Mr. Heater MH18CH Radiant Cabinet LP Heater,Black

I've used "Mr Heater" brand tank top "dish" heaters for many years now, and they've always served me well as portable auxiliary heat, both indoors and out. Never had carbon monoxide issues, though in past I've never trusted them enough to go to sleep indoors with them running, or leave them running when leaving the house. ( Personal choice, both for fire, and CO reasons ) mostly pre dating the availability of inexpensive CO detectors as we have now. After several trouble free years of service again, my Mr Heater dish type started making "popping" sounds while running, and getting harder to start. I was actually going to buy a new one, until I saw THIS one and read / watched the reviews! This little heater blows ALL my other "portable" heater units out of the water with it's efficiency, cost to operate, and ease of use! Partly due to the Pilot Light feature! Though I will say.. I'm using this indoors in a rear separated bedroom / bath to heat the rooms before jumping into shower when it's crazy cold outdoors, so pilot blowing out isn't an issue. I've tried using an electric upright "radiator" type space heater, but the cost to run is INSANE! I get WEEKS of intermittent morning use out of Mr Heater units for around $13.00 (currently) per 20lb tank fill! If I decide I want my room at 75 or even 80 degrees that morning, it's no big deal, and even easier with this convenient pilot light equipped Cabinet version. I LOVE how super QUIET it runs compared to what I was used to with the "dish" type. Now, that said, I considered myself fortunate when mine arrived undamaged and functioning correctly, because as others here have stated, you do take that risk not buying local should there be broken / damaged parts, or other issues. Anyway.. after the mild assembly adding the wheels and adding my tank.. it fired right up and works MUCH better than expected! The "Low / Med / High" heating options work just right for my needs and I'm not having problems going between them, or issues with the auto shut off system as some have stated, though it does shut off if it's bumped hard enough or you try moving it around while it's running! If I had to find "Cons".. it would be how "Unbalanced", Heavy, and Awkward it is to pick up and move inside/outside with steps or stairs once the tank is in place! But I really do that rarely for my use. It rolls around fine on floors. Also, as others have said, lighting the pilot can take a few tries, though holding down the selector for several seconds before trying to ignite does help. Mine usually lights on or before the 3rd "Click". I'd also recommend a Tank Level Gauge between hose and tank as it's not easy to lift the tank to feel for propane level when in back of cabinet. (See photo, If using indoors be EXTRA careful to check for any leaks in between tank and hose / Gauge! I also turn mine off at the tank when I'm not around to smell any leaking propane! I do have other pilot lights in home that could ignite leaking propane. So BE CAREFUL if not well ventilated!!)Heads Up Note: As I've not seen this mentioned yet in my own reading / watching reviews of this heater.. Upon starting the heater for the FIRST time, Do that outdoors, or in a well ventilated area AWAY from Smoke Detectors! Mine set those off testing indoors, probably due to paint and other "residues" heating and burning off! I shut it off, and brought it out to back patio, then ran it on HIGH for about 30 minutes. Cooled it down, brought it inside to back rooms again, ZERO issues since! Works AWESOME and is CHEAP (at current rates) to run! WISH these had been around all those years living in Snow Zones, as it's MUCH quieter, and definitely a "safer" design than tank top versions. Pretty sure you'll LOVE this heater! It's not bad looking in a room either as the Black color "blends in" pretty nicely. Great design! VERY pleased with this purchase!Update / Upgrade: Better still! I decided to add an "inexpensive" 6 inch, 2 speed electric Clip On fan.. ($20.00, though should be $15 at most! Mine arrived in nice condition and working great despite some reviews on this one ) ..to better circulate the heat, because as others have said, MOST of the heat goes Straight UP from the heat elements. (Though enough radiated heat heats my pine flooring in front more than I'd prefer, so I added the carpet squares temporarily to protect the finish.) The little fan is still pretty quiet on Low setting and really helps get the heat circulating. On "High" it moves a surprising amount of Heated air further into the room and feels great coming out of a shower on an otherwise cold morning! It's pretty nice to feel "spoiled" with inexpensive WARMTH in the current economy! Depending on your placement needs for this heater, you may want to try the fan idea. Larger room? Larger, better quality fan!Finally, I chose to only add these pictures with the fan / Gauge since so many others have taken such great all around pictures of this heater. Thanks to all the other reviewers! I wouldn't have taken a chance on this order without all the good reviews!

Update: Just received my new heater. It outperforms my Dyna-Glo heater. Puts out more heat, and has a bigger heating filament. Very easy to start. Just follow the instructions. The quality seems perfectly adequate. Its not the prettiest heater but I like that it is portable. Also. I like the automatic shut off feature. Was easy to assemble, for me anyway. I'm 57 years old with arthritic hands.This will be my second cabinet heater. I live in Maine, in an old 60 foot mobile home. The home has new windows and is weatherized, but it needs to be insulated. The walls are thin, so the cold just radiates from them in the winter, and the heat dissipates quickly once the heat is turned off.I have a new oil furnace which takes premium kerosene. The price for K1 kerosene has been outrageous the last two years. So I have experimented with using space heaters, propane and electric. By far, the propane has proven to be the best choice. Electric heaters just use so much electricity, it's as expensive as just buying kerosene. But propane is pretty cheap here. I pay $17 per 20 lbs tank, which holds 4.7 gallons. I currently have a Dynaglo propane cabinet heater, and it works great. It provides instant heat, with three heat settings. On high setting, it blasts the heat. I only turn it on high for a few minutes to take the chill off, then turn it back to low. I turn it off at night because the temperatures here are still mild, but soon that will change. Right now I have gotten four days out of a tank, and it's still running. For $17 a tank, that's a good deal. Yes, once cold weather really sets in, I would have to turn the heat up to keep the living room and kitchen warmHowever, I believe that with one more cabinet heater at the back end of the trailer, I should be able to get by with running them both on low, once I get up to temp. I may have to supplement with the oil furnace, especially at night on the coldest nights. Just to keep the pipes from freezing. But I can set the thermostat at 60 for that purpose. I still think the propane heaters will save money versus just running the furnace, because in the coldest weather, it runs constantly, on top of the electricity it uses to run the blower. Kerosene will probably hit $6 a gallon soon. I would use several gallons a day on the cold days. By the way, I have a small oscillating fan on top of the heater to distribute the heat (it's a metal fan) which helps alot.Some people go into a panic about using these heaters indoors due to carbon monoxide risks. In my case, the exhaust fans in the bathrooms run automatically throughout the day and night. Also, the trailer is just not airtight, despite the weatherization, so any carbon monoxide being produced is escaping through the cracks. During the day, people are coming in and out throughout the day, so there is fresh air coming in that way. However, you can buy a carbon monoxide monitor for less than $20, and some heaters have automatic shut off, if levels get too high.

Pretty simple heater. Works as designed. Low, medium, high all heat via a segmented element. So it’s like 1/3 at low, 2/3 at medium, 3/3 at high. Only used a few times since I was not sure I’d get to use it enough and delayed my purchase. But it was a cold winter here in NC, so after some research, decided this was best value for my needs. Easy to setup and easy to roll around to where most needed. Mostly used on high to heat up my garage workshop. But once warm enough, med or low kept it comfortable. No insulation and typical garage door doesn’t seal tight, so lots of leakage - but leakage helps to avoid CO buildup. I got a new CO detector and it never read above zero. So in this case, leakage is good. But lack of insulation did have me turning it up to high at times to keep warm. Also put a small oscillating fan on top of it help circulate the air. It’s a one car garage so not huge but it is long so not great for air circulation. A bonus being portable is we will be able use it to heat the 3 season room in winter for a semi 4 season space.

Heater works well, not noisey, heats up the area quite well, easy 3 burner system to choose for amount heat you want. Price was fantastic couldn't complain. Would recommend