Harry Mäkelä has an impressive terrace at his house. He grills a lot in winter, so the Rex Nordic infrared heater might run from Friday through Saturday.
“We used to use a duct-shaped fuel-oil heater. Its flame and blast felt a little dangerous for heating a BBQ hut built from 8-inch log beams. A few years ago, when my son put an infrared heater by the door of a 2,150 ft² maintenance hall as a kind of air curtain, I decided to get these for our own use too.
At about −4 °F outside, we burn around 0.26 gallons of oil per hour in the BBQ hut. The two-storey terrace is 56 ft wide and 16 ft deep — one Rex Nordic AH-310i on the lower terrace and one upstairs. Where the old heater had us refuelling constantly, the new heater's tank stays almost half-full by comparison,” Mäkelä says.
In his experience an exhaust pipe isn't necessary on a big terrace or even in a BBQ hut — the heater emits no smoke because the oil burns so cleanly. Switching it off causes only a small fizzling sound, after which you smell fuel for a moment.
He notes that consumption and any odor from older units drop if you at least replace the filters. His heaters have run 3–4 years without any particular maintenance.
“I can warmly recommend these heaters to everybody — I've been very satisfied,” Harry Mäkelä sums up.
