Some portable heaters have useful extras, such as an LCD screen that displays the current temperature or a remote control for turning the heater on from across the room. These features may come in handy:

Some modern options also have smart features so you can program them via companion apps and smart speakers.When it comes to computers, pay special attention to processing power and memory. These will affect your experience the most if you’re just looking to browse the internet and use your PC to store files.

We use a force meter to record how much is needed to topple each heater over and a decibel meter to measure how much noise each one makes while running. Then we thought we’d get a little more detailed and look at how many of the 66 products were more expensive or cheaper than DIMPLEX DXUC2B Tusk Ceramic Fan Heater. Some brands are synonymous with quality. If quality is your focus, avoid budget brands that don’t specialise in good products. The more deluxe ranges offered by household brands are usually a reliable place to put your money, but results can vary from model to model. We’re really pleased overall with DIMPLEX DXUC2B Tusk Ceramic Fan Heater, enough to score it 8.5/10.Convector heaters are usually taller than fan heaters, but thin and light – making them larger, but still relatively easy to move between rooms. In electronics, you usually get what you pay for. The cheapest of electronics are cheap for a reason, and a general rule of thumb is to avoid the cheapest of the cheap when it comes to electronic devices.

They also noted the “speedy heating” of the Dimplex DXUC2B and praised it for maintaining “a stable temperature whether dealing with mild, cold or very cold conditions.” Some brands and specific models can make a splash with consumers. Because of this, other companies sometimes offer very similar products that might be quite a bit cheaper.Nearly all have some kind of carry handle for moving about and many have a safety cut-out feature, which will switch off the heater if it gets dangerously hot. The oil in the radiator acts as a heat reservoir, which stays hot for some time after the heater's switched off. Some are called 'oil-free' and function in a comparable way, just with an internal heating element instead of any oil. We set up each heater in the centre of our test room and run it on the maximum settings, with the room starting at a cool temperature. We monitor how much the room temperature changed over the course of an hour using temperature probes. We found the most drastic changes happen in the first half an hour and increases in temperature become more incremental after that.