After trying out several space heaters with great success I finally received my first lemon…a heater that just would not heat. Was I surprised? You bet! Up until that point, every heater I had tried worked perfectly. Frankly, I could not believe the quality built into these low priced machines. The heat was great, the noise was minimal and the safety features were most impressive. That is until now.
Yeah, it was disappointing. After reading several positive reviews about this very heater, I could not wait to give it a try myself. The fact is that as you pour through space heater reviews on Amazon, every once in a while someone will describe receiving a heater that turns out to be a real stinker. Sometimes the unit won’t put out enough heat…other times it will give off an unpleasant odor…still other times it just will not work at all.
Well that’s what I got. One that would not work at all. It would power on, sure enough. But from there it would do nothing more than radiate a small amount of heat and then turn off. As I read through the owner’s guide about possible problems and fixes, I got to the one that applied to me. Essentially, the guide said that when all of these remedies fail, the unit is most likely damaged…turn it off and return it to the seller. Ironically, at that time, this was the most expensive heater that I had purchased (although I won’t disclose which one as it could have happened to any heater).
It made me realize that as good as most of these space heaters are, once in a while a bad one slips through. Unfortunately, most reviewers that experience a defective heater pound their keyboards and vow never to buy another space heater from that manufacturer. Which is too bad, because they may miss out on an opportunity to get a good quality heater the next time.
Just because one is bad does not mean they all are. The defect could have occured during normal production and been missed by the folks in quality control. It happens. Or it could just be that the box got banged around during shipment and something broke within the machine. That happens too. Probably a lot.
Whatever the case, don’t put too much stock into one person’s bad experience. Most people have very good experience with these machines. Most likely, you will too. But just in case, hold onto your receipt…