Customer Reviews

Kenwood Oil Filled Electric Radiator Room Heater 6708EP

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is one of the best radiator oil-filled heaters Delonghi offers, this one is under the Kenwood brand name, but it is identical to Delonghi's 6707E, the manual admits as much showing Delonghi's information on the back. I'm a fan of these radiator heaters, I couldn't stand my forced air system and instead got myself a few of these to get me through the winter. The unit has a thermostat instead of the usual hot/cold dial, which is a real winner for me.

Previous post on the price is outdated now. Its actually $20 cheaper then the Delonghi's 6707E. Ended up getting this oil-filled radiator at my favorite Home Improvement Store (w/ Orange Logo) for $59. Considering the steep rise in fuel prices this winter, I wanted to augment my force-air heater with an efficient electric radiator heater. I own another one of these but a much older model which we use in our bedroom. Its great in keeping the room relative warm and toasty when we sleep. We needed another one for our living room where we spend most of our time around the house. We choose this model because it automatically modulates the heat based on the temperature setting. At the same time, the timer will be handy because we will only need to set it on for a portion of the day. At the same time, since we have a baby crawling around, we were concerned about the temperature of the unit. It turns out that it was relative cool to the touch compared to older units. All in all, this is one of the better oil-filled radiator out there in quality and features for $59. Had to take one star off because the LCD was little difficult to read unless you look at it straight on at the same level.

As others have pointed out, this Kenwood heater is the same as the Delonghi 6707E. We purchased this heater to replace our Honeywell oil heater that broke after only one year of service. We decided to upgrade to Delonghi after reading favorable quality reviews.

After using this heater, I've noticed a few differences between this heater and others. First, the radiator fins are wider with holes built into the top of the fins. This provides increased surface area for heat to radiate off of. The unit also feels a little lighter than our old Honeywell, which was pretty much the same physical size. The digital controls are richer than other models and the addition of a remote makes this unit higher quality in terms of feature set.

One thing I like about this heater over many others is the digital controls are able to retrain down through the high, medium, and low temperature levels until the user-programmed temperature setting is reached, then the heater will turn off and remain in standby mode until heating is required again. When the temperature falls below the programmed level, the heater will turn on again starting with high, then drop to medium, then low, then off when the programmed temperature is reached. Cheaper oil space heaters don't provide this feature and will only heat based on the level the heater is set at (high, medium, or low). This is a real nice feature that actually saves money due to a more efficient use of power.

Now for areas of improvement:

The handle built into this unit is recessed into the front face where the LED display is located. It's very tiny. I'm a pretty large guy with big hands and only the tips of my fingers fit into it, making it an awkward grasp when moving the unit from room to room. My wife's hand is real tiny and she doesn't mind it as much. It's actually easy to miss that there's a built-in handle there. Unless you look for it, it actually looks like it's part of the faceplate design and not a handle at all.

The heater comes with a remote control, which may or may not be useful to all users. The problem is, the LED display is very difficult to read. When changing the temperature setting, you really have to be in good lighting and right up on the display to read it properly. We find we don't use the remote because we have to be very close to the display to know what setting has been selected. To compensate, the power setting light on the front can be used to select the level from a distance. Red is high, yellow is medium, and green is low. Since the unit controls these settings on its own when maintaining the programmed temperature, we find we don't use the remote at all. We set it and forget it. Still, some might find the remote useful.

Calculating square footage: Keep in mind, this heater is designed to heat spaces 150 sq. ft. and smaller. This isn't a very large space. It will work in larger areas, but it'll take longer for this heater to warm the space. If the room is too large and the area too cold, this heater won't be able to properly heat the space. Be sure to calculate your heating needs based on the square footage of your room.

You calculate the square footage needed in a room with 8 ft. ceilings by multiplying the square footage by 10 Watts. So if you have a 100 sq. ft. room, multiply the square footage by 10 Watts to get 1,000 Watts. This heater uses 1,500 Watts on its highest setting, which would be good for a 150 square foot room (1,500 W divided by 10W = 150 sq. ft.).

At 1,500 Watts, this heater generates 5,120 BTU. If you need more BTUs, consider two heaters, but be sure your circuit breaker can handle it. At 1,500 Watts and 120 Volts, it draws 12.5 Amps. You'll need at least a 15 Amp breaker for each heater.

Energy savings: If you're thinking of buying this heater as a cost savings by not running your furnace as much, you can calculate how much energy it will use by looking at your electric bill and finding how much you're paying per KWh (Kilo Watt hour). If you run your heater at 1,000 Watts for one hour, that's how much you'll pay. I currently pay about $.046 per KWh. So if I run this heater at 1,500 Watts for 10 hours, that's 15,000 Watts/1,000 = 15 x $.046 = $.69. So it'll cost me $.69 to run this on high for 10 hours. Use this handy little formula to calculate how to best use this heater to save money in your living environment.

Overall we're happy with this heater. The quality seems higher than the cheaper models and the programmable features are very nice. We also like how the unit controls the heating levels on its own and is able to sit in standby mode waiting to heat if the temperature drops below the programmed setting. In terms of managing heat in smaller spaces for zoned heating, this unit definitely is more efficient than others. It would be nice to have the LED display easier to read and to have a better handle to move the unit around, but compared to all the positive features, we can live with these things.

I have the non-digital control version of this heater that I purchased from a big-box home improvement store two years ago to take the chill off in my detached one-car garage, and it works quite well. The fan-less radiant design is nice because it is so quiet and doesn't blow dust and papers around. It takes a few minutes to get up to temperature, but works fine for my purposes. I wouldn't try to heat a large or uninsulated area with it, but for small areas or supplemental heat without a fan, it's great.

I have an old wall fan electric heater that sucks up a ton of energy. So I decided to buy this radiator to keep the living and dining area a consistent temp in the winter. I keep it low, in the 60's, and it does a great job of maintaining the temp. The thermostat seems to make a clicking noise every time it turns on or off, which is strange, but I've gotten used to it over the past week. I would recommend this radiator if you have a smaller place - the living room/dining room is probably 500sf and the radiator works well.

Don't ever buy this heater. We had this one in our bedroom and one night the oil pissed out of it all over the carpet. We got lucky because my wife got up to use the restroom and smelled something. And let me tell you this was nasty super hot stinky oil soakt in to the carpet and the heating element could have set the oil on fire as it started to over heat.

I have experience with oil heaters and this one I thought would be great to control with a wireless temperature controller. I liked the that it slowly heats up my master bedroom nicely although if the units temperature setting in anywhere in the 90 degrees it emits a horrible smell. I know about the horrible smell when the unit is brand new but that usually dissipate during the first few usage. The digital read out is still hard to read during the daytime, during night time usage you have to turn on your bedroom lights. Also, when I wanted to move the unit to another room after using in my bedroom, there are no handles that will help pull the unit into another room so I had to get pot-holders to move the unit while it was still hot. This unit does heat the room up nicely although the digital readout needs to be easier to read during night time usage and a handle to pull the unit while it is cool or warm would be a nicer future features. Two stars because the unit did heat up my M.bedroom plus bathroom nicely within in an hours time.

this heater sprung a massive oil leak one day out of nowhere. had not misused it at all. luckily it was in my garage and i was home or this thing could have burned the house down! No fire, but lots of nasty hot oil and some white smoke. very dangerous!

Quiet, but not that quiet! I try to use it in the bedroom with medium setting but the heater has a steady buzzing noise. It is not that loud at all but I can hear it. I am still looking for the "perfect" one.

I bought this heater today to supplement my main central electric heat because it got too cold in the house having a small baby. i plugged it in, cranked it on high for about an hour and it is still giving off the most awful smell ever. i thought it might go away after about 30 minutes, but it is still going. i had to take it out of the baby's room because i didnt want her to smell the nasty fumes. Needless to say, I am going to give it a little time because it seems to get pretty warm.