Side by Side Comparison of: Smart for Life vs Holmes

At this point it is a 5 star product. I would feel more comfortable giving it this rating a year from now as I would know more about it durability. But I really like the product. It does a good job of heating the office space I have. It makes more noise than the previous heater but the noise is not much of a problem or distraction. Now to see how long the product lasts.

The item showed up 1 day early and the packaging was great. No damage. The unit is simple to operate and the performance of it is great. Only thing I would recommend to them is to include batteries with the remote.

I love this heater! We use in in our office and it keeps the room warm without over heating it. I would buy again!

I've had this heater since Nov. 2015, and it has saved around $60 this winter on the electric bill. It is quiet, and puts out good heat that will heat half of the house in temps down to 40 F. Once it gets colder than this you need the heat pump to start coming on to keep up, but not using the central heat during milder conditions has been a big savings. The thermostat on the unit is a little off, but setting the unit on 73 - 75 does fairly well at maintaining 69 - 70 in a large open living and dining room. I do recommend cleaning the filter at least every 2 weeks, maybe more if you use it constantly. The airflow begins to be reduced as the filter gets dirty, and you don't get enough circulation, and could be why some have the error codes. I've never seen any errors.UPDATE: I tested the heat output with a laser thermometer on high setting to a peak reading of 700* F. That is outstanding. I also tested a CZ 2011 infrared quartz, and it only read just over 500* F

I absolutely love this heater. I use this heater to supplement propane heat. By it's self, the heater will keep a large room to temp. with out a problem. The wood on the heater looks amazing and matches the rest of my household furniture. The heater has a 12 hour timer that is easy to use, although I have not had much use for the timer. The heater has great range of temperature settings and the thermostat is spot on with the one for my furnace in my house. I have read other reviews about people complaining about the heater blowing cold air. I noticed that when the heater shuts off after reaching temperature, the heating elements turn off, but the fan continues to blow so it can cool off the elements. This only lasts for a short time. The heater itself does not get hot or blow any heat onto the floor. The four coasters on the bottom of the floor make it easy to move around the house as needed. The heater also has an automatic shut off when the heater goes off balance. I have found that the sensor for it is sensitive, but not so sensitive that it goes off when moving it from room to room. I would recommend this heater to anyone who is looking for an infared heater.

This heater has been excellent in our family room. It's quiet, and I love the ability to set the timer for both off and on. The remote is handy and works well. Most importantly, this heater heats well. Our family room is 20 x 16, and has wide openings to other rooms. The blower motor went out on our old gas fireplace, and it was cold! In fact, this was the coldest February in Buffalo history. This little Lifesmart heater has been a trooper over the past few weeks since we got it. The bonus is that its cool to the touch and has a small footprint. I can't find anything wrong with it, at least not in its first month of operation. Sorry if that makes it look like a review that's too good to be true but this heater, at just under $100, is good and true.

This has been a good heater this winter. Was first concerned about the vertical design getting knocked over, as we always had the horizontal. That has not been a problem. The older heaters when switching from the high to low setting would shut off one element. This model keeps both elements on, but at a lower heat range.

Everyone in my family is jealous of my new heater. I got it way ahead of time. It was supposed to ship on a Sunday and i received it three days in advance and the weather right now is about 40 degrees Fahrenheit so I was lucky enough to be cozy with this new heater. My family loves it due to the fact that it doesn't have a bright light which burns your eyes when u turn off the lights at night like other heaters which are super duper bright and you have to cover your eyes if you sleep with it at night. This heater is not noisy it's very pleasant to the ear and the light is very dim , however, it will heat your room in less than 10 minutes even when it's on low. I highly recommended it.

I have been looking around fro a space heater that would heat up our connected kitchen and living room and this heater does just that! It does make a bit of rattling from the heating element when it starts up, but the sound fades and starts throwing out a large amount of heat! The rattling is caused when electricity passes in to the quartz crystal and distorts them, but over all it was a great price for a small heater!

This is my 3rd of these heaters. The first 2 are branded "Sunbeam" but they are identical products.First of all you can not beat a radiant heater. There is just no more pleasurable, efficient way to heat,and this model of one of the very best of the affordable radiant heaters.

My pipes froze last year and we accidentally broke TWO of these heaters on the same night! Was not pleased! Tried a few other cheap heaters, and man, just had to go back to the Holmes. We are going to be very careful with it this time! I have bought a few smaller heaters since and they just don't hold up. One of my favorite things about this heater is that it won't trip my fuse box like EVERY OTHER FREAKING HEATER I'VE BOUGHT! I purchased a small heater with a fan, expecting a good output, but I can't run it on high because it blows the fuse. So I get to leave it on low and hope to warm my foot. That does not happen with this one!Love this Holmes heater! Just get it!

I bought this for my step father. He's 86 years old and he's an amputee war vet. He has a handicapped bathroom where he can transfer himself to a shower bench on his own and take care of himself very independently. The only problem is that its cold after you take a shower and he takes longer then everyone else to get himself dry. So this little baby in the corner gets the room nice and toasty before he starts his shower without having to turn up the heat in the whole house.My mother is terrified of fire and wanted me to return it because she thought it was a death trap. So I decided to play a little game with her watching called "lets see what happens". I turned it on the highest setting and took bathroom tissue which is probably the most flammable paper there is and stuffed pieces all into the holes in the protective screen. Nothing happened. It didn't even turn brown or yellow. Seems pretty safe to me.

Works well and the fan is quiet. The wood of the case is a bit rough though--mine had rough edges and poor staining. This isn't something I would want sitting around my living room for any length of time. However, as I bought it just for temporary use as an emergency heater I'm satisfied.

I like it. It seems to keep the room at the temperature it is set on. I do believe I have saved money on my heating bill and we pretty much run it 24/7. It heats our Den and does a good job.

I really like this little heater. We need something to take the chill off in our finished basement. Didn't want something permanent or large. This looks like old wood and has enough settings to ensure comfort. The heater has a remote control that works all the functions on the heater. The heater takes a couple of hours to fully heat up the room. We keep it on the ECO setting during the day so it stays at 68 degrees. At night we run it a few degrees warmer while we are watching TV.

Works good as a supplemental heater, I wouldn't use it as a primary heat source unless it's used in a very small space or your just trying to bump up the temp a few degrees. After using for a couple of winter's, it's still going strong.The "veneer" is my only complaint. Its really just a coated paper with a wood grain look glued to the substrate underneath and the glue loosens from the heat blowing out so the strips above and below the heater output is curling away from the wood underneath. It's purely cosmetic and doesn't bother me much due to the heater staying in my bedroom where no one sees it, but it could be an issue for some.

Not impressed by the heat it puts out. But tempartures haven't been that cold yet. I understand it only heats the items in the room not actually throws out heat like a small ceramic heater would. I will update my post in December. Okay it's now January, and the temperatures outside are in the 20's and 30's. I am going to update my rating to 4 stars. You can tell the difference heat wise in using this product, the remote is convenient to raise or lower the temperature settings and turn off the unit. I am giving it only fours stars due to the temperature indicator light is so bright it does brother me at night when using it in my bedroom, it would be nice if you could adjust the brightness but you can't so I just placed a piece of paper over it. One other thing I noticed it draws a lot of power, when I have this unit on and run the sweeper from the same junction box it does cause the electrical breaker to trip, but I haven't seen an increase in my electric bill so far. I would recommend this product.

I think the product is great. There was no spike in my electric bill like ceramic heaters. The thermostat is able to set a temperature I want. The only thing I am not crazy about the heater is when it reaches temperature, to cool down it blows cold air.

Noisy but works great if you dont run it too long. These heaters make me nervous so best to run only when you are on top of the situation. I've had several of these and they generally lasted a season or two before they die.

High Quality. I had one for 5 years before I decided it was time to replace. It still put out a TON of heat, But the cord became slightly burnt from over use and I figured it was safest to get a new one. This product is amazing. Highly recommended

It is a very nice heater. It is a taller than I'd expected, but I'm sure that was specified in the product description.

Seems to heat really well but mostly plastic and light weight.

Works great, a bit noisy and the last set we had stopped working after a month or so... hopefully these last longer. The heat generated is nice because it warms objects rather than the air.

This radiant heater works great when in a large high-bay type area or garage where a typical 'hot air' space heater would just cause a rising column of warm air that just brings in more cold air. as a radiant heater it heats where the infrared lands (me) rather than just heating air. My only warning is that it is poorly packaged so our first was damaged and had to be returned. The damage was not evident on the box since it popped back out, but the protection screen on the heater was caved in. The box on the second unit was also damaged but it was on the back of the heater so the heater survived

Disappointed in the amount of heat this 6 element puts out

Unfortunately, this heater does not come close to heating a large room (15x17 or greater) by itself. When it is turned on, it automatically lights up with a temperature setting of 72 degrees. You can change the setting, but it's standard so I usually leave it. Once it reaches that temperature it's supposed to shut off automatically. It has never gotten to that temperature in cooler times. For a smaller, enclosed space, it may work better. It is pretty, though, and is still working after one year.

I heat my house with a woodstove I bought this heater for my bedroom since the heat from the woodstove doesn't make it to the bedroom the lifesmart heater does a good job heating the bedroom it's just a little underpowered I would still recommend it

Works well enough but definitely will not heat the space it claims. It's great if your cozied up on the couch and have it pointed directly at you. For the price, it serves it's purpose.

The living room we got this for is a little large, but I am still a little disappointed. The thermostat starts out at 72 degrees even though the room is not 72, but since the heater thinks it's that warm it doesn't heat up. I have to run it on 74 or 75 to get it running. The room does not get that warm, but it does take the chill off the room which is really all I wanted it for--just so that I don't have to jack up the heat in the whole house to make the living room comfortable. I haven't seen an electric bill yet to see if it is more economical--we haven't had the continuing cold weather to need to run it very much. I gave it three stars because I think the thermostat is incorrect right out of the box. Hopefully, the numbers really don't mean anything and we'll just keep running it to take off the chill while we watch TV in the evenings. It does warm the area nicely on the higher settings.

It does pull a lot of electricity , everything including lights dim down when this heater kicks in when set at 72

does what i need it to do

The Holmes HQH341-HUM does a good job of heating, but there are two negative issues that cost 2-3 stars: 1) The fan is somewhat more noisy than on any other fan-forced heater I've had, and 2) the thermostat is pathetic - it often will not shut off anywhere near the set temperature (it will run and run and run) and the on off differential varies and is very broad. The thermostat shut-off can be set when the temp reaches 73 deg. and it may shut off "close" to that once or twice, and then it may run until 79-80 and I just have to turn it off. If it were not for the good heat output, this one have been only 1-2 stars.

Good heater, but after using for about 1 year it is starting to overheat and shut off sooner than it used to. It either needs cleaned or the thermocouple is wearing out. Good product but would like it to be more reliable long term.

It's nice to have but a friend had loaned me an old radiant ceramic heater that was a better heat producer without the noise of the Holmes Heater fanThe Holmes Tower Heater also produces less heat and the "handle" is really not a handle at all, but just a little indentation in the back of the tower so it's nearly impossible to carry it with the "handle" without using a second hand in the front - which you can't do unless it is cool.

I bought this to provide a little more directional heat in our family room. It is light and has safety bar and automatic switch off if knocked over. It provides a number of heat settings and warms you very well. My only complaint is that it is loud - It has a loud fan that comes on to assist recirculating heat from the rear of the heater. You don't want it on if you are watching a movie. Other than that it works very well

I have twice bought an earlier version of this product, from the same manufacturer. It only used 400 watts at the low setting, but the thermostat failed after about one year. This newer model provides a sizable heat source with a relatively quiet fan. It now uses 750 watts at the low setting, but looks a bit more durable. Has a very sturdy wire and plug that does not heat up much at the low setting. It takes around 1 minute to generate warm glowing quartz tubules. If it lasts longer this time, it will be a worthwhile purchase.

My office is in the backroom of my apartment. It happens to be the one room without any heating vents and as such, gets a little chilly when it's cold. I thought getting an infrared heater would work well in warming up the room. After looking around, I decide on this model based on the price and apparent feature set. I had actually ordered another Lifesmart infrared model, but that one came with loose parts rattling in it and completely work. Additionally, it was a little bit loud. It was a more expensive model, so I decided instead to go with a slightly cheaper model.This time around, no rattling noise. However, the unit is a bit loud. Note that it could be that I'm sensitive to the sound. I also don't always have anything out by way of TV or music when I work. It turns out that the different fan modes (High, Low, Eco) all seem to have the same fan output. And this of course translates to it being noisy.While the unit itself looks nice and fits within the room, I can't tolerate the noise. Since the fan settings don't really do anything, I had to return it.BTW, it does stink when you initially use it. Mind you I only ran it about 10 minute max. You probably want to initially run it in an open area. I got a bit of a headache from it.In all, the 2 points go to the look. It also did seem to heat up the room. Else, it's a bit of a disappointment on the rest of the "craftsmanship" of the product.

I don't know if it was just a bad unit, or this is a typical unit. My problem was that I had it in a small kitchen(approx. 150 sq. ft.) and set to 70 degrees, it would never reach the set temp. (It was not that cold here(SC) yet, so I was not at all happy with the performance.I would like to copliment Amazon for the prompt return info. and ease of returning. I give Amazon an a++ for return procedures. Thanks, Amazon

I suppose that's a nice looking convection heater.I purchased this item to supplement the heating in my split level house. I have it down in my carpeted 325 sq/ft (13f x 25f) cooler family room where I spend most of my time. It's not an enclosed room, as there's a stairway at the one end that goes up to the main level. I've moved the unit around to experiment, and currently have it at the one end by the stairs, pointing into the room.After 4 hours on high with the thermostat set to 77, the ambient room temperature has gone from 65f to 66f since I've been here, which could be aided by the heat from the TV, lights and myself being in here. The fan is pumping out nice warm air if I'm 3 feet in front of it, which is nice. But sitting on the couch where I'm typing this, 12 feet away, I don't feel any less cold than I was 4 hours ago.It was my understanding that infrared heaters heat objects, cloths, people, etc., whatever the light waves can see. I put a pair of sweat pants 4 feet in front of it, and they're still cold to the touch 4 hours later. So what's it supposed to do again?I'm puzzled by all these reviews on how this unit instantly heats and makes people warmer. Placebo effect? Can my unit possibly be broken... even though it's got the orange glow and blowing out hot air? Not on long enough?I'm tempted to return it, as currently, it's nothing more than a nice looking piece of furniture that uses quartz elements to heat air and blow it out. I could have gotten the same result from a $30 unit.

One of the worst products I've ever received from Amazon the only good thing I can say about this it looks really good and the remote is very responsive it's very easy to move it's very good and well he a small room for sure it will deathly not heat 1500 ft.² it won't reach 80° ever not even the economy setting which is 68° My room is not even 1000 ft.² and it couldn't even hate thatmy room is about 500 ft.² so I purchased this hoping it would do a great job I honestly feel that this is 100% false advertising don't say your product can do something and it doesn't even come close I bought this product after reading some reviews some good some bad I was hoping that the better views were bad units or that they have fixed the problem but sadly they have not if you are looking for a good heater to heat a small room this is awesome but if you're looking for a heater to heat anything over 500 ft.² look elsewhere this is horrible

Not Impressive Setting the temp is next to useless you can set it to 75 and it will never reach that temp in the small room it's in,. crank it up to 80 an the room will get to 71 The centeral unit is set to 68. The old 1500w oil filled electric rad heater did better on low (600w). Control panel is too bright for the bedroom you will not need a night light. Unit is quiet and looks nice but I needed Heat! The unit is smaller than it appears in the pictures (That is a plus in my book)

Purchased this heater because I had to remove a kerosene monitor heater. I am very disappointed in the heating capability. The cold season is just about done but the room never feels warm like I like it to feel.

It's noisy and doesn't produce the comforting IR heat I had hoped for.

First thing I noticed about this heater is it is LOUD. The insert says a rattling is normal when it first starts but even after that goes away it is still a really noisy heater. I also thought the handle looking piece on the front was in fact a handle. It's not and it gets VERY HOT so do not touch it unless the heater has been off for a while. If you have pets or children this is probably not the space heater for you because of how hot the front gets and it's easy to tip over because it is quite light. The reason I gave it two stars is it does give out a lot of heat. Needless to say, I'm returning this one.

It was broke when I received it only one temp worked High no low temp if it was not winter where I lived at the time I would have sent it back.

This heater was very noisy while on. I have purchased this very heater n

Worked quite nice originally. The fan got louder and louder, rather than "quieter after it warms up" as the description states. After 3 1/2 months of use the thermostat has burned out (I believe). In order to get it to come on for a few minutes, I have to unplug it, then plug it back in. For the money, I would have expected it to last at least a year.

I had this heater on for about 3 hours and never did get warm. You have to be right in front of the heater to feel any heat and only the part facing the heater gets warm. The fan is not strong enough to force the warm air to blow anywhere. I am in an apartment so not a big area to heat and still...didn't work for me.

It was delivered on 12/27. Died 1/30. When we called Lifesmart, they said it has to be returned through the retailer (Amazon). Since it's over a month, there is no option to return to Amazon. In the meantime, 2 kids are freezing because the supplemental heat source is gone. Don't waste your money on this brand. I've had 2 other brands of infrared heaters that have lasted years.

Ok it does not heat 1000 square feet. It barely heats 200 square feet. Perhaps it was tested in some warm climate and I guess that would be fine but way out here in the tundra of Montana? No dice. It will maintain a reasonable tempature if the outside temp is more than 30F. Don't waste your money if you live north of Texas. Plus, after one winter of use, it no longer works.

This worked really well last year. I was very happy with it. I stored it in a sealed container over the summer. I pulled it out to use this winter and it won't work. I paid over a $100 for a heater to only work 3 months. Not a good purchase. Might as well pay for a cheap space heater every year.

This heater works well but has two problems: After less than ONE MONTH, THE CHEAP REMOTE DOES NOT WORK, and the heater comes with an ugly sticker on top (a heat warning that's important) that, when removed, leaves an ugly glue residue on the most visible part of the surface. Even after complaining about the remote, the seller has not contacted me to make things right! I'm deeply disappointed.

Arrived to me missing the main power button in the back. It did not fall off in transit, it was just never even there. I feel like I've been scammed. Now I'll have to be cold for another couple days before a space heater that actually works gets delivered. Don't waste your time and money on this hunk of junk.

Bright numbers make it very conspicuous (UGLY). Wood grain is not even close to any real wood I have ever seen and especially not oak. This fake simulation would be better just a solid color. Tacky and embarrassingly cheap looking.It heats as good as it looks (pitiful). I bought it because it said it would heat 1500 square feet but it barely makes a difference in a 12 x 24 room. In the product description, it was compared to a hair blow dryer in cost to use and heats the room about as well as a hair dryer would.I am very disappointed that this product did not come close to my expectations from the product description. Cheaply made junkThe joke was on me, burned again on an online purchase.

Good product. As advertised. I bought 2 of them. UPDATE: Since purchase, I still works and one does not work at all. Buy at your own risk for a 2 for 1 deal. Not good.

Died 2 months after it came out of the box. We use it in the mornings to help get the house warm quicker and for extra help on very cold days. Don't buy this heater.

This heater has already stopped working and was just purchased in September. This is the first product I've bought that was of such poor quality. It makes a humming noise when the temp. is turned up but the tubes never light up or get hot.

I received this heater on Friday, JAN 30, 2015 and am shipping it back today, FEB 1,2015. I don't know what has happened to Holmes Heaters, but this particular mode, and the prior one I'd purchased were both SUB-PAR. This model does NOT cycle on and off, despite my following the instructions to the letter. I attempted this several times. I don't want heater running continuously and the Thermostat was one of my reasons for purchasing the unit. I might understand if I had it running in a large room, but the room in which it was used measures only 10x13!Also, is Holmes now owned by Sunbeam, doing business as Jarden Consumer Solutions, which is on the box? If so, then the quality has decreased immensely. When Holmes was its own company, their products were VERY reliable. I used Holmes heaters for years; they cycled on and off perfectly. I wish I could say that now. I strongly recommend not buying this model unless you want a heater that runs continuously, which many folks may want.

The heater provided very, very poor service it did not function properly. The heater worked for 10 days and then just stop working, it would not come on at all when plugged into the outlet. The heater did not provided the quality of service I expected from a Holmes Heater.

Purchased this heater on 12/22/2012. We used it on really cold nights to help warm up our chilly bedroom. Just got it back out a few weeks ago to begin using it again and last night. I noticed a burning smell when I entered the bedroom and after going over the heater found a nickel sized hole had burned through on the bottom of the heater from the inside out. Not only would this have caused a fire if I hadn't caught it (the floor was already seriously hot) but this heater is less than a year old. For the price we paid, we thought that we had purchased a quality heater that would be around for years to come. Be very cautious if you purchase this product, not worth losing your home or someone's life to a fire.