12.00" w x
12.00" l,
17.00 pounds
Features
- Heats a Room Up to 1200 Square Feet
- Sleek Black Color Looks Good with all Decor
- Built-in Fan Circulates Air through the Heater and Into the Area Being Heated
- Infrared Technology Effectiveley Uses Less Energy to Produce Even Heat from Floor to Ceiling
- Programmable Temperature and Timer Feature
- Heats a Room Up to 1200 Square Feet
- Sleek Black Color Looks Good with all Decor
- Built-in Fan Circulates Air through the Heater and Into the Area Being Heated
- Infrared Technology Effectiveley Uses Less Energy to Produce Even Heat from Floor to Ceiling
- Programmable Temperature and Timer Feature
Cut home utilities costs as you heat your home with this LifeSmart PowerPlus Infrared Heater. Able to efficiently heat 1200 sq ft of living space, this PowerPlus Heater has a built-in fan that circulates air through the heater and into the area being heated. Its infrared technology effectively uses less energy to produce heat from floor to ceiling. This LifeSmart PowerPlus Infrared Heater offer a programmable temperature and timer feature, a user-friendly large LED display and an advanced safety overheat shut off. Its cool touch exterior cabinet is safe for kids and pets.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Works well for the price
By Steve Mcdaniel
It's on the middle to upper end of the infared heaters that are like this. It's great that it comes with 2 remotes (though you do have to provide your own batteries). It's quick to heat up and has a cool down feature when you shut it off so the blower stays on an extra minute or so. The thermostat works pretty well though since it sets at ground level the temps aren't overly accurate for keeping a room at a set temp. If it were higher up in the room it would probably do better.As such I'd highly recommend it as it does work well and heats up nicely
19 of 25 people found the following review helpful.
Can't heat close to 1200sqft. In fact, couldn't even heat 250sqft. effectively
By Houston Gray
This review is for all three LifeSmart heaters I purchased, and tested, using both a thermometer and a Kill-A-Watt unit. The models purchased were the 800sqft model, the 1200sqft model, and the 1500sqft model. I am not even going to bother with the model numbers because 1) they all suck, 2) LifeSmart changes model numbers from year to year even though it is the same exact unit, and 3) ...see #1. (I know this because I found two identical units in the store yet one had a slightly different model number and was produced two years ago compared to the newer produced on. Identical design, identical specs, identical instructions, etc.)None of these can get even close to heating the square footage they claim. NOT EVEN CLOSE! I would venture to guess that most of the people giving this or other LifeSmart heaters high reviews have no clue how small a space they are actually heating when they test this.Folks, the math isn't that hard.If your room is 10' x 10' that's 100sqft.If your room is 20' x 20', that's 400sqft.And if your room is 28' x 28', that's roughly 800sqft.A decent 2 bedroom apartment is 800-1,000sqft.An average 3 bedroom house pushes the 1500sqft mark.If you are still having trouble estimating, try this. Stretch your arms out. That is about 5-5 1/2 feet. Can you stretch your arms twice in each direction in your room? Then your room is roughly 100sqft...which is 1/8 the capacity of the 800sqft unit, 1/12th the 1200, and 1/15th the 1500.Check the room you used your unit in and you will find it is tiny compared to what these are supposed to be able to heat.So, 800sqft is HUGE and there is no way, even in hell, for the 800sqft unit to heat that space. And don't even get me started on the 1200 and 1500. Neither of them could heat an 800sqft space either, even though they are advertised for much more. Will this heat your feet under your desk, sure, but that is something like 25-50sqft. Will this keep you warm if you set it up next your couch while you read or watch TV? Sure, but that is something like 50-100sqft. Will this warm you from across the room if it is blowing directly in your direction? ...actually, even that isn't easy for these units to do. But you can achieve those heating tasks with much cheaper, much smaller units, making these a waste of money and space.Here was my test.First, the reason I had three of these was that the Grocery Outlet had them all, had them priced decently at $80, and I was in the middle of looking for replacement heaters for a rental unit I was about to put back on the market. Our store has a liberal return policy so I figured I would take advantage of the opportunity to test three of these side by side. (I was doing a lot of work in the unit so I was there all day and could run the tests while doing other things.) We provide the heaters because we pay the utilities on this particular unit...and want to put in the most efficient heating unit. We were looking for replacements for some old baseboard heaters, which seemed to heat the rooms just as well, if not better than these units, without 1/3-1/2 the power, even though those units are freakin' old. (I'm guessing the fan in these models sucks up a lot of juice.)The rental unit is a one bedroom apartment that is roughly 640sqft. The unit is made up of one room for the kitchen/living room, which is about 250sqft, a large bedroom of about 330sqft, and then various closets and a bathroom, all of which were closed off during this test. The heaters were set up about eight feet from a digital wall thermometer in the living room and were pointed to blow past the bedroom door, although not pointed directly at it. (I wanted to see how much of the heat would move into the bedroom...none did.) I plugged them into a Kill-A-Watt, which is a unit you can buy here on Amazon that shows you what your electrical appliances are drawing power wise. (I highly recommend having one - that will likely be my next review, although most of the reviewers seem to have gotten that one right so I might not waste my time.)So, the primary room I was heating was 250sqft, which is tiny compared to the claimed 800sqft capacity claim of the 1st heater.In fact:This room was only 1/3 (or 31%) of 800sqft, meaning that heater is meant for a room THREE (3) TIMES as big. THREE TIMES!!!!This room was only 1/5 (or 20%) of the 1200sqft capacity, meaning the 1200 heater is meant for a room FIVE (5) TIMES as big. FIVE TIMES AS BIG!!!!And this room was only 1/6 (or 16%) of the 1500sqft capacity, meaning the 1500 heater is meant for a room SIX (6) TIMES as big. I think you are getting the picture, right?People, these heaters are advertised for HUGE spaces, not your little piddling 150-250sqft bedroom.I let the room cool to the same temperature for the start of each test and the ambient temperature outside never really changed, so this was a fairly consistent test, for not being a laboratory.The first odd thing that I noticed was that each unit drew close to the exact same power.800: 116 Volts, 11.64 Amps, 1355 Watts1200: 116 Volts, 11.72 Amps, 1316 Watts1500: 118 Volts, 11.80 Amps, 1400 WattsSomeone will have to explain to me how a two units, of similar design, from the same company, and drawing the same amount of power, are meant to heat different size spaces. The 1500 is meant to heat a space almost twice as big as the 800 yet draws almost identical power. If that meant that the 800 could heat a 1500sqft space, that would be great, but I couldn't even get the 1500 to properly heat a 250sqft space...meaning that they are advertised to heat well beyond what they can actually do.The second odd thing was that these units, which are meant for spaces 3, 5, and 6 times as big as the one I tested, could only raise the room temp by 3 degrees in one hour's time. (My gas heater at home will do the same in about 4 minutes. Seriously.) I left each heater on for one hour, with a room temp starting at 71 degrees. It should be noted that this is not a cold temperature so it wasn't like I was asking these units to truly perform. They were heating already warm air, and still couldn't get the job done. I can only imagine how bad they perform with cold air, like something in the 40s or 50s (yes, I'm in the SF Bay Area and 40s and 50s are cold to us.)Each heater was set to 86 degrees and left on for an hour.Each heater warmed the room from 71 to 74 degrees.Each heater used a predictable amount of energy, which was right around 1.4 kwh, which is "thousand watts" which means 1400 watts, which is what they were drawing, according to the Kill-A-Watt measuring unit. If it is rated at 1400 watts, and is left on for an hour, it will draw 1.4 kwh, which if 1.4 kilowatts (thousand watts), which is the same as 1400 watts, per hour. Hence, the 1400 watt rating/reading means it will draw 1400 watts per hour, if turn on to its maximum setting, which all of these were.The third odd thing was that the temperature in the other room did not rise one bit. NOT ONE BIT! Remember, this is a 640sqft apartment, meaning it is only 80% the size of the 800's claimed capacity, 53% of the 1200, and 43% of the 1500...and even this is generous considering the bathroom door and all three closet doors were closed. That means that about 60sqft of the 640sqft wasn't even being heated. So that would put the total apartment's tested space (living room/kitchen and bedroom) at 73% of the 800's capacity, 48% of the 1200, and 39% of the 1500. So, not only couldn't these heaters efficiently heat the room they were tested in, but there was no way, even in hell, of them heating the whole place, which at best was only 80% of their claimed capacity, and at worst, was a piddly 39% of their capacity.Now, one might claim that the heaters need more time but I simply didn't have that kind of patience. If a heater can't heat the room quickly, what is the point? If it takes all night to get a room to a comfortable temperature, it has defeated the purpose. If it takes all day to get the room to a comfortable sleeping temperature, that also defeats the purpose, and wastes lots of energy.Oh ya, and makes a ton of noise - the fans are loud.Will this work in a small area, probably. But you are paying for something that is supposed to heat a large area. In fact, I even ran a quick test using the heater I keep under my computer desk at home to keep my feet warm on chilly mornings. It raised the temperature at about the same rate and with less power draw, but cost close to nothing, is about 1/4 the size, and certainly didn't claim to be able to heat whole houses.Heck, I have friends with radiant heating built into their floor tiles and it heats the room faster than these, and there isn't a blower motor for their heat.And let's talk about cost. At roughly $0.22 per kWh (in the SF Bay Area), that put the cost of running these units for an hour at about $0.30. The only reason I mention this is because you will have to run these for a long time to raise your room, let alone the space they claim to be able to heat, to a comfortable temperature. For these units to heat you up, you will need to run them for at least several hours a day, and will likely need one for each room, although as I showed, even in a single room, these weren't effective, or quick. Sure, we don't all have a gas option, but my home gas unit, in comparison, not only heats incredibly fast, but does it for about 1/3 the cost, based just on the one hour test. Being that these units would have to stay on all day to even try to compete with what my gas heater can do being on for mere minutes per hour, the true cost difference would be phenomenally large.Most people are willing to trade some cost for convenience. (Otherwise, we wouldn't tolerate such big fluctuations in gasoline prices, for one.) So, although the cost of running the unit might not be terrible (probably something like $1-$3 per day, per unit (you will likely need multiple units), they won't heat quickly enough to be worth it. Even if gas or heating oil or radiant floor heat or a fireplace cost you more (which I can't imagine would be the case) they all heat quickly. And, you don't have to replace them, which you surely will have to do with these. If they could make it through one season of heavy use (they could only be used heavily because they don't run efficiently enough to be used lightly), I would be surprised. So now add the cost of a new heater, per room, every season (or two, if you are lucky) PLUS the cost of electricity, plus the inconvenience of them not heating quickly, plus the loud fan, and what you have is as close to a scam product as I have ever seen packaged for mass marketing.Well, I hope this helps some of you out. This is a cheap product (made in China, not surprisingly) that is marketed to cover an area it simply can't handle. Actually, it can't even handle a small fraction of the area it claims, making their claims bordering on fraud. I'm just a simple guy with a room, a thermometer, and a Kill-A-Watt and I was able to prove these are pieces of crap. There is no way that LifeSmart doesn't know that their units can not live up to their claims.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Works well, within reasonable expectations
By Yu-jin Chia
I bought two of these LifeSmart heaters last year, one 1000W, one 1500W. We rent two rooms in a house, and our 'neighbors' have two similar heaters of a different brand on their side of the house. I've also owned at one time or another many other types of portable heaters, including oil heaters, radiant quartz, and heat dishes. Additionally, all places I've lived in (including this one) have had either central gas or fixed electric heating.First, expectations. You're looking at a portable heater here. It's not a gas furnace, and 1200 sq ft of adequate heating across multiple rooms isn't happening. It will heat one room, and the smaller the better- though it can easily handle up to 700 sq. ft from my experience. This heater is in a similar class with all other portable heaters, and that applies to every aspect: cost, size, weight, power usage, and heating ability. It is NOT going to heat your whole house on its own; you wouldn't expect a 1500W oil heater to do that, right? Well, until someone invents a portable cold fusion power cell, don't expect anything else to be that much better.That having been said, you get the same heat for the same wattage and heater type, no matter what brand it is. That applies for every class and type of heater. Quite frankly, building and designing these things isn't rocket science- some try to say that this is some kind of high-tech 'space' heater. Nah, it's pretty darn low tech; in fact the Amish actually came up with the idea. They're not exactly known for high-tech creations, eh? Those that say a certain brand of these heaters is dramatically better than another... no, it's not. Unless we're comparing defective vs. working units, it's simple physics, and they're all made in China and probably come from the same factory. tl;dr- functionality-wise, the cheapest one is the best one. I got both of mine refurbished and they work fine, exactly the same as the ones that cost 2-3x more that our neighbors bought new.There are some general advantages and disadvantages to this type of heater:Advantages:-More consistent heat over a larger area. Radiant and ceramic heaters tend to have a focused swath of heat. Dish heaters are even more focused, as you'd expect- which makes them great if you just point it at you and you don't move. Oil heaters are a bit better for area heating, but still are a lot warmer near vs. far away. These infrared quartz heaters act a lot like a central heating vent, and the blowing air circulates the warmth around the room.-Built-in thermostat allows auto climate control, just like a central heating thermostat would. Practically every model of this type of heater has this feature, with some (including this model) equipped with remote operation. This is on a smaller scale than your central heat, but it works the same if the room isn't huge. It also saves power and effort vs. on-off 'dumb' heaters, which just stay on all the time until you bother to switch them off.-Safe operation vs. a lot of other types, especially quartz radiant and dish heaters. Some of those can actually catch fire if the elements come in contact with combustible items. Oil heaters are the safest as far as those go, but still get very hot on the surface. These heaters can be touched when at full power and usually aren't even warm on the surface.-More aesthetically pleasing. These heaters are typically a box or cabinet form factor. You can put items on top of them, which pretty much no other type of heater allows. Some of the (many) models are designed specifically to look attractive, with fake fireplace displays, real wood exteriors, etc. Even if they're pretty barebones, you can safely decorate them as long as you don't block the vents.Disadvantages:-They tend to be noisier in general, since they have fans. This can get worse over time if you don't clean them, as with any other fan. Most of the other heater types make little to no noise, as they have no moving components.-More prone to break-down over time. Anything with moving parts is more failure-prone than something that has no moving parts. Likewise, the electronic controls are more likely to go haywire than a dumb on/off switch. I have oil heaters that are 25 years old and still work. These new LifeSmart units are pretty well made, but I highly doubt they'll last that long.As far as this specific LifeSmart model goes, it also has its pluses and minuses:Plus:-As far as these types of heater goes, it's pretty inexpensive. I got it on sale for $60.-Has simple remote control operation. The remote has decent range and works well.-Pretty powerful for its size. I'll readily admit, I don't see much difference between this and the 1500W model when both are at full power. The 1500W does heat the room a bit faster, but it's not a great deal better.-Compact. This is one of the smaller units I've seen and is very lightweight. You can easily carry it around the house or wheel it around a room. The cord is quite long, but has clamps to wind it on the back of the unit.Minus:-The design is a bit lackluster. It's basically a black sheet metal case with a grate and built-in control panel. The panel has a double digit display for the target temperature. There's many other models out there that look a whole lot nicer.Weird:-It looks like the power-off signal is shared with a few other devices. I notice when I turn off my entertainment system, it also turns off the heater next to it.Overall, this heater works well for a small-mid size room (we use it in our master bedroom). It provides consistent heat, isn't obnoxiously loud, and does save power vs. running the central heat all the time. Take note: if you run one of these in every room of your house 24/7, it is going to cost you more than central heating. That goes for every kind of portable heater. These things will only drop your bill if you use them for spot-heating in the rooms you're actually using. In our case, we turn on the one in the bedroom on cold nights and the one in the living room on cold days. It's saved about $100 a month on the utilities bill in winter vs. running central gas heating all the time. Technically, we didn't need to even buy two of these. We could (and did, for a pretty long time) just wheel a single unit from one room to the next as needed. However, I got lazy and it was cheap- one of those 'ah, what the heck' buys.As to whether these are the best portable heaters, that also depends on your usage. If you want to heat a whole room, these are better than any other portable heater. If you spend 95% of your day sitting in your favorite rocking chair, get a heat dish. It's more efficient and will probably be warmer if you don't move. I would say, however, that there's very little reason to use a radiant quartz, ceramic, or oil heater over one of these. The only real advantage those have is lower unit cost (note: NOT usage cost) and possibly durability (remains to be seen, but likely as noted above). Get one of these on sale and try it out, and if you understand their limitations and realize it's not a magical heat box, you'll likely be fully satisfied.
See all 8 customer reviews..." xml:lang="en">
