighbors at night. And it is indeed pretty quiet, though "whisper" is perhaps a bit exaggerated. Oddly, as someone else noted, it is quieter on the high setting than the low. Of course only time will tell if it remains quiet or gets noisy as it wears in (later -- after 6 weeks, it seems to be a bit noisier than originally). Also, even on low, it generates a nice amount of close-in heat, just what I want.

On the other hand, the single-button control is a pain in the neck. You have to cycle through up to 12 settings to reach whichever you want (high, low, 5 thermostat settings each at high and low, and off). If you accidentally go past the one you want, which I've found easy to do, you just have to grit your teeth and cycle through again .. click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click (that's 12 clicks). To turn it off (the superstitious may be interested that this makes 13 total states ;-) you have to either cycle through to the off state (a lot of clicks if you simply use high or low setting) or hold down that one button for what seems like a very long time (even though it is only 2 seconds). I may eventually get used to this, but haven't yet, and so when I inevitably release the one button too soon, find myself cycling through all those settings again. grrrrr. And all that button pushing seems guaranteed to wear it out sooner than a better designed system would .. what ever happened to good old fashioned switches? Like an on/off, a toggle for hi/low, and something separate for thermostat? Ah yes, the imperatives of lowest possible cost with maximum useless features, and design for breakdown.

Another problem no one has mentioned is that there is no handle or indentation to pick the bloody thing up with. Every other space heater I've used has something so that you can move it easily with one hand. The Whisper Quiet has two indentations on the sides, seemingly intended for two handed use. One handed is possible if you just want to scooch it over, but awkward (unless you're lying on the floor next to it :-). .

I don't use or intend to use the thermostat feature (which makes having to cycle past these ten settings doubly annoying), but anyone who expects a sensor mounted on the heating device to give accurate whole room readings should think about it again. Plus, in a small device like this, with low fan volume, the very act of the heater being on heats the unit as a whole and affects the sensor. Another reviewer is right -- a timed off would be more useful (and safer!).

As several reviewers mentioned, I also found this much cheaper locally, especially when shipping is figured in from amazon; plus there was a rebate.

In summary, the quietest fan forced heater I've seen, at least in its size (I have a large tower heater that is pretty quiet, but wouldn't work for the room intended), but has several annoyances. Maybe next time I'll investigate a radiant panel heater ... I notice browsing amazon that they seem to have come down in cost. Unfortunately, they don't seem readily available locally.

I purchased this heater in hopes to heat a medium-sized bedroom. Turned in on once for about 15 minutes to learn how it works. Turned it off and unplugged it - as I won't sleep with a space heater on during the night. Got up the next morning and turned it on. Within 7 minutes, flames were burning the plastic housing. Fortunatley, I was in the room and smelled the plastic. I removed my cat from the area and took care of the flames. I've written to the MFG to let them know about the incident - never heard back from them. I'm pretty sure I won't be purchasing any Holmes products in the future! I strongly urge everyone to be cautious when using any type of space heater...may you not pay a big price for a litle warmth.

The heater is extremely quiet compared to other heaters I bought before.
Thermostat feature does not really work. I have to have this thing in either high or low.

I have two that got about 3 or 4 years ago. I have one in my office and I use it all day (every day of the week) and works great. The other one is at home and about a month after i got it, the button stayed in an odd position, however it worked just fine but now the sensor is not working and it turns off or it thinks you are pressing on it so just changes temperatures. It is odd. Any way the one at work I just love the one at home I hate. So I guess I am 50/50 on this product.