14 out of 14 people found this review helpful.
Efficient, No Frills, Single Room Heater
Date of Review: Sep 13, 2008
The Bottom Line: A good no-frills choice for alternative room heat despite limited features and noisy fan.
The Honeywell HZ-315 is a no-frills single room ceramic heater with a clean and simple design. The unit displays a power on light and a single control knob for turning the fan ON and setting the desired temperature.
I work from a smaller office, about 12 ft by 14 ft where the primary building heat source is a heat pump. In the winter, I use the Honeywell HZ-315 to heat only the space in use at the time. Despite the HZ-315's relatively small size, it quickly heats my office from barely tolerable to quite comfortable (and more) in a reasonably short time, raising my office temperature from 64 degrees to 68 degrees in about 20 minutes.
While the heater is effective, it does have some shortcomings. For one, it does not have a dedicated ON/OFF switch. The heater must be unplugged from the wall OR the temperature control knob must turned all the way down. This means each time the temperature control knob is used to turn the heater off, the desired temperature setting is lost. The next time the fan is turned on, the temperature setting must be "guessed at" using trial and error until a comfortable temperature is found. Regrettably, the temperature control knob does not have number markings to quickly set the knob back to the previous days temperature.
Though the HZ-315 is effective, the heater fan noise is a bit loud and can be heard as a low "woosh" from 30 ft away. In the same room, the sound level generated is loud enough to prevent the user from listening to music while the heater fan is on. Upon reaching the desired room temperature, the heater fan then cycles on/off about every three minutes. This cycling is somewhat annoying, considering the amount of fan noise.
I purchased two of these units at bargain-basement prices. Each unit requires 1500 watts. The very first day I learned two units cannot be in operation on the same home electrical circuit. Both units running at the same time will trip a 15 amp circuit breaker (Duh?) for that home electrical circuit.
After using the Honeywell HZ-315 for over a year, it certainly meets my needs and was a fairly good choice for me. However, if I had to pay pay full RETAIL price ($30), I would probably choose a different model. I enjoy listening to music while working and would prefer a quieter fan with a dedicated ON/OFF switch.
