Vornado MVH Vortex Heater
The Vornado space heater is one of those trusted brands that produce space heaters which are portable, efficient, and made with technological advances.
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Having a decent space heater can really be of help around the house. Even when not in use, it’s a good item to have because you should always be prepared for any potential central-heating problems. You don’t want to end up freezing in the middle of winter.
While it should never be used as a primary heating source, the space heater is now an energy-saving unit that can be used together with your home heating system, helping you save money. A space heater used in the room where you’re spending your time will consume much less energy compared to an HVAC system.
Today, we’re going to focus on a brand that has been delivering air solutions for quite some time: Vornado. With their wide range of devices that range from humidifiers to air purifiers, we wanted to talk about one of their baseline space heaters: the Vornado MVH Vortex.
A Closer Look at the Vornado MVH Vortex Heater
Vornado is one of those brands that have created products used as benchmarks in the industry for quite some time. They created the Vornado fan back in 1945, which would completely revolutionize the fan industry.
Ever since, they have taken advantage of recent technological innovations and invested in research and development to become one of America’s most popular air solution brands. Today, their product line-up includes everything from dehumidifiers, air purifiers, fabric steamers, fans, and space heaters.
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Quick Specs Overview
The Vornado MVH Vortex space heater is designed to raise the temperature in small to medium rooms, through a minimalistic design and basic, but easy to understand settings. Here is a quick spec review, just to give you an idea of what to expect:
- It features three heat settings, the lowest one consuming 750 watts and the highest one - 1500 watts.
- Can heat areas up to 180 square feet.
- It measures 9.2 x 10.4 x 10.6 inches.
- It weighs a little less than 4 pounds.
- It was designed to meet the US voltage requirements, so it's best to use it only on US territory.
- It comes with a five year warranty.
Controls & Operation
One of the things that people like the most about the Vornado Vortex space heater is its minimalistic design, with just a few basic controls. It might not be a hit amongst tech-savvy users, but for people who want a very straightforward and intuitive space heater, this one might just do the trick.
All the controls for the unit are placed on the top side, grating you quick access to the buttons that allow you to shuffle between the settings. There are three main controls that operate the MVH:
- The power button
- The mode selection button
- The thermostat dial
To operate the device, first press the power button to turn it on. On the upper side of the front of your Vornado, you have a small LED indicator. When the unit is turned on, this light will turn red, always letting you know that the device is functioning.
Right next to it, you have the mode selection button, which offers you the possibility to choose between three different heat outputs:
- The lowest setting consumes 750 watts.
- The medium heat setting consumes 1125 watts.
- The highest setting eats up 1500 watts.
After you have selected the desired setting, it’s time to move to the thermostat dial. To set up the thermostat, you will have to rotate it clockwise to the maximum settings. When the temperature inside the room has reached a comfort level that’s ideal for you, slowly turn the thermostat counterclockwise until heat cycles off.
Safety Features
When the first space heaters first appeared, they were a regular safety hazard, not to mention that they consumed so much electricity, they were only worth using in desperate situations. As technology evolved, so did the space heater industry, and we started seeing more units with efficient energy consumption and better safety features.
Despite its small size, the Vornado MVH Vortex space heater has a wide range of safety features included, such as:
- An external case that’s cool to the touch - This is an important feature for users who have pets and children. As much as you try to keep them away from your space heater, it literally takes one second of not paying attention to what they’re doing for them to touch a heater and get burned. So, having this safety feature is important no matter how much you usually care for your children to be safe.
- Finger-friendly design - The front panel of the Vornado Vortex was designed with fan protection that won’t allow even the smallest of fingers to get inside the unit. This means that no matter how much your children try to poke the grill; their fingers won’t fit through the bars.
- Tip-over protection - A lot of your will be using the space heater by placing it directly onto the floor. Since the unit is very small, it’s not entirely impossible for you or another family member to tip it over. When this happens, there are numerous safety hazards to take into account, but not when you have tip-over protection. What this feature does is to turn the heater off once it tips more than 10 degrees in any direction, thus preventing something like a fire.
- Safety shutdown - It is only natural for the components inside a space heater to warm up. However, there is a certain safety threshold that these temperatures should not cross. If that does happen, it’s important to have a heater that will automatically shutdown once the components inside it become too hot. This could be due to several issues, including airflow becoming obstructed.
Important: When the safety auto shutdown feature is activated, the device will not turn on again on its own, which means that you will manually have to reset the heater. In order to do that:
- Turn off the heater and unplug it from the outlet.
- Make sure that aren’t any objects obstructing the heater.
- Give the unit about ten minutes to cool down.
- Put the heater in position and then plug it back in.
- Turn on the heater and readjust the settings if you have to.
Cleaning
Since the core of your Vornado Vortex space heater is an internal fan, it operates on the principle of circulating the air inside the room. This means that you will have to regularly clean it on a weekly basis to make sure you’re breathing clean air, but also to avoid damaging the unit because of dust accumulation.
Before you start cleaning your Vortex, make sure that the unit is always powered off and unplugged from the power outlet. You can use the brush attachment of your regular vacuum cleaner on the front grill of the space heater.
Then, move on to the side panels, using the same vacuum brush and setting. Once you have finished cleaning the front outlet and side air inlets, you can use a dry cloth to wipe the entire surface of the heater.
For the best results possible, consider cleaning the heater with pressurized air every once in a while. This helps you get rid of any dust and debris that builds up inside the heater, ensuring a longer lifespan for the unit’s motor. It’s also important to note that these buildups end up decreasing the quality of the air you breathe, which leads to the heater eliminating bad odors into the room.
Customer’s Opinions
Heating Capacity
This aspect of the Vornado heater seems to have puzzled some customers that aren’t sure how to calculate the heating efficiency of such a device based on the wattage of the unit. People that have used the heater is small spaces, such as a large bathroom, were extremely satisfied with the results. However, when trying to heat up a really large room (as in more than 150 square feet), the results were a bit disappointing. That shouldn’t exactly be considered a flaw of the product, because the size of the unit and the wattage are clear indicators of how much power this baby provides.
Noise Level
Opinions on the noise level of this unit are pretty divided, but before you judge, consider this: there are people that absolutely can’t sleep unless it’s pitch quiet in their bedroom. Naturally, ever heater will emit a faint noise, which is also what the Vortex does, but if you are used to having no noise whatsoever, this factor might disturb you. On the other hand, there are plenty of customers that stated there is very little noise coming from the unit, and that you sometimes can’t even tell it’s running.
Safety Features
Almost every one of the customers who’ve used the Vornado is happy to report that the safety features do indeed deliver as promised. The external case stays cool to the touch, which makes it safe for kids. There’s no way you could poke your way to the interior of the unit through the front grill, unless you’re using a very thin metal rod. The unit does indeed shutdown when tipped over (if anything, the heater is way too sensitive, as some customers states that it turns off when used on a fluffy carpet).
Bottom Line
In our quest to review the Vornado Vortex space heater, we came across a lot of pleasant surprises. One of the major one was to discover that people aren’t always drawn to high-tech space heaters, and would much rather have a product like this one in their homes.
This particular heater is one of the baseline products developed by Vornado, with a very easy-to-understand design. The fact that the thermostat is manually adjustable didn’t seem very discouraging to other people that have bought and tested this unit.
Thousands of happy customers have reported positive experiences, with many encouraged to buy their second, even their third Vortex space heater. Perfect for small and medium rooms, this unit is perfectly capable of sustaining your central HVAC system, but can also temporarily be used as a single heating source in case it’s needed.