Side by Side Comparison of: Vornado vs Lasko

I’ve only used the heater for a week, but I really like it. I’m in a small office that is so quiet, you really can hear a pin drop. Initially I purchased a small, ceramic heater from Walmart. It didn’t sound that loud when I tested it at home but when I used it in the office, it was super loud. I couldn’t believe such a small heater could make such a loud noise. I then purchased the Vornado. The Vornado is NOT whisper quiet, but the noise isn’t bad. It’s more of a white, background noise. I keep it under my desk. It produces enough heat to keep me comfortable without burning my legs and so far it hasn’t tripped the circuit breaker.

I bought this for my office which feels like a meat freezer most of the day. It works really well and is relatively quiet. I like that it has two heat settings as well as a fan only setting. There is a little "foot" that will turn the heater off if it gets knocked over or picked up, which is nice for safety. The design is modern, stays clean and goes with most office decor.

Bought this as a gift for Christmas. Person loved it. It's super simple to use, not too big so it doesn't take up a lot of space, and it heats up your room or hallway very fast and leaves you nice and cozy :) only thing I wish it did was oscillate, but that's not too big of a deal. I'd recommend this to someone who gets cold a lot or if you have a cold room that needs some warmth :) and it doesn't use a lot of electricity so it's great

First thing I wanna say is wow. This little thing is amazing. I had my doubts about buying this product, but said screw it and purchased anyway because of the affordable price, and boy was I glad I did. I use this heater in my bedroom because it's where I stay the most. I feel there is no need to heat entire house when I am only in one spot 90% of my time.Pros:1. It's small and very portable.2. It has a safety feature on the bottom of the unit that shuts the unit off completely if tipped over, or comes detached from the floor.3. It has a high and low setting. Both work very well.4. Great for small rooms such as bedrooms, offices, etc.5. It has a fan setting.6. It's affordable.Cons:1. It blows out a smelly odor when cut on for the first time, but the odor stops after a few mins.2. No thermostat or auto setting.3. It has a 4 hour timer. This can be a good or bad thing depending on your preference.Conclusion:If you're looking for something to heat a small room, then I highly recommend this product. Takes about 10 to 20 minutes to heat up a small room. If you're looking for something to heat your entire house, then it's probably not gonna happen. Does it get the job done? Yes. All in all, this is an amazing product for the money spent. You no longer will have to clinch onto a blanket for dear life once this baby is plugged up. I highly recommend this product if you're looking for something small, affordable, and of good quality. Gotcha one now and don't think twice. You will not regret it.

This really works. I live in the Mid West and have a 12' X 16' bedroom with floor to ceiling glass on one of my walls. Needless to say my bedroom gets pretty chilly in the winter. I love this little heater because I can set the heat on my home thermostat to 68F, close my bedroom door, turn this on and get really toaster without having an insane energy bill. It takes a little getting use to at first because the air it pushes out is not super hot like regular space heaters but somehow after about 10 minutes you notice that don't really need that blanket you were clutching for dear life after all.The other plus is that it is small with a clean design. It blends into the background so well that I don't feel the need to put it away when I am not using it.

My wife and I live in an apartment with very little heat, over which we have no control. We were sleeping in multiple layers of clothes and multiple blankets during the cold winter nights, and we were still freezing. I'm convinced the constant shivering made us sick.This little thing changed everything. It's barely over one foot tall, but our bedroom became cozy within minutes. The smell that other reviewers have complained about is there, but we've stopped noticing it at this point. Personally I think the odor has gotten less strong over time.We liked it so much we bought another one right away. It's best for a small room, but we've even been using it in the biggest room in the apartment and it still makes the room feel cozy. Plus, it takes up hardly any space, and has two automatic safety settings that make us feel more than secure that we will not set our home on fire. (Its well ventilated so it barely gets hot anyway.)Highly recommended!

Got this for my elderly aunt for her kitchen. This works perfectly and heats the room nicely. Easy to use controls for her and looks like it will last a while.

We were looking for an electric heater for our 19' travel trailer. We were camping past normally warm days and nights and did not want to use our noisy propane heater. This was PERFECT. There was no noise just warm wonderful heat. We were very comfortable at night with this heater on low. The base is such that there are no worries about it tipping over. Our cat who accompanies us on our trips was not fearful of it at all and came to enjoy the delightful heat emanating from this wonderful appliance.

Beats any other space heater I've ever used and my apartment is like a CAVE! It's efficient, a decent size for an apartment and it keeps us warm! So far no issues. Best portable heater I ever used. Do NOT place it near the wall. It needs 3 feet of breathing room for safety's sake. They stick by their warranty. I had to replace the first one due to a defect, but I just cut the cord close to the unit and sent it to them as they instructed and got a brand new unit replacement no problem at all from Lasko. Wonderful customer service.

After hours of research to warm open basement space 800 sq ft, 2 of these performed beyond expectations. With the northeast reaching record low temperature this Winter, 2 of these units warms the entire space to a comfortable 70 degrees after 60 - 75mins. Timer shutoff increments of 1 - 8 hours helped tremendously in middle of night but as safety measure we paired it with Beklin Power Conserve Switch F7c016q to shut the power when not in use to avoid vampire power and outlet wear/tear from plug/unplug.

Posting this review after 35 days of straight use with avg. 4 - 5 hours per day. Highly recommended.

Expectations (no basement draft): on the coldest nights 0 degree with winds chills -16, cold air takes over in matter of 7 minutes once the heater is off. And yes, 1st time use will emit a nasty burnt smell (break-in) so it's highly recommended to run it for 60 mins in the garage or open space.

I like this heater. It produces a lot of heat (only choice is 1500W), has digital thermostat, top grid gets real hot (not for a house with children), has up to 8 hours timer (1h increment).
Heater smelled for a couple lf hours, but now smell is gone.
Heater is very long.

Very nice looking. I'd give 5 stars, but the heater does not have a thermostat. Once on, it stays on, and that'snot too good for a unit I plan to use while I sleep. Otherwise, it is a classy heater, but a bit noisey.

I wish it had a slightly higher setting, but it's sturdy and has a great smart feature that turns it off if it is not perfectly upright and level on a flat surface. Really minimizes the fire potential. Great size for a tight office space.

We've had this heater for a year and it worked great, put out good heat and even a cool setting to circulate the air in warmer weather. BUT it started making (loud) noises. Called Vornado and received a replacement in 3 days. We were asked to cut the cord off the heater and send them a pic showing the cut cord and serial number. Vornado sent out our new heater the same day. Couldn't ask for better customer service. Happy customer here. (Knocked the rating down to 4 stars because we had to deal with the replacement.)

This is a nice heater, and I have no negative things to say about it. I am only giving it 4 stars though because I feel like the power of the unit could be a bit stronger. It gets the job done, as long as it is RIGHT next to you. It is nice to have next to your feet when you start to get cold. I realize if I was looking for something powerful to heat an entire room I should've purchased a larger unit, but I was hoping this would do the job.

I use this heater in my moderately sized bedroom (roughly 12'x12') and it heats up my room in about 20-30 minutes. I have a large sliding glass door which lets in a lot of cold air during these cold winter months so this heater is pretty handy to have around since I don't have central heating, although I do suspect it uses up quite a bit of energy, so use mindfully. It seems to circate the heat fairly well without oscillating. The four hour timer is handy and there's a safety feature that shuts it off while the heater is moved/lifted. There are 3 settings - fan, high heat and low heat. The only thing I wish it had was a timer to turn on before I wake up in the mornings.

When I first received this and turned it on, I have to admit I was a bit disappointed at first. The hot air blowing on the lowest setting was minimal, and on the second setting was okay but only reached a couple feet in front. I got this because my room was cold since the heat isn't turned on all the time. My room is pretty big but I wasn't expecting to get a heater to heat up the entire place; just a small corner of it where my desk and computer is.Willing to give it another shot, I left it running next to my desk and gradually, my feet wasn't as frozen anymore. It wasn't that I felt hot air blowing on my feet, but the air around just gradually became more warm. I set the heater on a chair so that it was level with my bed, and I accidentally fell asleep without being covered by blankets. Which was a first for me because the air is usually so cold! It was the heater that finally warmed the air around me to an extent that it was habitable without being covered by blankets.So far the heater is working as desired. As to how long the quality of it will last, I shall see. I left it on running overnight with no visible worrying problems, although I wouldn't do it often just in case.If you expect this heater to blow hot air continuously in your face, this isn't quite the heater for you. If you want a heater that will warm the air gradually around you so that you can't feel the cold, then this little heater is perfect.

I like this, and it works for us very well because our kids are big but this gets very hot on top to touch. I would not use it if you have little toddlers that could touch it or make sure it out of their reach. It heats up very well and shuts off when the temperature hits the temp that you set it at. You do have to make sure to set it to a temperature otherwise it will just keep heating continuously and get too hot. I assume it would eventually shut off but I have never tested it. I always set it to a desired temp.
When you first turn it on it is always set to continuous unless you set the temp and I think it would be nice if it were reversed.

I needed a silent heater for my 1yr old so throughout the night as it maintained heat it wouldn't stop or start loudly enough to wake him. I couldn't even tell this heater was on it is so quiet. My only 2 complaints are when it hits the acquired temp it shuts off with a loud click. I also had to tape cardboard over the controls because it's got a bright red light and when our son is teething these two things can be a nuisance. I would rate this a 5 star for adult or everyday use though.

I got one of these from my aunt and I find it really good. It heats up the room really fast and it's really silent so I bought one for my boyfriend.

The only thing I noticed is that this one that I bought here on Amazon takes up too much power when it's on. We couldn't turn on any appliances without blowing the fuse when we're using it. So we just wait until his room gets warm so we can turn it off before we turn on the tv or computers. It only takes about 15-20 mins to get 10 degrees warmer so it's fine. I never had any problems with my old lasko even though i have many appliances on at the same time. I don't know if they changed something on the new ones or if it's a circuit issue in his house but other than that, it's still the best heater I've seen and tried.

I believe this is a really great product! first off it has an attractive design, nice modern looking and bright white color. It seems to me to be one of the more safer heater types, the only part that gets hot is the mesh grill, the front, the sides and even the bottom do not get hot to the touch, which makes it great for using on carpet. the heater uses convection type heating and is COMPLETLEY silent. it generates a nice warmth in the area in which it is placed. It has a really nice digital control which has several different options. You can set it to run continuously, you can set it to run on a timer (from 1 to 8 hours) or you can use my favorite method which is to just set the temperature to a certain level (like 65 degrees) and when it reaches that temp it turns off. when it falls below the set temp it turns on again. It has a temp setting variance between 39 to 90 degrees. Another safety feature is that if it should happen to tip over the whole thing shuts off completely whether it is running at the time or not. The ONLY reason I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 is that it claims to be a "whole room heater". This is true if where you live does not get that cold in the winter and also the size of the room, however I live in Colorado and recently it got below zero (15 below) and the heater could not supplement heat. plus the living room I have is kind of big. so to be fair I would suggest purchasing two (or three) depending on room size or where you live.

-Kenny

This heater puts out decent amount of heat. I am in a 400 sq ft room (25x16 and pretty well insulated) and it does a good job of maintaining the room temp. I do wish it had some type of fan included as to better distribute heat in the room, but if you use a small fan to circulate air in your room it tremendously helps to warm the room. It is currently 32 degrees outside yet warm inside my house. My central heating unit blew up and so I am forced to use this as a cheap alternative. Better than paying a repair man and parts. Very easy to use, and it allows you to adjust the thermostat from 39 to 90 (by single degree increments). Timer can be set from 1 hour to 8. Also there is a setting (when 'A' is displayed) that allows the heater to lessen or increase to desired temperature. I used a Pelonis radiator heater for a large room before this and was disappointed by the amount of heat coming from it. This produces about twice the amount of heat over a larger area. Gets hot very fast, unlike the radiator units. Also completely silent and no smell at all. I can vouch for 400 sq ft or smaller. Price is great for what I got.

Be aware that if your room is already very cold, it will take a few hours to get to a good temp (true of most of these small electric heaters). If you start when room is already at a good temp, this does a great job of maintaining that temp. Also I did not receive any manual in the box, but if you go to the Lasko website you can find this product and the online manual for it (if you really think you need it).

Bought this in January 2016. Used 1.5 winter seasons, turned it on today, fan died then the heating element burnt out.Worked great while it lasted.

It died on us last winter which was disappointing. It only lasted 2 winters; it was not constantly used during the colder months. I've paid less for a different brand space heater and it lasted longer. I've bought a few Vornado products and this one was the disappointment. When it did work though it worked really well. It just didn't last.

This review is mostly based off of the fan mode. I bought this item hoping it would be perfect to save space and money by getting something with a dual heater and fan. I've only used the heater one time that worked fine for my medium-sized bedroom. But the fan mode did not work well at all for me. It took over 4 hours with door closed to cool my room to a comfortable temp (it was about 78 degrees in my room and I get comfortable around 74ish). Sometimes I would put the fan on my desk a foot away from my face to cool myself. I plan to keep it and give it a try for the winter months, but I will be buying a separate fan.

In my case this unit is too small. Perhaps if I was using it under my desk it'd be fine - but it won't take the chill off a small cool room. Additionally my heater has a gremlin in it somewhere - I often have to "slap it" to start the heat/blower running. Maybe it's under warranty - but who keeps up with all the requirements to utilize such?

This little heater can quickly warm up a space like a bedroom. The problem was after just a few nights of use it starting making a clicking noise constantly after running for about thirty minutes. It's the same noise the base makes when the tip shut off happens. So, it's going back.

Please note that this heater has no thermostat, only a high and low power setting. I had to take it apart and push the fan all the way on the motor shaft after it ran for a while because the fan hit the housing and stopped turning. I don't know if the fan was not installed correctly or what happened. It has been in use for a season.

It was working well when it turned on. I've had it for just shy of a year and it stopped working. It will just shut off and won't turn on. I've tried all the recommended things (e.g. cooling off, making sure there is no dust inside, etc.) but it won't turn on.

The warmer will escalate the temperature on its own to a level you don't want. The thermostat is not reliable.

Wow. This was impressive. Received product, removed it from box, plugged it in, turned it on. Used it for 1 night and that was it. The following night it turned on went up to 99 and would not shut off. So I unplugged it, plugged it back in and that was it. If I leave it plugged in the display randomly turns on and off with the temp numbers bouncing up and down. At this point it is a complete fire hazard. This piece of junk doesn't belong in anyone's home unless you plan on starting a fire. I purchased it for our newborn babies room so you could imagine my disgust. Made in China go figure. Don't waste your money or time with this product. I'm so tired of throwing money away on worthless junk but that seems to be everything now a days.
Update: I was actually able to get someone on the phone in about 15 min. They were very nice and helpful. They claimed that there were problems with this model and they are replacing it in 7-10 days after they receive the old unit. The product is not the greatest but it's what we were looking for. I can't complain when the customer service rep was polite and the company is replacing the unit. We'll see about the new one.

I'm giving 3 stars because I've owned one of these heaters for three years and never had one problem from that heater. I ordered a second one recently because I was tired of moving the one heater around my apartment. I opened and used it right away. I immediately knew something was different because my original, older heater would normally have my living room very hot within an hour. This one barely felt warm. The next day, I attempted to use it again and even though the red light was on, signaling a power connection, the heater wouldnt actually turn on. I moved it around my apartment to test the connection and quickly realized the heater itself was the problem. Overall, I am extremely disappointed that it failed working within 24 hours of first use, but I am happy that Amazon returned my money swiftly! Buyer beware from this seller.

EDIT: It is now about 1 year later, and while this still works better than other room heaters we have used, we have one problem that has been consistent since the day we purchased it - it seems to have sometime ignore the thermostat setting. For example, we can set it to 69 and put it on auto, We'll come back in the room, the temp on the heater will show 71 yet it will still be heating/the heater is running. Other times it will be set at, say, 70, the temp will show 68, in Auto mode, and it will not be heating. It seems most frequently, though, that it will heat above the set temperature and keep running even though it shows the temp above the set point.
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Our bedrooms are downstairs, with the living area and thermostat upstairs. As a result, the upstairs can be comfortable and our bedroom can be very cold (we live in NW Iowa with a LOT of very cold weather.) After trying several loud upright room/space heaters, which would heat the room up eventually but make a lot of noise, and also had to be manually turned on and off, I decided to give this a try.

The good: It works. It seems to warm up our room (about 12x11) with no problem at all. Set the thermostat and it just works. For the first time since we've lived here, the bedroom is comfortable all day and night while keeping the upstairs at a reasonable temp. It seems to heat the room up much quicker and more uniformly than the space heaters we've tried in the past. This would be a 5 star product for us EXCEPT:

The bad: If the TV in the bedroom is on or there is other ambient noise, this heater is very quiet. You'd never know it was in the room. However, when the lights go out and it is time to sleep, you can hear a fairly low "hum." It sounds somewhat like a fluorescent light that has developed a buzz, albeit at a low level. But in a quiet bedroom when you are trying to sleep, it is just noticeable enough to be irritating.

So, if you're looking to heat a room and are tired of the upright, noisy space heaters with no thermostat, and don't want to pay $200 for the fancy "box" room heaters, and don't mind a VERY slight hum, you can't beat this. If you're the kind of person for whom that very slight hum in the middle of the night in the bedroom would drive you crazy, be forewarned.

I originally liked this heater, but it's not very strong. I have a small Pelonis heater that actually cranks out more heat than this tower. Additionally, about a year after purchase, the nob to turn the unit off/on has decided it doesn't want to work anymore. So, I can turn on the fan or the heat on low. This product being from Vornado, I expected it to last a long time, but alas... it's going into the donation pile and my small Hunter heater is taking it's job.

Decent little heater that takes the chill out of my bathroom in the morning, when it works. I've been using it for 1 year. This is my second unit. The first unit shorted out as soon as I turned it on. This unit lasted a year. After 1 year of heavy use, the fan still works. Setting the heat to 1 bar makes it smell like smoke. Setting the heat to 2 bars makes it instantly short out. It takes about 20 - 30 minutes for the unit to fully heat my extra small bathroom in the morning, 10 minutes to make it no longer chilly.

Hmm, I bought this for my sweet daughter, and although she liked the concept and believed it was a grand unit, the bloomin' thing had a plastic odor that wouldn't go away. She tried cleaning the outside, leaving everything open, running it for a day, everything she could think of with the exception of taking it apart--all to no avail. Had to send it back, for the stench was too much

I opened the package and plugged in the heater. It worked GREAT...until I turned it off, and then turned it back on again (10 minute process). No more fan, no more heater, no more anything but power lights. I read the manual to see if there was something I did wrong. I followed the trouble shooting suggestions for what happens if you get the power light but no heat. Nothing. Also, reading through the manual, they say DO NOT use this product in an RV where there is a power conversion. I bought this heater for my pop up camper trailer. If you aren't supposed to use this product in that environment, that should be made clear in the listing. Not waiting for the company to respond. I've already purchased a different brand heater.

The fan barely functioned and the heat output was paltry. My Lasko heater did a far better job of heating the small office I needed to heat. I gave it an extra star because it does have a fan-only feature-however useless it may be-that my Lasko tower heater does not.

We bought this for the water closet in our bathroom, which is only 40 square feet, but it simply does not get it warm. I'd be in the shower and still be cold, even after running it for 20 minutes first. It just doesn't put out enough heat. Ironically, when I put it into the open part of our bathroom, which is much larger, to warm it up for after my shower, it warms up the open space far better. Both parts of the bathroom have angled, tall ceilings.So if you're using this in an open space, it will probably do the job. But it's not 1500 watts, which most heaters are, so if you want to make it nice and toasty, I wouldn't even recommend this for larger rooms. But it won't do squat in a more enclosed space. We're letting my teenager use it in his bedroom because we waited too long to return it.

I bought my fourth one of these two months ago because the third one, which I'd had for a year, stopped working. After 6 weeks of working fine, it started turning itself off after a few minutes of operation. The only solution is to unplug it for many minutes, plug in again. Start it, a few minutes of silent heat, then nothing. Same thing at different plugs. I won't be buying any more.

This unit worked only about 2 months in relatively light use. The digital control was faulty and once the heater reached the set temp it would shut the unit off and not come back on when the room cooled off. The manual recommends when this happens to unplug the unit for 5 minutes and restart it. I guess that is ok if the problem only happens once in a while, but for us it happened every time the unit reached the set temp. After about 6 months of putting up with the problem, we have decided to replace it. Probably will not buy another Lasko unit, however.

First of all, this heater IS NOT SILENT. They should not be allowed to call it silent as it emits a very audible and irritating buzz whenever it is on. The thermometer is way off- it reads about six degrees higher than the room is (I have an internal thermometer). I can outsmart it by learning what the degrees correspond to in real life, but it is annoying, and no one should use the display on this heater as a guide to actual temperature. I have to stick with it because it is the only configuration that works for my tiny apartment, but I am not particularly happy about it. Not impressed with this heater at all.

Never worked for me. I have another of the same model that has lasted me for 5 years. I am disappointed in the last one I bought.

The heater is ok when it works, but the thermostat is unreliable. It was quirky from the beginning, and failed in about a month. When it failed, the heater would turn on and operate for a few minutes and turn off. The only way I could turn it back on was to unplug it and turn it back on again. I returned it to Amazon.

While this product worked fine for 8 months. In the last few months the fan has started creating an obnoxious sound every time I turn it on (whether its on fan only or one of the heater settings). Now the fan won't turn on at all. The product isn't even a full year old and has been sitting in my office under my desk during that time.

I have now gone through two of these heaters. Both of the heaters had problems after a few months. The first heater's dial stopped turning so that eventually I couldn't even turn it on. The replacement heater seemed to be doing better until the fan started being very noisy. Initially I was able to tap the side of the heater and the fan would settle down but now there is nothing I can do to quiet the fan. My recommendation is if you want a heater that is only going to last a few months get a $10 one instead of a $45 one.

The unit turns on and nothing happens...no heat, no fan, etc., and did not work after following the troubleshooting instructions. There is something rattling around inside the unit which I assume explains why it doesn't work. I received it Jan 29 but did not have occasion to try it until today (March 12) because the weather was warm enough that I didn't need it (I live in So California). I now realize there is a 30 day return period so I am out of luck, apparently. But the bottom line is: Amazon shipped a product that was broken/did not work in its intended use when it arrived, and I now have a large $49 paperweight.

Well it's like this , The race was over before it began. It came in a box 2 sizes too big, wrapped in a thin sheet of bubble wrap. This thing was shaking around like a marble in a paint can. No documentation, no box, no instructions. All that said it's not that hard to figure it out. Plugged it in it lasted about 2 minutes then it sounded like a 62 Ford with a rod knock. Guess I will just use my old one its been going strong for about 8 years. Easy return through Amazon, but it should not have made it to my door in this condition.

This heater was a disappointment. I have owned this heater for 3 weeks now, and there is left to be desired. First, I will start with the pros: Compact size and aetheticly pleasing. Now here are the cons: inconsistent heating. The heater was purchased to heat my bathroom and only sometimes worked. After the 1st week, the heater began to make a clicking sound. Kinda scary. The sound occurred right when you turn on the heater. Now at week 3, the heater is no longer functioning. I hope this doesn't happen to everyone.

We have had this heater for fourth months now. It was always a slow job of heating a room, usually took too long. For a month or two now we haven't been able to turn it to the highest setting, and now it won't produce heat at all. Unbelievably poor purchase, this heater is total crap. Buy something else.

I Purchased this heater for my guest room in our basement. We used it 2 or three times and it was great. Then it stopped working all together. The light comes on, but nothing else. Such a disappointment!

Had two of these. Both burned out while being used within normal limits. the first was replaced via warranty. The second was beyond the purchase guarantee window and not returnable. Previous US-made space heater lasted almost 20 years. Lasko ! You're on my list ! Anyway, steer clear of these.

I bought two of these heaters. One works about 3 hours a day. The other was purchased to work about 5 or 6 hours a day. It stopped working within a couple of weeks and I returned it. One and a half months later it stopped working. The light goes on, it will reset, but it will then only work for about ten minutes before quitting. Bottom line: I got stuck with two bad heaters and in the end lost $55 or so. I wouldn't buy this brand again.

I ordered 2 of these initiallly and then about two weeks after regular use ( 2-3 hours in the morning 5 days a week) they just stopped working altogether. So I had them replaced and two weeks later the same exact thing. If your looking for an item to heat your frustrations then choose this one. If you need one to heat your home please don't buy this one. Save yourself the anger.

Received 1st unit 12/29/2015. It was "dead-on-arrival" (DOA). Opened box, plugged in - no work. Returned for replacement.
Received 2nd unit 01/04/2016. It worked for a while. After week-1 at one point while in use for about 1 hour, plugged directly into wall outlet, ambient temperature 71 - the unit made a "pop" noise and shut-off; would not restart. I unplugged. Next day tried to use and it worked. Then on 01/25/2016 while in use just 1/2 hour, temp = 67 degrees, unit emitted a bright spark & loud "pop" noise from under control unit (I was sitting right next to it). Unplugged unit & returned to Amazon for replacement. Good thing I saved original box in my garage. While packing unit for return I noticed that bottom of box was overlaid with gray duct tape, different from transparent packing tape on top of box (maybe it was tampered with or re-conditioned?). Frustrating experience. Surprising, since I own an identical make/model (have used for over 5 years) with no problems. That's why I order another. Amazon service = excellent. Lasko quality = poor.