Von Haus Oil-Filled Radiator review: "a fuss-free option that keeps rooms warm"

Price on writing: £55 | Buy now from Amazon

How I tested the VonHaus oil-filled radiator

I tested this radiator for eight weeks in a renovated Victorian family home, where I live with my husband and my two-year-old son. During that time, my in-laws also used it, which was a useful extra test of whether someone else could operate it without me hovering nearby explaining the dials.

I used it mostly in our front living room, a 3m by 4m north-facing room with high ceilings, two external walls, a bay window and a chimney breast. The rest of the house is well insulated, but this room is still draughty and harder to heat, so it was a decent challenge for a portable radiator.

I used the radiator in the evenings, during colder spells alongside the main heating, and during the day while working from home instead of heating the whole house. I looked at how easy it was to assemble, move, position, control and store. I also noted how comfortable the heat felt, how long it took to make a difference, whether there was any noise or smell and whether I felt happy using it in a family room with a toddler around.

My verdict

The VonHaus 9-Fin Oil-Filled Radiator doesn’t make a fuss, which suited me fine. It’s a plain white, compact, freestanding radiator with two manual controls, four castor wheels and enough power to take the edge off a cold living room.

I tested it for eight weeks in a Victorian family home, mainly in our front room. Most of the house is now well insulated after renovation work, but this room is the awkward one: north-facing, draughty, with high ceilings, two external walls, a bay window with not-particularly-brilliant double glazing and a chimney breast. Naturally, it’s also the room where we actually want to sit down and be cosy.

The VonHaus didn’t turn the room tropical within seconds, but I wouldn’t expect an oil-filled radiator to do that. On cold nights, it took around 10 to 15 minutes before the room started to feel properly warmer. Once it got going, though, the heat was steady and comfortable, more like having the central heating on than getting a quick blast from a fan heater. It also felt much better suited to a family room than the convection heater we’d tried before.

It’s best for Mumsnetters who need to warm one stubborn room, rather than crank up the heating across the whole house. I’d use it in a lounge, playroom, home office or larger bedroom. It’s not the model to choose if you want smart controls, a remote, a timer or exact temperature settings. But for £55, I think it's a great buy.

Read next: Best electric heaters

VonHaus 9-Fin Oil-Filled Radiator: what's in the box?

The radiator arrived in a relatively compact box. There’s not a huge amount to unpack or learn, but there is a little assembly before you can use it.

• VonHaus 9-Fin Oil-Filled Radiator

• Four castor wheels to attach

• Wheel fittings

• Built-in 1.5m power cable

• Cable storage

What's the VonHaus 9-Fin Oil-Filled Radiator like to set up?

Set-up was easy enough, but not instant. The wheels need screwing on before first use, which felt unnecessary, although it only took about 10 minutes. The fittings are where you notice this is a budget-ish product, rather than something pricier and more polished. They’re fine once attached, but they don’t feel particularly high-end.

After that, you just plug it in and choose a heat setting. There’s no app, no remote, no digital screen and no charging to think about. I liked that. I don’t need my radiator to have a personality. I need it to heat the room.

The 1.5m cable was fine most of the time, but I would have liked a little more length. In a period room with furniture, sockets and bay windows all competing for space, an extra bit of cable would have made positioning easier. With any portable heater, it’s worth thinking about where your sockets are before assuming you can put it exactly where you want it.

What's the VonHaus 9-Fin Oil-Filled Radiator like to use day-to-day?

In daily use, it’s simple. There are two dials: one for power and one for the thermostat. The power dial lets you choose between 800W, 1200W and 2000W. The thermostat dial controls how warm you want the room, then switches the radiator on and off to hold the temperature.

The thermostat is marked from minimum to maximum, not actual temperatures, so there’s a bit of trial and error at first. That’s normal for this kind of heater, but it does mean you’ll fiddle with it for the first few uses. Once I found the right spot, I mostly left it alone.

My main design gripe is that the controls are on the same side as the power cable. In our room, that often meant the dials ended up facing the wall, which made changing the setting more awkward than it needed to be. It’s annoying, but not enough to put me off. A remote control would have been handy when I was settled on the sofa.

The radiator has four castor wheels and a carry handle, and it moved easily across our wooden floorboards. The wheels don’t feel like they’re built for an expedition, and I wouldn’t want to haul it up and down stairs regularly, but they’re useful for moving it around one floor. It’s quite heavy, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The weight and wide base make it feel stable, which I appreciated with a child in the house.

The first couple of uses came with a faint “new radiator” smell, but that disappeared. After that, it was easy to ignore: no fan noise, no obvious hum and no sense that the corner of the room had become a heater demonstration zone.

There wasn’t much maintenance to speak of during testing. It’s an oil-filled radiator, so there’s no filter to clean and the oil is sealed inside. VonHaus states that the oil doesn’t need replacing or refilling. For normal family life, that leaves you with the usual radiator job of keeping dust off the fins.

How well does the VonHaus 9-Fin Oil-Filled Radiator perform in a draughty living room?

This is where I really wanted it to work. Our living room is about 3m by 4m, with 2.6m ceilings, two external walls, a bay window and a chimney breast. It’s not huge, but we struggle to keep it warm. We have underfloor insulation, thermal curtains and a chimney sheep above the fireplace. All of that has helped, but it still wasn’t enough to make the room actually cosy in winter. A heated throw may have helped, but we don't have that many plug sockets near our sofa, so in the end a portable heater felt like the right option

The VonHaus made a big difference. On colder nights, I’d give it 10 to 15 minutes before the room started to feel warmer. Once it got going, the room felt less chilly and much easier to sit in. The heat was steady and gentle, more like central heating than a plug-in blast of hot air.

I tended to put it on a low setting and let it run, rather than constantly adjusting it. Once the room reached a comfortable temperature, the thermostat kicked in and stopped it from getting too hot.

The radiator also holds warmth after being switched off. How long that warmth lasts will depend on your room, especially the insulation and draughts. In our living room, though, the radiator stayed warm for around 30 minutes, sometimes more, after I turned the power off. That lingering heat is one of the things I liked most about it.

VonHaus lists room coverage of up to 25m². I tested it in a smaller but tricky room, and based on that, I’d use it for medium rooms and some larger living spaces, especially if you’re also using rugs, thermal curtains or other ways to keep the heat in.

How well does the VonHaus 9-Fin Oil-Filled Radiator perform as top-up heating?

This is where the VonHaus proved most useful. Our main heating works well for most of the house, but the living room always lags behind. On very cold days, we used the VonHaus alongside the central heating to make the living room comfortable. On milder days, I used it instead of putting the heating on elsewhere.

That made it particularly useful for working from home. Rather than heating rooms we weren’t using, I could warm the one space that actually needed it.

It’s also better suited to family life than our old convection heater. There are no exposed heating elements or fans, and the unit felt very stable. The surface does get warm, so I’d still keep children away from it and teach them not to touch it, just as I would with a normal radiator. I wouldn’t leave children around it unsupervised, but I did feel comfortable using it in a family living room.

Is the VonHaus 9-Fin Oil-Filled Radiator good value for money?

At £65, the VonHaus feels fairly priced. It doesn’t have the extras of a more premium radiator like the De’Longhi Dragon 4, but it heats the room quietly and well, and that’s all I really want it to do.

You can buy smaller, less powerful oil-filled radiators for less money. If you only want to heat a tiny bedroom or box-room office, that’s probably enough. For a lounge, playroom or draughty room like ours, I’d rather spend a bit more on the higher wattage.

About the author

Tina Williams is a Content Editor at Mumsnet, a rookie home renovator, an amateur gardener and mum to a toddler with a keen interest in Duplo and kitchen knives. Over the years, she’s tested buggies, travel cots, vacuum cleaners, dishwashers and washing machines to see if they really stand up to manufacturers’ claims and, more importantly, whether they actually make parents’ lives easier.

When she’s not working at Mumsnet, you’ll find her in the park trying hard not to be a helicopter parent, or attempting to finish one of the many DIY jobs still left in her Victorian renovation.