Customer Reviews

Holmes HFH442-UM Heater Fan with Adjustable Thermostat and ALCI Plug

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I own two of these, one in a small bathroom, and one in a larger 9' X 9' bathroom.

The unit is compact; it has a plastic part that you fasten into the wall, and then the heater rotates sideways to fit into it, then back to vertical to lock in place.

The controls have a power button, a LOW button, a HIGH button, and several temperature settings. We don't use the temperature settings, so I won't comment on them here. The heater works great in both locations; the small bathroom uses low heat and the larger bathroom uses high heat.

One needs to be aware that when powering off the unit, you have to hold the button; the lights will change (clockwise), but the next time you power on the unit, the last setting you used will be set. In other words, if you have the unit on HIGH and you PRESS the power button, it will go to LOW heat. In the same situation if you HOLD the power button, the light will indicate LOW heat for a second before the unit turns off, but the next time you power up it will be in HIGH heat.

The unit has an overtemp circuit - if it gets too hot it will shut down and it requires a lot of time to completely cool before it will allow a power up. We discovered this when we attempted HIGH heat in our smaller bathroom - but now we save energy by using the LOW setting, so it was a good experience.

The unit also has an ALCI plug, which means that if you drop it in the tub or just generally get it wet, the unit will disconnect from the mains and is not hazardous - the plug will simply blow it's circuit and the unit shuts down. This is perfect for bathrooms.

Excellent unit, great operation, nice design. Recommended.

I bought this heater last year for the guest bathroom thinking it was inexpensive, and small.

Now that it started getting cold again I could not find the bigger heater for my master bath, so I got this "little one". I mounted it on the wall (away from the bathtub and shower). It took all of one minute to mount it.

The thermostat setting is great because I leave the unit running all the time at 65 degrees, then bring it up to 70 in the morning. It only came on once or twice overnight, but the bathroom is not icy cold.

This is a compact, lightweight heater. Bought it on sale and its well worth the money. Very effective for small spaces. Heats up fast, thermostat works fine (so far!). Stable on the floor, can also be mounted on the wall.

Pros:

- has thermostat you can set by 5 degree increments.

Cons:

- turning the unit on and off is difficult

- thermostat settings don't go low enough and have a useless high end

I have a Lasko 754200 Ceramic Heater with Adjustable Thermostat, but the continuous thermostat doesn't have any degree markings. I thought I would try this Holmes heater that has settings for 60,65,70,75, and 80 degrees. I use this in an unheated attic that I use for office space when I work from home. I find myself wanting to turn the heater on or off several times a day, but there is NOT simple on/off switch. There are 13 settings on the heater:

1. off

2. low no thermostat

3. hi no thermostat

4.-8. low on each of 5 thermostat settings

9.-13. high on each of 5 thermostat settings

There is a single button to cycle through these settings. If the heater is on low/65, then you have to push the button exactly 4 times to turn the heater off. If you accidentally push it on too many times, then you have to push it 12 more times to cycle through all the settings again. Very annoying if you want to change the settings with any frequency.

The thermostat is set in 5 degree increments which is fine enough me. However, I could see myself wanting a temperature setting of less than 60 degrees at some point (such as to prevent pipes from freezing), but this isn't available. Yet the unit does have an 80 degree setting, which I can't see myself ever using. At 80 degrees, I am turning the air conditioning on!

I will not be buying another one of these in the future, but will go with the Lasko instead, which I have really liked. You don't know the exact temperature setting you are getting with the thermostat with the Lasko. However, on the Lasko the thermostat has a much greater range and is very easy to turn on and off. This Holmes unit works great if you always need the same setting, but otherwise it is a pain.

If you found my review helpful, let me know with your vote. If not, then leave me a comment so I can improve my review.

I bought this for my father's bathroom so he could turn it on and be warm after he showers. It's compact and fits perfectly in a spot between the shelving and doorway. I had thought this device doubled as a cooling fan but it's just a heater. The blower pushes out a good amount of heat and it works great for the small room.

First one I had to return - when I turned it on it blew smoke.

I didn't want to get the same one, for obvious fire-averse reasons. But looking at all the heaters, this seems to be the only one that can turn on and off to keep a temperature.

And it does that. It's a little 'chunky' in that you need to choose from 5-degree increments (70 seems cold, 75 is hot!), but it does keep a pretty constant temperature. No idea if 70/75 is accurate, but close enough.

The main problem is that we use it in an enclosed space, and it leaves behind a musty smell - almost like burning but not quite. I figure that's any heater, and it's not bad, so we still use it.

I love that I can mount this on the wall and it doesn't get knocked over by the dog's "sweeping joy". Also love having one in each room, so I can leave it at a lower temperature if the room is unoccupied, and turn it up when I want to - like in the bedroom at night, 65 or 70 with the door closed and a heavy quilty comforter is perfect! The temperature setting means I can have it come on to only 60 degrees if I am not home, just to keep things (and pets!) from freezing. I don't use the high setting because of the amp draw, and don't want to pop the circuit, but the low setting is perfectly adequate. I had one of these in the bathroom for a long time and the ACLI plug did blow, although I am not sure why. There was no water on at the time it happened. But I have two more of them now, just not in the bathroom, because I am going to replace the GFI in there first, but I will have another one in the bathroom, eventually, as well.

The reason I rated it a 4 is because of having to cycle through all of the settings just to change the temperature up or down 5 degrees. I change them quite frequently, and it is kind of a pain to have to push the button so many times, just to turn it up or down one notch on the temperature select. But you have to go through high, and click through every temperature setting, then back to low and select the temp you want.

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UPDATE. If you discover that your fan is making a noise, DO THIS RIGHT AWAY to save your unit from failure. It only takes a few minutes. UNPLUG THE UNIT FROM THE WALL and turn it gently on it's face. There are 8 phillips screws on the back. Remove those, and carefully separate the cover. You will have to kind of fold it over gently, like opening a laptop computer, because there are wires connecting the two halves at the temperature control. Get all the dust and dirt out of there. Dip a cotton swab in some alcohol and pay special attention to cleaning the fan spindle. You might also want to grease this part. Canned air is also helpful. Make sure there are no clogs of dog hair around the heating elements. I ran a cotton swab all between and through them to clean them. You will want to do this operation outside, or in the garage, because when I opened mine up a PILE of dust fell out. And this happened to mine EVEN THOUGH I use swiffers to clean the outside of the case (especially in back where it sucks air in!) and sprayed with canned air through the vent holes regularly, AND ran a vacuum cleaner wand around it. Like weekly. NOW, if you have pets, I would recommend that you get a piece of foam filter from the hardware store and cut it to size and fix it to the back of the unit on the outside, maybe with some double sticky sided velcro. This thing will suck in dog hair from down the block! Also, you will want to do this BEFORE the fan fails. If the fan fails, the unit will shut off because of the overheating protection built in. If the fan has failed already, I don't know if the unit is reparable or not, but hopefully this bit of maintenance will prolong the life of your unit. ESPECIALLY if you have fur kids.

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I love how you can set for a desired temperature (either on low or high setting_ and the heater will shut on and off to maintain that temperature in our bedroom. Keeps us warm while we sleep without it getting too hot and saves on our electricity bill.

For such a little unit, it sure works well. I've used a delonghi (sp?) unit that was worth 70 dollars and 3 times taller than this unit... and the end result is the same. I've brought this to my friend's place and that room is quite large.. like 14feet by 9.. and it warmed up the sleeping area nicely. can get really hot if needed and can be used to maintain a room temperature as well. I would gladly buy it again if this were to break somwhere down the line.

I bought this heater exclusively to hang on my bathroom wall as, due to various reasons, I was unable to have one installed in the ceiling or wall. I have now been using this heater for about 1 year and a half and a completely satisfied with its performance. Keeping the bathroom door shut with the heater on raises the room temperature approximately 5+ degrees within just a few minutes. My only negative input would be having to run through the entire cycle of heating options to get to the one you want or to turn it off.