Space Heater Thermostats Are Terrible. The Vornado Sensa Has an Actual Solution

Babies get everything: free food, lots of attention, near-universal acclaim. And now, they get a feature I’ve been looking for from space heaters ever since I started testing them.

Most space heaters have a problem so obvious it should feel embarrassing to everyone involved. Cashiers should say, “I’m sorry,” as they take the money. Customers should feel ashamed as they fork it over. The problem is this: The thermostat used to regulate the device is located inside the space heater, often within inches of a very hot heating element. This does not lead to good results.

Apparently it took a baby to solve the problem. Or at least, it took a space heater made for babies. The Sensa Cribside, from Vornado’s baby line of heaters and fans, is the first ceramic space heater I’ve tested that comes with a separate, external temperature sensor. And so the room temperature registered by the heater is the actual temperature in the room—in this case, right by the crib where the baby sleeps.

The Sensa, like some other Vornado space heaters that rank among our picks for the best space heaters around, is a quite good space heater. It’s wonderfully quiet, and Vornado’s “vortex” technology—basically a fan rotating into a spiral of plastic that’s oriented the opposite way—tends to move hot air silently and evenly, with only the barest breeze. My decibel meter barely budged beyond levels denoted “background noise.”

But the real mind-blower is that the sensor is accurate. The temperature measured by Sensa’s remote sensor stayed within a degree of the temperature measured by a digital thermometer placed right next to it, a vanishingly rare quality among dozens of portable space heaters I’ve tested. When the room temperature reached the prescribed point, the Sensa slowed its roll, then switched to a fan. Holy cow: a functional space-heater thermostat.

I looked in vain, and no other Vornado heater offers an external sensor like this. Only the Sensa, for babies. Babies get everything.

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

Heaters for Tots

On this note, caveats are in order. Space heater safety has improved considerably over the decades, and this Sensa contains far more fail-safes than most. For as long as they keep their jobs, your helpful federal consumer safety experts do warn against leaving a space heater unattended in a baby’s room.

Sensa’s thermostat works well, and the device also boasts a programmable shutoff timer so it won’t run indefinitely. But the risk of hyperthermia is real. And so each parent must find their own comfort level, in their own circumstances. (Here are some other helpful space-heater safety tips.)