Comfort Zone Oscillating Digital Tower Review

This space heater finished just below the top spot in our comparison, falling just a few points behind in some key metrics. The Comfort Zone Oscillating Digital Tower has several convenient features, such as a digital thermostat, timer, and fall-over protection. We especially love the innovative remote control holder on the backside of the tower.

Performance Comparison

Personal Heat

The Comfort Zone works fantastically beneath a desktop. It fits very nicely in tight places thanks to its small footprint — as long as there's room for its tall profile. It heats the area below the desk up evenly without using the oscillation setting.

If you are going to use this model below a desk, we found that the buttons are in a bit of an awkward spot if you want to adjust the settings without the remote. Also, the oscillation is a bit wide and slow for this application.

Convenience

When it comes to elements that add to its convenience, the Comfort Zone brings a lot to the table.

The user interface is simple and easy to use. It has a digital thermostat that has a range from 41 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit, which is adjustable in one-degree increments. We find timers on space heaters to be incredibly useful in many instances — this model's timer goes up to eight hours. This heater also has a sensor that shuts the power off if the device isn't standing vertically. This feature is perfect for those with clumsy pets or playful toddlers.

All of this heater's functions can be operated by its handy remote control that includes visual symbols for each button that are self-explanatory and easy to use. The Comfort Zone also has a storage slot for the remote on the back of the unit, near the handle. This is perfect for when the heater is in summer storage or even for everyday use.

The Comfort Zone doesn't have an option to use the blower without the heating element engaged, so if you're looking for a model that doubles as a fan for use during warmer months, you'll want to look into other options.

Small Room

When we used the Comfort Zone in a living room setting, we were even more impressed, as it produces a nice, warm breeze from five feet away. To gain some more objective data, we let each model run at its highest setting for an hour in a 161 square foot room in order to measure the amount of heat they were able to produce. We were careful to make sure that the room had a similar starting temperature and that the adjacent room temps were the same. Lastly, we waited for a cold spell so that the outside temperatures were in the low to mid 30s; we wanted to ensure our data was the result of a real-world setting.

The Comfort Zone displayed decent performance during this assessment. During the first 20 minutes, this heater brought the temp of the room up 5.7 degrees, and after the full hour, the thermometer read 9.9 degrees higher than the 65.3 degrees that we began with.

Power Consumption

This space heater also showed so-so results during our power consumption tests. To calculate energy cost, we used a wattmeter to measure the number of kilowatts that each model consumed over the course of an hour. We were then able to take this figure and use the national average cost used per hour.

The Comfort Zone uses 1.34 kilowatts in an hour — using the figure of 13 cents per kWh, this heater will cost you $1.76 in power over a 10 hour period. Running at 10 hours per day for 30 days, you'll be looking at about $52.80. If you were to run this model for 24 hours a day over the course of 30 days, you're going to raise your power bill by about $120 — double the cost of the heater itself.

Value

The Comfort Zone offers great performance at an exceptional price. We recommend this space heater for any occasion.

Conclusion

The Comfort Zone Oscillating is a high-performance space heater that has some useful features that complement its heating capabilities. It also has an ingenious remote control storage slot on the back of the device so that you'll be less likely to misplace it while the heater is in storage during warmer weather. It does well at raising the temperature quickly and is an excellent option at a great price.