I tried this £20 desktop heater to keep me warm while I WFH - what I didn’t anticipate was that it’d be powerful enough to heat the whole room

As someone who always runs cold, I’ve been searching for ways to keep myself warm at home over the past few months. And the Russell Hobbs Retro Tripod Electric Heater may have just solved my winter woes.

Yes, I’m a big fan of the best electric heaters. I love how they can offer respite from using central heating and allow homeowners and renters alike the chance to heat individual rooms when they don’t want to heat the whole house. And, as someone who works from home and stays in the same room all day every day, I try to save energy at home by only heating myself and my office space during the week.

But while I like to get the most bang for my buck, I’m also wary of products that seem a little too cheap. In my eyes, they just seem too good to be true. However, the extremely affordable Russell Hobbs Retro Tripod Electric Heater has impressed me more than I thought it would.

My first impression of the Russell Hobbs Retro Tripod Electric Heater was that it was stylish. And as someone who has tested some seriously unattractive electric heaters over the years, I was pleasantly surprised to see the Scandi-style heater in its glory. The wooden legs complimented the black colourway, making everything very sleek and minimal.

However, it was much bigger than I thought - especially in depth. At 18cm deep, it did dwarf my (admittedly very small) desk, as most of the available space is taken up by my computer. But while I was worried about accidentally knocking it over during the testing process, my worries were instantly squashed when I turned it on and realised just how powerful it was.

After all, with that much heat output, I quickly realised that it wouldn’t just be restricted to my desk. And over the course of my testing process, I used it on many surfaces in my home - including my TV unit, my living room console table, the shelves in my office, and a shelf in my bedroom.

Of course, this differs from the £18 Dunelm plug-in heater we’ve tested in the past. And while this Russell Hobbs offering will take up more space in your home, you'll also get more for your money. Plus, this mini ceramic heater features two heat settings (900W or 1500W) compared to Dunelm’s 500W.

It also comes with a variety of timer options, allowing you to choose from 1-hour, 2-hour, 4-hour, or 8-hour functionalities. Alternatively, you could just keep it on until you want to turn it off using the sleek touchpad controls on the top of the unit.

As is typically the case within the ceramic heater vs fan heater debate, I found this ceramic heater to heat up extremely quickly - and I needed it to, too. Before testing this heater for the first time, I turned the radiator off in my home office during the dead of winter (on that day specifically, it was 2℃ outside, but with a feels-like temperature of -4℃) and closed the door so I could really give the Russell Hobbs Retro Tripod Electric Heater a run for its money.

The heat it produced was so impressive that I had to reduce it to the lower setting after just ten minutes as I was getting too hot. And while I had originally put it on a 2-hour timer, I quickly reduced it to 1 hour as I could feel that the room was also heating up nicely, and I knew that I wouldn’t need it on for as long as that to maintain a comfortable WFH temperature.

Then, after a successful first stint with the heater, I decided to test out its portability by using it in other rooms in my house. And as it’s just 0.93kg, it was easy enough to carry from one room to the next - and I was thankful for this portability, too.

As I’ve been guilty of making some electric heater mistakes over the years, I made sure to avoid the worst places to put an electric heater while using it elsewhere, allowing it ‘breathing’ space and keeping it away from any flammable soft furnishings. I used it to take the chill of my living room when I didn’t fancy turning the heating on, and I even used it for half an hour as I read in bed (before safely turning it off as it’s not advised to leave a heater on overnight).

But while I did love using this Russell Hobbs desktop heater, there were two niggles that I couldn’t ignore. For starters, this ceramic heater is loud. This was much louder than anticipated, especially after recently testing the AENO Premium Eco AGH003S Smart Panel Heater, which was completely silent.

The loudness probably would be a deal breaker for me if I were to use it exclusively for my desk as it was just too loud to ignore, but when I moved it slightly further away from me and used it in rooms where there were other noises to focus on (the TV, for example), it did become more like white noise than an irritating noise. But if you want something quieter, it might be better to opt for one of the best oil-filled radiators instead.

My other niggle was that the heat output was best when you were directly in front of the heater. If I sat to the side or turned the heater away from me, there was a noticeable difference in temperature. This is often where fan heaters reign supreme, as they can often oscillate the heat at the same time as expelling it.

Again, though, it wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me as my home (and the heater itself) are small enough that I can position it appropriately with a little bit of care and attention. If you have a larger home where this isn’t possible, it may be more of an issue.

As many electric heaters can cost more to run than central heating, I was also conscious of whether the Russell Hobbs desktop heater would make a noticeable difference to my energy bills. But at the time of testing - and according to the energy price cap at the time - this particular model cost me just 25p an hour on its lowest setting and 41p per hour on its highest setting. This is significantly less than the cost to run central heating for an hour, so a desktop heater like this is perfect for those who want to heat singular rooms rather than a whole house.

All in all, I’ve been incredibly impressed with the Russell Hobbs Retro Tripod Electric Heater, and it has - surprisingly - become a staple in my home since its first use. I often take it around the house with me to keep me warm and to keep my central heating use to a minimum, and for just £20, I actually think it's underpriced. So, I’d snap it up while you can.

Now I’ve tested this desktop electric heater, I don’t know how I lived without one. Have you bought one yet?