Vornado AVH10 Whole Room Heater review: heats like a storm

The Vornado AH10 is a simple, relatively quiet fan heater that does a good job of heating up a small room without making too much noise. Vornado heaters use a unique ‘vortex action’ spinning the air to better circulate throughout the whole room rather than provide any form of direct heat. This is a mid-range model and benefits from an LCD panel with temperature control. This means that you can set your desired temperature and let the fan and heating elements automatically activate to reach that temperature and stay there. It is lacking some features, though, such as a timer and a way to control the fan speed. 

Vornado AVH10 Whole Room Heater review: price and availability 

The Vornado AVH10 has been on the market now for around five years. It has a list price of $109.99 but can be found online for around $90. This model is only available in the US. 

Vornado AVH10 Whole Room Heater review: design and build

This is a relatively small heater, measuring just over 12 inches high and about the same wide. The heater and fan parts are all well within the body of the heater, away from prying fingers. The few controls on this model are all on the top of the body, below a large LCD display that shows the current temperature, the target temperature and the mode. There are only four buttons on this heater: one for power, one for the mode, and two to increase and decrease the temperature. The mode button switches between the low heat, high heat, and fan mode, which just circulates the air. The target temperature is set with the plus and minus buttons, and that’s about it. There is no timer here: If you want a timer and a remote, you’ll need to step up to the $149.99 TAVH10 model, which includes both. 

A carrying handle on the back of the case makes it easy to move from room to room, and a cable holder in the base holds the long 6-foot cable when the device is not in use. My only issue with this arrangement is that if you run the cable to the side or front of the case, the cable lifts the base off the floor and the tilt sensor stops the fan from working. You are supposed to run the cable to the back of the case, where the raised edge of the base leaves space for the cable to fit. 

Vornado AVH10 Whole Room Heater review: performance

Although it doesn’t have much in the way of fancy features, the AVH10 has it where it counts: I found that it did an excellent job of heating a small room. Both modes output a good amount of heat: the high mode consumes a sizeable 1500W of power. It heats up very quickly: if you walk in and turn it on, you’ll have warm feet in about 30 seconds. 

This heat is moved around the room by the large, 9-inch fan. A large fan like this means that it can run relatively slowly, which means it is fairly quiet: it produced a quiet background hum that was about the same level as a whisper. The fan turns off when the room reaches the target temperature, then starts again when the temperature falls.   

There are a couple of quirks, though. When you hit the power button to turn the heater off, it doesn’t turn off immediately. Instead, you get an eight-second countdown while the fan keeps running to cool the heating element for safety reasons. It’s not a problem, just a bit confusing the first time you use it. The tilt sensor that tells the fan that it is on a nice flat surface is also a bit too sensitive: it disabled the fan on my slightly uneven wood floor until I moved it around and found a higher spot for the sensor to touch down on. Safety is a good thing, but that’s a bit much. 

Vornado AVH10 Whole Room Heater review: verdict

The AVH10 is a simple heater that does what it should: produce a good amount of heat that gets circulated around the room without too much noise and other hassle. It has no other features, though: no timer, no control over the speed of the fan, and no remote control. These are available on other similar upgrade models, though, and the AVH10 is a great, low-cost pick if you just want some quick, quiet heat.