Best Space Heater That Is Safe

Cold tile before a shower is its lane. The Lasko 8-inch Bathroom Ceramic Space Heater was designed for bathrooms, so we get the ALCI safety plug first, then two heat settings, a timer, and 1500 watts of warmth in a compact body. It is also ETL listed for safety. Against the Lasko 9-inch, this one wins when the space is small and bathroom duty is the point, not a bedroom or office. Against the Vornado VH240, it is much less about spreading warmth across a whole room. Put it in a large room and we would skip it, because that is where the Vornado makes more sense.

At a desk where the room stays chilly past lunch, this one makes more sense than a bathroom model. The Lasko 9-inch Ceramic Space Heater is built for bedrooms and small offices, with oscillation to move warmth around, two heat settings, a timer, and 1500 watts of heat. It also adds a tip-over switch and overheat protection, which gives it a more everyday-room safety setup than the Lasko 8-inch, while the Vornado VH240 is the better call once the whole room needs heating. Put this in a very large space and it stops feeling like enough.

When the cold is not just by the chair but across the whole room, the Vornado VH240 Whole Room Heater earns its keep. It is built to circulate warm air throughout the room with Vortex technology, and the thermostatic temperature control knob gives us a simpler way to hold a chosen temperature than the two-setting Lasko models. It also has a tip-over switch for safety. Compared with the Lasko 8-inch and Lasko 9-inch, this one wins on room coverage and loses on small-space fit. Use it for a small area and it is more heater than the job calls for.