Comments about Ceramic Cabin Heater:

Just finished a unique boat trip: 6-person relay swim from San Francisco to Morro Bay. The ocean temperature was about 55-60F. Each person swam a one hour shift at a time. All I can say is that this little heater box was my saving grace each time I got out of the water and needed to warm up. The entire team used it and loved it. I cannot say enough good things about it, except it did trip the circuit breaker if someone used the microwave at the same time. This is probably not very helpful for most sailors, but I just wanted to give some praise to this amazing little box.

Comments about Ceramic Cabin Heater:

Works well size wise in my sailboat. unlike electronic controlled ones, it will come back on if the power goes off. The continuous setting thermostat is nice.

I am concerned about the steel case rusting rapidly. The coolest setting is to high if you just want to prevent freezing. The fan is not as quiet as I would have liked and the controls feel flimsy.

Comments about Ceramic Cabin Heater:

I bought two of these heaters for Christmas as presents. I use one of them on my 38' sailboat when we sleep aboard, and one in a small studio apartment. Unlike older heaters, this compact heater does not cycle on and off as the thermostat cycles. It "throttles down" the speed of the fan and the output of the resistance elements, so it appears to pick the right amount of heat output to maintain the temperature. This is FAR more effective, since you don't feel that you're blasting from too hot to too cold. The ambient temperature sensor is on the power cord about 6" away from the unit and is able to accurately sense the temperature of the surrounding air. The heater has tip-over protection, which is nice when it's used on a boat.

Finally, this is a very compact heater. It's hard to tell by the images, but it only consumes about 6" x 6" of floor space.

My only negative is that I believe it's incorrect to describe any electric resistance heater as "efficient". This sort of description makes engineers cringe. This heater draws 1500W of power and produces 5200 BTU, like virtually every other space heater. But it does so in a better way, but smoothly reducing it's output as the requirements change. That's a worthwhile upgrade over conventional heaters.

Comments about Ceramic Cabin Heater:

I am so happy to see this design of ceramic heater again! My old ones are all over 10yrs old, some 15+. These cubes (sometimes call "disc furnaces" because of the element shape) are far better than the so-called "ceramic" heaters found in department stores for a fraction of the price. There is a reason why those are so cheap. They simply are not in the same class.

These cubes produce a vast amount of very warm air - which is great for heating a room or a boat. They are noticeably heavier than heaters of the same size found in department stores at a fraction of the cost. Again, there is a reason why those are cheaper.

These cubes are not silent. The fan passes a lot of air over the elements, which comes out very warm - but not hot. The design will not allow the elements to cook. As they get hotter the current flowing into them is reduced. But so much air is passed over them that the heat is drawn away, not allowing the elements to get too hot. Should the airflow be restricted the elements will heat and the current flowing to them will be reduced, all the way down. These cubes do have a thermostat of sorts. Once you reach desired room/space temp turn the knob down to where the cube is just running. From then on it will use sufficient current to get there, up to its maximum if needed.

Compared to the broad, flat (and old technology) heater that West sells, that unit has more specific temperature and power settings, and is highly resistant to knock-overs because of its wide footprint. This cube, however, puts out far, far more heat. While its design and weight makes it resistant to tipping over, you could still trip over them. So you might want to secure them to a broad plate of some kind if used on a boat.