I had a Corona SX-2E for many years, maybe 6, 7 8 years. I'm not too sure. I never replaced the wick in all that time. I only used it. What wick cleaning it got was in the normal course of events. I sometimes inadvertently let the tank run empty, which is considered a wick cleaning cycle. I used the heater to supplement my wood stove and together they valiantly tried to fight off my furnaces thermostat. Did a pretty good job too.

At the end of the last burning season it began to get hard to start. This fall I decided to do two things.

1. Get a new heater, the same old reliable Corona SX-2E.

2. Get a new wick for the old one. I installed the wick using the instruction manual from the new heater. That went well except that the clutz doing the work (me) broke the igniter. An unexpected $3 investment.

I now have two of these heaters and a different house. The tanks are the same on both. It's nice when I only have one heater running to fill two tanks at once. The tanks are removable so I take them outside to refill them with the included siphon kit. The big round kerosene heaters are generally filled indoors from a 5 gallon blue can. You can imagine how many spills you'd get that way. The other choice with the big ones is to carry the whole heater outdoors. Go for a heater with a removable tank!

My old one seems to run even better than the new one, with less fumes. They are both however better in the fume department than other brands I've experienced. The old one seems to give off zero fumes (with my old nose at least). They both start very easily with just two D-Cell batteries. You don't need any electric to run this heater.

If you don't have some kind of back up heat source for power outages you're irresponsible in my opinion. Even if you live in Florida you could use this occasionally. Good luck getting any heat out of a fireplace. Mine gives off a very romantic glow. I remember in the Navy. We were sent about 70 miles south of Jacksonville for two weeks. It went down into the 30's for 3 days. It's cold when you don't have a winter coat. They don't even sell real coats there.

The Corona SX-2E will run for 16 hours on a tank of kerosene. That is the norm for this style of heater. The running time on a tank is very important. I find it's nice to know that you can fill it on a schedule. With a 16 hour supply you can be sure if you plan on filling it twice a day that you have some leeway.

This heater will keep my 12'x16' room between 72 and 78 degrees all winter. I keep a window in that room cracked for ventilation. Kerosene heaters are not adjustable except for a minor flame tweaking, so I also use the window to modify the temperature. Any of the small rectangular heaters are considered radiant heaters. That means that there is a reflector behind the heat source reflecting the radiant heat toward you. Radiant heat is said to make you feel warmer than convection heat. I only know it makes me warm.

The big round kerosene heaters are in my opinion unusable in a room cause they're too big. If you have an open floor plan, an open basement, or a big shop they're probably appropriate. In a shop or garage leave some space from a vehicle or it might ruin the paint . Either style of kerosene heater needs some space around it.

This heater is easy to clean. Just wipe the exterior with a damp cloth. The reflector arround the glass wick globe is also easy to wipe off. I never found any build up of black soot or tar, like you might expect.

As I said above, I never replaced the wick till it needed it. I learned a rule over the years, "If it ain't broke don't fix it". Replacing the wick is not a simple task. You need the instruction manual (don't loose it). You've got to take off a lot of screws to take apart the case. The wick is a tubular cloth like thing about 8 inches long and maybe 2 1/2 inches in diameter. The lower end of the wick sits in a tray containing kerosene. You slide a new wick over the assembly very carefully. If it's not right the assembly doesn't move right when your igniting the heater. While you have the case apart you can clean the interior and particularly the kerosene tray which was very dirty. As I said, in spite of recommendations, don't replace the wick unless its bad.

I wouldn't recommend a kerosene heater to anyone with kids or over eager pets because of the danger of knocking them over. This kerosene heater has a shutoff in case of tip-over but you're still gonna have a big smelly mess even without a fire. You need to take into consideration what the fumes are doing to the family also.

There are other reviews on this site some of which are very critical of this type of heat. I wrote this review for someone who has made up their minds to buy a kerosene heater. There are other means of heating your space some safer than others. There is no source of heat that is totally safe (even a gas furnace) except Corona beach but I don't live there, just watch the commercials. In my last house I saved $200 a month with the wood stove and a kerosene heater.

Price I paid: $118.00 (Ebay, new)

Bottom Line: If you're looking for a kerosene heater I recommend this one. I bought a second.


Recommended: Yes