The 5 Best Space Heaters Under $100, Based On User Reviews

Space heaters can be great for supplementing your central heat. They can also come in handy in an emergency situation if your central heat were to retire unexpectedly. They're handy to put under a desk in a cold office. And they can even be used to collect cats in a particular area of your home, if you can find a reason to do such a thing. That said, they're not great at differentiating themselves from each other — so when it comes to buying one, deciding which electric space heater to choose can be a chore. 

That's why we looked at the best-rated options on Amazon to simplify things for you. The samey-ness made our simplification a bit complicated. Most electric space heaters are 1500-watt affairs (the maximum practical wattage that is compatible with a standard 15-amp household electrical circuit). Space heaters use a lot of electricity, but because they're so efficient at converting electricity to heat, there's often precious little difference in the heat output of these devices, which usually hovers around 5118 BTUs per hour. Because of this, we only really considered 1500-watt units (which disqualified the Gaiatop mini space heater, a streamlined 500-watt heater that qualified in every way other than the fact that it only puts out about a third of the heat of the 1500-watt space heaters). 

To ensure fair and honest results, we calculated our picks using a methodology we will be fully transparent about below.

We couldn't simply rely on Amazon's star system to get an average of consumers' ratings for a number of reasons. The most important is that Amazon's star ratings aren't an average at all, but an AI algorithm that converts ratings into what Amazon believes they should be. We're not kidding: Amazon explains this on their own website. And in spite of Amazon's efforts to eliminate manipulation, sellers continue to game the ratings system with AI-generated reviews. Fighting fire with fire, we used Mozilla's Fakespot AI to identify products that are likely to include a significant number of AI-generated reviews. 

In an effort to minimize the role AI plays in how warm your home is, these were our guidelines: Each considered product had to have either 1,334 reviews (representing 10% of the most-reviewed heater's count) or at least 5% combined one-star or two-star ratings. We didn't accept any products with a Fakespot rating lower than C, or products from a company with an F rating or a seller that is unapproved by Fakespot. We also looked for any extreme anomalies in review counts, like many thousands of reviews unexpectedly coming in over a short period of time. Finally, we spot-checked the 30-50 most recent reviewers to make sure their ratings were comparable to the Amazon average. And as tempting as it was, we did not exclude products with fake heat rays emanating from them in their Amazon product photos.

Now that we're all warmed up, let's roll with this.

Our fifth best space heater is the cheapest and most feature-packed of the bunch. The MORENTO space heater is a $35.99 portable forced air unit (the only one of the many types of electric heaters to make our list) that's explicitly limited — probably by its size — to 200-square-foot rooms. You can set it to temperatures between 41 and 95 degrees. It has a fan mode, 900- and 1500-watt heating modes, and an eco mode that works on some algorithm related to the difference between set temperature and ambient temperature. It features 70-degree oscillation and a 12-hour timers (both quite good for this class), along with the usual safety features like tip-over and overheating protection.

With 4.5 stars, the MORENTO might seem like a no-brainer, but its small number of ratings (461) kicked our caution into overdrive. The last 30 purchaser reviews netted only 3.9 stars, but that was probably an anomaly since looking at the last 50 purchaser ratings brought the average up to over 4.1 stars. One-star reviews were a little more common than for most models, and reading through the reviews, one gets the sense that this heater might have a slightly more frequent rate of failure than other heaters, based on the proportion of reviews that mention said failure. Obviously, as with all of our selections, the vast majority of reviews were extremely positive.

For some, the name Honeywell conjures up the conglomerate's aerospace credentials, and might put a bit of undue shine on the company's consumer products. But the $91.99 Honeywell HeatGenius ceramic heater appears to be a high-quality and somewhat pricey space heater. Amazon describes it as a convection heater, but in fact it employs fans in some unique ways. It's HeatPhase timer steps the heat down over either 30 minutes or two hours, depending on which text you read in the product description. And its Quiet Mode combines low fan and heat settings with a low level of white noise to create a pleasant ambient sound. If strange timer limitations and adding noise to make a "noiseless" heater quieter isn't innovative enough, the description also notes that the unit uses "100120.0volts" (obviously and hilariously a typo, but thanks for the ".0" precision). Heat is directed at both personal and floor heights, according to user preference, aided by six heat setting and oscillation. The model reported sports a "cool touch" housing.

At least one reviewer was unconvinced that the cool touch surface was effective, but overall this unit got 4.6 stars on 1,495 ratings. Recent reviewers gave it 4.43 stars, a higher-than-average ratio of recent reviews to all reviews. Overall, it seems reviewers really like the floor and personal heating zones, but some complained that the heater doesn't automatically shut off when it should.

For number three, we find ourselves admiring the Senville 1500W space heater for indoor use, a tower-style space heater that comes in at $49.99. What makes the Senville special is that, in spite of its being a tower, it can not only stand in a vertical orientation (the traditionally more tower-y way to stand) but also a horizontal one, in which it somewhat resembles the indoor unit of a tiny mini-split. It features a 70-degree internal swing to direct air, almost certainly as a result of the horizontal option not being very oscillation-friendly. The heater has high, low, eco, and fan-only modes, and it features a 24-hour timer.

Out of 2,546 ratings, the Senville space heater garnered 4.6 stars — which, happily, exactly matches its rating among recent purchasers. Reviews were, of course, very positive. But a lot of reviewers note that the unit doesn't automatically shut off when it should, often leaving users wrestling in uncomfortably hot rooms and the need to control the unit as if it only had a simple on-off switch. So keep that aspect in mind.

Dreo probably has the most-loved space heaters on Amazon... not bad for a company founded in 2020. This particular $39.99 Dreo space heater model has a few features that help explain why it is such a fan favorite. It's big claim to fame is technology that improves air circulation as much as 200% (though this might be a bigger deal than it sounds, because any power redirected to the fan in a 1500-watt unit necessarily reduces the power available to generate heat, if only by a little). There is no oscillation function, presumably because the improved circulation feature makes it unnecessary. It's quiet by virtue of a brushless motor. The thermostat can be set in 1-degree increments between 41 and 95 degrees and has a memory function, a feature missing on some competing models. Heat is delivered in 1000W, 1300W, 1500W, eco, and fan-only modes. It includes a 12-hour timer and a child lock, which is brilliant for anyone who's ever used space heaters around a cold-natured child.

Getting 4.6 stars on 8,656 ratings is no small feat: Try to get 8,000 people to agree on anything else. And it aligns with 4.5 stars among recent purchasers. Reviewers love this model (and the updated, considerably more expensive Dreo space heater, as well) and agree that it's a quiet and reliable way to make a room warmer. Some complain that sensor placement makes its thermostat inaccurate, and others note that this heater shares remote settings and frequency with other Dreo products, which can lead to inadvertently turning devices on and off. 

Overall, there's a reason people hype Dreo up in the world of space heater technology. Several other Dreo models might have made this list if we hadn't restricted the list to one slot per brand.

Finally, this brings us to first place. The best-reviewed space heater on Amazon, by our reckoning, is the Lasko Designer Series ceramic space heater, a unique-looking unit with a sort of terracotta patio heater vibe (though it's an indoor-use-only heater). 

At a glance you might be fooled into thinking the $56.99 unit's looks are compensating for its mediocre specs. It features only two heat settings and a meager seven-hour timer, along with the usual thermostatic control and remote. It has overheat protection, but not tip-over protection. The Lasko oscillates and has a cool-touch exterior. However, reviewers are clear that this is a quality space heater that just happens to look nice. There's no other way to get to 4.6 stars on a startling 13,335 ratings from people who would otherwise be shivering. Clearly, this is a pristine product that has earned its way into many people's hearts.

A few repeated complaints do crop up in the reviews. The strangest of these is the heater's bizarre inability to make use of its low-heat setting unless the unit is set to the maximum temperature. Others noted that its remote controls other Lasko devices, that it has no air filter, that the top-mounted controls are difficult to adjust with the remote, and that it doesn't have a memory function to keep track of setting when the heater is turned off. Nonetheless, as a straightforward heater, consumers love this Lasko. Achieving the rank of Amazon's best space heater is no small deal, and definitely worth your attention.