One very popular space heater is the Honeywell Safeguard. I’ve been using one for a year and wanted to share this review with potential buyers.
In Short
The Honeywell Safeguard is a very solid electric space heater. It combines a pretty strong fan with a 1500W heater (with a remote!) in order to provide excellent heating to a person, making even very low temperatures comfortable. While this type of heater can heat a room, I’d recommend it for heating people and getting an oil-filled radiator for heating rooms.
My Video Honeywell Video Review
Testing And Why To Trust This Review
I’ve been using the Honeywell Safeguard Ceramic space heater (model HCE323V) for a year now. I primarily use it in an unheated sun room, but also for working in the garage. Both spaces are insulated, but unheated and can often drop into the low 50s or even the 40s, making spending time there a challenge. I’ve also used the heater for normal household heating in cooler areas of the home.
I bought this heater from Amazon.com at the end of 2020 for just under $70. It costs more now (as do most things) and it’s still selling out from time to time.
I’ve done extensive search on indoor, electric space heaters and have owned more than a few of them (Dyson AM09, Dyson Hot+Cool, etc), most recently this and the De’Longhi Dragon4 TRD40615T radiator.
Read HelpAtMyHome’s list of the best safe space heaters for homes.
Room Size
This space heater doesn’t have a room size recommendation, but we know the following:
- 5118 BTU
- 1500W
- 8-foot fan range on high
The room size a convection space heater like this can heat will depend mostly on the room — how big is it, does it have exterior walls, how well insulated it is, how drafty is the room, how tall is the room, etc. but a good rule of thumb is about 25-30 BTU per square foot.
That means this heater is good for rooms that are about 200 square feet, or about 14′ by 14′ feet. Of course if your room is very tall this number will be smaller because heat works in volume, not simply square footage.
A convection heater like this is best for blowing hot air on people, not for heating a room. That’s because a blown hot air heater can instantly start to blow warm air on a person, where an oil-filled radiator can take hours to fully heat even a mostly size room (it’s heating the space, not the person).
Heater Features
This Honeywell heater has some important features that will aid it’s usefulness for most buyers. These include:
- Thermostat: So the heat turns off at a set temperature
- Remote: To control it from your bed, couch, or desk
- Two fan speeds: High and low, for most or less intense heat
- Motion sensor: The heat turns off if anything if too close, to prevent burns and fires
- Tilt sensor: The heater totally turns off when it tilts or falls over. This is a necessary feature for a tower-style heater!
- Timer: The heater can turn off after 1, 2, 4, or 8 hours
- Oscillation: The fan rotates from side to size to heat multiple people or better heat a space
This heater is ETL Listed (like UL listing) and adheres to UL STF 1278.
Missing Features
The Honeywell convection heater has a lot of nice perks, but its notably missing…
- Scheduler: To have the heater turn on and off on a schedule
- Anti-freeze: The heater only turns on when a room is in danger of falling below freezing
- Air Filter: There is a light dust filter, but nothing like the Dyson Hot+Cool
- Fan-only mode: This heater could be a perfectly good fan in the summer, but can’t do this
Performance
This heater is great at keeping a person warm. I’ve tested it in a lots of scenarios: for example a 45-degree F garage as well as a 50-degree unheated sun room where I as working out and doing computer work, respectively. And in both situations, as well as many others, the heater got the job done.
I would recommend aiming the heater at you, putting it on high, and setting the temperature to something relatively high, say 70 degrees F. With the Honeywell heater about 4 feet away, you’ll be warm in no time and you can set the fan to the lower speed.
The Honeywell is less good at heating a space. It’s great for a small bedroom or office that you want to make toasty, but it has no chance to fully heat an otherwise unheated garage, uninsulated sun room, or full-sized basement.
This is convection heater can heat a person in any space so long as it’s relatively close to you, but will struggle with large or even mid-sized rooms.
Verdict And Alternatives
If you want a sub-$100 fan-style space heater with a good feature set and mandatory safety features, it’s tough to beat the Honeywell Safeguard Motion Sensor Ceramic space heater. There are cheaper options but they tend to lack features or come from brands that I don’t trust as much.
If you want some different features or to spend less/more, here are some alternatives I’ve considered…
- Lasko 755320 Space Heater – The most popular ceramic space heater. Cheaper and also has a remote
- Honeywell HHF370B 360-Degree Fan Heater – Cheaper, also 1500W, better at heating a room
- Vornado VMH300 – A good looking whole room heater from Vornado, a brand I’ve had great luck with