DeLonghi HMH 433

DeLonghi Fan Heater

It must have been the summer of 2003 when we had a heat wave. Suddenly we felt the need for a fan to at least move the warm air around. Apparently, the entire population must have felt the same as, having visited every electrical outlet around for miles, we were still fan-less. It was at that point - sticky with heat and thoroughly frustrated - that we decided that, no-matter what the weather was like, we would buy a fan as soon as the stores restocked. This we did - twice! The first was simply a fan, the second a fan heater.

DeLonghi is a make with which I am very familiar and which I often choose over other makes and this was the case with the fan heater. Having already purchased one of their convector heaters which I found excellent, I looked forward to the same satisfaction with this - and I haven't been disappointed.

The general appearance is quite pleasant. It stands approximately 40cm high, 30cm wide and 20cm deep and is a pale grey/white in colour. It does need a little space to stand in as it also has an oscillating facility - a matter of choice with the switch being in the form of a small foot pedal on the front of the base. The base can also be tilted to direct the airflow and the whole thing can be wall mounted if preferred.

This is a 3kW fan heater - with the choice of using 1.5kW setting. It is thermostat controlled which saves on the running costs. It has a neon indicator light to show if it is switched on and it can also be used as a fan during hot weather. An added bonus is the frost control, which means that if the heater is plugged in it will automatically switch on if the temperature should fall below 5 C. Although I have not experienced this with the fan heater, I have with the DeLongi convector heater so have no doubt that should the temperature fall that low it would certainly work. As with most fans and fan heaters there is a certain amount of noise but with this one I find it minimal.

On the whole I think this is very good buy. We use it mainly in our rather large hall when the central heating is turned off. As we also have two staircases in the area - going in opposite directions - it can get rather chilly at times. It soon warms up with the fan heater - and there are usually two cats sitting in the air stream - one either end of the oscillation range - which should give a good indication of the low noise and pleasant warmth.

The recommended retail price is £29.99 but I believe that you can buy this cheaper if you shop around.

I hope this will be of help - thank you for reading.