Comfort Zone Quartz Electric Heater vs. Comfort Zone Ceramic Heater

Winter is here, and sometimes staying warm is hard to do. This year, we're having to go without our furnace because we can't afford to replace it. I bought two Comfort Zone heaters to keep the bedrooms warm, and I haven't been disappointed.

The first one I bought was the Comfort Zone quartz electric heater (model number CZQTV1). It offers 750 watts or 1500 watts, depending on the setting you choose. It has two heating elements which allows you to run the one for the 750 watts or run both for the 1500 watts. It stands about two feet tall. It works very well, although when running both elements, it tends to be a little noisy. It has a fan that pushes out the heat and helps to circulate it throughout the room. We usually keep this one in the master bedroom, which is about 16x20 square feet. It's not a large room, so this heater works very well. I make sure that flamable items are kept more than three feet away from it. That is my only concern with it: keeping it clear of materials that might cause a fire. I see many news reports about fires started by electric heaters and this keeps me on my toes. I do not run it unless I am in the room and at night, I run only one element. Another feature it has is the thermostat control. This way, I can choose how often I want it to kick on and just how warm I want the room. At night, this is a great feature because I know it is not running constantly. I have used this heater in other areas of the house, though not frequently. On very cold days I may use it to heat the kitchen or the den. It also works well in those rooms. Our den is not a very large room, but it has a ten foot ceiling. Since heat rises, I use the ceiling fan to knock the heat back down into the room. It does not take long for the den or the bedroom to become nice and warm.

The second heater I bought is the Comfort Zone ceramic heater (model number CZ446). It offers 1300 watts and 447 BTUs. It stands about one foot tall and also oscillates if we choose that setting. This heater also has the thermostat so that it can kick on and off as necessary. It also offers two heat settings and just a fan setting. This one we use in our son's room. I feel more comfortable using the ceramic heater with him since he doesn't always have the cleanest of rooms. I'm sure just by being an electric heater it still poses as a fire threat, but it just doesn't seem as bad as the quartz heater. Our son's room is about 12x12, again, not a large room, but this little heater can get it very hot! In fact, I think the ceramic heater actually heats better than the quartz heater. The drawback with this one is also noise. It tends to vibrate on the floor no matter what setting it is put on. It might help to cut back the noise if we had carpet, but we have laminate, so the vibrating tends to be worse. It does it's job, though, and heats very well. I also like to use this one in the bathroom. Of course, I make sure it is away from all water sources, but it gets the room nice and toasty fairly quickly.

I bought both of my heaters from Fred's. The quartz one was $40 and the ceramic was $20. I feel they were both worth the small investment. They are much more affordable than buying a new furnace! As far as burning up electricity, I don't feel they are any worse than a furnace. In fact, they are probably more affordable, especially since we don't run them all of the time. Safety is a huge concern for me and I suggest to anyone else that if you buy one of these heaters, just keep an eye on them. Follow all of the suggestions that come from the manufacturer and you'll stay much safer.