Heater Help

bionaire 3900 - deadly product!! BEWARE!! - Bionaire BH3900-U Oil Filled Radiator Heater we purchased a bionaire 3900 console heater, and exactly one year and two weeks after purchase it buzzed loudly, e...

Soleus HM5-15R-32 Heater Key FeaturesPower Source ElectricFeatures Timer MiscellaneousUPC 647568840060 4584046...

This is a good-looking heater, and it uses a combination of reflective and convection heating.

Information from the outside of the box and the owner’s manual:

It has no red-glowing element that can be seen. It has two heat settings; one consumes 750 watts (LOW) and the other uses 1500 Watts (HIGH). There is also an ECO heating mode that uses one-third less power after the room temperature arrives at a pre-set point. A thermostat is incorporated in the heater. The heater shuts off automatically after 12 hours. It weighs 11 pounds. Dimensions are 18″W x 9 1/2″D x 26″H. You must screw on the four plastic casters to two wheel bases with a Philips screwdriver.

A remote is included, as is a coin-shaped flat battery, but the remote didn’t function very well. The parts that you press are not buttons but just raised areas on the remote surface, with air space directly beneath them. The “ON/OFF” raised area already seemed to be wearing out after about four presses.

The reason that I am returning the heater is the odor that it gives off when in operation. The product literature states that the heater gives off no odors or fumes. I liken the smell to burning electrical wires - I think it’s the heating element and the warmed-up plastic parts that are the source of the odor. This smell is absorbed into carpeting, and remains in the room 12 hours after the heater is turned off. The odor gives me a headache. Knowing that using the unit is going to bring on a headache eventually made me not want to turn it on, even though it would supposedly enable me to lower the bill for the natural gas that is used by my apartment’s forced-air heating system.

An e-mail to SoleusAir only generated an automated reply stating that my e-mail had been forwarded to customer service rep Alan, but he didn’t follow up with a reply. I also left a message with the company’s 800 number (1-888-876-5387), but no one ever called me back or left a message on my answering machine.

I wanted to know if such an odor is an unavoidable consequence of using an electric space heater. I also experienced an odor with another type of heater that I had bought several years ago that had the visible red-glowing heating element. I thought that this new Micathermic design would spare me any smell coming from the heater.

I bought this on-line with 10% off and free shipping for $80.10, but I will have to pay a 15% restocking fee to the store plus UPS charges to send it back.

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