Customer Reviews

Honeywell HZ-385BP Safety Sentinel Electronic Ceramic Tower Heater

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

 

 

Even though this model is not the top of the honeywell line, I'm glad I made the decision to go with it. I have three other brands in my home and none can compete with this model. Heat fills the room quickly and there is a positive difference in the electric bill. And by the way....I shopped around and couldn't find anyone that beat the amazon price.

Update: My 20'x 20' master bedroom with a 15' vaulted ceiling is just too big for this heater. It runs continuously and can only warm the room 7 degrees above the temp of the rest of the house. It looks like I will need to switch back to central heating, since no electric space heater goes above 1500w.

Overview: Overall this seems like a great little heater, the handle does make it hard to carry, a slight curve in the inside of the handle would have made all of the difference in the world, but I had already read all of the complaints regarding the handle before I bought it so I knew what to expect.

I am using it in a master bedroom that is approximately 20x20 with a high 15' vaulted ceiling. I will find out tonight if the room is too big for this little heater. I also have it plugged into Kill-A-Watt to approximate how much it will cost me per month to run, but more on that later.

Problems: One big gotcha, big enough to almost make me take it back because I thought it was not working, was that the tip-over sensor does not work on thick carpet. After unboxing it and plugging it up nothing happened, so I looked all over it thinking maybe it needed a fuse or something. Finally figured out that the carpet was so deep that it thought it was tipped over so it would not come on. The remedy was to place a piece of cardboard between the carpet and the underside of the heater so that the tipover sensor would be pushed up inside the heater. A gravity based sensor or a more sophisticated pressure sensor would not have this problem, but it would probably drive up the cost.

Quality of Materials: Seems about on par for the price range, mostly plastic, I believe the grill in the front is metal, a nice touch is the heat indicator alerting you to when the grill is hot to the touch. It definitely is not 'cool to the touch' within a few minutes of running I would not recommend touching the front grill. As others have said, moving the heater when it is hot is a challenge due to the poorly designed handle.

Annoyances: The brilliant blue light in the front is quite annoying at night as others have mentioned. I am considering opening up the heater and just disconnecting it, but I'll give it a few days before I decide. Also, as others have mentioned the fan is really loud, its almost as loud as a window AC unit, and it did wake me up a few times during the night.

Ease of Use: Knobs and buttons are clearly labeled, unpacking was a breeze

Now the fun stuff: Most people buy a space heater to save power, the thinking being of course is that heating one or two rooms of a house is far cheaper than heating a whole house. I do not claim to be a HVAC expert by any means, but what I can tell you is that if used improperly a space heater can end up costing just as much if not more than a central heating system. For example, I intend on using my space heater from around 10pm each night until around 7am in the morning (9hrs). This heater uses 1500W of power which equals 1.5kW/h. So if this heater were to run continuously for 9hrs a day, 7 days a week for 30 days it would consume 405kWh x 0.097 which TECO charges per kWh = $40/month. So this one heater has the potential to cost me $40/month.

Of course in the previous example the heater ran continuously, which would mean the room is too big for this heater, if that is really the case then I have other problems. But it does go to show that these heaters can still rack up electric bill costs. To be certain I am saving money with this heater, I am using Kill-A-Watt to see how much it is actually going to cost me per month, I would also recommend putting a heavy duty timer on your outlet such as this: Intermatic TN311C 120 Volt Heavy Duty Grounded Timer to ensure it does not run during the day when you are not home.

Obviously my results will in no way be comparable to anyone else's results due to many variables: square footage of the room, outside temperature, building materials (i.e. block holds heat better than wood), insulation, etc. But I would recommend to anyone expecting to save power with one of these to do your own power usage testing instead of just assuming heating one or two rooms is cheaper than heating a whole house.

Scary stuff: Using the same .097/kw/h rate above and imagine placing this heater in a place that is too large for it to heat, thereby causing it to run 24 hrs/day. This one heater would add $104.76 to your power bill (((1.5kW * 24hrs) x 30 days)) x .097cents per kWh) = $104.76. Moral of the example is, make sure you put it in a room it can handle, make sure the room is reasonably insulated and the door(s) are closed as much as possible, and whatever you do, don't leave one of these running when you are not home unless you have to.

After reading some of the negative reviews of this product, I was a bit wary about buying, but it was recommended to me by a source I trust.
As it turns out, there is NO beeping sound when the temperature changes, and as for the annoying light...I've had alarm clocks that were worse than the light from the tower heater. If the light bugs you, all the more reason to snuggle under the blankets. I love being able to set the timer on the heater and crawl under the blankets, and not having to crawl out to turn it off!

Initially when I purchased this a month back, it was heating up pretty good. The only problem I had was that the temperature difference between the heater turning off and on again was like 4 degrees. This created both cold and hot zones.
After about 3 weeks, the automatic shut-off got activated and the heater stopped working. There is instruction on the cord that advices you to unplug the heater and wait for 10 mins before using it again. I followed it and it again started working. But after another week, everyday, the auto shut-off would kick-in within like 5 mins of switching on the heater. After that it was consistently just working only for 5 mins and then will automatically get reset after about several hours to only run for another 5 mins. It became so frustrating that I returned this back to Target.

I've used this heater for over 1 year now and I am still extremely happy with it. It heats up a room quickly, it is portable and my kids carry it from one room to the next. It has a great thermostat. I highly recommend this product. The noise is minimal.

Good product overall. I like the look, the price from Target was $10 less than Amazon (but there's tax, of course), and the "night light" is fine for my wife and I. Only problem right out of the box was the motion sensor at the bottom. After turning it on, the light started blinking almost immediately, telling me that there's an object within the sensor's sight. So after a couple seconds, it stopped running, waiting for me to remove the object. But there was nothing in front of it for at least 5 feet. After resetting it (turning it off), same thing happened. But you can disable the feature with a small button near the sensor. So we used it for a day or two.

Since no one else has complained about it here, my guess is that I had a defective unit. I decided not to mess with it, and exchange it for Honeywell's next lower model which is the same heater but without the motion sensor. We have a pup and thought it'd be a good idea to have the sensor, but figured it's not all that important. She's a fairly intelligent dog, and the next lower model is about another $10 cheaper!

Anyways, nice heater. 4 stars if the sensor worked, and 5 if there was a remote. Just beware that you may get an overly sensitive motion sensor. Buy from a local store if you don't want the hassle of returns via shipment.

Bought this for a large Family Room, 20 x 27, and it works greats. Easy functioning nice warming heater. Just what I wanted and was hoping for. Saw that it was rated fairly decently at Consumer Reports and happy to report it was lived up to my expectations.

I purchased this heater for a bedroom in 136 year old house that did not have any heat runs and this room would get quite cold in the winter time. I've only been using this heater for about a month now, but it has been working very well. This is a 1500W heater with an energy saving mode that only uses 750W of power. I always like to use less energy when I can, so I've only used this heater in the energy saving mode and it's worked fine for this small 12'x 15' room. This heater has many safety features that include an auto shut-off if it is placed too close (~3') to an object. This feature can be turned off if necessary. This unit will also turn off if it is knocked over or if the heater over heats for some reason. There's is also an indicator on the front of the heater that turns red when the heater is hot. This heater has a thermostat, so you can set it to your desired temperature. One this that may bother some people is that this heater has a blue light that stays on all the time when the unit is on, which might be a bother for use in a bedroom application, although this hasn't bothered me any. One thing I wish this heater did is retain the last settings used before it was turned off. Every time I use this heater I have to set it to energy saving mode, set the thermostat, and I turn off the 3' auto-shutoff feature because of space limitations in my room. But I would highly recommend this heater despite this short coming.

I've used this heater all around my (drafty old) house this winter. I keep the central thermostat around 64, and I use this space heater to warm the room I'm using. The noise is minimal, and it warms a room pretty quickly. I've had no problems with its performance, but the thermostat never displays an accurate temperature -- it will usually tell me a room is about 61 degrees when it's actually closer to 65. Once you get used to it, you'll know how to set it to keep you comfortable.

Overall, the product works just fine...it heats my 400 sq foot room pretty well. The air that blows out is a little on the noisier side, but not super noticeable. I think the unit looks attractive and high tech which is why it cost so much. Opposite from some, I really like the blue lights because it adds a nice aesthetic appeal to the unit. I ended up returning this because I got a $25 Honeywell heater (on clearance from Wal-mart) that is ugly but is quieter and works just as well. Also, I've seen $50 heaters at Home Depot that have remotes and look good (not sure how they perform) so I would expect a heater of this price would have one as well.