Presto HeatDish - Parabolic Electric Heater

Does exactly what it should do
Comments: My house is not well insulated. I have 20' ceilings downstairs, where I spend most of my evenings, and high ceilings in my upstairs office. Running the furnace during these cold winter days does little to make me feel warm and most space heaters feel too puny trying to heat such large spaces. What I needed at is known as a parabolic dish reflector heater. Despite some overly-zealous descriptions, these heaters are not space-age technology. My great-grandmother had a parabolic dish reflector heater more than 60 years ago. Due to Costco's active in-store displays every year, Presto seems to be by far the #1 model. The selling price has risen to a ridiculous 70 - 100 dollars for something that must only have about 5 bucks of materials in it. After reading many reviews (see rebuttals below), I decided this was the right choice despite several logical negatives.

Pros: It works. The night before I bought it I shivered and was cold to the bone. As soon as I set it...

Point Heat Anywhere You Want it -- Except Where You Want It.
"Point Anywhere" is very misleading. As-sold unit MUST be placed in a low spot below the "target". It is ONLY capable of heating at 60 degree angle upward. It is too light to be stable, way too easy to knock over. I think out of the box it is unsafe. I have made modifications to mine.

I see this thing in BJ's and Costco all the time, mounted up high on a shelf pointed down, and the kiosk says "Directional Heat! Point Instant Heat Anywhere You Want It!"

So you open up the box and right there in the WARNING is Do not mount on shelf. Do not point downward. Which is exactly what the Presto demo stands do in the store..? They mount the heater on a high shelf and point it down at the customers. Do you think it would be wise to put this on the floor in the store the way it MUST be used at home? You would think that was unsafe, kids would mess with it, people would inevitably trip over it or kick it over.. So the Presto demonstration display disables the safety shutoff...

Strong, directed heat
I've been having this product for almost 2 years now. It was designed to direct heat to a small area. Unfortunately I did not find the HeatDish a good heater even for keeping a single person warm. If you direct it towards you, you'll be burning so much, even through your clothing, that it actually hurts. You move just a bit farther, and you'll feel very little warm sensation. What usually happens is that one side of mine is burning, while my other side is totally cold.

The heat coming out of this HeatDish is very focused to a small area. You will instantly start feeling the heat, in fact so much heat that it literally burns you. At the same time, other areas of the room will remain cold for a long time. Since the HeatDish doesn't have a fan, it absolutely doesn't help evenly distributing the heat. If you need to heat the entire room, you should be able to find a much better heater, one that oscillates (rotates the heating grille) and uses a fan.

The HeatDish is...

Click to Editorial Reviews