Can You Trust Oil-Filled Radiator Heaters with Your Life?
If you’ve ever gone into a hotel room, motel room or rented an apartment in the wintertime and found the heat source to be an oil-filled radiator heater, like the one pictured above (or even an open flame heating stove), you should know that these types of heat sources represent a serious fire risk. You can’t see it; you can’t smell it, but these things are ticking time bombs just waiting to ignite into flames. They are also very easy for housekeeping staff to forget to turn off when they lock up for the night after doing their rounds cleaning your room. This doesn’t mean all rental properties have them. Many do not. But if they do use them or an open flame heating stove for heat… you should be aware.
After wintertime stays in an apartment in one of the many high-rise buildings that line Bay Street here in Victoria, BC Canada (for which I used oil-filled radiator heaters for my apartment’s heating needs), the fire alarm went off at around 2 a.m. One may ask why I didn’t just try to go back to sleep… but when you hear something like this, your instincts take over and tell you to GET THE HELL OUT OF THE BUILDING! For some reason, housekeeping had not shut if off after cleaning our rooms earlier in the day. It was not until two hours later that it was finally turned off completely while we sat outside on cold concrete with just bathrobes and slippers on.
We were not allowed to go back inside the building until after 5 a.m., and we had people arriving shortly after that time for a conference I was attending, so needless to say: it was a long night and even longer morning! That experience with oil-filled radiator heaters versus an open flame heating stove is what inspired me to write this article today… so please pay attention and save yourself from the drama, discomfort and avoidable potential danger of having your life disrupted by such an incident. You owe it to yourself and your family members!
So What Exactly Is An Oil-Filled Radiator Heater?
An oil-filled radiator heater looks like this: It has a metal exterior (which is usually painted black) and a metal grille on the front of it (which extends across most of the surface area underneath the black cover) like this:
As for what is inside, it looks something like this:
All you have to do is turn that dial located on top of it to turn it on and increase or decrease its heat output. That’s all there is to operate one. And they go from not-too-hot to too-hot-to-handle within 5 minutes after turning them on! So be responsible when using these… they can burn your house down faster than you think if left unattended. They also produce humidity which you might need in some areas, but not in others so keep that in mind. Some motels use these for heat in their rooms, others may have open flame heating stoves or pot-belly heaters.
If you are staying at a motel… be sure to inspect it before turning in for the night so you can determine if there is any way it could catch fire when turned on. You might even want to turn it on yourself before bedtime just to make sure that everything works properly and that there isn’t anything ‘amiss’ with its mechanics. And don’t forget to look under the grille for potential reasons why they couldn’t use them anymore, like signs of fire damage or melted wiring… although I’m not sure how they would get away with using something like this after having gone through an incident themselves! Just be observant for your own safety.
And while you’re at it… check out this picture of a pot-belly heater:
This is mostly use in many homes and apartments here in Canada during wintertime to provide heat. They may even be located right next to the sofa or bed where you plan on sleeping so they can warm up the area. Now, if using one of these ever catches your clothes on fire: STOP, DROP and ROLL OUT OF THE WAY! Don’t run around panicking and screaming like I’ve seen people do when they catch their clothing ablaze. You’ll just fan the flames higher that way and double or triple your burn injury pain with that approach!
Conclusion:
Be safe and be aware. If you’re not sure about something, take the necessary steps to find out if it is still safe to use. It could save your life one day… and believe me when I say: nobody wants to spend their holidays in a hospital burn unit!