Atomi Desktop "Smart" Space Heater

[hiriki]

So, my Dyson Hot & Cold that I got on an insane discount through my past job at Best Buy finally died. My birds live with me in a basement apartment which gets pretty cold in the winter. The heater died back in June and I put off buying a replacement until it started getting cold....... well, here we are in Chicago and it's getting cold.

My main criteria all revolves around safety--I wanted something that wouldn't let off fumes or set my basement on fire. The Atomi is a ceramic heater, which as I understand it will not let off fumes, and because it's a "smart" device, I can set schedules. I can preschedule periods of time for it to cool off during the day so it's not running 24/7. And, its safety features claim that it shuts itself off if overheating (not sure if I would have to manually turn it back on in this case or if it turns back on when cooled down sufficiently?), and that it will shut off and alert me via push notif on my phone if it tips over.

I only set it up today so I don't really have a full review, but it is that season and I figured I'd share my experience for anyone else shopping for heaters.

This is the app:

The schedules feature is nice, and I have some set up, but it's worth noting that all you can control with scheduled events is powering the device on and off. You can't say "heat to x temp at 8am" and then "heat to y temp at 4pm" which is a feature I could do on the Dyson app, and which allowed me to heat the room to a cooler temp late and night and then warm up the room during waking hours.

I do notice it's heating the room to a significantly higher temp than the one I indicated, it remains to be seen if this is going to be a problem or if I can simply adjust the desired temp down to mitigate it.

To top it off, it looks kind of space agey (lol)

 

[wrench13]

I dont like any of the forced air heaters, ceramic or not. I use a radiant heat, oil filled heater, from DeLonghi. No open flame, No exposed heating elements - they are more like a regular radiator, that you plug in. 1 unit keeps my basement nice n warm for the winter.

 

[hiriki]

In my experience (which is limited, because I hate heaters for myself and only started shopping when I had pets to keep safe--I prefer to be cold!) the oil filled type heaters just make the room too hot for me. That's why I limited my search to "smart" heaters despite the fact that I really do hate everything having an app nowadays... being able to choose a temp and the heater shuts itself off or turns itself down when it reaches that temp is invaluable. Aside from the weird fluke when I first plugged it in, which shows in the screen cap I took, this heater has not been overheating the space. We're at 72 right now.

That said I might just check and see if I can find a smart oil filled radiator type heater later today... I did more reading yesterday and found that most people consider the oil filled to be safest. I personally would still want something I can schedule to shut off at night so it's not on 24/7 but such a product might exist.

 

[hiriki]

OK, so after discussing with the family and doing a bit more research, I do think I'm going to return and go for an oil-filled for safety. I'm in a carpeted basement apartment and a fire is a worst case scenario that absolutely cannot happen. Also, turns out it's extremely easy to find oil-filled radiating space heaters with built-in thermostats that I can set low to 70 degrees and not worry about being too toasty. Lol.

 

[Jcas]

You can always plug an oil style heater into a plug in timer like this one. We use them for Christmas lights and for grow lights when I’m starting seedlings for the garden. They work great!

 

[hiriki]

I have my lights in the bird corner plugged into one of those! I used to have smart lights so I could do a gradual dim, instead of a harsh cutoff, which admittedly was really nice, but kind of expensive. And idk about you but I'm weirded out by the culture trend towards items as simple as lightbulbs having a wifi connection. Lol. The plug in timer is better .

I did check the Q&A section for the DeLonghi radiator that I picked and someone gave their experience that a plug in timer did not work for the heater, their theory being that not enough electricity can pass through the timer to make the heater turn on. But I have another timer lying around somewhere so I might give it a try. Even if it doesn't work, the heater will turn off completely when it reaches temp and turn back on when needed so it won't be running 24/7. If my power bill skyrockets I can just try to remember to turn the temp down on the heater every night before bed.

 

[Jcas]

I have my lights in the bird corner plugged into one of those! I used to have smart lights so I could do a gradual dim, instead of a harsh cutoff, which admittedly was really nice, but kind of expensive. And idk about you but I'm weirded out by the culture trend towards items as simple as lightbulbs having a wifi connection. Lol. The plug in timer is better .

I did check the Q&A section for the DeLonghi radiator that I picked and someone gave their experience that a plug in timer did not work for the heater, their theory being that not enough electricity can pass through the timer to make the heater turn on. But I have another timer lying around somewhere so I might give it a try. Even if it doesn't work, the heater will turn off completely when it reaches temp and turn back on when needed so it won't be running 24/7. If my power bill skyrockets I can just try to remember to turn the temp down on the heater every night before bed.

According to my brother who works with electronics, a mechanical timer should be fine with an oil style heater, so definitely give it a try! My brother also said that if you check the amps on the timer and the heater it should tell you if they are compatible ( for example, my heater is 12.5 amps and the timers are all rated for up to 15 amps). 🙂

 

[wrench13]

The DeLonghi one I have has both a temp cut off, and a mechanical finger type timer so you can set on and off times.