Dreo Atom 316 Review: Pocket-sized heating

Verdict

The Dreo Atom 316 could also be low-cost and tiny, nevertheless it’s surprisingly efficient, kicking out sufficient warmth to get even medium-sized rooms as much as temperature in a rush. If you happen to’re anticipating a strong blast of sizzling air, you’ll be disillusioned by its moderately restricted fan, nevertheless it does sufficient to flow into the warmth – and it’s impressively quiet. This heater’s controls may actually be improved, nevertheless it in any other case seems to be and seems like a considerably dearer product than it’s. If you need an affordable, transportable, efficient room heater, this can be a nice alternative.

Introduction

The Dreo Atom 316 is likely one of the smallest fan heaters you’ll discover – it’s solely the dimensions of a small toilet pedal bin. Regardless of this, it’s rated at an honest 1.5kW, which should be sufficient to take the chilliness off even a medium-sized room.

This heater is reasonable, and it’s pretty fundamental. There aren’t any sensible controls, and it has only a easy show. It’s nicely protected, although, with a toddler lock, and safety in opposition to overheating or tipping over.

Design and options

• Small and sensible
• Fundamental controls
• Good security safety

The Dreo Atom 316 is a small and light-weight cylinder, weighing just one.3kg. With a moulded carry deal with on the again, it’s extraordinarily simple to maneuver round – even when it’s nonetheless heat.

It doesn’t have a look at all like an affordable system. The entrance half is wrapped in a black metal mesh by means of which it blows out sizzling air, and whereas the remaining is plastic, it feels thick and nicely screwed collectively.

The design is completed properly with a silver plastic ring across the prime. At first, it’s laborious to see the place the controls are, however plug within the heater, and also you’ll see a fundamental show exhibiting the present mode or warmth stage.

The controls themselves are a gaggle of 5 touch-sensitive buttons hid on the highest panel. I want I may say that these additionally mild up, or are highlighted in any means, however they’re merely carved into the panel – and virtually invisible in something aside from slanting mild.

This may very well be an actual challenge, particularly for anybody with poor eyesight. I wanted to maneuver the heater round or use my cell phone torch to learn its management markings. Regardless of being traced out by indentations within the plastic, the buttons aren’t tactile sufficient you can recognise them by contact. Happily, the Atom 316 remembers the final mode you had it set to, so when you’ve acquired it tweaked to your liking, you won’t want to make use of something however the energy button, which is the one nearest the entrance.

As soon as you discover them, the controls allow you to select from handbook mode, the place you’ll be able to set certainly one of three warmth ranges, or Eco, the place you set a goal temperature from 5-35°C, and Atom 316 varies its output to take care of it. In every, the fan velocity varies with the quantity of warmth being produced, utilizing full velocity at full warmth and low velocity on the bottom warmth. There’s a 3rd, fan-only mode, the place the fan runs solely at its quickest velocity.

The Dreo Atom 316 defaults to standby in case you flip it off after which on on the socket, so you’ll be able to’t schedule it utilizing a wise plug. It has a built-in off-timer, obtainable in one-hour increments as much as 12 hours. Mercifully, you can too flip off its button beep if you wish to. My one criticism of its fundamental show is that, in handbook mode, the bottom warmth setting is proven as ‘H1’. This seems to be an identical to ‘HI’, which may very well be confused for full energy.

This can be a well-protected heater. Whereas its steel output mesh does get highly regarded in use, the fan runs on for 30 seconds after heating finishes to take the remaining warmth out of it. It has tip-over safety, with energy being lower instantly must you knock it over.

There’s additionally a toddler lock, though I wouldn’t suggest you permit younger kids unsupervised round any heater. One ultimate security function is a 24-hour cutoff, which helps in case you are inclined to neglect to change issues off – notice that in order for you this function, it’s off by default.

Efficiency

• Surprisingly efficient heating
• Correct thermostat
• Quiet in use

I wasn’t anticipating a strong blast from the Dreo Atom 316, however even at full velocity its fan wasn’t robust sufficient to fire up an considerable breeze. Simply 15cm away from the output, there wasn’t sufficient air motion to coax my anemometer above its 0.9 metres per second minimal velocity.

The Dreo Atom 316 actually isn’t an alternative to a cooling fan, then, however its limp fan isn’t a lot of a problem in heating mode, the place it simply must do sufficient to flow into heat air. Right here, the Atom 316 carried out brilliantly for such a small system. On its most setting, it lifted the air temperature of a medium-sized bed room from 17.6°C to 22.4°C inside simply half-hour. After an hour, this had reached 23.1°C.

I used to be much more impressed by the Atom 316’s means to heat up the material of a room. Over the identical take a look at it lifted the temperature recorded by my Tado sensible radiator thermostat from 16.6°C to 18.8°C, after which on to 19.5°C after an hour. With this thermostat positioned nicely away from the heater, and shielded by a big desk, this stage of warming is best than I’ve measured from convector heaters, and means that warmth from the Atom 316 was nicely distributed in regards to the room.

By conserving the fan velocity low, Dreo has managed to keep away from the noise I’d normally anticipate from a small fan working laborious. At its most setting, I measured a sound output of simply 47.9dB from 15cm away and 44dB from a metre. That’s quiet sufficient for some individuals to sleep by means of and definitely not sufficient that you just’d want to show up the TV or radio.

This heater makes use of a ceramic constructive temperature coefficient (PTC) factor, which totally heats up in lower than 10 seconds, offering near-instant warmth. Like all PTC parts, the preliminary section could be very energy hungry, with the heater recording a momentary peak of as much as 2.4 kilowatts (kW), earlier than settling down to simply under its rated 1.5kW. Heating continuously, the Atom 316 used 0.79 kilowatt hours (kWh) over half-hour and 1.5kWh over one hour.

In observe, the Atom 316 may use significantly lower than this in case you follow its decrease energy settings: the bottom consumes simply over 1kW, whereas the center setting makes use of simply lower than 1.4kW. I significantly preferred its Eco mode, during which it really works at full energy till it approaches your set temperature, then lowers its heating effort because it will get nearer. When it will get to the goal temperature, it’ll swap off till the room temperature begins to fall once more. This might save a bit of energy, however simply as usefully it helps forestall overheating.

I used Eco mode to achieve and preserve a room temperature of 21°C, in a room with a beginning air temperature of 18.4°C. Whereas the Atom 316 doesn’t show a detected room temperature, it appeared correct, heating the room to simply over 21°C earlier than shutting itself down, and restarting because the air temperature dropped just under 20°C.

After half-hour on this mode the Atom 316 had consumed a really affordable 0.27kWh, and after an hour it had acquired by means of 0.51kWh. That’s equal to 15p on the January 2024 worth cap of 29p per kWh, and means that in a well-insulated room this heater may show moderately inexpensive to run.

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