The best heaters 2024

This tiny heater weighs the same as a bottle of wine and it’s not much larger than one. You can stand it on a shelf, desk or bedside table in use – and it’s easy to store when you don’t need it. It has a long (1.75m) power cable as well.

As well as its on-device controls, it has smart features. Thanks to its inbuilt thermostat, you can choose a target temperature so the heater isn’t just blazing away unchecked. You can also set up a day-by-day heating schedule, so if you have the heater in a home office, you can set it to come on at the same time each weekday but not on weekends.

For its size, it packs a punch. Govee says it can heat a 200ft² room. But, given its power consumption, we think the most economical way to use it is at close quarters. It’s a 1500W appliance, so you’ll need to use its smart features to keep an eye on its power consumption.

This is a pricey heater but if you buy one, it’ll be as a long-term investment in lower energy bills. The Aeno’s energy use is far less than competitors: under 0.8kW per hour. At current UK prices, that translates to around 18p per hour if you have it set to constant heating. This is much cheaper than rival heaters, although you’ll first have to pay off its higher initial cost.

It also has smart features, which will let you see what it costs to run, as well as scheduling heating and operating the heater remotely.

Design-wise, the Aeno is attractive. It comes in black, white or grey and is essentially glass sandwich: there’s a panel of tempered glass front and back with what is presumably the infrared coils in the middle. Although one of the benefits of infrared heating is that the heater doesn’t get hot, the Aeno’s glass does because it’s both an infrared and convection heater.

Although Aeno says it will heat spaces up to 30m², we wouldn’t recommend it for anything over 20m².

If you’re looking for an energy-saving heater for a garden office or another space without central heating, this is one to consider. It has an attractive, minimalist design, a high-quality build and smart features that include scheduling and remote operation.

Plus, it has the benefits of both an oil-filled (quiet, efficient) and a fan heater (it vents warm air at the top and heats a room quickly).

Best of all, thanks to its sensitive thermostat and the intelligent algorithm that controls it, it won’t overshoot its temperature target and waste energy in the process. If you use it according to instructions, over a longer timeline, we think it will save you money – although you’ll need to factor in its initial cost first.

The smart features are comprehensive. They’re a little more complicated than on some other heaters, but that’s because they provide more information and give you more advanced control. The app will even monitor the heater’s energy use in kWh, so you can work out what it’s costing you to run.

There’s a bit of assembly required when you first unpack it, but it’s pretty straightforward. Bear in mind that at 9.9kg and without casters, it’s not as portable as some other heaters in this round-up. The sides also get extremely hot in use, so you’ll need to keep an eye on young children near it.

Our only other criticism is that performing more complicated tasks on the on-device controls is not straightforward as it has multifunction buttons, so you’ll need to keep the manual to hand.

If you’re not convinced by the smart features, you can buy a model without them for £99 from B&Q.

This heater would be excellent as a semi-permanent addition to a garden office, extension or little-used spare room. The panel heater is slim, silent and can be wall-mounted or fixed on feet (which you’ll have to do yourself when you unpack it).

It comes in glossy black or white and is much more attractive than your average plug-in heater. Plus, its simple lines mean it’ll be easy to keep clean.

The glass panel is perfectly plain, except for four bolts that fix it to the back. We think there must be a more elegant way to do this but it’s a minor complaint. It features an LED display and touch control panel that’s integrated into the surface. The temperature readout is in large, blocky, retro digits, but the other settings can be more difficult to read, depending on the light.

That’s one of the reasons you’ll want to use its smart features. The other reason is that these features are genuinely excellent and are a good reason to choose this heater over others.

In the simple, well-designed Smart Life app from Tuya, you can set up a heating schedule and even specify certain days of the week, add it to a group of smart home devices, create scenes and automations (so that it switches on when the temperature drops below a certain threshold) and use voice control, via Alexa and Google Home.

It’s a powerful heater and good value for its price point. We tested the 1,500W model, but there are also 1,000W and 2,000W models available from retailers including Amazon. Make sure you know which one you’re getting as it could make a big difference to running costs.

We’ve also reviewed another very similar model: the Princess Smart Glass Panel Heater. Its build, price point and feature set are almost identical to the Devola model. On the plus side, the Princess has an even more minimalist design. We’d recommend both models, so you might want to decide based on price and availability.

Dreo’s heater is a neat, attractive little appliance. It’s a miniature column that’s 40.5cm tall and 14.5cm in diameter, so it’ll be easy to find a spot for and can be used under or on a desk as a personal heater.

It has three heat settings (900W, 1,100W and 1,800W), which allow you control of the temperature and your spending. Plus, there are failsafes to ensure you don’t leave it running. In Eco mode, the heater will switch off when it reaches a set temperature. Or you can set a timer for up to 12 hours, to ensure you won’t forget to switch it off.

The heater can oscillate, to warm up a larger area. Controls come via a control panel on top of the device, and an LED display. There are no smart features but it also comes with a remote control. Its safety features include tip-over and overheating protection, but if you don’t use the timer or Eco mode and forget about it, it won’t switch itself off until 24 hours has elapsed.

UK users should also beware: its 1,800W, top setting is power-hungry. On an average UK tariff, it could cost 40p per hour.

If you want a traditional looking oil-filled radiator, this is an excellent option. It’s sturdy and attractive in a dark gunmetal grey. Like other oil-filled radiators, what you’ll get is something quiet and effective, although it’s obviously a heavier and bulkier option than many heaters we’ve tested.

It’s also not the cheapest to run at 1500W for the US model, or 2000W in the UK. Plus, its lack of smart features mean you can’t set up a schedule to ensure it’s only on when you need it. There is, however, a 24-hour timer which will prevent you from forgetting about it and leaving it on overnight.

But this is a powerful and quiet heater that will keep you cosy and warm when you need it.

Given its high price, this appliance is a luxury and an investment. However, it may look a bit more reasonable (but only a bit) if you consider that it can take the place of three appliances: heater, personal fan and air purifier. It’s still not a money saver but it is a space and hassle saver, and more stylish than most other options on the market. You can find a spot for it in your home and leave it there year-round.

It can stand on a table or on the floor and unlike some other Dyson appliances, it can be tilted up or down. As it’s bladeless, it’s safe for little hands. The heating is rapid, and to save on power, it’ll automatically turn itself off once it has reached the desired temperature (up to 30°C).

It works brilliantly in all three roles, with the unusual selling point of also being able to destroy formaldehyde in the air, something that not every air purifier can do.

There is one caveat beyond its price, however. It’s not particularly easy to move, so you won’t want to be transporting it around your home with you.

The Capsule isn’t the cheapest small heater you’ll find on the market but there’s much to like in its compact form.

For one thing, it looks good. That’s an important factor in an appliance that will spend its life on show in your home or office. The cute grid stylings, mixture of metal and ceramic, and its modern, curved edges set it apart from many heaters that are built for service but not for display. This is a piece of tech that’ll fit into your home and quickly become part of the furniture.

The Capsule feels built to last, and is a great size. Weighing around 1.3kg, and 192 x 137 x 270mm, it’s perfectly portable. Critically, it’s equally at home on the floor or on your desk, which isn’t true of all ‘compact’ heaters. And its 1,800 watt output pumps out plenty of heat, and quickly – although this means it’s also very pricey to run.

So what’s not to like? Noise. The Capsule is compact in all respects except for its audio footprint. After a while, you’ll tune out its sound but if you’re hoping for a silent heater, this is not it.

Attractive, compact and capable: we like the Capsule a lot. We just wish it was a little quieter.

Measuring just 5.5 x 6.7 x 10.3in (approximately), this handy little heater could stand on your desk – or under it. 

What makes it stand out from competitors is its build quality. It’s compact and attractively made, with nice features including a carry handle at the back and an illuminated LED display at the top. It’s even fitted with a removable filter to prevent you from getting a dust cloud in the face when it’s switched on (useful if you’ve stored it away in a dusty cupboard over summer).  

It’s definitely a personal heater, rather than one to warm up a room but at 1,500W on its highest setting, it’s powerful and effective for its size. But that also means it’s expensive to run.

It has four modes, including a fan-only option, which could be useful to keep you refreshed if you’re stuck at your desk over summer. It also has a 12-hour timer and it can oscillate, although I found these to be less than compelling features in a heater of this size, where you’re likely to be using it close up and on an ad-hoc basis. 

It has an energy saving mode in which it switches off when it reaches the temperature you’ve set. However, it was only partly successful in our test. It switched off when it reached the temperature threshold, but was inconsistent in switching back on, perhaps because it got too warm itself.

Its safety features include overheating and tip-over mode protection. 

This tall, slim tower can stay out year-round, as it also doubles as a fan. Nor will it take up much space, as it has a very small footprint. If you did want to move it, however, you’ll find that it’s light (7.6lbs) and portable – there are no moving parts to catch on things or flap around when you lift it. 

It’s bladeless, so it’s child and pet-friendly – as well as having attractive, minimalist lines.

Best of all, though, are its smart features. Once you’ve downloaded the HomeWizard Climate app and connected it to your home Wi-Fi (a doddle when we tested it), you can control it remotely and set up schedules, including different options for weekdays and weekends.

There is even support for voice controls via Google Assistant, Alexa and Siri. This basically amounts to switching it on and off, although there’s a surprisingly granular level of settings options, so you can have different voice commands to switch on, for example, a low level of heat, with oscillation, or a cooling fan blast that diminishes over the course of an hour.

There are 10 fan settings, four heat settings, oscillation and three modes: natural (which varies the airflow, to distracting effect), normal and sleep (which slowly reduces its intensity while you drift off). 

There’s also an inbuilt thermostat, which allows you to set a target temperature. When it reaches this level, the heater will turn off. It’ll come back on again when the temperature drops. There’s also a timer, which you can set in increments of one hour, for up to 24 hours.

It comes in a choice of black or white and it’s ready to use as soon as you unpack it, with no assembly required, The supplied remote control even comes with two AA batteries. 

On the minus side, the cooling fan does get noisy on higher levels – much more so than a traditional circular fan – and it’s a power-hungry 2000W.