Tom’s Reviews

I’m heating my home this year with a high efficiency wood stove. Since the house is a 100 year old home with lots of drafts and the stove has no blower to disperse hot air, the living room is toasty, while the rooms at the north end of the house need some supplemental heat. In two bedrooms and the kitchen I’ve set up LASKO 5965 PIVOTING CERAMIC HEATERS with ELECTRONIC CONTROL. The net result is a big saving over last year when we used a lower efficiency wood stove and two cheaper electric heaters. The electric bill is about $10/month higher and the gas central heat hasn’t kicked on at all - a saving of about $50 in October and $100 in November. The three Lasko heaters are paid for, the life of the furnace should be extended substantially with the lower use and we haven’t even hit the big gas bill months of December-February.

For those without the woodstove, the Lasko heaters can still be used for supplemental heat in bedrooms at night, allowing the thermostat to be set lower on the central heat and still save considerably over heating the unused rooms in a large house to a comfortable temperature.

Some of the things I like about this heater include the dual heating modes, the pivoting stand and the electronic thermostat. The dual modes allow you to choose between 900 watts (3070BTU) and 1500 watts (5118BTU). The pivoting stand is great for a couple of reasons. It lets you direct the heat toward the floor, which is great for helping to keep feet warm and warms the whole room more effectively since the heat will rise naturally. More importantly, the stand itself doesn’t get hot, so there’s never any contact between the floor or countertop and hot parts of the heater and is extremely stable. It’s theoretically possible that you could somehow kick the unit over on its face, but it would almost have to be on purpose, so it’s just inherently safer than other heaters. One of the best things about this is that the thermostat actually works. I’m not certain that the temperatures are precise, but it does shut the heater down at roughly the intended temperature, which is a big improvement over several other brands which either don’t shut down at all or once shut down don’t kick back on.

There’s only one negative on this unit. It doesn’t have a no-heat fan mode, a common feature in other models. With large box fans selling for $10, this isn’t a huge deal, but there are times when it would be convenient to kick off the heat and still be able to use the fan.

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