15/11/2023
π π π π 4 star review from B.: Great customer service and good personal portable top-up heater.
Overall, the customer service from Homesdelux/Keith was great and the product is as advertised.
The customer service from Keith was great, responsive and helpful π. I wasn't expecting the order to be followed up by a phone call a few days later, as I filter unknown numbers, Keith then followed up by email.
The Herschell 500W heater is largely well made and thought out product. It works as advertised, as a personal portable top-up heater.
It's a much more pleasant (and now preferred) type of heating feeling than conventionally available heaters, but its effective heating range seems to be within 1m of the panel, further out and I can barely feel any of the heat.
The feet are attached with screws that tighten against the back of the panel, but unfortunately this will of course damage the finish on the back of the panel. It's a minor issue but I'd rather not mark/damage the finish of a brand new item.
The controls are easy to work with and are intuitive. Before buying this, I had read a 2022 review saying Herschel was expecting to update the unit by adding the option to disable the sound and making it remember the last set temperature. It appears neither has happened. The heater will make a sound for every button press on the unit or in the third party Smartlife app. Again a minor issue but gets irritating.
I've tried the app for a short duration, but I'd personally not use the app as it adds nothing for me, as the heater is going to be right next to me. In the previous mentioned review, it was said they had added it to HomeAssistant which I've not yet attempted, but that's a bonus.
As for energy usage, it appears to flat out use around 500 watts no matter the temperature set, preferring to get to the set temperature as fast as possible, which it then seems to just shut off until the temperature drops and it starts up again. As of 06/11/2023 the average electricity price is 27p per KWh, so it costs roughly 13.5p per hour to run this heater.
It would be helpful & interesting to one day have a comparison of infrared heaters, their energy usage and effective heating range. Hopefully Herschel will improve on the minor issues in future releases.
https://homesdelux.co.uk/products/select-500-watt-portable-infrared-heater