If the cold and gray days of winter have a tendency to make you depressed, Presto's HeatDish may be just the medicine you need to break out of the winter blues. And if you're just looking for warmth and not necessarily a psychological boost, this innovative heater remains an excellent choice.

As anyone who has looked at heaters knows, the market is crowded with different models and types, ranging in price from $15 or so on up to over $100. However, this model stands out as a clever design that does something that few other heaters do: Deliver powerful beams of warm, penetrating radiant heat that can take the chill off faster than just about any other heater you could buy.

Radiant heat is created in the Presto HeatDish by an electric heating element which is wrapped around a ceramic cone and placed at the center of a reflective parabolic dish that reflects heat out into the room. Once the heater warms up, which takes about a minute, the entire dish glows a pleasant orange color, and you can feel the heat most powerfully anywhere from three to ten feet in front of where you have placed the heater.

The radiant heat warms people and objects rather than the air directly. This allows it to make people near it comfortable long before a convection heater would have time to warm the whole room. This makes it an excellent choice for areas that are hard to heat, such as large drafty rooms, garages, workshops, enclosed porches, basements, and similar places around the home.

Sitting near this heater creates a feeling very similar to that of sitting in the sun, or sitting in front of a fireplace. But unlike sunlight and fireplaces, you can easily regulate the heat flow from this heater with the built-in thermostat. Rotating the thermostat all the way to high will keep the heating element on all the time, while lower settings will cause it to cycle on and off to maintain heat of a lower intensity.

There are other heaters on the market that use the principle of radiant heat, but few do so as effectively as this one. The carefully-designed parabolic reflector -- resembling a satellite dish -- directs nearly all of the heat out toward people in the vicinity of the heater -- making it a true radiant heater. Many other heaters with glowing elements also produce a certain amount of radiant heat, but much of their heat is also delivered through convection. In a big room that is too large to be heated by a portable heater, this heat which is delivered through convection is essentially wasted. If radiant heat is what you're after, this is the heater to have.

Safety features abound on the Presto HeatDish. The heater shuts off if it is tipped over, and an alarm also sounds in this instance. The base is also very sturdy and large enough to make accidental tipping of this unit quite unlikely. A light indicates that the unit has power, reminding users that it is still plugged in.

One very attractive advantage of this heater -- both in terms of safety and in other ways -- is that it has no moving parts to wear out. Typically on a fan-forced heater, the fan is needed to keep the heating elements from overheating. A failure of the fan motor can in some cases cause the heater to get so hot that it could start a fire. This cannot happen with the Presto HeatDish because there is no fan. The lack of a fan also means that the heater makes virtually no noise.

It's interesting to note that the HeatDish actually embodies a design similar to some of the early heaters manufactured in the early 1900s. The antique models had heating coils on cones and reflector dishes designed somewhat similarly to this Presto model. Yet by adding modern safety and comfort features, Presto has taken the best traits of this old and proven design and brought it into the 21st Century.

Still, as with any heater, it's important to follow some basic safety guidelines: Don't let children play unattended around the heater. (Inserting objects into the grille could cause a fire or shock hazard if they were to contact the heating element.) Make sure you place the heater at least three feet away from flammable materials of any type. Don't plug the heater into an electric circuit that is already too heavily loaded with other appliances that may be run at the same time. Finally, avoid running the heater in bedrooms while people are asleep. (If you need to run a heater in a bedroom, consider a portable baseboard model or an electric radiator. Because these models do not have exposed heating elements and don't focus heat so much in one direction, they are sometimes a better choice in these areas.)

There is an excellent potential for energy savings with this heater. First, it consumes only 1000 watts, while most other electric heaters draw 1500 watts. This in itself represents a savings. Furthermore, the high quality of the radiant heat this heater produces allows people near it to be comfortable at much lower room temperatures than would otherwise be possible. This can allow you to set your regular heating system at a lower temperature -- saving a significant amount of energy.

I have quite a few electric heaters scattered around my drafty old house, but this is the one I use the most frequently. Its sun-like warmth just feels great, it heats silently, and you do not have to wait for the whole room to get warm before you begin to feel comfortable. Unless you live somewhere where it NEVER gets cold -- and that doesn't describe too many places in the world -- this heater can not only take the chill off of winter but can bring the summer sun right into your living room on the coldest winter day. About the only thing it won't do is give you a suntan.

Recommended: Yes