Fear of high gas prices caused my husband and I to buy this space heater for our new home. We haven't received an electric or gas bill since we bought it, so I don't know how cost effective the space heater is but I can clearly see what I like and don't like about how it works:

Our bedroom is an average size (9x13) and the heater has the potential to get the room uncomfortably hot at the highest setting. There is a high, medium and low setting for the temperature.

In our living room, however, this space heater isn't the best fit (the room is larger and opens to the dining room which opens to our kitchen). There is no "blower" on the heater that really pushes the heat towards you, it's more of a soft flow of air upward from the unit through the top vents. If you are planning to use this in a room that will be closed off from the rest of the house it's awesome, if you're in a bigger area, I'd go for a model with a fan that blows heat towards you like this one Holmes Energy-Efficient Heater Fan - HEH8001-U1.

The other problem we've noticed is the odor of oil fumes after long use at a high setting. I found that I hardly notice it while I'm actually sitting in the room with the machine, but it's a very obvious smell if I leave the room for "fresh air" and come back. Kind of scary, actually!

The outside of the heater is warm to the touch but won't burn you like a stove would. But I think it gets warm enough to the point that I wouldn't leave it where a kid or pet would touch it.

The heater is typically quiet but makes some tick-tick, pop-pop noises when it's first heating up. Very intermittent and temporary, I believe it's because the oil is actually heating up like it would in your deep fryer.

I'm not dissatisfied with the heater but would definitely search for an oil-free model if I was shopping for another space heater in the future.

I have purchased two of these radiators, one for myself and one for my mother. I find them to be simple to operate, safe, quiet and very effective. I keep mine in our spare bedroom for guest. The room is 20 X 20 and very cold in the winter but this radiator keeps it very comfortable. My mother keeps her's in the living room so she can watch TV late at night without heating the whole house. She loves it. It is also easy to move from room to room as you wish.

I purchased two of these heaters for my 3 season room. It is 280 sq ft., and they are the only source of heat. The room also has a peaked ceiling. I need to run a fan driven radiant heater, like an Edenpure or Vornado to circulate the heat created by the Delonghi's, but one the air is distributed, I simply run a ceiling fan to maintain temp. At that point I can turn the wattage down on the heaters to save energy without sacrificing temp. The timers work great and overall, I am very please with the product.

I read the reviews on this product carefully and I salute all who took the time to give it a fair rating. Thankfully, I knew that the heater would carry an odor for a while. I ran it in the garage for a couple of days, but it really took a good week for the smell to dissipate completely. The unit takes a little while to heat, but we have a vaulted ceiling in the master bath. It is very nice to awake to a comfortable room that is normally freezing.

The timer works well despite being a little complicated- it's similar to a light timer with on/off settings using military time. If you want to turn in on at a time not pre-programmed, you must rotate the timer control clockwise to a time when the heater is set to start. Then you have to reset the correct time on the timer to get back to the previous scheduled on/off times.

I have not had the unit long enough to see an impact on our electric bill. We normally have it set to go on a half-hour prior to waking and throughout showers. We have it set again to go on just before bed. The unit does get pretty hot to the touch on the top, but common sense will prevent problems. It works quite well and I am very satisfied.

This particular unit I purchased for an area of my dog room. It keeps the room warm with it on higher than the others. That is probably because there is also an exhaust fan in the room going on at intervals. I do have to use a bit of propane if it drops below 0 out but that is ok. The electric bill with these units, which I bought 3 more is over $200 less a month than my propane bill is. The propane went up to around 553. a fill up and the electric is around 317. for the month. By the way the propane will probably be for a month of heating. So I did save some money. Plus we are a lot warmer than we were with the propane, the heat stays more in the lower area of the room and does not go up to the ceiling right away were we freeze right away. I do have seperate propane heaters in the rooms but the drafts are always taking the best of us. I have a house that is underground and no one had put insulation in the walls at all. I know underground is maybe a bit warmer but in this case it is still drafty with the rest of the house that is showing above ground. So I do think this is the better way to go financially and for keeping warmer.