Rant: That $20 space heater from the dollar store nearly cost me my deposit

Last week I figured I'd save cash and grabbed a cheap heater for my apartment in Austin. It tripped the breaker three times in one night and left a weird burn smell. Has anyone else had luck with those or are they all junk?

2 comments

2 Comments

josephl671mo ago

My $40 Honeywell lasted three winters without any trouble.

the_jason1mo ago

Ngl those "dollar store" heaters aren't even UL listed half the time, which is a huge red flag. Honeywell is solid like josephl67 said, but even cheap Lasko units from Walmart for like $15 have safety certifications and won't leave burn marks on your floor. The problem with no-name heaters is they skip important stuff like automatic shutoff if they tip over. Learned the hard way myself when a generic one melted a patch of carpet in my old apartment.