Though winter is a few months away, you might be planning to get a space heater before the cold strikes. Planning for high electric bills is another matter.
Space heaters typically hit your wallet the hardest, but Dreo says its new space heaters may be the exception. The company says its products can reduce energy usage by as much as 40% while still being able to heat the whole room.
I met with Dreo in a deskside briefing in New York City, where the company walked me through its new product lineup, including the fan-like Dreo Whole-Room Heater 715 and the Dreo Whole-Room Heater 714, as well as a pair of new smart humidifiers, the Humidifer 409S and 717S.
Here’s what’s new in the lineup.
Dreo’s new space heaters take the guise of fans
Looking at Dreo’s new space heater collection, the first thing that struck me was how much they all resembled tabletop fans. The new Dreo Whole-Room Heater 715 and Whole-Room Heater 714 are tabletop models that use Dreo’s “3D whole-room heating technology” to circulate warm air around the room. The company has incorporated the heating element into a fan’s body, giving it a better airflow with a 9-blade brushless DC motor.
The 715 is slightly bigger, but it has similar capabilities to the 714 and comes at the same price.
The heating element is more efficient, consisting of a PTC element resembling the heat sink on a gaming PC’s air cooler. Dreo says the heating element is 143% bigger than before and has a 5mm heating-grid spacing that reduces heat-flow resistance.
The heater also has a spiral grill, which the company says can increase heat dispersion around the room by 35%, for a total of 458% longer heat reach. What this measure represents is unclear, but the company says it spreads the warmth more evenly and eliminates cold spots.
I was impressed by how much airflow the space heaters could move in a large conference room. Despite the air conditioning being on, I could feel the moving air from where I was sitting at the conference table.
Dreo describes the 715 as a full-size heater designed for large spaces with its dual motor system and wider oscillation. The company says it can heat up in just two seconds, and while I didn’t time it, that did seem reasonably accurate, judging by how quickly it warmed up.
The 714 is the smaller of the two space heaters, and it can be found at Costco and Dreo’s website.
The 714 is smaller and more compact, but not by much. Dreo says you should still expect it to heat the whole room, and both heaters benefit from the 3D whole-room heating tech. They should also be fairly quiet at 34 decibels, and I didn’t hear either of them over the air conditioning.
Both the 715 and 714 should perform similarly. The 714 will be available for $100 at Amazon and Dreo’s website, and the 715 will be $100 at Costco and also on Dreo’s website. They’ll both be available at brick-and-mortar stores, including Best Buy, Target and Walmart.
Dreo smart humidifiers
The 409S humidifier is ultra-quiet and doubles as a sleep trainer for your baby.
Dreo is also bringing two new humidifiers to market: the Dreo humidifier 409S and the 717S.
The 409S is a unique one designed for babies and nurseries, with extra features like a dimming and brightening RGB ambient light for sleep training (similar to sunrise alarm clocks). It’s quiet at just 26 decibels. It has a three-liter water tank and 30 hours of runtime, so it’s better suited for smaller rooms. It’ll cost $55 and is available on Amazon andDreo.
The 717S is a large and capable warm and cool mist humidifier with an 8L tank.
The Humidifier 717S is loaded with features for larger spaces. It has both warm and cool mist and a large 40-inch column that can cover a space up to 600 square feet. In warm mist mode, Dreo says it can heat the mist to 133 degrees Fahrenheit in eight minutes and raise humidity in the room by 18% in 20 minutes. The 8L tank should run for up to 80 hours, and the noise level is slightly higher at 28 decibels.
The Humidifier 717S is priced at $120 and is available now on Amazon and Dreo.
