Fire Sense Black Powder Coated Steel Telescoping Offset Pole Mounted Infrared Patio Heater with Wheels | 1500 Watts | Weighted Base | Tip Over…

I assembled this yesterday and used it for a BBQ on my patio. I looked at a bunch online before choosing this one. This process was pretty confusing because as it turns out, Fire Sense is the same as Mojave Sun and they’re all brands of Well Traveled Living, so what you think are a lot of options turn out not to really be the case. There are widely varying prices at various retailers, but since many seem to be the same product, I bought it off Amazon for substantially less.

My criteria were:
a) infrared electric vs propane – propane may be warmer but I definitely would rather not have to buy and carry heavy canisters. I was concerned about a ton of negative reviews about whether these electric heaters were warm enough or how much of a radius they offer, but after reading up about how they work, I felt comfortable with the warmth issue. This heats you vs the air around you, so you can’t just turn on the heat lamp and then walk into the space expecting to feel that the air itself is warmer, but if you’re sitting right beneath it, you will definitely feel the warmth. My friends were very comfortable sitting on the sofa with this pointed at them, despite it being somewhat windy and chilly outside. However, the radius issue is a real one – since it’s not warming the air, it really only heats up what is in front of it. The product says a 9′ radius but I haven’t fully tested this yet. My guess is this is better for use cases where you are heating up a dining table or set of lounge chairs and can direct the heat towards a focal point, vs a roaming cocktail party. I am also fine buying a second lamp if necessary – again eliminating the need to buy propane canisters was a big motivator.
b) I definitely wanted one that had a telescoping pole vs a regular unadjustable one.
c) I also wanted to be able to move the heating element to different angles, which this one allows.
d) Wheels on the base were critical (although I don’t know if there are any that don’t have that)
e) ideally I would have gotten one that was weatherproof entirely without any need for a cover – this one has a weatherproof pole, but the heating element itself needs to be covered. But that cost an extra 30+% and it didn’t seem like a big deal to put a cover on (included).
f) I decided on a heater on a pole vs the mounted ones (which are cheaper), only because of the angle that I would have to mount it at. The heating element does turn quite red, which is fine if it’s above you, and probably not great if it’s right in your line of sight.

I did see in some reviews that at 1500w this really needs a dedicated circuit breaker, so I was definitely nervous about that. So far so good – although this does make me wonder if I really can get a 2nd one since I doubt my patio is wired for different circuits.

It took about an hour for me to assemble this (I am not at all handy). First, it’s super heavy and a bit awkward to assemble on your own. But I was able to figure out the instructions. You do need a large wrench and a couple of screwdrivers. The holes are not all drilled for easy fit so I definitely ran into some trouble on a couple of the steps trying to get the screws to fit – but after a bunch of maneuvering I made it work. Very happy so far with the product.

We fixed it!! Our unit stopped working (as other reviews indicate) – determined, we started to take everything apart (while unit was unplugged of course). In the black box (behind the light casing) the is a large steel ball. This ball we assume is the “fail off” if the unit where to fall over. This ball was displaced – making the unit believe it needed to fail off! We reseated the ball (harder than you would think) and it works!! Good luck all !

Wires in the heating element head unit popped out of their seal during assembly as you have to force, thick wire into a compact space in order to assemble (step 3 of instructions). After wasting more than an hour trying to take their horrible installation photos into the reality of an actual assembly, I determined it was not build well, as I realized the loose wires coming out of the head would be right next to a very hot heating unit.

They should pre-assemble steps 1 – 3 to eliminate this issue! They place multiple postcards in the box stating they have “award winning support” That is complete BS. I tried calling multiple times, to both customer service and technical support and got “leave us a message” recordings every time. They did not return any of my calls so far. I am returning the product which is heave and cumbersome.

What a waste of time and money!!

Pros: This heater really puts out a lot of heat. I bought it to use in a 2,000 sq. ft. hanger. Not only does it heat up the immediate area where it is placed but after about an hour it seemed to heat up a good deal of the surrounding area of the hanger. Price is reasonable…

Cons: Once again be prepared to deal with instructions that are poorly photographed and written by a moron. After you do steps one two and three to do four you have to undo step two and three. because the screws you are supposed to install are covered by the previous steps. The screws supplied are total “junk” I had to replace a couple of fasteners which stripped out immediately I had to use nuts to secure the fasteners. The usual sub par fasteners from some foreign country.