Feelin' Hot Hot Hot (Delonghi Oil Filled Radiator)

Member Name: EazyDude

Product:	Delonghi Oil Filled Radiator
Date:	26/11/01 (8588 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Warmer for longer, compared to fan heaters, Silent compared to fan heaters

Disadvantages: Not cheap

Delonghi is not a name I had heard before venturing into the Argos catalogue. Here, I decided on buying a 3kW oil filled radiator for a couple of reasons.

1) My 20' long L-shaped room in my rented accommodation got very cold during the winter
2) It was oil-filled, meaning it retained and thus emitted heat over a period of time, unlike fan heaters that go stone cold in a moment's notice
3) It was one of the biggest wattage radiators there.
4) Delonghi were one of the biggest reputable manufacturers of radiators out there
5) It came with a 5 year guarantee, where could I go wrong?

Getting the best price
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Just because I saw the radiator in Argos, didn't exactly mean that I bought it there. Shop around and watch out for price-beating offers. I ended up buying mine at a local Curry's (yes I know that they're in my Thumbs Down), as they had it in stock and they price beat Argos, making it slightly cheaper to get. Also not as far to go to get it.

If you're interested, the closest model to the one that I bought ages ago, is 415/7461 in the Argos catalogue, available on http://www.argos.co.uk . Though I notice that this is only 2.5kW, and not 3.

Getting the radiator home
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Hauling the great big box into the boot of the car, I then found it didn't fit. I only had a Micra you see. So it went in the back instead. Got it home and found it had to be assembled. Mind you, when I mean assemble, I just mean stick a couple of legs/wheels on it so you it's more mobile around the place.

The lead is wrapped around the side of the unit, but there's plenty of cord to reach. At least they reached my sockets OK. You plug it in... and wait. The heat output is not exactly instant, although browsing the online Argos catalogue (ah Argos, what WOULD I do without you?) I see that there are some Rapido generation ones for sale. Presumably the
se heat up quicker, but don't quote me on that. The two heating switches on my model operate two different elements, one a 1kW element, and the other a 2kW. Being desperate to see what it could do I flicked them both over.

Slowly but surely, the radiator started to heat up, and then clicked off. There's a thermostat to control the heat output on the side as well, rated from 1-5. Again, wanting to push this radiator, I whacked it up to 5, and it then sprang back to life. After a short while I found that it became very very hot. In fact too hot to touch. Back down to about 3 me thinks. The mid range of the thermostat provides a nice ambient temperature for the room, though I found you do have to alter it slightly for the position in the room. If you stick it in a drafty corner next to the window, it is always nearly on, meaning that you should really have a lower setting on in cooler corners. With a room so big as mine it sometimes couldn't cope with it, though I suspect it wasn't designed for such big rooms. I have since moved and now use it in a 11' x 9' room. The radiator copes more than easily with the room now. I still choose to use the 3kW setting or nothing and I'm not sure if I would ever go down a notch to have a warmer radiator for a longer time, as opposed to a hot radiator for a short time. Somehow the latter is more satisfying.

There's also a built in timer switch so that you can time it to come on in the morning. That was the plan for me anyway so to persuade me to get out of bed in the mornings as opposed to hiding under the covers wishing it was warmer. I have to say that it started out this way, but you have to be aware that it takes differing times to get to the ambient temperature depending on the temperature outside. Thus, if it's a cold cold day out there, giving the radiator only half an hour to heat the room up may not be enough for a large room. My current room can heat up within about 15 mi
nutes or so now, given full blast setting. I tend not to use the timer switch anymore as you have to leave it plugged into the wall to keep the time. it is quite versatile, being able to put loads of on/off positions during the day to 15 minute intervals, unlike some timer switches you get that only allow 8 changes.

3 Years On
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My room is not as large as it used to be, but I still think I lose as much heat through the windows. It doesn't help that I have no other heat source in my current room, so it seems that it serves well as a direct replacement for a normal one. The radiator has coped well over the years and becomes redundant over summer. This does mean you have to find a permanent spot for it, or if you can't to find a home for it when you're not using it. This for me was back in the box, in a cupboard somewhere. Functionally, there seems to have been no loss over time and it still works as it did when it came out of the box. It does, however, now make a funny clicking sound when being warmed up from stone cold. I can't work out what this is due to, but it doesn't bother me so much anymore. I can't possibly comment on electricity consumption but to say that the bills can't have been that worse, otherwise I would have noticed them.

A definite buy for those cold cold rooms. I'd choose this over a fan heater any day of the winter. Remember what noise those fans pump out? Plus, everyone I've had has always had the heating elements broken after a while. In hindsight, I might go for one of those Rapido ones, but they weren't out when I bought mine. Have a look on http://www.delonghi.com . There's no UK site yet, but all the info on the range is there.

Thanks for reading.

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