Holmes HFH2986-U Whisper Quiet Power Heater

Let me tell you the sequence of events for me with this heater. 1) I opened the box. 2) I plugged in the heater. 3) I turned the heater on. 4) It immediately switched off and never turned back on. What an absolute waste of time and money, this is horrible. Don't buy this product because it has an automatic switch off that you can't turn off. The thermostat thing is wrong and you can't fix it or override it.

I have two that got about 3 or 4 years ago. I have one in my office and I use it all day (every day of the week) and works great. The other one is at home and about a month after i got it, the button stayed in an odd position, however it worked just fine but now the sensor is not working and it turns off or it thinks you are pressing on it so just changes temperatures. It is odd. Any way the one at work I just love the one at home I hate. So I guess I am 50/50 on this product.

I purchased this unit off season -so I paid a fraction of the 39.99 being asked here. The thermostat has never worked on the unit -only the continuous HI / LO settings. (I got sick, forgot about it and the 30 days to return it expired -never thought about the warranty). I use this unit in a rarely used 4X6 bathroom. This unit is cumbersome, fat and not easy to grip to pick up and transport to another space. So, even though the functions are not all operable, I've found a practical use for it. The unit is relatively quiet -much quieter than their HFH442. It would probably be a very useful unit if the thermostat were operable.

I got this fan because I wanted something quieter than the usual rattling jet engine to avoid disturbing the neighbors at night. And it is indeed pretty quiet, though "whisper" is perhaps a bit exaggerated. Of course only time will tell if it remains quiet or gets noisy as it wears in. Also, even on low, it generates a nice amount of close-in heat, just what I want. On the other hand, the single-button control is a pain in the neck. You have to cycle through up to 12 settings to reach whichever you want (hi, low, 5 thermostat settings each at hi and low). If you accidentally go past the one you want, .... To turn it off (the superstitious may be interested that this makes 13 total states ;-) you have to hold down the one button for several seconds. I may eventually get used to this, but haven't yet, and so find myself cycling through all those settings again. grrrrr. And all that button pushing seems guaranteed to wear it out sooner than a better designed system would .. wh... Read more

I purchased this heater in hopes to heat a medium-sized bedroom. Turned in on once for about 15 minutes to learn how it works. Turned it off and unplugged it - as I won't sleep with a space heater on during the night. Got up the next morning and turned it on. Within 7 minutes, flames were burning the plastic housing. Fortunatley, I was in the room and smelled the plastic. I removed my cat from the area and took care of the flames. I've written to the MFG to let them know about the incident - never heard back from them. I'm pretty sure I won't be purchasing any Holmes products in the future! I strongly urge everyone to be cautious when using any type of space heater...may you not pay a big price for a litle warmth.