Customer Reviews

Vornado VH2 Vortex Heater

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

I own 3 vornado heaters, including this one, and they have been the best i've owned by a wide margin. here's why:

* they fan enough air to mix the room air and maintain a more uniform temperature (their advertising is true in that respect)
* no 'hot toaster zone' in front of the heater, with the rest of the room cold
* it is quiet
* the thermostat works! the heater puts out less heat after the room has warmed up
* this heater may appear to take longer to warm up a room for one reason: it is heating up the whole room, not just a small zone immediately surrounding the unit.
* It does use nearly 1500 watts, which is the maximum a heater can consume to be UL approved on a conventional 15Amp household outlet/circuit. The only way it puts out less heat is if you account for a more active fan. The reason the heat feels less when you put your hand in front of the unit is due to the larger amound of air being fanned. The total heat output (heat per cubic foot of air moved X the number of cubic feet of air moved) is the same... just with more even results

for best results: it helps to think of this heater as an 'ambient' heater:
(the following would work for pretty much any heater)

*position the heater in one corner of the room, preferably near the coldest wall... it will suck in the cold air, warm it and push it into the room

*do not aim the heater toward any sitting area... fanning air always makes it feel cooler (summer fan cooling anyone?) and will give the false impression that the heater is not working... when it is in fact warming the room

* if your heater has a temperature sensitive, variable speed fan: set the fan on high and it will not cycle on/off... it will also mix more air in the room and in doing so, maintain a more uniform temperature

Notes:
* I typically let my furnace bring the house to 69 degrees (from it's daytime setting of 58) when I get home at night and let the heater keep it at that temp afterwards. Even in Chicago winters, the furnace usually doesn't come on after the first run (my main floor is an open area, 700 sq. feet, with 7 windows and 2 doors... with only generic insulation... in Chicagoland)

* no space heater is considered 'whole house capable' in winter conditions. A 1500 Watt unit just cannot put out the BTU's a furnace can. It is not realistic to expect a space heater to quickly bring a whole house from cold to toasty warm in a short time.

On the lower side... Vornado seems to have had quality issues with the manufacturing of their heaters.. They've even had a recall on another model of theirs (which i own) due to faulty (read cheap?) solder points

So my rating for this heater is:

5 stars based on features and performance
-1 star for reduced trust factor
---------------------------------------------------
4 stars

It's very important not to get confused (as I suspect some reviewers have been) between two very similar Vortex models, the VH2 and the DVH. The DVH does indeed break almost instantly and should be avoided. This model, the VH2, on the other hand, is perfectly adequate for the price. No small electric heater in this price range is going to do a great job of quickly heating a large drafty room on an extremely cold day, but the VH2 does a find job. You will have to be patient however: it will take several hours to notice much of an effect in large dining room or kitchen. But if you wait, you will find that the VH2 gets the job done (and is quiet as well).

I live in an old drafty icebox of a house built in the 1930's. Even when I run my gas heater, it doesn't do much good. I needed a space heater, and bad! I was wary of buying a space heater as I figured it couldn't help, but I'm glad I got this one! I read the instructions, followed their recommendations
for a large room and in about 15 minutes it took the chill off and made it so much more comfortable! It even reached into the surrounding hallway and dining room. I'm quite pleased. As a pet owner, I also appreciate the smaller vents that keep curious kitty cat's out of the heater. My cats all congregate by it and there's no way for them to get inside of it.

Not sure if there was a faulty batch that other people here received, but this will be the 3rd season using this product.. and it is the perfect answer to heating up a small room quickly. A Large room does indeed take more time, especially if there are open doors or wide openings in the room. It is not meant to be on 24 hours a day so maybe thats why other people are having trouble. The internal thermostat ensures you won't be wasting any more energy than you need to. About to buy my 2nd one right now..

I purchased the Vornado VH2 Heater, but I returned it to the store after a few days.

My wife and I owned a Lasko Ceramic Element 30" Pedestal heater for years, but this season it finally died. We chose the Vornado VH2 Vortex heater after reading some of the positive reviews.

We live in the Northeast, have kind of a drafty apartment and we try to keep the heat low or off to save energy. The space heater goes into whatever room we are in and we use it to heat that room while we are there. Or we turn it on in the bedroom in the morning while we get ready for the day.

After a few days, it was clear that the Vornado VH2 was not going to cut it. The unit blows heat, but it is very tepid compared to our other heater.

We did notice that the Vornado VH2 (as many positive reviews here have mentioned) gives a very ambient warmth - meaning that it seems to spread the heat about the room very evenly. However, be warned, it takes a loooong time for it to even raise the temperature a little bit.

I am confident in saying that this is NOT the heater for certain uses. For instance, if you have a home office and you like to use a heater to aim warmth your workstation area, this would not do the trick. Also, it isn't the heater for a fast warm-up. The Vornado VH2's big failure was in our morning routine. Usually, during the winter, we wake up, put on the heater, go into the bathroom to get ready and when return to the bedroom the heater has it nice and toasty. Well, the first morning using the Vornado was a shock - it felt as if nothing had changed in the room.

After a couple of days, I went out and bought another Lasko heater, (same model as we had before,) brought it home and did a side by side comparison. NO CONTEST. I immediately boxed up the Vornado and returned it.

*****On a safety note: The plug for the Vornado VH2 seemed to not sit well in the outlet. When I would go to unplug it after using it, I would notice that the plug would kind of be hanging down, just a little, out of the outlet. This doesn't seem to be the case with our new heater, or our old one.

I just purchased my third Vornado Vortex Whole Room Heater in three years. The shortcoming is with the heating coils...the base of the coil breaks, the coil becomes loose from its mounting, representing a potential fire hazard. The unit must be factory serviced at...nearly the cost of buying new...I like the design controls and quiet operation. The VH2 heating coils are identical to the earlier VH model, so I don't expect these to last any longer - less than a year - before they represent the same hazard. Vornado warranty offered no re-design or retro-fit solution. This is a potential fire hazard so if you buy this, keep an eye on the coils for any breakage or insulators that have come loose.

The written description of this heater led me to believe that it would perform like the 2 5-yr-old Vornado models that are the best electric heaters I've ever had. The VH2 has major flaws. It's single fan speed is way too fast, causing heated air to be cool/cold within 10 ft of the heater. The fan cannot be slowed down. The thermostat causes the fan to stop and start in ridiculously short intervals; thereby wasting energy I believe. Finally, the thermostat is set so that when at the highest (hottest) setting it doesn't allow the heater to bring even the immediate area around it to more than 70 degrees F.

I've had the heater <1 mo and will attempt to return it for a full refund in another wk or 2 as soon as I have an alternative brand in my home.

I have bipolar feelings about this heater. On the one hand, it is a fantastic heater that effectively warms a room, and has an automatic thermostat that really works. In terms of heating, it's great.

On the other hand the design is almost ridiculously flimsy. The first one we had broke entirely within a week of use (thank goodness for Amazon.com's easy return policy). The second one has given us a lot of good heat, but the on-off switch broke after about six weeks. I can make it work through this strange gerrymandered solution, but now it sparks, in a frightening way.

If it weren't so scary, it would be a joke. Like the type of heater you'd use to warm a haunted house.

In all I can not recommend this product. Its a great heater, but its unreliable, and well, actually sort of terrifying.

I purchased my first Vornado heater, a reconditioned model, and had to return it because it simply did not put out any heat on the low setting, smelled like it was burning on high setting, and the tip over feature did not work. Obviously it wasn't reconditioned very well, or is this just a bad product?

Well, I got my answer when I decided to purchase a new Vornado thinking the first time was a fluke (I have owned a Vornado Fan which I like). Well, once again on low setting there was no perceptible heat and on high once again that burning smell. I left the heater on low but at the highest thermostat setting and checked on the room temp after 2 hours. The temp had gone up 2 degrees! On a whim I checked the manual and while reading it I came upon the warranty info. If something goes wrong with the unit within a year we have to ship the product back at our cost(most companies do this), but the company said to include a check for $ for postage! I called Vornado, however, and they said they do not require this-so why put that in writing? Very odd.

Vornado products are overpriced to begin with and their quality control is non-existent. Have you ever wondered why there are so many reconditioned Vornado heaters for sale here? Now we all know why. Their heaters stink...

The VH2 I purchased almost burned down my house. The fan quit working but the heating element did not. After smelling something burning, I found the smoking heater, the heating element was red hot. The saftey devices failed to shut it down. Warrenty does not cover shipping, which is about $40.00. For that much money, I will buy a name brand heater that I can trust and who's maker stands behing the product. Vornado does not.