Lasko Ceramic Tower Review

Following our in-depth space heater assessment, the Ceramic Tower by Lasko finished right around the middle of the pack. It does a decent job quickly heating small areas and has an oscillator and a digital thermostat. We couldn't find any extraordinary traits about this tower-style space heater. It offers mediocre performance, but it still earned higher scores than several heaters that cost significantly more.

Performance Comparison

Personal Heat

To determine scores for this metric, we divided our assessment into two subjective tests. First, we ran each space heater underneath several desks in our office and a desk at home. We paid close attention to how each space heater fit, how fast it warmed up, and how much the device could raise the temperature in the surrounding area.

The Lasko fits nicely underneath a desk. Although this heater is on the tall side, it has a small footprint. It cranks out heat immediately after turning it on and can even be a little intense at its highest setting. For the second half of the personal heating metric, we used each heater five feet away from a piece of furniture in a living room. It didn't do quite as well in an open room setting as it did under the desk, and the heat seemed to fall away around three feet from the device.

Convenience

To judge the overall convenience of the heaters, we meticulously examined each model for any features or details that the manufacturer added to make the device easier to use. The Lasko has a few features that warrant a below-average score in the convenience department. It has an oscillation setting that disperses hot air throughout an area better than static models. It also has a timer with one-hour increments up to its highest setting of seven hours.

However, it is not among the top-ranked space heaters in this metric. It's lacking a remote — a feature that comes standard for the majority of tower-style space heaters. This device also has a thermostat with a much smaller range than top-scoring models and larger temperature increments. Unlike heaters that have thermostats adjustable one degree at a time, the Lasko only adjusts in blocks of five degrees, and its temperature range has a low of 65 degrees and a high of 90. While this is a large range, some users may want a space heater specifically to keep things from freezing. If this is the case, a low setting of 65 would be overkill and a waste of power for this application.

Small Room Heating

To score performance for a small enclosed area, we used a 161 square foot room and a laboratory thermometer to measure how much each heater could increase the temps every two minutes up to an hour. To ensure accuracy, we made sure the starting temperature in the room was within two degrees of 65 for each model, that the adjacent rooms were at 70 degrees, and the outside temperature was in the low to mid-30s.

The Lasko scored in about the middle of the road for this set of tests. After the first 20 minutes, it increased the warmth in the room by 5.8 degrees. It then slowed down to 2.1 degrees for the next 20 minutes, then two more degrees for the remaining 20 minutes of the hour. This resulted in a total increase of 9.9 degrees.

Power Consumption

These devices can be known for causing an increase in power bills, so efficiency may be very important depending on your situation. We looked up the national average cost of a kilowatt per hour (kWh), then measured the number of kilowatts each space heater used over one hour using a wattmeter. We were then able to use these figures to calculate the cost of running each model for a given amount of hours, days, months, and so on. We feel as though there is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to the cost of running a heater, so we didn't award many decent scores for this metric — the Lasko landed in about the middle of the pack.

To run the Lasko for 10 hours on high will cost $1.75. This doesn't sound like much, but to run this model for 10 hours a day for 30 days will bump your power bill up by $52.50.

Should You Buy the Lasko Ceramic Tower?

The Lasko Ceramic Tower is a great deal if you're looking for a tower-style heater to put under your desk, but don't feel like dropping the coin on a fancy heater. It's not the best option if you're looking for bells and whistles, high efficiency, or to heat a larger area. However, we think it's a fantastic option for light-duty heating and for those shopping on a budget.

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