Honeywell Digital Ceramic Review

The Honeywell Digital Ceramic Tower is a middle-of-the-pack contender. It might be a worthy purchase if you can find it on sale, but otherwise, we would steer you toward other top space heaters.

Performance Comparison

Personal Heat

The scores for personal heat are comprised of two components. The first is how well the heater can fit and operate under a desk, and the second is how well it functions in a living room setting. This model is a convenient size that has no trouble fitting underneath a desk. Its footprint is relatively small, which means it won't take up too much room if space is limited. The heating element works well, so it will get the job done if you need to warm a small space quickly.

However, the heat dispersal isn't the best, and as such, our testers found it better to put the device directly in front of both legs rather than to one side. If you're using the Honeywell in an open room rather than under a desk, its effective range is five feet or less.

Convenience

The scores for convenience are based on how user-friendly each heater is to use. Does it have a remote? How many settings does it offer? The little things make this device intuitive and easy to use. With an oscillating body and a timer that lets you set the run time for one, two, four, and eight hours, the Honeywell has the makings of a reasonably convenient device. The temperature controls consist of two buttons that let you raise and lower the set temperature between 60 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. It also sports excellent safety features such as tip-over protection, over-heating protection, and cool-touch housing and handles.

The Honeywell loses some points for its lack of remote control. If you want to make any adjustments, you'll need to get up and walk over to the device. On another note, this heater cannot operate as a fan. If you just want air moved around and not heated, you'll need a separate machine. (Check out our review on the best fans to see our favorites for cooling off.)

Small Room Heating

To avoid subjective scoring, the scores for this metric were calculated by taking a lab-grade thermometer and measuring how much heat each heater was able to add to a 161-square-foot room over an hour. We checked and recorded the temperature increase every twenty minutes during that hour. This little space heater does a great job of heating small spaces. On average, it brought the room temperature up about 7.4 degrees in the first twenty minutes of run time and a full 11 degrees after an hour. This puts it up there with the best space heaters in the test group.

Power Consumption

Power consumption refers to how much energy each heater uses and the associated costs. Our testers connected each machine to a wattmeter and recorded how many kilowatts they used per hour. We then multiplied that number by the national average price of a kilowatt per hour to determine how much it costs to run each machine for ten hours, one month, six months, and one year. The Honeywell isn't the most energy-efficient heater in our fleet. One full day of operation, which we accounted for as 10 hours of continuous use, cost $1.82, or $55 for 10 hours a day over 30 days. If you run it constantly for a month, the cost of use is right around $131. These numbers make it one of the highest in terms of energy consumption.

Should You Buy the Honeywell Digital Ceramic?

This Honeywell model has above-average scores when it comes to personal heating and its ability to warm a small room. However, considering its high cost of use and above-average MSRP, you can find other options that perform just as well for a lower lifetime cost.

What Other Space Heaters Should You Consider?