Amazon Basics 1500W Review

Where the Amazon Basics stands out is in its simplicity. While it may lack certain features that some may find desirable, others may find that the bells and whistles are not proportionate to the added cost. This model also has an option to use it as a fan without the heating element being engaged, making it useful in warm months as well, whereas models that don't have this option will be useless unless it's cold.

Performance Comparison

Personal Heat

The Amazon Basics is great for personal heat, so long as you are close to the device. One thing we love about it is that it heats up very rapidly. Once it has been switched on, this model immediately cranks out hot air.

The rapid warm-up in combination with its compact design makes the Amazon Basics a spectacular choice if you're looking for a model to fit under your desk. Other than the warmth and a quiet humming of the fan motor, we could hardly notice that the unit was there.

It has a setting to run the fan without the heating element, which really makes it two products in one, as it has a purpose in the summer for personal cooling or air circulation. While other space heaters may have fancy digital controls, the Amazon Basics model keeps it simple with two simple dials — one for adjusting the thermostat and the other for selecting between low, high, or the fan-only option.

The 1500W Ceramic has a small button on the bottom of the unit that will cut the power to the device unless it is depressed; this means if the heater ever gets knocked over, it automatically turns off. This is great for households with pets and children who don't realize the safety implications of a 1500 watt heating element running in an improper position.

While the Amazon Basics performed decently well below a desk and in a small room, when we tried it out in a living room, its performance was less than impressive. The design of this model only allows for the heat to be directed at one angle, so if you're far enough away, the heat simply rises to the top of the room before it you can feel it.

Small Room

We wanted to test how well each model could do at heating up a small room over a given period of time. To test this, we used a laboratory-grade temperature to track the temperature change every 20 minutes up to 60 minutes in a 161 square foot room. When testing each model, we also made sure that temperatures outside and in adjacent rooms were almost the same.

Starting with an ambient temperature of 63 degrees Fahrenheit, the Amazon Basics was able to raise the warmth of the room to 73.4 degrees for a total increase of 10.1 degrees over the course of an hour.

Convenience

While the 1500W Ceramic may be very simple to operate, simplicity doesn't necessarily translate to convenience. We found that in most cases, it's lacking several features that would make it easier to use.

The Amazon Basics doesn't include a remote, so you'll be standing up or bending over to make any adjustments to the thermostat or power settings. This device is also lacking a timer — if you want it to have a shutoff time, you're going to have to use an external timer plug or smart plug.

Nearly all of the space heaters in our review have an electronic user interface with a digital temperature readout — the 1500W Ceramic is lacking both. As far as setting this model to a specific temperature, it's just a guessing game.

Power Consumption

When we used a wattmeter to measure the amount of kilowatts this model uses in an hour, we were a bit disappointed.

After an hour, it used 1.39 kilowatts at its highest setting, so we can assume that it will use 13.9 kilowatts after 10 hours. Using the national average for the price of kilowatts per hour of 13 cents at the time of this review, we calculated that this model will cost $1.83 to run for 10 hours, which translates to $54.90 to run it 10 hours a day per month.

Value

Even though the Amazon Basics 1500W Ceramic fell far short of the performance of the top models in our review in several ways, we still think it's a tremendous value given its ridiculously low price.

Conclusion

All in all, the Amazon Basics model is your run-of-the-mill, simplistic space heater. Not only does it double as a fan, but it does a decent job of heating small areas. This device is lacking in fancy features, but for some, that may be a selling point. Although this wasn't our favorite heater during our assessment, we would still recommend it to those looking for an uncomplicated product at a fair price.